ERP for cold chain. A temperature excursion quarantines the lot before anyone sells it.
A temperature excursion holds the affected lots before anyone picks them, and a recall starts from a list of customers. The UAE and Saudi Arabia edition arrives from December 2026.
From December 2026How does Kinnow help a cold-chain business? When a reading goes out of tolerance, the affected lots are held before anyone picks them. A manager releases them or writes them off with a reason, and a recall starts from a list of customers instead of a search. Nothing is filed, paid or posted without a person.
Your business in one paragraph
Cold-chain stock can go bad twice over: it passes its date on the calendar and it spoils on the thermometer. The money sits in the lot, not the single item, so your books need to know which lot is in which room, how old it is and what the room did to it. Reports come late, and a temperature breach is often found after the stock has shipped. Three things keep the owner awake.
A breach noticed after dispatch
The reading was out of range for an hour, and the lot was on a truck by then.
Near-expiry lots going out last
FIFO habits push fresh stock first and the old lot becomes a write-off.
A recall that takes days
Traceability stops at the warehouse door, so the customer list is built by hand.
Tell us your warehouse zones and see an excursion hold a lot on your item codes.
How your month runs on Kinnow
Cold chain runs on Stock & Ship, with Sell, Buy and Account around it. There is no ready-made industry setup for it; the routine below is what the Inventory capability does.
| # | Step | Who | Application | Where a person signs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Goods received against a purchase order; a receipt can be held in quarantine on arrival | Receiving clerk | Stock & Ship, Buy | Manager accepts or rejects a held receipt, with a reason |
| 2 | Lots stored by warehouse with batch and expiry date | Warehouse supervisor | Stock & Ship | Stock transfers between warehouses are dispatched and received |
| 3 | Zone readings recorded: temperature, target, duration, affected items | Monitoring feed, quality team | Stock & Ship | Limits set by your quality head |
| 4 | An out-of-tolerance reading holds the affected lots in quarantine | Automatic | Stock & Ship | Release needs a manager and a reason |
| 5 | Quality team reviews the held lot: release it to active or route it to a write-off | Quality head | Stock & Ship | Release or write-off signed by a named person |
| 6 | Orders picked earliest-expiry first; a different lot at pick is flagged | Warehouse supervisor | Sell, Stock & Ship | Pick confirmed by the picker |
| 7 | Nightly expiry check marks lots past date; expired stock is claimed back from suppliers where the window allows | Accounts, buyer | Stock & Ship, Buy | Claim sent by a person |
| 8 | Write-off goes draft, pending approval, approved, posted; the loss reaches the ledger | Warehouse supervisor, controller | Stock & Ship, Account | Submitter cannot approve; controller posts |
| 9 | Recall: trace a lot forwards to customers and backwards to the supplier receipt | Quality head | Stock & Ship | Customer notices sent by a person |
| 10 | Month-end close and VAT return | Finance head, tax adviser | Account, Comply | Return and close signed by a person |
What is configured with you
Cold chain has no ready-made industry setup in the app. We do not claim ready-made limits or report codes for it. In the first two weeks we set up the following with you, using the capabilities that exist:
- Zone types and temperature limits. The defaults are a cold room within 0.5 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes, a freezer within 1.0 degree for 5 minutes and an ambient zone within 2.0 degrees for 30 minutes. They can be changed for the company and for each warehouse.
- Who can release. Releasing a lot from quarantine needs a manager and a reason.
- Write-off approvals. Four steps for a write-off, with the person who raises it kept apart from the person who approves it, and only the controller posts.
- Expiry and claim windows for returning expired stock to suppliers.
- The link from your monitoring system into Kinnow, built with your monitoring vendor.
- The month-end close and access routines that every company starts with.
Processes, built in
A full set of good-practice processes for your industry comes switched on: who owns each step, which steps Kinnow makes sure happen, and a time limit on every hand-off between departments. Print any of them as a written procedure (SOP).
Ask us to walk one excursion from reading to write-off on your stock.
Agents for cold chain
Expiry Watchdog
Checks active lots every night and marks those past their expiry date as expired, so they stop being offered.
FEFO/FIFO selector
A rule built into the pick list: it uses the lot that expires first (FEFO) or the one that came in first (FIFO), as you choose when the list is made, and checks again when the pick is confirmed.
Expiry return claim
Groups expired lots under their supplier, works out the claim window and drafts the return or credit claim. It sends nothing.
Recall trace
Traces a batch to its supplier receipts, every customer it went to and where the rest sits. It notifies nobody.
Slow-mover Detector
Finds stock that has not moved for a set number of days and ranks it by the money tied up in it, so you can review it.
StockStock Forecaster
Forecasts demand for the next 30, 60 and 90 days for each item and warehouse, with a suggested safety stock and reorder point. It never acts on its own.
Dead Stock Recovery
For each dead-stock item, works out the value at risk and suggests a transfer, a discount sale or a write-off. A person decides.
Each agent is checked with each client before it works on their books, and everything it produces waits for a person. The earlier Cold Chain Watchdog agent has been retired: the temperature check now runs as soon as a reading is recorded.
Tax and compliance calendar for a cold-chain business (UAE and Saudi Arabia)
Kinnow prepares; your people confirm and file. We do not print dates here because the tax authority sets them; Comply keeps your calendar. Food-safety and municipality licences specific to your trade are not tracked by a built-in cold-chain rule.
| Obligation | What Kinnow prepares | Who confirms |
|---|---|---|
| UAE VAT return (VAT-201, quarterly) | The groundwork to build the return from posted sales and purchase invoices, split by emirate of supply, as a file for a person to upload to the Federal Tax Authority (FTA) portal, completed before launch. Kinnow does not file | Accounts executive, finance head |
| Saudi VAT return | The groundwork to prepare the return from your books for a person to file, completed before launch. We check which figure goes in which box with each client before first use | Accounts executive, finance head |
| E-invoicing | UAE: basic groundwork for Peppol (the e-invoicing network) is built; live submission is not in the first release. Saudi Arabia: e-invoicing with ZATCA (the Saudi tax authority) is planned after launch | Finance head |
| Vehicle compliance dates | Transport lists vehicles whose documents are falling due | Fleet coordinator |
| Wages and end-of-service | UAE: a WPS salary file (the wage-protection file your bank takes), a running provision for end-of-service gratuity and pension contributions for UAE and GCC nationals. Saudi payroll (GOSI, the social insurance body; Mudad; WPS) is not in the first release | HR head, finance head |
What the owner sees
Three screens do the daily work: the quarantine list, the write-offs list and the traceability report. Ask Kinnow answers questions from your stock reports, and shows the source and cost before it runs.
- What is my stock worth right now, by warehouse? (Stock valuation)
- Show dead stock older than 180 days. (Dead stock)
- How old is the stock I am holding, and what is it worth? (Item-age valuation)
Illustration · sample data
| Lot · item | Zone | Reading | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lot B-2217 · Fresh cream 1 litre | Cold room 2 | 11.2°C vs 4.0°C for 42 min | Held |
| Lot B-2231 · Labneh 400 g | Cold room 2 | 11.2°C vs 4.0°C for 42 min | Held |
| Lot B-2102 · Frozen chicken 1 kg | Freezer 1 | Within tolerance | Active |
Numbers to watch
These come from records Kinnow already keeps. Cold chain has no ready-made set of report codes, so the list is yours to extend.
| Number | Where you read it | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Lots held in quarantine and their value | Quarantine list | Stock you cannot sell right now |
| Excursions by zone and week | Cold-chain readings record | Which room or compressor keeps drifting |
| Expiry and quality write-offs | Write-offs list | The cost of spoilage, with who approved it |
| Stock by age band | Item-age valuation | Where near-expiry capital sits |
| Expired stock claimed back | Expiry return claim | What was recovered from suppliers |
See quarantine and write-offs on a day of your own readings.
Applications switched on
| Generic term | In your Kinnow |
|---|---|
| temperature breach | excursion |
| on hold | quarantine |
| which lot goes first | FEFO |
| loss | write-off (expiry, damage or quality failure) |
Questions
Does Kinnow read our temperature sensors?
Not directly. Kinnow records the readings sent to it for a warehouse zone (the temperature, the target, how long it lasted and which items are affected) and acts on them. The sensors and the link from your monitoring system stay with your monitoring vendor; connecting that link is part of the set-up.
What happens to a lot after a temperature breach?
Every active lot in that warehouse for the affected items moves to quarantine, with the reason and the reading recorded. If the reading names no items, every active lot in the warehouse is held. A held lot is not picked. A manager then releases it, with a reason, or it goes for a write-off.
Is there a ready-made cold-chain setup?
No. Cold chain is built on the Inventory capability, not on an industry setup of its own. We set up the zones, temperature limits, who can release a lot and the write-off approvals with you; quarantine, expiry, earliest-expiry-first picking and traceability are already built in.
Can we run a recall?
Yes. Forward and backward lot tracing shows the supplier receipt and every customer a lot went to. The recall trace agent follows a batch to its customers and to where the rest sits; it notifies nobody, so a person decides what to send.
Who can write stock off?
A write-off goes through four steps: draft, pending approval, approved, posted. The person who raises it cannot approve it, and only a controller posts it. Posting reduces stock and takes the loss to the ledger. Reasons include expiry, damage and quality failure.
How do near-expiry lots go out first?
A pick list built from a delivery order takes the earliest-expiry lot first for expiry-tracked items, and the pick is re-checked when it is confirmed. A different lot picked is flagged, not blocked. A nightly expiry check marks lots past their date as expired.
How long to set up?
About two weeks to first results for one warehouse. The sensor link depends on your monitoring vendor and may take longer.
Show me Kinnow for cold chain.
Answer three questions. Get the applications, the agents and a two-week plan for your business.