What is a Reordering Policy in Business Central?

Reordering Policy is the field on an item or stockkeeping unit that tells Business Central which planning method to use when it proposes replenishment.

Reordering Policy determines how Business Central calculates a replenishment suggestion for an item. The standard options are blank, Fixed Reorder Qty., Maximum Qty., Order, and Lot-for-Lot. The policy decides whether planning reacts to a reorder point, to one specific demand line, or to demand grouped inside a time bucket.

You set the field on the Item card, on the Planning FastTab, which you reach by pressing Alt+Q, searching for Items and opening the item. If you plan per location or per variant, the same field exists on the Stockkeeping Unit card, and the stockkeeping unit value is the one planning uses. The resulting suggestions appear when you run Calculate Plan in the Requisition Worksheet or the Planning Worksheet.

Item BRG-1000, a bearing bought from Fabrikam, uses Fixed Reorder Qty. with Reorder Point 200 and Reorder Quantity 500. On 12 March 2026 inventory drops to 180 pieces, so the requisition worksheet proposes a purchase order for 500 pieces. If the same item used Lot-for-Lot, planning would instead propose only what the open demand in the time bucket needs, for example 140 pieces.

The most frequent mistake is leaving the policy blank and still expecting suggestions: a blank policy means the item is ignored by planning. The second is setting a reorder point without a reorder quantity, which produces suggestions of an unusable size. A third appears when stockkeeping units exist: a policy changed only on the item card has no effect for that location, because the stockkeeping unit takes precedence.

Reordering parameters drift as demand changes, so reorder points and quantities are worth reviewing against the last twelve months of item ledger entries at least once a year. Zentriq Agent can answer questions such as which items fell below their reorder point last month directly against your Business Central data, and any purchase document it drafts still has to be approved and posted by a person.

Frequently asked questions

Related terms

• Safety Stock, Safety Stock Quantity is the buffer quantity Business Central adds to demand so that planning keeps a reserve against demand peaks and late deliveries.
• Stockkeeping Unit, A stockkeeping unit is a per location, and optionally per variant, version of an item card holding its own replenishment, planning and lead time settings.
• Requisition Worksheet, A planning tool in Business Central used to create purchase suggestions and consolidate demand before issuing purchase orders.
• Purchase Order, A formal document sent to a vendor to order goods or services, with agreed quantities, prices, and delivery terms.
• Item Ledger Entry, An item ledger entry is the record Business Central creates for each posted quantity movement of an item: receipts, shipments, transfers and adjustments.

How Zentriq helps

Zentriq's AI tools automate many of the manual processes around reordering policy in Business Central. Learn about the Zentriq Agent or try Zentriq PunchOut to see how AI simplifies procurement in BC.