App builder

Build a grocery inventory app
that watches every sell-by date.

Describe your store and Netiva’s AI builds a web app for shelf counts, supplier deliveries and short-dated perishables — with a live preview and code you own.

Start building free More app ideas
Starter prompt

Build a grocery inventory web app for an independent grocer with two stores. Track products by department, aisle, supplier, par level, retail price and unit cost. Receiving clerks log each supplier delivery from a phone, note which store it arrived at and record every line as a lot with ordered, received and short or damaged quantities plus the sell-by date on the package. Staff sign in with their own accounts and use a shelf count screen to enter the units left in each open lot, aisle by aisle. Show a daily list of lots reaching their date in the next three days, a below-par list per department and a markdown log with reasons.

Build it in Netiva Paste the prompt into a new workspace and adjust it to your business.
Overview

Who this grocery inventory app is for

Independent grocers juggle thousands of items with very different shelf lives. A spreadsheet can list what you stocked last week, but it won’t tell your department leads which bagged salad or yogurt lot hits its sell-by date tomorrow or remind the buyer that dairy is below par before the Thursday order. A grocery inventory app built with Netiva keeps products, deliveries, lots and markdowns in one place, sorted by department and aisle, so every shift starts from the same numbers and waste gets caught while there’s still time to discount it.

Key features

What your grocery inventory app can do

  • Lots and sell-by dates

    Every delivery line becomes a lot with the sell-by, use-by or best-by date printed on the package, so you can see which cases to rotate forward and which are close to their date.

    • A short-dated list for the next few days, sorted by aisle
    • Earliest-dated lots listed first on each product page
    • Markdowns and discards logged against the lot with a reason
    • Lot history kept for every product

  • Receiving from a phone

    Clerks open the delivery screen on their phone, find items by name, by PLU or by scanning the barcode with the camera, and record what actually arrived.

    • Camera barcode lookup on the receiving screen
    • Ordered, received and short or damaged quantities per line
    • Invoice files attached to each delivery
    • Each delivery tagged with its store and receiving clerk

  • Par levels and reorder lists

    Set par levels in the collection grid, filtered and sorted by department. The app compares them with the latest shelf counts and lists what’s running low, ready for the buyer to turn into a supplier order.

    • Below-par list grouped by supplier
    • Suggested order quantities based on par and the latest count
    • Stock on hand added up across a product’s lots for each store
    • A filtered list for each buyer’s departments

  • A morning brief for every department

    Scheduled emails send each department lead the short-dated and below-par lists before the doors open, so nothing depends on someone remembering to check.

    • Daily email per department at a time you choose
    • Links straight to the matching filtered list
    • Weekly waste summary for the owner
    • Staff sign in with their own accounts
Data model

The collections behind it

Netiva keeps your records in built-in collections. Here’s a starting structure — the agent adapts it to your prompt, and you can change it any time.

Products

Everything you sell, organized by department and aisle.

  • Name (required) Text
  • Department (required) Produce, Dairy, Bakery… Text
  • Aisle Text
  • Barcode or PLU UPC for packaged goods; 4- or 5-digit PLU for loose produce, usually typed in Text
  • Par level (required) Same target at each store; add one par field per store if they differ Number
  • Supplier Main supplier, used to group the reorder list Text
  • Retail price (required) Regular shelf price, used to size markdowns Number
  • Unit cost Used to value waste in the weekly report Number

Deliveries

A record of every drop-off, checked in at the back door of each store.

  • Supplier (required) Text
  • Store (required) For grocers with more than one location Text
  • Arrived at (required) Date & time
  • Received by (required) Filled in from the signed-in clerk Text
  • Invoice File
  • Notes Paragraph

Lots

Each delivery line, with its quantities, package date and latest shelf count.

  • Product (required) Relation to Products
  • Delivery (required) Also gives the lot its store and received date Relation to Deliveries
  • Ordered quantity Number
  • Received quantity (required) Number
  • Short or damaged Units missing or refused on arrival Number
  • Sell-by date The sell-by, use-by or best-by date on the package; leave blank for undated items Date
  • Last count Units on the shelf at the latest count Number
  • Counted on Date & time

Markdowns

Every markdown and discard, logged against the lot it came from.

  • Lot (required) Relation to Lots
  • Action (required) Marked down or discarded Text
  • Quantity (required) Number
  • Reason (required) Near date, damaged, quality Text
  • New price Markdowns only Number
  • Logged at (required) Date & time
  • Logged by (required) Filled in from the signed-in staff member Text

Required field. Types are Netiva collection field types.

Screens

Pages and screens to start with

A typical first version. Ask the agent for more, or annotate the preview to change any of them.

  • Short-dated

    Lots whose sell-by date falls in the next three days, grouped by department and aisle, with one-tap markdown and discard.

    Signed-in users

  • Receiving

    A phone-friendly check-in: pick the supplier and store, scan a barcode, type a PLU or search for each item and record ordered, received and short quantities.

    Signed-in users

  • Shelf count

    Walk an aisle or department on a phone, see each open lot and enter the units on the shelf; the count and the time it was taken are saved with the lot.

    Signed-in users

  • Below par

    Products under their par level at each store, grouped by supplier, with suggested quantities for the next order.

    Signed-in users

  • Product detail

    Stock on hand across lots for each store, upcoming sell-by dates, the supplier and recent deliveries for one product.

    Signed-in users

  • Waste report

    Markdowns and discards by department, week and reason, in units and valued at cost, so buyers can adjust order sizes.

    Signed-in users
How it works

From prompt to a live grocery inventory app

  1. Describe your store

    Tell Netiva how many stores you run, which departments you have and how deliveries arrive. The agent drafts collections for products, deliveries, lots and markdowns.

  2. Add your products

    Enter your perishable lines in the collection grid or ask the collection assistant to draft and clean up records, then set departments, aisles, suppliers and par levels.

  3. Shape the daily screens

    Check the short-dated and receiving screens in the live preview. Annotate anything you want changed and the agent updates it.

  4. Publish for your team

    Publish in one click, share the link so staff can sign in and switch on the morning emails. Every later change is checkpointed, so a bad edit is easy to roll back.

Why Netiva

Netiva vs a traditional build

Building a grocery inventory app with Netiva compared with a traditional build
Criterion With Netiva Traditional build
Sell-by date checks A short-dated list built from lot dates and emailed before opening Date stickers and a clipboard walk down every aisle each morning
Receiving Deliveries logged on a phone as they arrive, with camera barcode lookup and shorts noted per line Paper invoices checked at the back door and keyed in later
Getting started Describe what you need in chat and watch it take shape in a live preview Hire developers, or stitch together templates, plugins and a hosting plan
Content and data Built-in collections with nine field types, bound straight to your pages Set up and connect a separate database or CMS
Making changes Ask the agent; every change is checkpointed and reversible File a ticket, wait for a sprint, redeploy
Hosting and domain Global hosting and automatic SSL; connect a custom domain from the Starter plan Buy hosting, then install and renew SSL certificates yourself
Code ownership Clean production code you own and can export Locked into a template, plugin or agency setup
Examples

Ways teams use it

  • A two-store independent grocer

    The owner wants one view of what both stores are holding. Each delivery records the store it arrived at, so the buyer can see each store’s stock on hand before placing the Thursday order.

  • A food co-op with volunteer shifts

    Volunteers sign in for their shift, work through the short-dated list and log markdowns with a reason, so the next shift sees exactly what has already been handled.

  • A cheese and deli counter

    Small-batch products with short, uneven shelf lives get their own lots, and the deli lead gets a morning email of what needs to be sold or sampled today.

Good to know

Before you build

  • Your register stays separate

    Netiva doesn’t replace your point-of-sale system. Sales only reduce stock automatically if your POS provider offers an API you connect; otherwise, record counts per shift.

  • Food safety records

    Tracking dates cuts waste but doesn’t replace the temperature and food safety records your health department may require. If you sell foods on FDA’s Food Traceability List, check which lot codes and records the traceability rule asks you to keep.

  • Package dates are mostly about quality

    Except for infant formula, federal rules don’t generally require dates on food, though some states require them on items like milk or eggs. Most sell-by and best-by dates signal quality, not safety. Your markdown policy and the item’s condition decide what to mark down or pull.

  • Start with perishables

    Netiva doesn’t import your existing item file or POS catalog for you. Start with the perishables you lot-track — produce, dairy, meat and bakery — entered in the collection grid or drafted with the collection assistant, then add shelf-stable aisles later with simple counts.

FAQ

Questions about building a grocery inventory app

Can staff use the grocery inventory app on their phones?

Yes. Netiva builds web apps that run in the browser, including on phones, so receiving clerks and department leads can use the same app on the sales floor. Staff sign in with their own accounts, and the receiving screen can use the phone’s camera to look up products by barcode.

How does the app know what’s close to its sell-by date?

Each delivery line is stored as a lot with the date printed on the package, whether that’s a sell-by, use-by or best-by date. The short-dated screen is a filtered view of lots whose date falls inside the window you choose, such as three days, sorted by department and aisle. You can change the window or add a separate list for anything already past its date.

Can the app track loose produce that has no printed date?

Yes. The sell-by date field is optional, so undated items such as loose produce can be received without one. Those lots stay off the short-dated list. Instead, the produce lead records shelf counts and logs any markdown or discard with a reason such as quality, and the waste report still counts them by department and week.

Can it connect to my point-of-sale system?

Netiva apps can call REST APIs with keys stored securely, so if your POS provider offers an API, you can describe the connection to the agent — for example, pulling daily sales to reduce stock counts. Check your provider’s API documentation first. Without an API, you can record counts per shift instead.

Do I own the grocery inventory app and its code?

Yes. Netiva generates clean production code that you can read, edit and export whenever you want, with no proprietary runtime. Every change the agent makes is checkpointed, so you can compare versions and roll back if an edit doesn’t work out.

Which Netiva plan do I need for a grocery inventory app?

You can start building on the free plan and try the app in the live preview. Custom domains are available from the Starter plan, and higher plans add capacity and features such as advanced analytics. Compare the current plans on Netiva’s pricing page before you publish to your own domain.

Keep exploring
All ideas
Compare

How Netiva compares

All comparisons

Drafted with AI assistance from Netiva’s product pages and reviewed by the Netiva team. Example data models, screens and prompts are illustrative starting points, not customer projects.

Build your grocery inventory app today

Describe it in a sentence and watch Netiva’s agent build it. Free to start — no credit card required.

Start building free Browse more ideas