ERP for cold chain & food distribution. 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. This page describes the United States edition, which starts in early 2027.
Built on Inventory, no ready pack From early 2027How 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 it; the steps below are what Kinnow's inventory features 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 the per-state sales-tax summary | Controller | Account, Comply | Close signed by a person; each state return filed by a person |
What is configured with you
Cold chain has no ready-made industry setup in the app (we call these industry packs). We do not claim ready-made limits or standard reports for it. Here is what we set up with you in the two weeks, using what Kinnow already does:
- 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 steps, with the person who submits kept apart from the approver, and only the controller posts it.
- Expiry and claim windows for returning expired stock to suppliers.
- The link from your monitoring system to 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.
Tax and compliance calendar for a cold-chain business (United States)
Kinnow prepares; a person confirms and files. Dates are not printed here because each state sets its own; the calendar is built from the states you register in. Food, drug and other trade licenses and permits are not tracked by a built-in cold-chain rule.
| Obligation | What Kinnow prepares | Who confirms |
|---|---|---|
| State sales tax on invoices | Tax priced by destination state from the state base rate plus a county or city rate you enter; sales to customers outside the country are zero-rated. Unprepared grocery items map to a starter exempt category, and treatment differs by state and by product | Accounts executive, tax adviser |
| Exemption certificates (resale and others) | An untaxed taxable line must carry an exemption certificate or a reason, or the invoice check fails, so a gap shows up before an audit finds it | Accounts executive |
| Per-state sales-tax returns | A summary of taxable sales and tax collected by state, for you to transcribe into each state return. It does not decide nexus and it does not file. The calendar follows the states and filing frequencies you record, and refuses to guess when none are recorded | Controller, tax adviser |
| State registrations | EIN, state sales-tax permit, state annual report and foreign qualification are tracked as registrations; due dates appear only where you supply them | Controller |
| Vehicle compliance dates | Transport lists vehicles with compliance documents falling due | Fleet coordinator |
| Payroll withholding | Federal income tax withholding and FICA can be computed; state income tax is not included and the payslip says so. W-2 and 1099 forms are not produced. Payroll stays with your current provider in the first release | HR head, payroll provider |
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 · Whole milk, 1 gal | Cold room 2 | 11.2°C vs 4.0°C for 42 min | Held |
| Lot B-2231 · Greek yogurt, 32 oz | Cold room 2 | 11.2°C vs 4.0°C for 42 min | Held |
| Lot B-2102 · Frozen shrimp, 2 lb | Freezer 1 | Within tolerance | Active |
Numbers to watch
These come from lists Kinnow already keeps. Cold chain has no ready-made set of reports, so you can add your own.
| 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 list | 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 |
| 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 feed 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 inventory features, not on an industry setup of its own. We configure the zones, tolerances, release rights and write-off approvals with you. The quarantine, expiry, earliest-expiry-first (FEFO) picking and lot tracing described here are 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 steps: 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.
How long to set up?
About two weeks to first results for one warehouse. The sensor feed depends on your monitoring vendor and may take longer.
Does Kinnow file our state sales-tax returns?
No. It prices tax by destination state on each invoice, and the groundwork for a summary of taxable sales and tax collected by state is completed before launch. A person transcribes it into each state return and files it. It does not decide whether you have nexus in a state; your tax adviser does.
When is the United States edition available?
From early 2027. Until then this page describes what the edition is built to do, not something running today. Talk to us about the first customers.
Show me Kinnow for cold chain & food distribution.
Answer three questions. Get the applications, the agents and a two-week plan for your business.