How to Remove Inventory from a Tote

Sometimes an order that has been picked can't complete the fulfillment process. Common causes include an address issue, unavailable products, or a picking device that loses power or network connection mid-batch. When this happens, the inventory already picked to a tote needs to go back to the picking racks so other orders can be processed.

As a best practice, we recommend using the Hospital flow to identify troubled totes and creating a location designated for the inventory that needs to be returned to the floor. This location can be pickable if you want pickers to be able to pick from it throughout the day, or set up as a non-pickable transfer location to be used with the Putaway flow.

Table of Contents

• Clearing Totes with Partially Picked Orders
• Batch Picking Interrupted by a Dead Device or Lost Connection
• How to Handle Common Issues While Trying to Clear Totes

Clearing Totes with Partially Picked Orders

Where there are several options to clear a tote, the best method is to transfer inventory from the tote to a designated location. You can do this from the web dashboard or the ShipHero mobile app.

Transferring Inventory from a Tote on the Web Dashboard

1. Open the Orders > Totes page.
2. Scan the tote with products that need to be put away. (The page will display the tote and the items currently assigned to it.)
3. Scan the location where the products will be transferred to or click Transfer at the top of the screen.
4. To complete the transfer, scan the location a second time or select the location in the pop-up window and click the Transfer button.

Totes Page: Scan a Tote	Transfer Module

Transferring Inventory from a Tote on the Mobile App

1. Go to Inventory > Tote to Location on the ShipHero mobile app.
2. Scan the tote.
3. Scan the destination location.
4. Scan the tote again to confirm the transfer.

Scan Tote	Scan Location	Re-scan Tote	Confirmation Page

Other Ways to Clear a Tote

Using the Empty Tote button on an order's details page or the Clear button on the Totes page re-adds the inventory back to the location it was picked from, but neither one confirms that your team physically moved the inventory back to that location. This can lead to inventory errors and missing products. Transferring inventory from a tote to a location is the most efficient and accurate way to return inventory to the floor from a troubled tote.

Batch Picking Interrupted by a Dead Device or Lost Connection

Multi-Item Batch (MIB) and Single Item Batch (SIB) picking run on the ShipHero mobile app. If a picker's device loses power or the app loses its network connection in the middle of a batch, the batch itself cannot be resumed. The picker has to start a new batch after the issue is resolved.

To see what happened to the orders in an interrupted batch, go to the Totes page and check the Pick History for each tote used in that batch. For steps on searching by tote and reading the Quantity Picked and Scan Status columns, see Overview: Using Totes in ShipHero.

• If an order was fully picked before the interruption, no action is needed. Continue the normal packing process.
• If an order was only partially picked, clear the inventory from the tote using one of the tote transfer methods. This makes the order available to be picked again in a new batch.

How to Handle Common Issues While Trying to Clear Totes

Handling Totes with Missing/Deleted SKUs

If a tote contains a product SKU that no longer exists in the system:

1. Put the order on hold temporarily.
2. Recreate the deleted SKU in your system.
3. Clear the tote contents from the order.
4. Delete the recreated SKU if needed.
5. Resume processing the order.

Clearing Totes with Warehouse Location Issues

If a tote cannot be cleared due to warehouse location mismatches:

1. Verify that the location exists in the correct warehouse.
2. Check if the location was moved between warehouses.
3. Recreate the location in the original warehouse if needed.
4. Transfer inventory to the correct warehouse location.