Where your computed days of coverage falls, judged against the supplier lead time you entered. The danger line is the lead time itself — once coverage drops to or below it, an order must already be on its way. Bands are guides, not rules; a demand surge shortens real coverage.
Days of coverage
What it usually means
Below lead time
Urgent — stock runs out before a fresh order could arrive; reorder now or risk a stockout.
1× to 2× lead time
Getting low — enough to cover one replenishment cycle with little slack; line up the next order.
◀ your result (25 days)
2× to 4× lead time
Comfortable — a healthy runway above the lead time for most products.
Above 4× lead time
Well stocked, possibly overstocked — capital and space may be tied up in slow-moving cover.
Estimates only — not financial, tax, or professional advice.
100% private — every number you enter is calculated in your browser and never sent to our servers.
What it calculates: Days of Coverage, Weeks of Coverage, Reorder Soon? (1 = yes).
Updated 5 June 2026 · Transparent assumptions
500 units is either a fortnight or half a year
A raw stock count is not comparable across products. Five hundred units of something selling 40 a day is twelve days of cover; five hundred units of something selling two a day is eight months of dead capital.
Converting to days puts every line on the same scale, which is what makes a stock list reviewable at a glance instead of item by item.
Cover shorter than your lead time means you have already stocked out
The comparison that matters is coverage versus lead time. If you hold 8 days of stock and resupply takes 14, the stockout is already determined — the order you place today arrives six days after the shelf empties.
That is why lead time is an input here rather than something to check separately. The gap between the two numbers is the warning, and it appears long before the stock actually runs out.
Excess coverage is capital you cannot spend
Low coverage risks lost sales; high coverage ties up money, fills storage and ages the stock toward markdown. Many businesses watch only the low end and quietly accumulate lines with a year of cover.
A practical review sorts by coverage in both directions: anything below lead time needs ordering now, and anything far above needs promoting, discounting or not reordering.
An average from the wrong window gives the wrong answer
Coverage is only as good as the demand rate. Using a rate computed across a promotional spike overstates demand and makes coverage look dangerously thin; using an off-season rate does the opposite.
For seasonal products, compute demand from the period you are heading into rather than the one you just left. The arithmetic is trivial; choosing the right denominator is the actual work.
Sources & References
Figures on this page are checked against primary, authoritative sources. Links open in a new tab.
Results are estimates for planning and analysis based on the figures you enter. They are not accounting, tax, or financial advice — verify with your own records and a qualified professional before making decisions.
Published the calculator with its formula, worked example, assumptions, limitations and a bespoke guide, and added an automated formula test suite covering it.
Tested days and weeks of cover from stock over daily demand, with the lead time comparison that signals a stockout.
Tested that weeks of cover is always days divided by seven, and that zero demand does not divide by zero.
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