What holds do and when they expire

A hold is the middle ground between "maybe" and "yes." It blocks the totes so nobody else can promise them, without committing the order.

Placing a hold

Open a saved order and find the Availability section. While the order is a Draft and confidence is not Conflict, you'll see a Place Hold button. Click it and the order moves to Held.

Holds placed from the dashboard last 24 hours. The panel shows a countdown next to the status ("Expires in 6h 20m") and the Orders list has a Hold Expires column so you can see what's about to lapse without opening anything.

Holds from storefront checkout

When a customer starts checkout on your storefront, OnTote places a hold on their behalf before sending them to Stripe. That hold lasts 30 minutes, matching the Stripe Checkout session window.

The short window is on purpose: an abandoned cart shouldn't sit on your inventory for a day. If the customer pays, the hold becomes a confirmed booking. If they don't, it lapses and the totes go back to available.

Releasing a hold

On a Held order, the Availability panel shows Release Hold. Click it and the order returns to Draft, the inventory frees immediately, and the draft fields unlock for editing.

Release a hold when the customer goes quiet, when you need the totes for a firmer order, or when you need to change something the held state has locked.

When a hold expires

Availability ignores expired holds straight away. The totes count as available again from the moment the clock runs out, whether or not anything has tidied up the record.

Automatic release of stale holds is on the roadmap rather than shipped, so an expired hold can still show as Held on the order until someone releases it. The inventory is already free; the label is what lags.

Holds vs bookings

A hold is temporary and reversible. A Booked order is operational truth, and dispatch, delivery, and billing all treat it as an obligation. Confirm the booking when the customer has actually committed, not before. See Creating and editing a booking.