Record COA results

Filing a supplier's Certificate of Analysis proves you hold the paperwork. Entering its numbers proves the batch actually met your standard — and it's the step that decides whether the stock stays sellable.

Each value you type is compared against the product's Quality Spec immediately, so you can see a failure before you commit to it.

Before you begin

• The product needs a Quality Spec. Without one there is nothing to judge against, and the lot reads as No specification.
• The certificate should already be filed against the lot — see File documents on a lot. Results are linked to the certificate they came from, so an auditor can get from a number back to the document that reported it.
• You need permission to manage quality data.

Steps

1. Open the lot and go to the Documents tab. You can get there from the product's Lots & Expiry tab, or by searching the batch number in Compliance Documents.

2. On the Certificate of Analysis row, click Enter results.

   The dialog opens with one row per analyte on the product's Quality Spec, already showing each Method and Spec limit. You don't type the limits — you only fill in what the lab reported.

3. Enter each Result as it appears on the certificate.

   The Status column updates as you type: Pass for a value inside its limit, Fail for one outside it. You'll see a failure the moment you enter it, not after saving.

4. Read the notice at the bottom of the dialog before saving. If any value is out of spec, it says exactly what saving will do — quarantine the lot, and remove its available stock from available-to-promise.

5. Click Save & evaluate.

The lot now carries its verdict, and if anything failed, its quarantine is already in force.

Leaving an analyte blank

You can save a partial set. A required analyte with no result makes the lot COA incomplete — visibly unfinished, but still sellable. Come back and fill in the rest when the lab sends it, and the verdict updates.

An incomplete lot is deliberately not quarantined. The reasoning is in How the release gate works.

When a result fails

Saving an out-of-spec result quarantines the lot immediately:

• The lot shows a Quarantined chip and a banner linking to the hold it created.
• Its available stock goes onto a quality-control stock hold, out of available-to-promise, so it can't be allocated or shipped.
• Nothing is written off and no stock moves. The units sit where they are.

If a retest clears the batch, open the results again, correct the value, and save. The verdict flips back to COA passed and the quarantine is released automatically.

caution

Releasing only happens for the hold this gate placed. If the same lot is also held for another reason — near expiry, damage, a recall, or a hold somebody placed by hand — that one stays until a person releases it. A clean COA is not evidence that an unrelated problem went away.

Recording your own identity check

A supplier's certificate is the supplier's claim about the material. In regulated production that isn't sufficient on its own — 21 CFR 111.75 expects you to verify the identity of an incoming component yourself, by your own test or examination.

SKU.io keeps the two facts separate, and shows them as separate chips on the lot: Supplier COA on file, and Receiving verification recorded.

To record yours, click the Receiving verification chip on the lot's Documents tab, describe the method you used (an instrument scan, an organoleptic check, a send-out to a third-party lab), add any notes, and click Record.

It's always an explicit act. SKU.io never infers that you verified a lot because a certificate exists for it.

Next steps

• How the release gate works — the four verdicts and what each does
• Hold reserve samples — retaining physical samples of the batch
• Place a stock hold — holding stock for a reason the gate doesn't cover

Video transcript

A supplier's certificate arrived with this batch, and it is already on file. Holding the paperwork is one thing. The numbers on it are what prove the batch met specification.

Notice these are two different chips. A supplier's certificate is their claim about the material. Your own identity check is a separate act, and the rule expects both.

Open the results. Every analyte on the product's quality spec is already listed with its method and its limit, so you only type what the lab reported. Each value is judged as it lands.

Every result is inside its limit. The lot passes, nothing happens to the stock, and the certificate, the values and your verification all sit together on the batch.

Now a batch of a different product, where one value came back high. Type that value in, and the status flips to fail immediately, before you have committed to anything.

The consequence is spelled out before you save. One result out of specification, and saving will quarantine this lot, taking its available stock out of available-to-promise.

Save, and the stock comes off sale. Not a flag on a screen — a real quality-control hold against the batch, so those units cannot be allocated or shipped. A corrected value later lifts the quarantine.