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 United Kingdom edition opens in early 2027, and this page keeps to what the product records today.
From early 2027 · built on Inventory, no ready packHow 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 is perishable twice over: it expires on the calendar and it spoils on the thermometer. The money is in the lot, not the item, so the books must know which lot sits in which room, how old it is and what the room did to it. Reports arrive late, and an excursion 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 cold chain; the steps below are what Kinnow's stock records do today.
| # | 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 system, QA | Stock & Ship | Tolerances set by your QA head |
| 4 | An out-of-tolerance reading holds the affected lots in quarantine | Automatic | Stock & Ship | Release needs a manager and a reason |
| 5 | QA reviews the held lot: release it to active or route it to a write-off | QA 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 | QA head | Stock & Ship | Customer notices sent by a person |
| 10 | Month-end close and VAT return | Finance head, adviser | Account, Comply | Return and close signed by a person |
What we set up with you
Cold chain has no ready-made industry setup (we call it an industry pack) in the app, so we do not claim ready-made limits or report codes for it. What we set up with you in the two weeks, using the stock features that exist:
- Zone types and tolerances. 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.
- Release rights. Releasing a lot from quarantine needs a manager and a reason.
- Write-off approvals. A write-off moves through four stages, the person who raises it cannot approve it, and only the controller posts it.
- 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 processes that every company starts with.
Processes, built in
A full set of best-practice processes for your industry come switched on: who owns each step, which steps Kinnow enforces, and a clock on every hand-off between departments. Print any of them as an SOP.
Ask us to walk one excursion from reading to write-off on your stock.
Agents for cold chain
Expiry Watchdog
Walks 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 validated with each client before it works on their books, and every output waits for a person. The earlier Cold Chain Watchdog agent has been retired: the excursion check now runs when a reading is recorded.
Statutory and compliance calendar for a cold-chain business (United Kingdom)
Kinnow prepares; a person confirms and files. Dates are not printed here because the authority sets them and they change; Comply carries your calendar. There is no cold-chain-specific licence rule.
| Obligation | What Kinnow prepares | Who confirms |
|---|---|---|
| VAT return | The groundwork to build the nine-box VAT return figures from the sales and purchase records for the period, as a file to download, is completed before launch. Kinnow does not submit to HMRC: a person files through HMRC-recognised software or the HMRC portal, once your adviser has confirmed the box mapping. | Accounts executive, adviser |
| Invoice rules | Invoices carry the VAT number and VAT at 20, 5 or 0 per cent by item code. The UK has no clearance e-invoice to request, so there is no step between approval and sending. | Accounts executive |
| Vehicle compliance dates | Transport lists vehicles with compliance documents falling due; the document types are set with you. | Fleet coordinator |
| PAYE, National Insurance and pension | Income tax, National Insurance, pension and student-loan deductions from rate tables held per tax year; a year with no table is refused. The UK payroll setup names the HMRC payroll filings; preparing or submitting them is not in the first release. | HR head, adviser |
| Companies House, corporation tax and ICO fee | Confirmation statement, annual accounts, corporation tax return and ICO fee are tracked with a due date and a reminder. Kinnow files none of them. | Finance head, adviser |
| Food hygiene registration and medicines licences | Food hygiene registration of the premises is one of the items in the UK facility calendar in Maintain (state and due date). Medicines wholesale licences are not tracked by a built-in rule. | Quality 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 on the inventory reports, with the source and cost shown 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 · Salmon fillets 1 kg | Cold room 2 | 11.2°C vs 4.0°C for 42 min | Held |
| Lot B-2231 · Natural yoghurt 500 g | Cold room 2 | 11.2°C vs 4.0°C for 42 min | Held |
| Lot B-2102 · Frozen peas 1 kg | Freezer 1 | Within tolerance | Active |
Numbers to watch
These come from registers the product holds. 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 register | 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 |
| issue rule | FEFO (first expiry, first out) |
| loss | write-off (expiry, damage or quality failure) |
Questions
Does Kinnow read our temperature sensors?
Not directly. Kinnow records 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 an excursion?
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 Kinnow's stock features, with no industry setup of its own. We set up the zones, tolerances, release rights and write-off approvals with you; the quarantine, expiry, FEFO and traceability behaviour is in the product today.
Can we run a recall?
Yes. Forward and backward lot tracing shows the supplier receipt and every customer a lot went to. A recall-trace agent traces 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 states: draft, pending approval, approved, posted. The person who submits cannot approve their own, and only a controller posts it. Posting reduces stock and sends 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 watchdog marks lots past their date as expired.
Does it prepare the VAT return for a UK cold-chain business?
The groundwork to build the nine boxes from your sales and purchase records for the period, as a file, is completed before launch. Kinnow does not submit it: filing under Making Tax Digital goes through HMRC-recognised software or the HMRC portal, and your adviser confirms the box mapping first. Kinnow carries a starter list of zero-rated and reduced-rate item codes, for example most food, and the treatment of your own products is agreed with your adviser during set-up.
How long to set up?
About two weeks to first results for one warehouse. The link to your sensors 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.