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Batchlane’s inventory ledger replaces the shared spreadsheet your team has been patching together with a live, lot-level view of every ingredient, packaging material, and finished good in your facility. Instead of asking “how much do we have?” and getting a vague number, you see exactly which lots are available, when they expire, what they cost, and whether their COAs are on file — before you schedule a single production run.

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What the ledger shows

Every row in the inventory ledger represents one lot. The columns give you the information that matters at a glance:
ColumnWhat it tells you
ItemThe ingredient, packaging component, or finished good name
Lot NumberThe supplier lot number or internally assigned lot ID
QuantityCurrent on-hand balance, updated after every movement
UnitUnit of measure (lb, kg, oz, each, case, etc.)
ExpiryBest-by or use-by date entered at receiving
LocationWarehouse, room, or bin where the lot is stored
COA StatusWhether the certificate of analysis is Missing, Uploaded, Reviewed, or Linked
Last MovementDate and type of the most recent transaction against this lot
Operators can check what is actually available before scheduling production. QA can spot missing COAs before an audit. Bookkeepers get cleaner inventory valuation because costs are entered when a lot is received, not estimated after the fact.

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Lot movements

Every time a lot changes — received from a supplier, consumed in a production run, shipped to a customer, or manually adjusted — Batchlane records a movement entry. Open any lot to see its complete movement history:
  • Receive — quantity added when a purchase order lot is received
  • Consume — quantity deducted when the lot is used in a batch run
  • Ship — quantity deducted when the lot (finished good) is allocated to a customer shipment
  • Adjust — manual correction with a reason code and user attribution
The movement log is append-only. Nothing is silently deleted or overwritten, so you always have a clean audit trail of how a lot was used from the moment it arrived to the moment it was gone.

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Document queue

Attach COA documents — PDFs, images, or scanned files — directly to a lot record at receiving or any time afterward. Batchlane tracks the status of each document so your team always knows where things stand:
  • Missing — no document has been attached yet
  • Uploaded — a file is attached but has not been reviewed
  • Reviewed — QA has opened and confirmed the document
  • Linked — the COA has been associated with the specific lot and is ready for audit
QA can filter the ledger to show only lots with a Missing or Uploaded status and work through the queue before an audit window.
The full document queue — bulk status management, reviewer assignment, and audit-ready COA exports — is available on the Growth and Pro plans. On the Free plan, you can attach files to lots and see their status, but the queue management tools are not included.

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Multi-location inventory

If your operation runs across multiple warehouses, production rooms, or storage areas, you can assign each lot to a specific location at receiving or when you move it. The inventory ledger can be filtered by location so your team only sees the stock that is relevant to where they are working. Common location setups include separate entries for a dry goods room, a refrigerated room, a freezer, a finished goods warehouse, and a staging area. Each lot lives in one location at a time. When you move it, record a transfer and the location updates automatically.
Multi-location inventory is available on the Pro plan. On Free and Growth plans, the ledger supports a single location view.

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Inventory adjustments

When a physical count reveals a discrepancy, a sample is pulled for quality testing, or a lot is spoiled and needs to be written off, use an inventory adjustment. Every adjustment requires:
  1. The lot being adjusted
  2. The new quantity (or the quantity change)
  3. A reason code — choose from options like Physical count correction, QC sample, Spoilage, Damaged, or Other
  4. An optional notes field for additional context
Adjustments are recorded as a movement entry with your user name and a timestamp. You cannot delete an adjustment after it is saved — if you made a mistake, create a correcting adjustment and note the reason. This keeps your ledger history honest and auditable.

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Exporting inventory

Export the full inventory ledger as a CSV at any time. The export includes every column visible in the ledger — item, lot number, quantity, unit, expiry, location, COA status, cost, and last movement — so you can use it for external reporting, share it with a food safety auditor, or load it into your own analysis tools. To export, go to Inventory → Ledger and click Export CSV in the top-right corner. You can export the full ledger or apply filters first (by location, expiry window, item category, or COA status) to export only the subset you need.