Think of an Allocation Hold as a temporary "pause" placed on specific inventory — while it's on hold, those units can't be used, picked, or shipped. When Packiyo puts an allocation hold on inventory, it marks the affected units as unavailable. Orders and warehouse staff can't touch them until the hold is removed.

Why it's used: to prevent mistakes or losses while you're waiting on something — payment or credit issues, quality/inspection checks, suspected damage, a customer request, or missing paperwork, for example.

Practical effect: held items are excluded from available stock. They won't be picked for other orders, and they'll show up in reports or the UI as "on hold."

👉 Example: A customer orders 10 widgets, but payment hasn't cleared. Packiyo places those 10 widgets on an allocation hold so no one else can ship them. Once payment clears, the hold is released and the items become available for packing.

Without Allocation Hold

• All new orders have allocation hold disabled by default.
• The system automatically allocates available inventory.
• Allocated items become "ready to pick."
• Items move into the picking/packing workflow.

With Allocation Hold Enabled

1. Order is created with items marked as "pending."
2. Even if inventory is available, allocation is skipped.
3. Items remain in "pending" state until the hold is removed.
4. Any already-allocated inventory is released back to available stock.

Add or Remove an Allocation Hold

Individual Order

1. Navigate to the order detail page and go to the Order Holds section.
2. Check Allocation hold to pause allocation, then click Save or Update.
3. To remove the hold, uncheck Allocation hold and click Save — the system will immediately attempt to allocate inventory.

Bulk Edit (Multiple Orders)

1. Go to the Orders list view and select the orders you want to hold.
2. Click Bulk Edit, and under Add order holds, select Allocation hold, then Apply.
3. To remove the hold from multiple orders, select them, choose Bulk Edit, and under Remove order holds select Allocation hold (or Remove all holds). Apply to start allocation for available items.

Automations

You can configure automations to apply or remove allocation holds based on order conditions. Create a new automation in Settings → Automations:

1. Select a trigger, such as Order created or Tag added.
2. Add the action Set allocation hold or Remove allocation hold.
3. Enable the automation to run automatically.

Key Behaviors

1. Enabling an allocation hold releases any allocated inventory, keeps items pending, and excludes the order from allocation cycles and picking.
2. Disabling an allocation hold triggers allocation immediately. If stock is available, items move to allocated; if not, they remain pending (backorder).

Viewing Allocation Hold Status

1. Hold status appears on the order detail page, in the Settings/Holds section.
2. The Orders list can show a hold status column, if configured.
3. Order and inventory reports can filter or display orders on hold.
4. The audit trail logs all hold changes with timestamp and user.

Common Use Cases

Allocation Holds are often useful when:

1. Waiting for customer verification.
2. Waiting for stock arrival.
3. Applying bulk holds for promotions.
4. Automatically holding orders that require manual review, based on source or marketplace.

Best Practices

⏱️ Use Allocation Hold for temporary situations, and add an order note explaining why the hold was applied.

🔍 Review orders on hold regularly to make sure they're not forgotten.

⚠️ Avoid leaving holds in place indefinitely — cancel orders that won't be fulfilled instead of using a hold.

❌ Don't apply Allocation Hold to orders that are already ready to pick — use Operator Hold instead to pause all fulfillment operations.