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Set a product quality spec

A Quality Spec is the list of acceptance limits a lot of this product has to meet — the analytes you test, the method used, and the limit each result must fall inside. Once a spec exists, every Certificate of Analysis you enter against a lot of that product is judged against it automatically, and a lot that fails is quarantined.

Set the spec once per product. You do it before you start entering results, because results have nothing to be measured against until it exists.

note

A Quality Spec is not the same thing as Attributes. Attributes describe the product for listings and customers — colour, size, material. A Quality Spec is the internal standard a batch is tested against, and nobody outside your quality process ever sees it.

Before you begin​

  • The product must be lot tracked. A spec judges batches, so a product with no batches has nothing to judge. Turn it on first — see Set up lot and expiration tracking.
  • You need permission to manage quality data. This is separate from permission to adjust stock: a reviewer who files certificates does not need the ability to change inventory.
  • Have the specification you're working from to hand — usually your own finished-goods standard, or the one written into your supplier agreement.

Steps​

  1. Open the product, then go to the Quality Spec tab.

  2. Click Add analyte. A row appears.

  3. Fill in the row:

    • Analyte — the thing being measured, exactly as your lab reports it (for example Lead, Total Plate Count, pH). Match your lab's wording; results are matched to spec rows by this name.
    • Method — the test method, such as ICP-MS or AOAC 990.12. Optional, but it's what tells a reader whether two labs' numbers are comparable.
    • Acceptance limit — a minimum, a maximum, or both. A maximum alone reads as ≤ 1000; a pair reads as a range like 4 – 4.6.
    • Unit — CFU/g, ppm, %, whatever the result is reported in.
    • Required — leave this on for analytes that must have a result before the lot counts as fully tested.

  4. Repeat for each analyte. If your industry uses a standard set of tests, click Browse standard panels and start from one instead of typing every row.

  5. Click Save quality spec.

The tab header now shows how many analytes the spec contains, and the spec is live — the next Certificate of Analysis entered on a lot of this product will be judged against it.

Required vs optional analytes​

The Required switch decides what "finished" means for a lot, and it's worth being deliberate about.

  • A required analyte with no result makes the lot read as COA incomplete. The lot stays sellable — an unfinished data-entry job is not a quality failure — but it's visibly not done.
  • An optional analyte can be left blank forever without affecting the verdict. Use it for values you like to capture but don't gate on, such as moisture on a product where it's informational.

Either way, a value that is entered is judged. Optional means it can be left blank — not that it escapes the limit. An optional analyte with a result outside its limit still fails the lot.

Changing a spec later​

You can edit limits at any time. Before you do, read the notice on the tab — it tells you how many lots have already been judged under the current spec.

Changing a limit does not re-judge those lots. They keep the verdicts they were given, because each result stored the limit it was measured against at the time. Your new limit applies to results entered from that point on.

That's deliberate, and it's explained in How the release gate works. The short version: if tightening a limit silently re-judged history, a batch you released and shipped months ago could turn red on a screen today, and you'd have no way to tell whether it was ever genuinely out of spec at the moment you made the call.

Next steps​

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