Getting Started
Your first batch
Producing your first batch end to end: starting it, working the floor, recording output, quality review and releasing finished goods.
A batch is one production run of a product, recorded against an approved recipe. Your first batch is where Crown's pieces come together: the recipe drives the run, the ingredient lots you received get used up, and the finished goods come out the other end with a complete traceability record. This article takes one batch of Habanero Hot Honey from start to release, one screen per step, and links to the full article for each.
Before you start
Approve a recipe. You can only start a batch for a product with an approved recipe version. If yours is still a draft, approve it first. See Your first recipe.
Start the batch
Open Batches, select New batch and pick the product. Choose Full batch, check the ingredient list against what you have on hand, and select Start batch. Crown uses the product's latest approved recipe and opens the batch in progress.
More in Starting a batch.
Work through the stages
The batch opens on its first stage. Work down each stage's items:
- Task: select Done when it's finished.
- Ingredient: select Select lot, pick the lot you're using (Crown suggests the one that expires first) and record the quantity.
- Measurement: enter the reading, such as pH or fill temperature. Crown checks it against the recipe's range as you type.
Crown stamps who recorded each item and when. When a stage's items are done, move to the next stage in the list on the left.
More in Recording production steps.
Record what you made
When every stage is complete, select Enter yield & complete. Confirm the packaging date, enter the total yield if you measured it, and enter how many of each SKU you filled. Select Mark production complete.
Crown assigns the lot code, turns your counts into finished-good lots and sets each lot's expiry from the product's shelf life. The lots appear in the batch's Output section on hold: recorded, but not yet available to ship.
More in Packaging and fill records.
Review quality
Select Start internal QC. The batch now waits on your quality decision, and you choose how it clears:
- Send to lab: create a lab test. When the results are in and finalized, Crown offers Release batch, Release with deviation or Reject batch to match them. See Lab testing a batch.
- Release (no lab): release straight from internal QC when the batch needs no lab testing.
Release the batch
Select Release (no lab), or Release batch once a lab test has passed. Release can't be undone, so Crown asks you to confirm first. Once you do, the finished-good lots become available to sell and ship, except a lot you've put on hold yourself.
More in Releasing a batch.
A lighter option: quick batch
If you're logging a run that already happened, doing R&D, or reworking product, choose Quick batch instead of Full batch. It skips the stage-by-stage floor and captures the essentials (lots, any critical control point readings, packaging and yield) on a single form. Full batches build the complete monitoring record and are the normal choice for routine production.
What's next
- Logging a deviation: what to record when something goes off-spec along the way.
- How lot traceability works: following a released lot back to its ingredients or forward to its customers.