Stock Reservations

Put stock on hold for a purpose such as a catering order, see what it does to the available quantity, and release or use the hold.

What a reservation is

A reservation sets a quantity of one product in one warehouse aside. The stock stays on the shelf and stays in the stock on hand, but it is counted as reserved. On the product page, under Stock by Warehouse, Available is On Hand minus the reserved quantity.

Reservations are made by hand in the Web admin. Nothing creates one for you: orders, purchase orders and production orders do not reserve stock.

A reservation does not stop sales

When an order is completed, its ingredients are deducted from the stock on hand without looking at reservations. A reservation only limits other reservations: you cannot reserve more than the Available quantity. Treat it as a note to the team, not a lock.

Open the list

Go to Inventory > Stock Reservations. You need permission to view stock reservations.

Stock Reservations / Holds list with Search, Warehouse, Status and Type filters, an Expiring Soon box, and two active ManualHold reservations showing remaining and reserved quantity and an expiry date — The reservations list: each row shows the remaining quantity out of the reserved quantity and when the hold expires

Filter with Search (the reservation number), Warehouse, Status and Type, then click Filter. Tick Expiring Soon to see only holds that expire in the next 24 hours. A row is highlighted yellow when it expires within 24 hours and red when its expiry time has passed.

Status shown	Meaning
Active	The full quantity is still on hold.
PartiallyConsumed	Part of the quantity has been used; the rest is still on hold.
Consumed	The whole quantity has been used. Nothing is on hold.
Released	You released the remaining quantity. Nothing is on hold.
Cancelled	You cancelled the reservation. Nothing is on hold.
Expired	Listed in the Status filter, but a hold does not move to this status by itself. See Expiry.

Create a reservation

Create Stock Reservation form with Warehouse, Reservation Type, Product, Reserved Quantity, Expires At, Priority, Related Order fields, Reason and Notes — Create Stock Reservation: a manual hold on one product for a catering order

Click New Reservation

On Inventory > Stock Reservations, click New Reservation.
Pick the Warehouse and the Reservation Type

Both are required. The types are Sales Order, Transfer Order, Manual Hold, Production, Quality Hold, Customer Pickup, Quotation and Back Order. The type is a label for your own use; it does not change what the reservation does.
Pick the Product

Choose from the Product list. Only active products are listed.
Enter the Reserved Quantity

In the product's stock unit. It must be more than zero and no more than the quantity available in that warehouse: the stock on hand minus what other active reservations already hold.
Set Expires At

It defaults to seven days from today and must be in the future. If you clear it, the reservation is still given an expiry: the number of hours in the Reservation Expiry (hours) setting, counted from now.
Fill in the rest if useful

Priority is a number from 0 to 100 shown on the reservation. Under Related Order (Optional), Order Type and Order Number are free text shown under the reservation number in the list; leave Order ID empty. Reason and Notes are shown on the reservation.
Click Create Reservation

The reservation opens with the status Active. The product's Available quantity in that warehouse goes down by the reserved quantity.

Release, use or cancel a reservation

Open the reservation from the list. The Actions card offers these while the status is Active or PartiallyConsumed:

Button	What it does
Release Reservation	Frees the whole remaining quantity. You can type a Release Reason. The stock on hand does not change; Available goes back up. The status becomes Released and the reason and time are shown under Release Information.
Consume Stock	Records that part or all of the held stock was used. Enter Quantity to Consume, up to the remaining quantity, and click Consume Stock. That quantity leaves the stock on hand and the hold shrinks by the same amount. The status becomes PartiallyConsumed, or Consumed when nothing is left. No stock movement is written for this, so the deduction does not appear under Inventory > Stock Movements.
Cancel Reservation	Frees the remaining quantity without a reason. The status becomes Cancelled.

The Consume and Release icons on a list row do the same as the buttons on the reservation.

Expiry

When Expires At passes, the reservation is marked as expired in the list and on its page, but its status stays Active and the quantity stays reserved. Nothing releases it for you, whatever the Auto-release expired reservations setting says. Check the list for red rows now and then, and Release or Cancel the holds you no longer need.

Related settings

Go to Settings > Inventory. The Reservations card has three settings. Only one of them has an effect:

Reservations settings card with the switches Enable stock reservations and Auto-release expired reservations, and the field Reservation Expiry (hours) — The Reservations card under Settings > Inventory

Setting	Effect
Reservation Expiry (hours)	The expiry given to a reservation created with an empty Expires At. A value of 0 is saved as 24.
Enable stock reservations	No effect. The screen is available either way.
Auto-release expired reservations	No effect. Expired holds must be released by hand.

Troubleshooting

"Please select a product or variant."

You clicked Create Reservation without choosing a Product.

"Some details need fixing. Check the highlighted fields and try again." when you create a reservation

Usually the quantity is more than what is available: the stock on hand in that warehouse minus what other active reservations hold. Open the product under Inventory > Products and check Available under Stock by Warehouse. Other causes: the expiry is not in the future, or the warehouse is inactive.

"Cannot consume more than remaining quantity"

The Quantity to Consume is higher than what the reservation has left. The maximum is shown under the box.

"Only active or partially consumed reservations can be released."

The reservation is already released, consumed or cancelled. Nothing is on hold, so there is nothing to release.

Documentation