One line from the list, in full.
This is the whole calculation, not a summary of one. It is the same formula MarginLoop runs against your own sales, purchase and stock data every morning, for every product you hold. Nothing here is hidden. Displayed values may be rounded for readability; the calculations retain their underlying precision, and currency is rounded only at the reported output.
THE SITUATION
400 units of basmati rice, selling steadily
A wholesaler holds 400 units of a 20kg sack of basmati rice. It has been selling steadily: 11 units a week on average, measured over the last 12 complete weeks. The supplier's lead time is 2 weeks; the business keeps 1 week of safety cover on top of that. Landed cost, including duty and carriage, is £18.60 a unit, net of VAT.
The cost used throughout is the landed cost, meaning invoice price plus freight, duty and clearance, not the £15.90 invoice price. On an imported line the gap between the two is the difference between a figure a buyer will accept and one they will argue with. Every figure on this page is net of VAT.
Evidence
CALCULATEDBasmati rice, 20kg sack
Stuck · stock value above your own target cover
| Units on hand today | 400 |
| Average weekly sales (12 complete weeks) | 11 units |
| Weeks of cover on hand (400 ÷ 11) | 36 weeks |
| Supplier lead time | 2 weeks |
| Your safety cover | 1 week |
| Your target cover (lead time + safety) | 3 weeks |
| Target units (11 × 3) | 33 units |
| Units above target (400 − 33) | 367 units |
| Landed unit cost, net of VAT | £18.60 |
| Stock value above target (367 × £18.60) | £6,826 |
Full working: 367 × £18.60 = £6,826.20, reported as £6,826. Currency is rounded once, at the reported output, and never before: the weekly velocity, the target and the excess are all carried at full precision, so a total is never the sum of several already-rounded numbers. Where a figure is displayed rounded for readability, weeks of cover shown as a whole number for instance, the calculation behind it still uses the exact value.
A worked example using realistic trade data, not a customer result.
WHAT THE FIGURE MEANS
Exposure, not a loss, and not cash you can spend
£6,826 is exposure. It is not a loss, it is not a saving, and it is emphatically not money that has been found or freed. It is money already spent, sitting in stock well above what eleven units a week and a three-week target justify holding.
It becomes cash only if purchasing actually changes, and that is a decision for a buyer, not for software. MarginLoop shows you the figure with the sales lines, the purchase lines and the landed cost behind it, so somebody can decide what to do: hold it, discount it, move it to a branch where it turns faster, or simply stop reordering. It never tells you money has been found, because until the order is reduced, nothing has been.
Note the phrasing throughout: against your three-week target. The target is not MarginLoop's opinion about how much rice you should hold. It is your lead time plus your safety cover, set by you, and every figure on this page moves if you change it.
WHAT A COVER FIGURE HAS TO ACCOUNT FOR
Weeks of cover alone is a misleading number
Two lines at twenty weeks of cover can be completely different situations. Before MarginLoop will suggest pausing an order, it has to have read all of this, and the evidence view shows every one of them.
Supplier lead time
An imported line with a ten-week lead time cannot sensibly be managed against a three-week target. Cover is only meaningful next to the time it takes to replace the stock.
What is already on order
Thirty-six weeks of cover is a materially different problem if another container is already on the water. Stock on hand, stock on order and projected cover after inbound are three separate figures, and this page keeps them separate.
Case size and minimum order
A recommendation to reduce an order that cannot be reduced below a 50-unit case, or below a supplier's minimum, is not a recommendation. It is noise.
Ageing and shelf life
Twenty weeks of ambient rice and twenty weeks of something with a short best-before date are not the same exposure. This line is ambient, which is why nothing here mentions write-off risk.
Deliberate buying
A buyer holding twenty weeks because they bought exceptionally well has not made a mistake. Mark it as intentional, with the reason, and MarginLoop stops calling it one.
Landed cost, and VAT
Freight, duty and clearance belong in the unit economics of an imported line. And every figure has to be consistently net of VAT, or the numbers across purchases, stock and receivables will not reconcile.
TWO TOTALS, KEPT APART
Two different kinds of money, never added together
The same product also has 200 units confirmed inbound, ordered before the slowdown in sales was visible and not yet delivered. That order can still be reduced or cancelled, in multiples of the supplier's case size of 50.
Evidence
CALCULATEDBasmati rice, 20kg sack
Stuck · avoidable spend on inbound stock not yet needed
| Confirmed inbound, not yet delivered | 200 units |
| Units still needed to reach target (400 already above it) | 0 units |
| Inbound surplus (200 − 0) | 200 units |
| Rounded down to the order multiple of 50 | 200 units |
| Cover once it lands (600 ÷ 11) | 54 weeks |
| Landed unit cost, net of VAT | £18.60 |
| Avoidable spend (200 × £18.60) | £3,720 |
Trapped exposure and avoidable spend are two different kinds of money. £6,826 is already spent and sitting on the shelf. £3,720 has not been spent yet. It is an order that can still be reduced. MarginLoop never adds cash already spent and cash you could still avoid spending into one headline figure. The same rule is why the morning list shows three figures rather than one.
A worked example using realistic trade data, not a customer result.
This is what every line in your list looks like.
Every recommendation MarginLoop makes opens to a sheet like this one, built from your own sales, purchase and stock data.