How to Remove Inventory from a Tote

Ever had an order that has been picked but cannot complete the fulfillment process, perhaps due to an address issue or all of the products not being available? Regardless, the inventory picked to tote needs to be returned 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. 

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. 

How to Transfer Inventory From Totes

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.

   

   

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 will re-add the inventory back to the location it was picked from, but it does not ensure your team physically moved the inventory back to that location; this can lead to inventory errors and missing products. Using the inventory transfer method above from tote to location is the most efficient and accurate way of managing inventory that needs to be returned to the floor from troubled totes. 

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.