Video walkthrough: Reserving inventory on sales orders
Watch this video to see how to reserve inventory labels on a sales order and how to unreserve them when needed.
ℹ️ Note: This feature works at the label level and is only available for serialized items. Make sure the sales order includes at least one serialized item before reserving inventory.
Step 1: Reserve inventory
Follow these steps to assign specific labels to a line item on a sales order.
Navigate to Sales orders in the left side panel.
Open a new or existing sales order that includes at least one serialized item.
Find the serialized line item you want to reserve inventory for. Click the three-dot menu
On that line item, select Reserve inventory.
The Reserve label modal will open, showing all available labels for that item — including the label number, creation date, location, bin, and available quantity.
Select one or more labels using the checkboxes, then click Reserve selected.
You will see a confirmation message once the labels are successfully reserved. The reserved labels will appear in the Reserved labels column for that line item.
✅ Best practice: Reserve inventory as early in the order flow as possible to prevent the same labels from being allocated to other orders.
Step 2: Unreserve inventory
If the order changes or you need to make a label available again, you can unreserve it at any time.
On the sales order, locate the Reserved labels column for the relevant line item.
Click the X icon on the label tag you want to release.
A confirmation dialog will appear. Click Unreserve label to confirm.
Once the label has been unreserved, its status will return to Active. To confirm, navigate to the Inventory page and open the Serialized tab — locate the label and verify that its status shows as Active in the table.
⚠️ Important: When a label is reserved, the entire label quantity is set aside regardless of the line item quantity on the order. The label remains Reserved until either the order is shipped, at which point any remaining inventory automatically becomes Active, or you manually unreserve it on the SO.
FAQ
Why can't I ship a label that is reserved?
Why can't I ship a label that is reserved?
Reserved labels are set aside for a specific sales order and cannot be shipped until they are unreserved. To ship the label, you will first need to unreserve it from the sales order that has it reserved.
How do I find which sales order a label is reserved on?
How do I find which sales order a label is reserved on?
Navigate to Inventory and open the Serialized tab. Locate the label and click on it to open the label details modal. From there, you will be able to see which sales order it is currently reserved on. Once identified, you can either open that sales order and manually unreserve the label from the Reserved labels column or fulfill and ship the order, which will unlock any remaining inventory left on that label.
Result
Your inventory labels are now reserved against the sales order, giving your team full confidence that the right stock is allocated and protected throughout the order fulfillment process.