Managing recipe versions

Every recipe in Crown is a series of versions of a product. You don't edit one recipe over time; you approve a version, produce against it, and create a new version when the recipe changes. This keeps each batch's record tied to exactly what was in effect when you made it, even as the recipe evolves.

Recipe version states

A recipe version is in one of three states:

• Draft: fully editable. You can change ingredients, stages, quantities, and yield freely. A draft can't be produced against.
• Approved: locked and read-only. Approving a version with your e-signature makes it eligible for production. You can't edit an approved version.
• Archived: a retired version. Crown hides archived versions from the recipe list by default (a "Show archived" toggle reveals them) and doesn't use them for new batches. Archive a version to retire one you no longer produce against. Archiving isn't permanent: open an archived version and select Restore to bring it back. It returns as a draft, whatever it was before it was archived, so a version that was previously approved needs approving again before you can produce against it. That re-approval is signed and recorded like any other, which is what gives you a clean account of why a retired recipe came back into use.

When you start a batch, Crown uses the product's latest approved version. Drafts and archived versions never appear in the batch picker.

Revising an approved recipe

Because approved versions are locked, you revise a recipe by creating a new one.

1. Select Edit as new version

   Open the approved recipe and select Edit as new version, the highlighted button in the top right. Crown copies the recipe into a new draft as the next version number, carrying over every ingredient, stage, and piece of assigned equipment, then opens that draft for you.

2. Make your changes

   Edit the new draft: adjust quantities, add or remove stages, update measurements. The approved version it came from is untouched.

3. Approve the new version

   When the revision is correct, approve it with your e-signature. New batches now use this version automatically.

Duplicate sits next to it and does the same copying, but leaves you on the version you were already looking at. Reach for Edit as new version when you mean to revise this recipe now, and Duplicate when you just want a copy to come back to. A draft and an archived version both offer Duplicate too, so you can branch from any version, not only the approved one.

Crown QMSApproving a New Version: e-Signature Required

Why versioning matters for traceability

When an inspector or a customer asks what went into a batch from three months ago, the answer has to reflect the recipe as it was then, not as it is now. Because each batch references a specific version, Crown can always show the exact ingredients, quantities, and process steps that batch actually used.

Seeing what changed on a version

Every version carries its own change history. Open the version and expand Audit trail in the right-hand column to see each edit in order: who made it, when, and which fields moved. It covers the version's own details along with the stages and steps inside it, so a quantity change on step four shows up here rather than being buried where nobody would look for it.

This is the record to reach for when someone asks why two versions differ, or when you want to confirm a draft was finished before it was approved. It is read-only and can't be edited or cleared, which is exactly what makes it worth citing in an audit.

What's next

Recipe yield is part of every version. See Understanding yield for how Crown compares each batch's output to the recipe's target.