How to Remove Inventory from a Tote

Sometimes a picked order cannot complete the fulfillment process. Common causes include an address issue, unavailable products, or an interrupted batch. Check whether an interrupted batch can be resumed before clearing its totes. When a partially picked order needs to be picked again, return its inventory to a picking location.

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
• How Multi-Item Batch and Single Item Batch Picking Respond to an Interruption
• 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.

How Multi-Item Batch and Single Item Batch Picking Respond to an Interruption

Multi-Item Batch (MIB) and Single Item Batch (SIB) interruptions have different resume behavior. MIB batches can be resumed only with mobile app version 2.15.19 or later and the new MIB picking interface. To resume, the picker who started the batch must reopen the app on the same device. Before resuming, the app checks that the batch is still valid. If its orders have already been picked or its picking locks were cleared, the app discards the saved batch. Contact ShipHero Support to enable the new interface. An interrupted SIB batch cannot be resumed. After resolving the device or network issue, start a new SIB batch.

If you cannot resume an interrupted batch, go to the Totes page and check Pick History for each tote used in the batch. For steps on searching by tote and reading the Quantity Picked and Scan Status columns, see Overview: Totes Page 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.