Business Operating Platform + Warehouse Inventory Management SaaS

# CTT Ops — Development Milestones & Deliverables **Project:** Custom E-Commerce Operations, Returns, Inventory & Purchasing Platform **Development Type:** New application built from scratch **Approach:** Milestone-based development with separate estimates and approvals ## Milestone 1 — Platform Foundation & UI/UX **Objective:** Establish the core CTT Ops application and technical architecture. **Requirements:** - React/TypeScript frontend and Supabase/PostgreSQL backend. - Responsive desktop and mobile layouts. - Admin and Employee authentication. - Role-based access control and permissions. - Main navigation, dashboard framework, and reusable UI components. - Global search, notifications, and activity logging. - Secure file storage for images and attachments. - Database architecture designed for future modules. - GitHub repository, staging environment, and deployment. **Design reference:** https://www.behance.net/gallery/226571399/Warehouse-Management-Dashboard-UI-Design-Inventory Use the reference for its modern visual hierarchy, rounded cards, consistent corner radii, typography, spacing, and overall application styling. **Deliverable:** Working application foundation with approved UI designs, authentication, permissions, and database architecture. ## Milestone 2 — Shopify Integration & Customer Issue Management **Objective:** Centralize customer-related issues and support workflows. **Requirements:** - Connect Shopify stores through the Admin API. - Search customers and orders by name, email, order number, and other identifiers. - Retrieve order details, products, shipping information, and tracking. - Create customer issue tickets manually. - Associate tickets with Shopify orders and customers. - Support issue categories, internal notes, attachments, and photos. - Assign issues to employees. - Track statuses such as New, In Review, Waiting for Customer, Waiting for Supplier, Completed, and Archived. - Maintain full activity history. - Support reopening archived cases. - Convert customer issues into RMA, exchange, or refund workflows. - Design for future Zoho Mail email-thread ingestion and deduplication. **Deliverable:** Functional customer issue management system integrated with Shopify. ## Milestone 3 — RMA, Returns, Exchanges & Refunds **Objective:** Build a complete returns management workflow. **RMA Requirements:** - Create an RMA from a Shopify order or existing issue. - Search by customer name, order number, email, or address. - Record products, quantities, return reason, and customer-provided photos. - Record vehicle make/model and other relevant return information. - Store supplier return instructions and return addresses. - Support supplier-provided labels, company-provided labels, and customer-supplied tracking. - Track return shipments and delivery status. - Record return inspection results. - Track customer refund and supplier refund separately. - Maintain notes, attachments, and complete activity history. **RMA Statuses:** - Pending - Awaiting Customer Information - Awaiting Return Instructions - In Transit - Received / Inspection - Waiting for Supplier Refund - Completed - Canceled **Exchange Requirements:** - Create an exchange from an existing order or RMA. - Identify returned and replacement items. - Track replacement shipment and tracking number. - Support supplier-direct or warehouse fulfillment. - Record completion after replacement delivery. **Refund Requirements:** - Record refund amount, reason, and status. - Distinguish customer refunds from supplier reimbursements. - Support partial refunds. - Link refund records to the originating issue/RMA. - Avoid duplicate refund processing. **Deliverable:** Complete RMA, exchange, and refund management system with Shopify order associations. ## Milestone 4 — Incoming Packages & Warehouse Check-In **Objective:** Track every incoming package, including unidentified shipments and returns. **Requirements:** - Create an incoming-package record for every shipment received. - Automatically generate a unique package number, such as `P-YYYYMMDD-001`. - Record carrier, tracking number, sender, arrival date, and condition. - Require photographs of the shipping label and package contents. - Support additional photos and notes. - Allow employees to enter product descriptions, SKUs, and quantities. - Support packages with missing or unknown SKUs. - Search for matching Shopify orders, RMAs, or purchase orders. - Link packages to existing records when identified. - Allow packages to remain unidentified until reviewed. - Support assignment and internal handling instructions. - Record whether items should be returned to stock, held, inspected, or otherwise processed. - Maintain package history and employee activity logs. **4×6 Label Printing:** - Generate a printable internal package label. - Include package number, identification details, and optional notes. - Support the existing LP320 label printer connected to a Mac. - Design a printing workflow compatible with the warehouse setup. **Deliverable:** Employee-friendly incoming-package processing system with photos, record matching, and printable labels. ## Milestone 5 — Master Inventory & Supplier Management **Objective:** Create the centralized warehouse product and supplier database. **Requirements:** - Import Shopify product titles, SKUs, variants, images, and identifiers. - Support multiple Shopify stores. - Create internal-only products and custom components. - Search by SKU, title, manufacturer part number, and aliases. - Map multiple external listings to one master physical inventory item. - Track on-hand, reserved, available, incoming, and damaged quantities. - Maintain inventory adjustments and movement history. - Support future barcode and bin-location fields. **Supplier Management:** - Create unlimited custom suppliers and manufacturers. - Store supplier contact information and ordering methods. - Support WeChat, WhatsApp, email, and website ordering references. - Store supplier-specific SKUs and previous purchase costs. - Configure processing and shipping lead times per supplier. - Allow product-specific lead-time overrides. - Support multiple suppliers for one product. - Support custom factories manufacturing wiring harnesses, CNC components, and branded products. **Deliverable:** Searchable master catalog, warehouse inventory foundation, and supplier directory. ## Milestone 6 — Stock Purchase Orders & Purchasing Management **Objective:** Manage warehouse stock purchases independently of Shopify's PO system. **Requirements:** - Create draft POs with automatic numbering. - Select an existing supplier or create a new one. - Add products from the catalog or create custom items. - Support multiple items and quantities. - Save drafts and continue adding products later. - Allow unit prices to remain unknown when creating POs. - Display historical supplier prices as estimates only. - Update actual pricing after supplier confirmation. - Attach invoices, drawings, screenshots, and documents. - Record supplier order references. - Track expected delivery dates. - Support multiple shipments and partial receipts. - Track ordered, received, and outstanding quantities. - Flag overdue purchases. - Warn about existing outstanding orders for the same SKU. - Generate printable or downloadable POs. - Support PO revisions and audit history. **Important:** Individual customer dropship orders should not require separate stock POs. **Deliverable:** Fully functional stock purchasing and outstanding-order management module. ## Milestone 7 — PO Receiving, Landed Costs & Inventory Valuation **Objective:** Connect stock purchasing to physical inventory and accurate product costing. **Requirements:** - Match incoming stock packages to open POs. - Record actual received quantities. - Support partial receiving and multiple shipments. - Record shortages, damage, and discrepancies. - Attach photos and receiving notes. - Increase physical inventory only after accepted receipt. - Reduce outstanding PO quantities accordingly. - Record actual supplier unit costs. - Record shipment-level shipping expenses. - Support optional additional costs. - Allocate freight across received units, using quantity-based allocation by default. - Calculate landed unit costs. - Maintain weighted-average inventory valuation. - Preserve historical costs and inventory movements. - Support provisional costs when final pricing is not yet available. - Reconcile later pricing or freight corrections with an audit trail. **Deliverable:** Complete PO-to-receiving-to-inventory workflow with accurate landed costs and stock valuation. ## Milestone 8 — Order Matching & Fulfillment Source Management **Objective:** Connect customer sales to warehouse inventory without replacing Shopify or ShipStation. **Requirements:** - Import Shopify customer orders and order lines. - Map sales-channel products to internal inventory items. - Automatically recognize saved mappings. - Flag unmatched items for manual review. - Reserve warehouse inventory for orders assigned to warehouse fulfillment. - Deduct physical stock when fulfillment is confirmed. - Handle partial shipments, cancellations, returns, and adjustments. - Prevent duplicate deductions from Shopify and ShipStation events. - Support multiple Shopify listings representing one generic physical product. - Support switching fulfillment between warehouse and dropship sources. - Record alternate sources such as eBay or another supplier. - Release warehouse reservations when switching to external fulfillment. - Maintain sourcing history and relevant costs. - Do not deduct warehouse stock for dropshipped items. **Deliverable:** Reliable order matching, warehouse stock reservations, fulfillment deductions, and source management. ## Milestone 9 — Bundles, Kits & Multichannel Inventory Sync **Objective:** Support existing ShipStation bundles and synchronize warehouse inventory across sales channels. **Requirements:** - Map parent kit SKUs to component inventory items. - Track component quantities. - Support components shared across multiple kits. - Support warehouse-only and mixed warehouse/dropship kits. - Calculate sellable kit availability. - Preserve existing ShipStation bundle picking and packing workflows. - Avoid duplicate component deductions. - Synchronize available stock to Shopify. - Support multiple Shopify stores. - Add eBay synchronization. - Maintain synchronization logs, retries, and reconciliation tools. - Prevent incorrect stock publishing when products are unmapped. **Deliverable:** Centralized multichannel warehouse inventory with bundle-aware stock calculations. ## Milestone 10 — Inventory Insights & Replenishment **Objective:** Provide actionable inventory reporting and formula-based restocking recommendations. **Requirements:** - KPI dashboard for inventory value, low stock, incoming stock, and purchasing. - Historical sales analysis over 7, 30, and 90 days. - Average daily sales velocity. - Estimated days of stock remaining. - Supplier-specific lead times. - Product-level lead-time overrides. - Safety stock and reorder points. - Suggested purchase quantities. - Account for existing confirmed POs and expected arrival dates. - Identify slow-moving and excess inventory. - Track supplier delivery performance. - Show estimated purchasing requirements. - Add recommended products and quantities directly to draft POs. **AI forecasting is not required for this milestone.** **Deliverable:** Inventory insights dashboard and automated, formula-based replenishment planner. ## Milestone 11 — Barcode Generation & Mobile Scanning **Objective:** Add barcode-enabled inventory and purchasing workflows. **Requirements:** - Generate Code 128 internal barcodes. - Support existing manufacturer barcodes. - Print inventory and bin labels. - Scan using mobile cameras and compatible handheld scanners. - Open product details after scanning. - View current inventory quantities and locations. - Adjust stock with appropriate permissions. - Receive inventory using scanned products. - Support barcode-based cycle counting. **Scan-to-PO Workflow:** 1. Scan product. 2. Identify master inventory item. 3. Select Add to PO. 4. Create a new PO or select an existing draft. 5. Choose supplier. 6. View suggested quantity when replenishment is enabled. 7. Enter or override quantity. 8. Add item and continue scanning. 9. Review and finalize PO. **Deliverable:** Barcode-based mobile inventory management and purchasing workflow. ## Milestone 12 — Advanced Integrations & Automation **Objective:** Add optional automation after the core platform is stable. Potential features: - Zoho Mail ingestion and customer-issue thread matching. - Discord notifications and webhooks. - Automated shipment and tracking status updates. - Supplier follow-up reminders. - Advanced demand forecasting. - Seasonality and inventory optimization. - Supplier performance analysis. - Additional purchasing automation. - Further integrations as business requirements evolve. **Deliverable:** Separately scoped automation and integration enhancements. --- # Recommended Release Structure ## Release A — Customer Operations MVP **Milestones 1–4** Provides: - Platform foundation. - Shopify customer/order lookup. - Customer issue tickets. - RMA, exchanges, and refund tracking. - Incoming-package check-in. - Photo documentation. - Package identification and 4×6 label printing. ## Release B — Inventory & Purchasing MVP **Milestones 5–7** Provides: - Master inventory. - Custom suppliers and factories. - Stock purchase orders. - Outstanding purchase tracking. - PO receiving. - Landed costs and weighted-average inventory valuation. ## Release C — Integrated Inventory Operations **Milestones 8–9** Provides: - Shopify order matching. - Warehouse inventory reservations and deductions. - Fulfillment source changes. - ShipStation bundle handling. - Shopify/eBay stock synchronization. ## Release D — Intelligence & Warehouse Tools **Milestones 10–11** Provides: - Inventory forecasting and restocking recommendations. - KPI dashboards. - Barcode generation and scanning. - Mobile warehouse workflows. ## Release E — Advanced Automation **Milestone 12** Provides additional integrations, notifications, AI-assisted forecasting, and workflow automation. --- # Milestone Acceptance & Payment Requirements Each milestone should have independently testable deliverables. Before approving payment, the developer should provide: - A working demonstration in a staging environment. - Source code committed to our GitHub repository. - Required database migrations. - Testing of relevant workflows. - Documentation of integrations and configuration. - A list of known limitations or incomplete functionality. - Deployment instructions. - Confirmation that agreed acceptance criteria have been met. We prefer separate estimates for each milestone, including estimated hours, costs, dependencies, and expected completion dates. The developer should also identify opportunities to share infrastructure across modules, especially Shopify integration, incoming-package receiving, RMA processing, stock receiving, attachments, permissions, and activity logging. **The objective is to build one unified CTT Ops platform rather than several disconnected applications.**