Stock take freezes
A stock take is only accurate if the numbers on the sheet are still true when they are entered. A stock take freeze locks stock movement across your brewery while you count, so nothing shifts underneath you between starting the count and submitting it.
What a freeze locks
While a freeze is in place, stock cannot be:
- moved between sites or locations
- packaged or racked
- dispatched
- assigned to deliveries
- received in through ingredient goods-in
- used up through stock item usage
The freeze covers all of your stock, including anything you have chosen not to count. That is deliberate: a count of your kegs is no more trustworthy if your cans moved while you were counting.
What a freeze doesn't lock
Orders and invoices are unaffected. Your sales team can carry on raising orders and invoicing as normal throughout. Placing an order only affects the available quantity of an item, not the actual quantity you have, so it doesn't disturb the count. Only the stock movement waits.
Ordinary admin work carries on too, so you can still rename a location or edit a site while a freeze is running.
Starting a freeze
There are two ways in:
- Tick Start a stock take freeze when you start a stock take. The freeze begins as soon as the stock take does.
- Press Start stock take freeze at the top of the stock takes list, or of any stock take.
Both need the Conduct stock takes permission. If you don't have it, the option isn't shown.
Only one freeze runs at a time, and it covers the whole brewery. If a freeze is already in place, Breww will tell you rather than starting a second one.
While a freeze is running
Every page in Breww carries a banner, so nobody has to guess why an action won't go through.
Anyone who tries to move stock is told that a freeze is active and pointed at the stock takes page to have it ended.
Work that Breww would normally do for you in the background, such as automatically assigning stock to deliveries, waits rather than fails. It picks up on its own once the freeze ends, so there is nothing to re-run afterwards.
Ending a freeze
Press End stock take freeze at the top of the stock takes list, or of any stock take. It also needs the Conduct stock takes permission.
A freeze isn't tied to a particular stock take, so ending one is always a deliberate act rather than something that happens when a count finishes. If a stock take is still in progress, Breww will point that out before ending it, since letting stock move again before it has been counted is what a freeze exists to prevent.
Note: End the freeze once your count is submitted and confirmed. Stock cannot move anywhere in your brewery until you do.
Do I have to use one?
No. A freeze is the most reliable way to hold everything still, but it isn't compulsory. Breww always updates your stock to match your count at the point you submit it, so as long as your count reflects any changes made in the meantime, the result will still be correct.
The risk without one is that stock you didn't touch, because it was already right, no longer matches your live stock by the time you submit - and Breww will read that as a change you meant to make. For a wall-to-wall count, a freeze removes that risk entirely.