Transfer approvals

Breww supports transfer approvals to help you maintain quality control when moving batches between vessels. Transfer approvals allow you to record measurements and checks before and after transfers, ensuring your beer meets quality standards throughout the production process.

What are transfer approvals?

Transfer approvals are quality control checkpoints that can be completed when transferring batches between vessels. There are two types:

• Pre-transfer approvals — completed before a transfer is permitted, ensuring the beer meets your quality standards before moving to a new vessel

• Post-transfer approvals — completed after a transfer has taken place, allowing you to record post-transfer checks and measurements

Both types use approval templates, which define the measurements and checks that need to be recorded. This is similar to how packaging approvals work, but applied to vessel transfers instead.

Setting up transfer approval templates

Before you can use transfer approvals, you need to create approval templates that define what measurements and checks should be recorded.

Creating a transfer approval template

1. Navigate to Production -> View -> Beers/drinks -> Approvals
2. You will see separate sections for different approval types. Select either Pre-transfer approval templates or Post-transfer approval templates
3. Click New template
4. Choose how to create your template:
   • Create blank — start with an empty template
   • Duplicate existing — copy an existing template as a starting point
   • Use existing — link to an existing template without creating a new one
5. Enter a Name for your template
6. Click Save to create the template

Adding lines to a template

Once you have created a template, you can add measurement and check lines:

1. Open the template detail page
2. Click Add line
3. Configure the line:
   • Name — what is being measured or checked (e.g., "pH", "Temperature", "Visual clarity check")
   • Field type — choose from numeric, boolean (yes/no), or text
   • Target value — the expected or ideal value
   • Acceptable range — for numeric fields, define the acceptable minimum and maximum values
4. Click Save

You can add as many lines as needed to capture all your required quality checks.

Configuring transfer approval settings

Transfer approval behaviour is configured in your Production settings. Navigate to Settings -> Production settings -> General production settings and scroll to the Transfer approvals section.

Pre-transfer approvals

Choose how pre-transfer approvals should work:

• Always require — a pre-transfer approval must be completed and approved before any transfer can proceed. Each approval can only be used for one transfer.

• Always require (but can reuse/share) — a pre-transfer approval must be completed, but the same approved instance can be linked to multiple transfers from the same batch. This is useful when you perform one quality check that covers several subsequent transfers.

• Can optionally be done — pre-transfer approvals are available but not mandatory. You can choose whether to link an approval when performing a transfer.

• Never do — pre-transfer approvals are disabled and the option will not appear during transfers.

Default pre-transfer approval template

If you have selected a mode other than "Never do", you can choose a default template. This template will be pre-selected when creating new pre-transfer approvals, saving time if you typically use the same template.

Post-transfer approvals

Choose how post-transfer approvals should work:

• Always require — a post-transfer approval is automatically created after each transfer and must be completed. Each approval is specific to one transfer.

• Always require (but can reuse/share) — a post-transfer approval is required, but you can choose to reuse an existing approved post-transfer approval from the same batch instead of completing a new one. This is useful when multiple transfers have the same post-transfer quality characteristics.

• Can optionally be done — post-transfer approvals are available but not mandatory. You can choose whether to select a template when performing a transfer.

• Never do — post-transfer approvals are disabled.

Default post-transfer approval template

If you have selected a mode other than "Never do", you can choose a default template that will be pre-selected when performing transfers.

Using transfer approvals when transferring

When you perform a transfer (either from the batch detail page via Actions -> Transfer between vessels, or from the production dashboard via Actions -> Transfer), the transfer wizard will include an approvals step if transfer approvals are enabled.

Pre-transfer approval step

If pre-transfer approvals are enabled, you will see the Transfer approvals step after selecting the source vessel:

1. Select an existing approval — if you have already created and approved a pre-transfer approval for this batch, you can select it from the dropdown. The dropdown shows the template name, approval date, and who approved it.

2. Create a new approval — if no suitable approval exists, click Create new pre-transfer approval to create one. This will open a modal where you can select a template. After creation, you'll need to complete and approve it before continuing with the transfer.

Post-transfer approval template selection

If post-transfer approvals are enabled, you will see a field to select a Post-transfer approval template. When the transfer is completed, Breww will automatically create a post-transfer approval instance from this template. You will be taken directly to the approval page to complete the required measurements.

Managing transfer approvals on the production dashboard

The production dashboard includes a Transfers tab that provides an overview of planned and completed transfers, along with their approval statuses.

Accessing the Transfers tab

1. Navigate to Production (the production dashboard)
2. Select a site if you have multiple brewing sites
3. Click the Transfers tab

Today's planned transfers

This section shows all planned vessel transfers for today, based on your batch vessel schedules. For each transfer, you can see:

• Batch — the batch gyle number
• Transfer vessels — the source and destination vessels
• Pre-transfer approval — the approval status (Approved, Pending, N/A, or Not yet)
• Post-transfer approval — the approval status
• Actions — buttons to view the batch or perform the transfer

The approval status badges indicate:

• Approved (green) — the approval has been completed and approved
• Pending (yellow) — an approval is required but not yet completed
• N/A (grey) — approvals are not configured for this type
• Not yet (grey) — the approval will be created after the action occurs (for post-transfer approvals on incomplete transfers)

Today's unplanned transfers

If any transfers have been completed today that weren't in the planned vessel schedule, they will appear in this section. This helps you track ad-hoc transfers and their approval statuses.

Tomorrow's planned transfers

A preview of transfers scheduled for tomorrow, allowing you to prepare any pre-transfer approvals in advance.

14-day transfer summary

A table showing the number of planned transfers and batches for each of the next 14 days, helping you plan your workload.

Action count badge

The Transfers tab shows a badge with a count of transfers requiring action today (incomplete transfers). This helps you quickly see if there are outstanding transfers to complete.

Viewing batch transfer approvals

You can view all transfer approvals for a specific batch from the batch detail page.

Accessing the transfer approvals list

1. Navigate to the batch detail page
2. Click Actions -> Approvals -> Transfer approvals

This page shows:

Orphaned pre-transfer approvals

If any pre-transfer approvals have been created but not yet linked to a transfer, they appear in this section. These might be approvals that were prepared in advance but the transfer hasn't happened yet. You can click to view and complete them.

Transfers and their approvals

A table showing all completed transfers for the batch, with columns for:

• Date — when the transfer occurred
• Description — details of the transfer (source vessel, destination vessel, volume)
• Pre-transfer approval — status and link to view the approval
• Post-transfer approval — status and link to view the approval

Completing a transfer approval

When you open a transfer approval (either pre-transfer or post-transfer), you can:

1. Record measurements — enter values for each line in the template. Numeric values are validated against the acceptable range.

2. Add notes — click the notes icon on any line to add additional comments or observations.

3. Mark as approved — once all required fields are completed and the values are within acceptable ranges, click Approve to mark the approval as complete.

Approval status indicators

Each line in an approval shows a status indicator:

• Green tick — the value has been entered and is within the acceptable range
• Yellow warning — the value is missing or hasn't been entered yet
• Red cross — the value has been entered but is outside the acceptable range

Reusing post-transfer approvals

If your settings allow reusing post-transfer approvals ("Always require (but can reuse/share)" mode), and you have an unapproved post-transfer approval on a batch that already has an approved one, you will see an option to Reuse an existing approval. This allows you to link the transfer to the existing approved approval instead of completing a new one.

Linking a pre-transfer approval to a transfer

If you have created a pre-transfer approval in advance and it has been approved, you can link it when performing the transfer:

1. From the approval detail page, click the Transfer button in the header actions
2. This will take you to the transfer wizard with the approval pre-selected
3. Complete the transfer as normal

Alternatively, select the approval from the dropdown during the transfer wizard's approval step.

Differences from packaging approvals

While transfer approvals work similarly to packaging approvals, there are some key differences:

• Not linked to beers/drinks — transfer approval templates are brewery-wide and not assigned to specific beers. The same templates apply to all transfers regardless of what beer is being transferred.

• No "required" vs "optional" distinction on templates — all transfer approval templates are treated as required when used. The optionality is controlled at the settings level (whether approvals are required at all).

• Per-transfer only — unlike packaging approvals which can be per-batch or per-planned-packaging, transfer approvals are always per-transfer.

• First transfer from brewing system excluded — the initial transfer from your brewing system to a fermenter does not require transfer approvals, as this is considered part of the brewing process rather than a vessel-to-vessel transfer.