About ShelfIQ

ShelfIQ is a small set of inventory calculation and analysis tools built for warehouse managers, ecommerce operators, and small business owners who want a defensible number without signing up for an ERP demo. There are 24 tools across 6 categories, and each one is a standalone HTML page. The math is in your browser, not on a server.

Who built it

ShelfIQ is maintained by a small editorial team made up of former operations managers and ecommerce operators who have personally run warehouses, reconciled monthly inventory counts, and had to explain to a finance director why EOQ says one thing and the supplier says another. We are not a SaaS company, not affiliated with any ERP vendor, and we do not sell your data.

What it is for

Calculating a single number (EOQ, reorder point, safety stock, GMROI, etc.) without spreading a spreadsheet or paying for an enterprise tool.
Running "what if" scenarios when a supplier changes prices, when you add a new SKU category, or when shrinkage suddenly ticks up.
Producing a figure your finance team will accept — with assumptions stated and method called out.
Learning the difference between textbook inventory formulas and what they actually mean on a warehouse floor.

Who it is NOT for

It is not an inventory management system. There is no SKU database, no barcode scanner, no purchase order workflow. Use Zoho Inventory, Cin7, Unleashed, Odoo, or inriver for that.
It is not a forecasting engine. We provide moving-average and exponential-smoothing calculators; if you need seasonality, trend detection, or ARIMA, use a proper forecasting tool.
It is not a substitute for a CPA, controller, or qualified operations consultant. See the Disclaimer.
It is not an academic citation. If your professor wants to know where the formula came from, the references are at the bottom of each tool page.

Approximate scale

The typical user runs 3 to 7 different tools per planning cycle — usually ABC analysis to triage SKUs, then EOQ and reorder point on the A items, then carrying cost and dead stock identification once a quarter. Power users run all 24 at quarter-end and keep the screenshots in a board pack.

Editorial process

Every tool follows the same review cycle.

Method selection. We pick a standard formula (EOQ, ABC, etc.) and then look for the 1 to 2 additions that experienced operators actually use — and that the online calculators almost never bother with (e.g., quantity discount tiers for EOQ, three methods of safety stock side-by-side).
First draft by an operator. The first draft of every tool page is written by someone who has actually used the formula in anger. Acronyms are spelled out. Edge cases are named.
Independent calculation check. At least two of us run the math by hand on a spreadsheet, using the same inputs, before publication. Disagreements are argued out, and the loser has to add a note explaining the disagreement.
"What it doesn't do" section. Every tool page has a section that names the assumptions honestly (stationary demand, single-echelon, etc.) and the cases where the formula stops being useful. We do not skip this even when it's awkward.
Annual review. Once a year we re-run every calculator with the same fixtures and confirm output hasn't drifted. Anything that changes is listed on the changelog at the bottom of this page.

Changelog

2026 Q1 — Initial release with 24 tools. Added JIT Feasibility Score and Supplier Scorecard at the request of users who asked for "something other than EOQ".
2025 Q4 — Internal alpha. Two of the original 22 tools were cut before launch because they didn't add anything beyond what a spreadsheet does well.

Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 2026. This is the full privacy policy for ShelfIQ. There is no shorter version because there is very little to say.

What we collect

Nothing you type into a calculator. All calculations on this site run as JavaScript in your browser. The numbers you enter into the EOQ, safety stock, ABC, or any other tool are processed locally and never transmitted to us. We have no way to see them. There is no form submission, no background request, no analytics event tagged to a specific input value.

What we do collect

Standard, anonymized web analytics at the page level. Specifically:

Aggregate page views. Which tool pages are visited most (no per-user behavior tracking).
General geographic region. Country-level only, derived from anonymized IP, used to understand which regions find the tools useful.
Device type and browser. For responsive layout testing.

This data is collected via privacy-respecting analytics (we use a cookieless, aggregated provider and do not run Google Analytics). We do not run any analytics inside the calculator widgets themselves.

Cookies and third parties

This site uses a small number of third-party services to operate. Here is the complete list:

Google AdSense. When you view a page, Google may set or read cookies (including the _ga, _gid, and AdSense IDE cookies) for ad serving, frequency capping, and aggregated reporting. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads based on your prior visits to this site or other sites. You can opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings (Google accounts required) or by visiting aboutads.info.
Tailwind CSS CDN. The page layout uses Tailwind CSS, loaded from a third-party CDN. Tailwind's CDN does not set cookies in the user-facing sense, but it does see that an IP loaded the stylesheet.
Font Awesome CDN. Icons are loaded from a public Font Awesome CDN. Same pattern as Tailwind.

How to control cookies on your end

If you prefer to disable all third-party cookies on this site (including advertising cookies), you can do so at the browser level:

Chrome: Settings → Privacy and security → Cookies and other site data.
Firefox: Settings → Privacy & Security → Enhanced Tracking Protection → Custom.
Safari: Settings → Privacy → Block all cookies.
Microsoft Edge: Settings → Cookies and site permissions → Cookies and site data.

Children's privacy

ShelfIQ is a business tool aimed at adults. We do not knowingly collect any information from anyone under the age of 16. If you believe a child has used this site in a way that has resulted in personal data collection (the only way this would happen is via Google AdSense cookies, which are out of our direct control), please contact us so we can address it.

Data retention

Because we do not collect personal data from calculator inputs, there is no retention policy needed for user input. Aggregated analytics are retained for at most 26 months, then deleted. Google AdSense retention is governed by Google's own policies; consult Google's Privacy Policy.

Your rights (GDPR / CCPA)

Under GDPR (for visitors in the EEA / UK) and CCPA (for visitors in California), you have the right to access, correct, or delete personal data we hold about you. Because we hold almost none, this is usually a 30-second conversation. Email us at the address in the Contact section.

Changes to this policy

If we change anything material — for example, if we start collecting input values for an aggregate benchmarking feature — we will update this page, and the change will be visible at the top of this section. Material changes are not retroactive to data already collected.

Disclaimer

The information and tools provided on ShelfIQ are for general informational and educational purposes only. They do not constitute professional advice in any field — including but not limited to financial, tax, legal, accounting, engineering, or supply chain consulting. By using the site, you agree to the following:

1. No professional relationship

Using these tools does not create any professional engagement between you and ShelfIQ, its editors, its operators, or its affiliates. We are not your CPA, controller, financial advisor, lawyer, or operations consultant.

2. No warranty of accuracy

While we make every reasonable effort to keep the calculators accurate (see our Editorial process), we make no warranty, express or implied, regarding the correctness, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of any result produced by a tool on this site. Verify material numbers against your own accounting system and a qualified advisor before acting on them.

3. Decision responsibility

The decisions you make based on outputs from these tools — how much to order, when, what to discount, which supplier to drop, how to size a warehouse — are yours. You are responsible for understanding the inputs, validating the assumptions, and confirming the results with your own systems and professionals. ShelfIQ and its editors are not liable for losses arising from decisions made on the basis of these tools.

4. Jurisdiction, taxes, and accounting standards

Inventory accounting rules vary by jurisdiction (FIFO and LIFO are treated differently under IFRS compared to US GAAP, for example). The FIFO vs LIFO vs Average Cost tool shows you the math; it does not tell you which method is acceptable in your jurisdiction or appropriate for your business. Confirm this with a qualified accountant.

5. Forward-looking statements

Anything on this site that looks like a forecast (including but not limited to the Demand Forecasting tool) is a projection based on historical data and the assumptions stated in the tool. Past demand does not guarantee future demand.

6. Health, safety, and physical operations

Calculations related to warehouse space, stacking, bin weight limits, ergonomic picking times, and similar physical-operations topics are provided as a starting point only. They are not a substitute for a qualified safety assessment, OSHA-equivalent compliance review, or peer observation.

7. Affiliate and advertising disclosure

This site displays ads served by Google AdSense. Ads are clearly separated from tools and not disguised as functional elements. Some links in editorial content may be affiliate links; if so, the link is marked with rel="sponsored". Affiliate relationships never influence which tools we build or how we score formulas. If a tool clearly fails in practice, we say so — even if a vendor disagrees.

Contact

Real email: hello [at] shelfiq [dot] tools (we write it that way to discourage scraping bots; please reconstruct). We aim to reply within 5 business days. We read everything. We do respond to disagreement.

What we are happy to discuss:

Calculation errors or edge cases the editorial team missed.
Operator rebuttals — "actually, in our warehouse we have found that ..." is the best kind of email.
Tool suggestions that pass the "would a spreadsheet actually fail at this?" test.
Translation help (we want to expand beyond English eventually).

What we will not promise:

We will not build custom tools, white-label versions, or take sponsored content in exchange for editorial placement.

References and further reading

The formulas on this site are standard inventory management textbook material. Three references we leaned on most heavily while writing:

Silver, E.A., Pyke, D.F., & Thomas, D.J. (2016). Inventory and Production Management in Supply Chains. CRC Press. The reference on EOQ variants and quantity discounts.
Chopra, S. & Meindl, P. (2016). Supply Chain Management: Strategy, Planning, and Operation. Pearson. The reference on the supply-chain framing of stockout risk and lead time variance.
APICS / ASCM (2020). SCM Body of Knowledge. The operations practitioner reference for ABC analysis, GMROI, and carrying cost components.

Editorial independence: no commercial relationship with any of the publishers above. Cited because their formulations are clearer than ours would have been.

Who runs ShelfIQ, why, and how.