Pool quantities and what counts as available
The seven numbers OnTote tracks per pool, and why available is not simply total minus what is out.
Every pool carries a running balance, split across seven numbers. Each tote in the pool sits in exactly one of them.
- Total: everything you own in this pool, in every state.
- Available: free to promise right now.
- Held: blocked by a live hold that hasn't been confirmed or released.
- Booked: committed to a confirmed order that hasn't gone out yet.
- Out: physically with a customer.
- Damaged: back in your possession but not rentable.
- Lost: unaccounted for.
Why available is not total minus out
Held and booked totes are still sitting in your yard. You can see them, count them, and touch them, and you must not promise them to anyone else. Available is the only number that answers "can I say yes to this customer," which is why it's the one availability checks read.
Damaged and lost matter for the same reason in reverse: they're missing from your rentable capacity even though nobody has them on rent.
Availability is per window, not just per pool
The balances above are the current picture. When you check an order, OnTote works out what's free across that order's date window, taking into account every other hold and booking that overlaps it. That's the Available number the order's Availability panel shows, and it's usually different from the pool's headline available count.
A pool can be fully available today and completely spoken for the week of the 14th.
Where the numbers move
Every state change is written to a ledger, an append-only record of what moved, when, and why. That's what makes the balances reconcile rather than drift, and it's what you're reading when you look at a tote's history.
The scan actions are the main way totes change state day to day: scanning totes out, checking them back in, and flagging damage or loss.
Reading them in the app
The Inventory screen lists individual totes with their status chip, grouped by location. For the per-pool rollup against a specific date window, open any order and read the Availability panel. See What availability and confidence mean.
Updated August 4, 2026
Didn't answer it?
Send us the question and you'll hear back in a business day or two, usually the same day. A real person reads every one.
Contact support