How to spot and reduce excess inventory

Last updated October 25, 2026

Excess inventory is stock you hold beyond what demand justifies. It ties up cash you could spend on items that sell, and stock that sits long enough starts to cost storage on top. The first job is to see it; the second is to choose what to do about it.

Spot it

The Excess flag

Skuvelo marks an item Excess when its stock is above the cover its demand justifies. On Inventory, the Excess health chip lists every such item, and the Excess units and Excess value columns show how much is over and what it cost. On the Plan, Stock to watch counts overstocked items and links to the same list.

Weeks of supply

Weeks of supply is the stock you hold divided by what you sell in a week. A number far above your lead time plus the gap from one order to the next means you bought ahead of demand. The Days of supply column on Inventory shows it per item; the weeks of supply calculator works it out by hand.

Sell-through

Sell-through is the share of the stock you had that you sold over a period. A low rate on an item with plenty on hand is an early sign of excess. The 90-day sell-through column shows it per item, and the sell-through rate calculator shows the arithmetic.

Act on it

Start from the dollars at stake

On Today, the card Get cash back from slow stock puts a value on the excess — the units beyond justified cover at their unit cost — and lists options for each item, ranked by the cash they would recover:

• Cut units from open purchase orders not yet sent, or ask the supplier to cancel units on orders already with them.
• Move it to a location where the item sells.
• Mark it down.
• Return it to the supplier, net of a restocking fee: the supplier's own average from its recorded returns, or a stated 15% assumption when it has none.
• Donate it: no cash back, written off at cost.

An option that does not apply, or that Skuvelo cannot put a number on, is left off with the reason. The transfer and the vendor return open as drafts prefilled with the item and quantity, the order options open the purchase order, and a markdown opens the item to reprice. Nothing changes until you save it.

Hold or remove aged stock at Amazon

If the stock sits at Amazon, the aged column on Plan → Restock Amazon FBA compares holding against removing it, costed with the storage fee, aged surcharge, removal fee and days unsold before a unit counts as stranded that you type under Amazon settings. With any of these blank, Skuvelo shows the units and their value only. The restocking Amazon FBA guide explains the comparison.

Plan the cash it frees

To see what the recovered cash does to your next orders, follow from dollars at stake to a cash plan.