Quarantine

How quarantine works

Quarantined stock still counts as inventory you own, but it is excluded from what you can promise to customers. It cannot be allocated to orders, so it never appears on a pick list.

For example, 20 cartons of lot LOT-0826 of a face serum arrive and need a quality check before sale. They are received into quarantine. After inspection, 18 cartons are released to available and two are moved to damaged. Every step is recorded, so you can show who released the stock and when.

When to use quarantine

Quarantine is useful whenever stock must be checked before anyone can ship it.

• Receiving goods that need inspection, such as food, cosmetics or supplements.
• Returns that have not been graded yet.
• Stock found in the wrong place during a count, until the variance is resolved.
• A shipment from a supplier with a known quality problem.

Quarantine vs hold vs damaged

These statuses are easy to confuse. Quarantine usually means "not yet cleared": stock waiting for a check. An inventory hold means "stop, something may be wrong": stock that was available and has been blocked because of an issue, such as a suspected bad lot. Damaged means the goods are known to be unsellable and are waiting for disposal, repair or return to the supplier.

A common mistake is to use a physical quarantine area but not a system status. Someone can then pick the stock from the record, even though it sits behind tape. The status in the system is what actually protects the order.

How NextStock handles quarantine

NextStock treats stock status as part of the stock record, alongside location, lot and LPN. Receiving can send goods straight to quarantine, and moving stock between available, quarantine, damaged and hold is a recorded status change. Quarantined stock is never allocated. See holds and recalls and receiving and putaway.