Quality Holds & Status

Stop unfit stock from being sold — quarantine, hold and release, and let status drive what is actually available.

4 lessons 35 min 5-question assessment 70% to pass

What you’ll learn

Explain why not all on-hand stock should be sellable

Place stock on hold or in quarantine

Release stock back to available after checks

Understand how status drives available-to-sell quantity

Lesson 1 of 4 Reading 8 min

Not all stock is sellable

Having stock on hand does not always mean it is fit to sell. Goods awaiting inspection, damaged items, expired batches, or stock pending a decision should not be offered to customers. AWRA separates "on hand" from "available to sell" using status.

This distinction protects customers and the business. Selling stock that should have been held is how unfit goods reach customers and how recalls and complaints begin.

Decide the default status at goods-in rather than after the fact: for inspected categories like food, pharma, or electronics, receive into a “pending inspection” status so nothing is sellable until checked, instead of receiving straight to available and hoping someone holds it later. The expensive mistake is the reverse — letting a new delivery go live by default and only quarantining it once a customer complains.

Key takeaways

On-hand does not always mean fit to sell.
Status separates total on-hand from available-to-sell.
The split prevents unfit goods reaching customers.
For inspected categories, receive into a pending status by default so stock is sellable only after it passes, not before.

Lesson 2 of 4 Reading 9 min

Quarantine and holds

A hold or quarantine sets stock aside so it cannot be sold or picked while a question is open — pending inspection, a quality check, or a supplier issue. The stock still exists and is counted, but it is fenced off from normal fulfilment.

Holds are a control, not a deletion. The goods remain visible and accounted for; they are simply marked "not yet" until someone with authority clears them.

A hold without an owner becomes a graveyard. Whenever stock goes on hold, record who placed it, why, and what has to happen to clear it — then review the held list weekly so a “pending supplier reply” from three months ago doesn’t just sit there tying up cash. The question to ask at each review is blunt: clear it, write it off, or chase the decision today.

Key takeaways

A hold or quarantine fences stock off from sale or picking.
Held stock still exists and is counted, just not available.
Holds are a controlled pause, not a deletion.
Give every hold an owner and a clearing condition, and review the held list weekly so stock doesn’t rot in quarantine.

Lesson 3 of 4 Practice 9 min

Releasing stock

When the question is resolved — inspection passed, batch approved — stock is released back to available and re-enters normal fulfilment. If it fails, it is routed onward instead: to a write-off, a return to supplier, or disposal.

Release is a deliberate, recorded step. That record is what lets you later answer "who cleared this batch, and when?" — essential for quality-sensitive goods.

Where a recall is possible, this trail earns its keep: if a supplier flags batch B-2207 as faulty, you can pull the release record to see who cleared it, where those units went, and which sales drew from them — turning a vague “check everything” panic into a targeted recall. Capture the batch or lot at release, not just the quantity, or you lose the thread that connects the held stock to the customers who bought it.

Key takeaways

Passed stock is released back to available.
Failed stock is routed to write-off, return, or disposal.
Release is recorded, so clearances are auditable.
Capture batch/lot at release so a later recall can trace exactly which units shipped and to whom.

Lesson 4 of 4 Reading 9 min

Status-driven availability

Status is what ties it together: only stock with an available status counts toward what can be sold or promised. Held, quarantined, and damaged quantities are excluded automatically, so the available figure reflects reality without anyone doing mental subtraction.

This keeps selling honest. POS, sales, and reporting all read the same available figure, so a held batch cannot be accidentally sold from a different screen.

This is also why “we have 100, why won’t it let me sell?” usually has an innocent answer: 100 on-hand but 30 on hold leaves only 70 available. Before assuming a system fault, check the status breakdown — on-hand versus available — because the gap is almost always a hold someone placed and forgot, not a bug. Reading the two figures together is the habit that prevents both phantom oversells and false alarms.

Key takeaways

Only available-status stock counts toward what can be sold.
Held, quarantined, and damaged quantities are excluded automatically.
One consistent available figure is shared across POS, sales, and reports.
When on-hand and available disagree, read the status breakdown first — the gap is usually a forgotten hold, not a bug.

| AWRA OpsHub

Quality Holds & Status

What you’ll learn

Course content

Not all stock is sellable

Quarantine and holds

Releasing stock

Status-driven availability

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