The app refused something

“Too many attempts. Wait fifteen minutes and try again, or ask an owner to send you a fresh invitation.”

Signing in, using a recovery code, or asking for a link, after several failures in a row.

After several failed attempts, these pause for fifteen minutes. The limit counts attempts from your internet address, and for a recovery code from the email address too, so codes can't be tried, or a list of addresses walked, quickly. It clears on its own, so there is nothing to unlock.

What to doWait fifteen minutes and try again. Your account isn't locked, and nothing has been recorded against it.

“Please sign in again. Your sign-in on this device has ended.”

The Fermata app, when its sign-in stops working.

The app's sign-in ends for the same reasons a browser's does: thirty days without use, signing out, getting back in with a recovery code or a link, or being removed from the winery's team. The server checks the sign-in on every request, so removing someone from the team takes effect right away. The app can't tell which of these happened, so it doesn't guess.

What to doSign in again with your passkey. If that doesn't work, ask an owner whether you are still on the team.

“This save is still being processed. Wait a moment and send it again. It will be recorded only once.”

The Fermata app, when you send a reading, a sample, a dose or another record again while the first try is still being processed.

On a weak signal, a phone can lose the server's answer even though the save went through. So that a reading or a dose is never recorded twice, the app gives each save a key and sends the same key when it tries again. The server then returns the first answer instead of saving a second copy. This message means the first try hasn't finished yet.

What to doWait a few seconds and send it again without changing anything. If the first try went through, you get its answer back and nothing is recorded twice.

“That key was already used for a different request, so this one wasn't saved. Each save needs its own key.”

A request to the Fermata app's API that reuses an Idempotency-Key sent earlier with a different request.

Each key belongs to one save. Sent again with the same request, the key returns the first answer instead of making a second record. Sent with a different request, the server can't tell which one you meant, so it saves nothing rather than guess; answering from the first request could quietly drop a changed figure. The Fermata app makes a new key whenever what it sends changes, so you only see this if you are writing your own client.

What to doSend it again with a new key. This request wasn't recorded.

“Something went wrong on the server partway through this save, so part of it may have been recorded. Check the record before you save again.”

The Fermata app, when a save fails on the server after it has begun writing.

Most saves happen in one step, but some don't. A journal entry, for example, is saved before its photos. If the server fails partway through, it can't tell which part was saved, and trying again could record that part twice. So the same save sent again gets this message back instead of another try. Saving again from the screen sends a new save, which does run.

What to doOpen the record (the lot, the journal or the vessel) and see what was saved. Save again only what is missing.

“That link is no longer valid. Links expire and work only once, so ask for a new one.”

Following a link to add a passkey, or an email verification link.

A link that worked more than once would be a way into the account sitting in an inbox. These links work once and expire quickly. The check happens at the same moment the link is used, so two browser tabs can't both use one link.

What to doAsk for another link from “Can't sign in?”. There is no limit on how many you can request.

“That account isn't on any winery's team yet. Ask an owner to add you.”

Signing in, or getting back in, with an account that belongs to no winery.

Everything in Fermata belongs to a winery, so an account on no team has nothing to open. It happens when an owner removed you, or when a winery you belonged to closed. Your account and your passkeys are still there.

What to doAsk an owner of the winery to invite you again. The invitation adds the winery back to your account.

“There's already an account for that address. Sign in instead, or choose “Can't sign in?” if you need help getting in.”

Creating an account.

One email address is one account, at every winery it works with, so a consultant has one sign-in for all their clients. The message is the same whether or not the account is yours, so the form can't be used to find out which addresses have accounts.

“Confirm it's you with one of your passkeys first, then try again.”

Settings → Passkeys: adding or removing a passkey, or making new recovery codes.

These change how you get into your account, so they ask for a passkey from the last few minutes, not only a signed-in browser. A browser left signed in on another person's computer then can't give itself a way back in, or take yours away. Signing in with a passkey counts, so you're asked once.

What to doPress “Confirm it's you” and use one of your passkeys. You then have a few minutes.

“Enter your email address.”

Asking for help getting back in.

What to do next goes to your own inbox, so the form needs the address your account uses. Nothing is shown on the page about whether that address has an account, which keeps the form from being used to find out who uses Fermata.

“If that address has a Fermata account, we've emailed it what to do next.”

After asking for help getting back in.

The page says the same thing for every address, so it can't be used to find out who uses Fermata. The email depends on the account. One with no passkey yet gets a link to add one. One with passkeys is never sent a link on the strength of the mailbox alone: an owner is asked to approve, and the email says a recovery code works without waiting.

What to doCheck your inbox, including the spam folder. If nothing arrives within a few minutes, try again.

“Enter your email address and one of your recovery codes.”

Using a recovery code.

A recovery code belongs to one account, so it's checked against the address it goes with. Neither is enough by itself, and the page says nothing about which one was wrong if the pair doesn't match.

“That code doesn't match that address, or it has been used. Check both and try again.”

Using a recovery code.

You see this for a wrong code, a used code and an address with no account. It's the same on purpose, so the form can't be used to find out which addresses have accounts. Each code works once, and trying many codes is slowed down after a few failures.

What to doCodes are grouped in fours, like ABCD-EFGH; capitals and the dash don't matter. If you have none left, choose “I don't have a code” to ask an owner to approve.

“That link has been used, or it has expired. Ask an administrator for a new one.”

Opening a link to add a passkey to a staff account.

An enrollment link opens a staff account that can see every winery, so it works once and for a day. Issuing a new one cancels any older link for the same account, so only the newest works. The check happens at the moment the link is opened, so two browser tabs can't both use it.

What to doAn administrator issues a new link from Staff accounts. The first administrator's comes from “npm run staff:enroll” on a machine that can reach the database.

“Those accounts get no enrollment link: a digital staff member, a disabled account, or your own.”

Staff accounts, issuing an enrollment link.

A digital staff member never signs in, so a link would open nothing. A disabled account is enabled first. Your own account is never given a link by you: a link takes away every passkey the account has, and one administrator alone could otherwise replace their own passkeys without anyone seeing it.

What to doAnother administrator issues the link for your own account.

“Only an owner can approve or decline a request to get back in.”

Settings, on a request to get back in.

Approving sends the person a way into their account, so it belongs to the people who answer for the winery. Every owner is told who approved, so one owner can't do it quietly.

“That request has already been decided, or it has expired.”

Settings, on a request to get back in.

A request is decided once, by any owner of any winery the person is on, and it lapses after a few days. Another owner may have decided it while the page was open, or the person may have got back in with a recovery code.

“Another owner has to decide your own request.”

Settings, on a request to get back in.

If someone took over your email, they could ask for you and then approve it themselves, if the app allowed it. If you're the only owner, no one at the winery can approve, and Fermata's staff answer the request after checking it's you.

“You already have a passkey. Sign in with it to join this winery.”

Accepting an invitation.

An account with a passkey joins a winery by signing in with it. Otherwise anybody holding the email could add a winery to an account they can't otherwise reach, just by following the link.

“That passkey belongs to a different account from the one this invitation is for.”

Accepting an invitation by signing in with a passkey.

An invitation is for one email address. Signing in as another person and accepting it would put the wrong person on the team, so the passkey has to belong to the account the invitation names.

What to doSign in with the passkey for the address the invitation was sent to.

“Give the passkey a name.”

Settings → Passkeys, renaming a passkey.

The name is how you tell your passkeys apart when you remove one, so it can't be blank. Something like the device it's on works best, such as “Work laptop” or “Amy's iPhone”.

“That passkey isn't on your account any more.”

Settings → Passkeys.

It was removed in another tab or on another device while this page was open. The page shows your passkeys as they were when it loaded, so reload it to see the list as it is now.

“You can't remove your only passkey. Add another first.”

Settings → Passkeys, removing a passkey.

With no passkey, the only ways in are a recovery code or an owner's approval. Removing the last one is far more often a slip than a decision, so the app asks you to add the new one before removing the old.

“That sign-in has expired. Sign in again.”

The Fermata app, just after signing in.

The app signs in on a web page, which hands it a code to swap for its sign-in. The code works once, for two minutes, and only with a secret the app kept, so a code seen by anything else is useless. Taking longer than that, or the sheet being closed and opened again, ends it.

“This page has to be opened from the Fermata app. Open the app and press Sign in.”

The page the Fermata app signs in on, opened another way.

The app opens this page with a one-time value that ties the sign-in to that phone. Without it there's nothing to hand the sign-in back to, so the page refuses rather than signing you in to nothing.

“Please accept the terms to create an account.”

Creating an account.

An account needs a record of what its owner agreed to, so the server checks the box, not just the form. When the account is created, the app records the version of the terms and a fingerprint (a hash) of their exact text. That way it can show later exactly what was agreed to, and any later change to the text would be visible.

What to doYou can read the terms in full before you accept, and afterward at /terms.

“Check the attestation box to file. The winery signs the return, not Fermata.”

Filing a return.

The proprietor attests to a federal return. Fermata prepares the form but doesn't submit it, so the attestation has to be something you do yourself, not something the app does for you. The exact wording you see when you sign is saved with your acceptance, so what you attested to can be shown later.

“Choose whose taxpaid wine this is: your own wine coming back, or wine you bought.”

Returning taxpaid wine to bond, on the ledger panel.

Both go on the same line of the return, so the choice changes no figure, but they are different facts: in one your winery paid the excise, and in the other the seller did. Ledger entries can't be edited later, so the entry has to say which it is now, and any default would be a guess about your taxes.

What to doThe app records which it is and works out no credit or refund. What you can claim depends on rules the app doesn't model, and a guessed figure here is one you would file.

“That isn't one of the line placements Fermata offers.”

Recording a standing decision about where a figure goes on the return, on the reports page.

A standing decision picks one of the lines the TTB form itself offers, copied from the blank form. A choice outside that list would put a figure on a line no one has checked, so the app checks your choice against the same list the form shows and refuses anything else.

What to doChoose one of the options shown. If the line you need isn't offered, the working paper still prints the figure, unplaced, with the reason beside it.

…a field left blank can't be filled in later…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Logging a movement on the ledger panel with a required field left empty.

Ledger entries can't be edited. The entry written today is the entry an inspector reads years from now, and a correction is a new entry, not an edit. So a field the regulation or the return needs, such as where a taxpaid removal went or who paid the excise on wine coming back, is asked for before the entry is written, and the server refuses it blank. One table in the code says which fields each kind of entry needs, and the form and the server both read it, so the form never asks for something the server then drops.

What to doFill in the field and log it again. Nothing was saved.

…no longer holds wine…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

The move screen, when the lot you are moving from closed after you opened the form.

A lot closes when a blend, a formula step or a destruction takes the last of its wine, and a closed lot can't be reopened. Its records are kept, but it has no wine to move. The message says what closed it, read from the ledger entry that closed it: blended into another lot, used for formula wine, or destroyed.

What to doPick a lot that holds wine from the lot list. The closed lot's page keeps its history.

…is closed, so wine can't be logged into it…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Logging wine received in bond, production, or bottles dumped back to bulk against a closed lot, on the reports page.

A closed lot can't be reopened, and every screen treats it as holding no bulk wine: the lot list leaves it out, the move screen won't move it, and a physical inventory sheet doesn't list it. Wine logged into it would be stuck on the ledger, where no move could take it out and no count would find it. The cellar-against-ledger check wouldn't catch it either, because both sides would change together. Bottles from a closed lot can't be dumped back to bulk for the same reason.

What to doLog it against a lot that holds wine, or make a new lot. New lot can make one from bulk wine received in bond.

…is closed, so no more bulk entries can be logged against it…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Logging a loss, samples, a destruction, packaging, a reclassification or a blend against a closed lot, on the reports page.

The entry that closed the lot (a blend, a formula step or a destruction) took everything the ledger held for it, so there is nothing left to remove, reclassify or blend. That is true even for an entry dated before the closing: wine that left earlier is already counted in the closing entry, and a second entry would take the lot below zero. Which later entry explains a difference is up to you. Bottles are different: if part of the lot was packaged before it closed, entries for those bottles go on the cased book.

What to doEntries for bottles packaged before the lot closed go on the cased book, and those are accepted.

“This entry's lot has closed. Undoing a removal from its bulk book would put wine back into a lot that every screen treats as empty, and a closed lot can't be reopened.”

Undoing a bulk removal on the reports page when the lot has closed since the removal was logged.

Undoing an entry writes a reversing entry and gives the lot back the gallons it removed. Once a blend, a formula step or a destruction has taken the last of a lot's wine, there is nowhere for those gallons to go: the lot list, the move screen and the physical inventory sheet all treat a closed lot as empty. Undoing an arrival is different, because it takes wine off. That is refused if the closing already moved the wine, and allowed if the lot still holds it. Entries on the cased book are the lot's bottles and can still be undone.

…no longer holds wine, so it has no cellar work…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Marking a task done, pushing it back or skipping it (on the schedule, the daily sheet or the Fermata app), or recording a step on a lot's page, when the lot closed after the page was opened.

A closed lot holds no wine, so it has no work left and no list shows its tasks. Closing a lot doesn't change the schedule: a task that was open the day the lot closed stays open as a record of what was still to do. It isn't marked done, because the work wasn't done, and it isn't skipped, because no one chose to skip it. So the app won't close, push back or skip it, and won't record a new step, because there is no wine to do it to. The message says what closed the lot.

What to doOpen the lot's page for its history. Any work on the wine it went into is on that lot.

“A demo cellar is already loaded. Remove it before loading another.”

Settings, the Demo cellar card, when you press Load while a demo cellar is already in the account.

The app keeps a list of every record the demo added, so that removing it takes exactly those records and nothing else. Loading a second demo would either clash with the first on every name and code, or load a second set that the removal could never find.

What to doRemove the demo cellar from the same card, then load it again if you want a fresh one.

“There is no demo cellar in this account to remove.”

Settings, the Demo cellar card, when you press Remove and no demo is loaded.

Removal works from the list of records the demo added. With no list, there is nothing to remove. The app doesn't search for records that just look like demo records: a block you named Demo yourself is yours, and removing it by guessing from its name would delete something you never asked to delete.

…already exists in this account…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Settings, the Demo cellar card, when the account already has a block, vessel, grower, house style or vintage with one of the demo's names.

Every demo record has a fixed name or code. A record with the same name is either left over from an earlier demo or something you made yourself. The app won't rename its own records to work around it, because then removing the demo could no longer promise to take exactly what it added. Nothing was saved.

What to doRename or remove the record it names, then load the demo again.

…can't be removed while…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Settings, the Demo cellar card, when you press Remove after real work was recorded against demo records.

The demo writes nothing on the ledger and no sprays, which is what lets it be removed. A ledger entry logged against a demo lot, or a spray on a demo block, can never be deleted, and leaving it behind would leave a compliance record pointing at something that no longer exists. So the app refuses, names the record, and keeps the demo as a real record of what was done to it.

What to doNothing was removed. The demo records stay, and the ledger and spray entries on them are now part of this account's records.

…The database refused to remove part of the demo cellar…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Settings, the Demo cellar card, when another record still points at something the demo added.

Removal deletes everything the demo added in one step, and the database checks every link between records. If any record still points at a demo record, the whole removal stops, so nothing is half removed. The message quotes the database's own reason because it names the table, which tells you where to look.

What to doNothing was removed. The message names the record in the way.

…is already here, and this row differs in its…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Settings, Bring your records in, when a row in your sheet names a record that is already in Fermata.

A sheet can add records but never change them. When a row names a record that already exists, the app compares them. If they match, the row is skipped, so uploading the same sheet twice saves nothing the second time. If they differ, the row is refused and the differences are listed, because a change made by re-uploading a sheet would be a change no one made on the record's own page.

What to doChange the record on its own page, or put back in the sheet what is already there.

…can't be taken back out while…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Settings, Bring your records in, when you press Remove this batch after work was recorded against what the batch brought in.

Removing a batch deletes exactly the records it added. Once wine has gone into one of its vessels, or a count, a removal, a top-up, a racking or a task refers to one, that record would be left pointing at a vessel that no longer exists, and ledger entries can never be changed to point elsewhere. Products a supplies batch added work the same way: a plan, a pitch, an addition, a price, a spray or a tank mix that uses one could no longer say what went in. So the app refuses and names the record instead of deleting around it.

What to doNothing was removed. Keep the vessel or product that is in use, or remove it by hand on the Cellar page or in Supplies once nothing uses it.

…The database refused to remove part of this batch…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Settings, Bring your records in, when another record still points at something the batch added.

Removal deletes everything the batch added in one step, and the database checks every link between records. If any record still points at one of them, the whole removal stops, so nothing is half removed. The message quotes the database's own reason because it names the table, which tells you where to look.

What to doNothing was removed. The message names the table in the way.

“Choose whether this sparkling wine was fermented in the bottle or in a tank.”

Changing a lot's tax class to sparkling, on the lot's Tax class card.

On the return, the sparkling wine column splits three cells (production, and bottling at both ends) into two halves: BF for bottle fermented and BP for bulk process. Which half a figure goes in depends on how the wine was made, and the only time the app learns that is this change of class. The ledger entry it writes can never be edited, so a blank could never be filled in later, and a default would be a guess carried onto every bottling of the wine. If the lot is already in a bottle stack, Bottle fermented is suggested.

What to doChoose Bottle fermented or Bulk process and record the change again. Nothing was saved.

…is not one of the choices offered…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Logging a movement with a channel or an origin that isn't on the form's list.

Some fields only accept values from a list because the report adds figures up by them. The working paper, for example, breaks taxpaid removals out by channel, and a channel that isn't on the list couldn't be added up anywhere. The form only offers the list, so this only happens when a request didn't come from the form.

What to doChoose one of the listed values and log it again. Nothing was saved.

…is not an amount of money…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Logging taxpaid wine returned to bond with something in the tax box that isn't a dollar amount.

27 CFR 24.312 calls for the amount of tax previously paid on this entry, and ledger entries can never be edited. A word, a range or two numbers would be saved as no amount at all on an entry that can never be corrected, so the app refuses it before saving. It accepts dollars and cents as an invoice prints them, with or without the dollar sign and commas. The app keeps the amount as a record and calculates nothing from it.

What to doType the amount as the invoice or the return shows it, such as 1,250.00, and log it again. Nothing was saved.

“Choose the lots that went into this wine. Its history and its stock come from its lots.”

Making a wine on the Wines page, or on the wines sheet, without naming a lot.

A wine is the label on wine the cellar made, and everything about it is read from its lots: what is left in bottle, what it is made of, where it came from and its history. A wine with no lots would be a label with nothing behind it, and every figure on its card would show zero instead of unknown.

“Only someone who can see the winery's costs can record a price.”

Weighing in a grower's fruit with a price per ton while signed in as a cellar hand. The form doesn't show the price box to a cellar hand, so this only happens when a request didn't come from the form.

Costs are kept separate from gallons. A cellar hand records the work and the wine, while the winery's costs, prices and taxes are shown only to owners, winemakers and accountants. A price is one of those figures, and you can't check a figure you can't see, so the save is refused. Weighing in the fruit itself is never refused: without a price, the pick has no fruit cost until someone who sees costs adds one. A dose logged by a cellar hand still records its cost from a price already on file, without showing it.

What to doWeigh in the fruit without the price, and ask an owner or a winemaker to add the price under the pick on Purchased fruit. Nothing was saved.

“The archive and the audit binder include the winery's costs and taxes, so only someone who can see costs can download them.”

Downloading the whole archive or the audit binder while signed in as a cellar hand.

Both are the whole account in one download, including the excise working paper's dollar amounts and the tax paid on returned wine. Those figures are shown only to owners, winemakers and accountants. Leaving the money out would make the archive incomplete, and the archive is what lets an account be closed, so it has to be complete. Each table can still be downloaded on its own, without its money columns.

What to doAsk an owner, a winemaker or an accountant to download it, or download the tables one at a time.

…has no address recorded…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Logging a transfer in bond to or from a premises whose card in Settings has no address.

27 CFR 24.309 records a transfer in bond with the name, address and registry number of both premises. The entry copies the other premises' name and address when it is saved, because ledger entries can't be edited and the premises card might change later. A transfer saved with no address would print a blank on the record sent to the receiving premises, so the app refuses it first.

What to doOpen Settings, find the premises under Other bonded premises, add its address, and log the transfer again. Nothing was saved.

…has no registry number recorded…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Logging a transfer in bond to or from a premises whose card in Settings has no registry number.

27 CFR 24.309 records a transfer in bond by the other premises' registry number. The entry copies that number when it is saved, because ledger entries can't be edited and the premises card might change later. A transfer saved with no number would have a blank forever, so the app refuses it. Add the number to the card once, and every transfer after that includes it.

What to doOpen Settings, find the premises under Other bonded premises, add its registry number, and log the transfer again. Nothing was saved.

“That isn't one of the claim options.”

Recording what was done about the excise on wine returned to bond, with an option the form doesn't offer.

A claim is filed, settled, or not made, and those three are the only options because they cover everything the winery does with one. Fermata doesn't calculate claim amounts or decide whether you are eligible, so there is nothing else for it to record. The form offers only the three, so this only happens when a request didn't come from the form.

…Explain why you are recording it now…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Logging any movement dated inside a period whose return is already filed, without giving a reason.

Ledger entries can't be edited and a filed return doesn't change, so an entry dated inside a filed period can never be quietly added to that return or taken back out. It is either a correction that belongs in the current period, or something that happened back then and calls for an amendment, and the app can't tell which. So the entry itself has to say why, when it is saved, because a reason can't be added later. The report then lists every such entry next to the difference it made to the filed return, so nothing changes a filed period without notice and you can still amend.

What to doDate a correction in the current period. For something that happened inside the filed period, explain why you are recording it now, log it, and then amend the return from the Filed returns card.

“None of this block's fruit is in a lot yet, so there is no wine to put the farming cost on.”

Allocating a season's farming cost on the block page.

The cost is split across the block's picks by weight, and a pick that isn't in a lot has no wine to carry it. Rather than guess, the app keeps the cost on the block, where the cost check already reports it as spent on no wine, until there is wine to put it on.

What to doCreate lots for this block's picks, or tie the picks to lots that already exist.

“That period hasn't ended yet, so the cellar time each wine used isn't known.”

Allocating a period's overhead on the reports page.

Overhead is split by gallon-days: how much wine was in the building and for how long. A period that is still running can still change. Allocating now would mean correcting it on the last day, and a correction here is a reversing entry because cost entries can't be edited. So the cost waits until the period ends and is then allocated once.

What to doCome back after the last day of the period. It stays on the list until you do.

“There was no wine in the cellar during that period, so there is nothing to charge the overhead to.”

Allocating a period's overhead on the reports page.

Rent on an empty building is a real cost with no wine to carry it, and spreading it over lots that held nothing would put cost on wine that wasn't there. The cost check keeps reporting it as money spent on no wine. That is also the right accounting: it is a period expense, not part of any wine's cost.

What to doNothing to do. It stays on the record as spent, and no wine is charged for it.

“Check the attestation box to log this application. The person who sprayed certifies the intervals, not the product list.”

Logging a spray application without checking the attestation box.

The pre-harvest interval decides when fruit may be picked, and the re-entry interval decides when people may go back into the block. The figures the app holds you to are the ones on the container sprayed that day, certified by the person logging it, never assumed by the software. The record keeps who certified it, the exact statement and the time, and it can never be edited.

“This period changed while you were looking at it. Reload the page, check the figures and file again.”

Filing a return whose status changed between the page loading and you pressing the button.

The statement you check is different for an original return and for an amendment, and the record keeps a fingerprint of the exact statement you saw. If someone else filed this period in the meantime, the statement on your screen no longer applies, so the filing is refused rather than recording your agreement to words you weren't shown.

What to doReload the page. The figures and the statement will both be up to date.

“Check the statement box to enter the return. Entering it doesn't file anything; it records what your filed paper return says.”

Entering a return filed outside Fermata, on Reports.

A return entered here is a record of a return already filed. Its figures become the opening balance every later report starts from, its days stop accepting late entries without a reason, and the old books' gallons take their place on the excise credit ladder. So the person entering it confirms, in a statement of its own, that these are the figures as filed, and the record keeps a fingerprint of that exact statement, as it does for a filing.

What to doCheck the figures against your copy of the return, check the statement box, and enter it again.

“Type the figures from the return. A return with no figures can't be entered.”

Entering a return filed outside Fermata with every cell left blank.

A blank cell stays blank and a zero stays zero, exactly as on the paper. But a return with no figures at all has no balances, no movements and nothing in Part VII. Entered, it would close its days to late entries and open the next period on nothing.

What to doType the return's figures, with zero where the paper shows zero, and enter it again. Nothing was saved.

…Fermata's report doesn't have monthly periods yet…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Entering a return filed outside Fermata, when the account's filing schedule is monthly.

An entered return works like any filed return here: its days stop accepting late entries without a reason, and its closing balance opens the next period. Fermata's report covers a quarter or a calendar year, so a monthly return entered as one of those would claim days it didn't cover. Until monthly periods exist, enter your opening balance in Settings instead.

What to doEnter the opening balance in Settings, under Opening balance carried in.

…so Fermata can't file an amendment to it…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Filing a return from the operations report for a period whose return was filed outside Fermata and entered here.

An amendment filed here is worked out from this ledger, and this ledger doesn't hold the figures of a return filed elsewhere; they came from other books. Filing over it would replace the return TTB has with whatever this ledger holds for those days, which is usually nothing.

What to doAmend the return where you filed it, then enter the amended return on Reports. It replaces the first.

…so you can't enter a return for the same days…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Entering a return filed outside Fermata for days a return filed in Fermata already covers.

Two returns for the same days would mean TTB holds two papers for them, and every opening balance and late-entry check reads only one. A return filed in Fermata is corrected by an amendment filed in Fermata. Entered returns are for the days before your books started here.

What to doTo correct a return Fermata filed, file an amendment from the operations report.

“Saved. Journal entries can't be edited, so add another entry to correct this one.”

Saving a journal entry.

The database itself won't let journal entries be edited or deleted; it isn't only the screen. That's how a paper cellar book works, and it's a big part of why one holds up in an audit: the record shows what was thought at the time, including what turned out to be wrong.

What to doWrite a second entry saying what you now know. Both stay, in order.

…can't be edited…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Trying to change or remove a ledger entry, a spray or a journal entry.

Ledger entries, spray applications and journal entries can't be changed or deleted by anyone. The database refuses, not just the screen, and it refuses even its own owner. A ledger that could be quietly edited wouldn't prove anything, and a pre-harvest interval that could be edited afterward wouldn't be an interval.

What to doRecord a reversing entry. The mistake and the correction both stay on the record.

“Saved. Filed returns keep the name they were filed under.”

Renaming the winery.

A filed return is always shown exactly as it was filed, never recalculated. Your paper copy has the old name, so Fermata's copy does too. A reprint that quietly said something different from what was submitted would be worse than no reprint.

“Choose your premises' time zone from the list.”

Saving the winery's profile, or the first setup step, with a time zone that isn't on the list.

The time zone decides which day every record is dated and what time a step is stamped, so it has to be one of the time zones on the list, which covers every clock kept in the United States today. A form value can be sent as anything, and a zone that isn't on the list would be a clock no one chose, so the app checks it against the list and refuses anything else.

What to doChoose one of the time zones shown. Each is named for the clock it keeps, and Arizona and Hawaii are listed separately because they don't use daylight saving time.

…Nothing already recorded changes…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Saving the winery's profile with a different time zone.

A movement is dated with a day, and a step is stamped with a clock time, and both are kept exactly as they were written. So a new time zone changes when today rolls over and the time on new stamps, and nothing earlier: a racking dated September 14 stays on September 14, and a punch-down stamped 6:00 stays at 6:00. Converting them would rewrite what the cellar recorded, on a ledger behind filed returns.

“Saved. A filed return keeps the address it was filed with.”

Changing the premises or mailing address.

A return names the bonded premises it was filed for. Moving, or fixing a typo in the address, doesn't change where the wine was during a period already reported, so a filed return keeps the address it was filed with. Only returns filed from now on show the new one.

“The records themselves stay. The database won't delete them, even for its owner. Each record is kept for at least three years from its own date or its last entry, whichever is later (27 CFR 24.300(d)). A TTB officer may require up to three years more. That duty belongs to the record and to the winery, and it outlives the account. Nothing counts down from the day an account closes, and nothing is scheduled to remove the books. No one can reach them: the account has no sign-in and no person's name on it.”

Asking for an account to be removed.

The records themselves can't be deleted: the database won't allow it, and a winery's ledger entries back filed returns that have a retention period. What closing an account removes is everything that identifies a person: every sign-in, the names and addresses, and the team list. The records stay, with no way for anyone to reach them.

What to doDownload the full archive from Settings first. Closing is refused until you have.

“Check the statement box to sign the inventory. A count signed under penalties of perjury needs your own confirmation.”

Signing a physical inventory on the reports page.

27 CFR 24.313 has the last page of the inventory record dated and signed after a statement made under penalties of perjury. The app keeps that statement word for word on the count, with the signer's name and the time. Checking the box is how you show you read it; a button that signed without it would record a sworn statement no one made.

…has no count on this sheet…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Signing a physical inventory with a container left blank.

A blank isn't zero. The regulation asks for an inventory of all wine in storage, and a blank line means the container hasn't been counted, not that it's empty. To record an empty tank, type 0. Signing with a blank would post nothing for that lot and look as if it matched the books, which would hide a difference the count is meant to find.

What to doCount the container and enter the figure, or 0 if it's empty, then sign again.

…has changed since this count was started…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Signing a physical inventory after a movement dated on or before the count day was logged.

The sheet shows each container's book figure as of when the sheet was made, and signing posts the difference between what was counted and the books as they stand now. A movement dated on or before the count day but logged after the sheet was made changes the books under the count, so the difference would be against a figure no one had in front of them. The sheet is remade and the container counted again.

What to doStart a new count, count that container again, and sign.

“This inventory is signed and can't be changed. To correct it, take another count.”

Saving lines on, or discarding, a physical inventory that has been signed.

A signed count is a compliance record under 27 CFR 24.313, kept with the return for its period, and the database refuses any change to it, the same as a ledger entry. A count that could be reopened after signing would be a sworn record that could be edited afterward. A mistake is corrected by counting again.

…is recorded only by a signed physical inventory…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Logging an inventory gain, loss, shortage or overage by hand on the ledger panel.

The figure for each of these four kinds is the difference, per lot, between a signed count and the books. Typed by hand on the ledger panel, it would carry the form's caption with no count behind it, so the panel doesn't offer these kinds and the server refuses them.

“Choose what the binder covers: a calendar year, an inventory year, or from one filed return to another.”

Reports, writing the audit binder with no span chosen, or with one the form doesn't offer.

A binder covers the records over a span of days, and that span decides every chapter in it: the returns filed, the counts signed and the records by section. Writing one over a span you didn't choose would mean the software choosing which records an examiner sees, so only the three kinds of span on the form are accepted.

What to doPick a calendar year, an inventory year, or two filed returns, and write the binder again.

“That is not a year the binder can cover. Choose one from the list.”

Reports, writing the audit binder for a calendar or inventory year the form didn't offer.

The year comes from the page address, where anyone can type anything, so the app only accepts a four-digit year within the years Fermata keeps records for. Any other year would produce a binder of empty chapters that looks like a winery with nothing to show, which is worse than a refusal.

“That date doesn't exist. Choose an inventory year from the list.”

Reports, writing the audit binder for an inventory year whose closing date doesn't exist.

An inventory year is named by the day it closes, and that day comes from the page address as text. A date like February 30 doesn't exist, and reading it would roll it into March and quietly cover different days from the ones named, so it's refused instead of corrected.

…isn't the day your inventory year closes…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Reports, writing the audit binder for an inventory year that closes on a different day from the one in your settings.

27 CFR 24.313 has the physical inventory taken at the close of the winery's inventory year, and the binder's inventory year is that same year, so its counts and losses line up. A year closing on some other day isn't one the winery keeps, and a binder over it would cut the counts and losses off on a day nothing was counted.

What to doChoose an inventory year from the list, or change when the inventory year closes in Settings.

“Choose the filed return the binder starts from and the one it ends with.”

Reports, writing the audit binder from one filed return to another with either return not chosen.

A span from one filed return to another runs from the first day of the first return's period to the last day of the second's. Without both ends there's no span, and guessing the missing end (today, or the newest return) would cover days you didn't choose.

“This winery didn't file that return. Choose one of the filed returns listed.”

Reports, writing the audit binder from one filed return to another with a return this winery didn't file.

The returns come from the page address as IDs, and each one is checked against the winery's own filed returns before its period is read. An ID that isn't among them names nothing this winery filed.

“The binder would end before it begins. Choose the earlier return first.”

Reports, writing the audit binder from one filed return to another, where the second return's period ends before the first one's begins.

A span runs forward from the first day of the first return's period to the last day of the second's. If the second ends before the first begins, there are no days between them, and swapping them would write a binder you didn't ask for, so the choice comes back to you unchanged.

“sugar was added after the must, so the alcohol can't be worked out from gravity”

The blend bench, and anywhere a lot's alcohol is shown.

Alcohol from gravity is the starting reading minus the finishing reading, and it's right until sugar is added after the must: for a tirage, a chaptalization, or a wine sweetened and fermented again. The added sugar raises the gravity, the yeast ferments it, and the figure comes out short by the whole second fermentation. On a sparkling wine that's off by more than a label's legal tolerance.

What to doRecord a measured alcohol on a lab panel. A measurement takes the place of the calculation.

“no must analysis, so no alcohol figure”

The blend bench, and anywhere a lot's alcohol is shown.

Alcohol is worked out from the must analysis taken at crush, not from whichever reading happens to be earliest. Treating day three as day zero would make every figure wrong in the same direction with nothing on screen to show it, so the app says it doesn't know instead.

What to doEnter the lot's starting gravity if you have it, or record a measured alcohol.

…estimated…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

The blend bench, next to a predicted pH.

Alcohol and TA blend close enough to simple averages to be calculated. pH doesn't: it's logarithmic, and a volume-weighted average can be off by more than the margin that decides an SO₂ addition, which is the main thing pH is used for. The bench shows the estimate and marks it so it never looks like a measurement.

What to doMake the blend on the bench and measure it. That's what bench trials are for.

…can't do this. Ask…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

A control your role can't use.

Each role can do only certain things. Anyone can record what they did, but changing the figures a record is judged against, or signing a federal return, takes a different role. The message names who can do it, so you know who to ask.

What to doSee who can do what in the reference.

“That fruit's planting no longer exists: a block or planting was removed after you chose it. Remove it from the fruit list above and save again.”

Saving a vintage whose fruit names a planting that no longer exists.

A plan's fruit points to a planting, and the planner keeps unsaved work in your browser so you don't lose it when you leave the page, for example to stock a nutrient. In the meantime, editing a block can remove that planting. The app refuses instead of dropping the entry, because the other shares of a co-ferment would still count a share that belongs to nothing.

What to doRemove that entry and choose the fruit again. The picker only offers plantings that exist.

“That grower is no longer in your purchased fruit: it was removed after you chose it. Remove it from the fruit list above and save again.”

Saving a vintage whose fruit names a grower that no longer exists.

This follows the same rule as a missing planting, with its own message so it names the right thing. A message about plantings would send you to your blocks while you were looking at the grower you just picked.

What to doRemove that entry and pick the grower again, or add the grower back under Purchased fruit.

“Some of that fruit's plantings and growers no longer exist: they were removed after you chose them. Remove those entries from the fruit list above and save again.”

Saving a co-ferment when both a planting and a grower have been removed.

Both kinds of fruit source are missing, so naming only one would send you looking in the half that is fine. Each fruit entry is a planting or a grower, and a co-ferment can have several of each.

What to doRemove the entries that no longer exist and choose the fruit again.

“That QR code isn't a Fermata vessel label. Scan a label printed from this cellar.”

Scanning a vessel's label, on the web's scan screen and in the Fermata app.

A phone scans whatever QR code is in front of it: a bottle's own code, a boarding pass, the Wi-Fi card in the tasting room. The app only follows the addresses printed on Fermata vessel labels. Anything else is ignored rather than opened or guessed at.

What to doScan a label printed from this cellar's Labels page, or pick the vessel from the list.

“This cellar has no such vessel. It may have been removed after its label was printed, or the label may belong to another cellar.”

The Fermata app, opening a vessel from its label or by its ID.

The app only looks for vessels in your own winery's records, so another cellar's label finds nothing. It gives the same answer for a vessel that doesn't exist anywhere, so the message can't reveal another winery's vessels. A label carries the vessel's permanent ID rather than its code, so a renamed tank keeps its label, and a removed tank's label stops working.

What to doIf the vessel is still in use, print its label again from the Labels page.

“A trial needs at least two arms to compare.”

Setting up a trial.

A trial is worth running because everything except one thing is the same between its arms. With one arm there's nothing to compare against and nothing to learn; it's just a lot with a note on it.

“An interval of zero days would schedule the next racking for today. Use at least one day.”

Setting racking intervals in Settings.

A blank or zero interval would schedule the next racking for today, every day, for every lot, which would make the task list useless. The app refuses the value instead of saving it.

“Choose how this fruit will be pressed (on its skins after the ferment, or before it) so the estimate can be worked out from the tons.”

Crushing fruit into a fermenter on the new-lot form, and entering an estimate on a lot's In the fermenter card.

The estimate of material still fermenting, which the report's IN FERMENTERS line asks for, is worked out from the tons in the lot and your winery's yield per ton. There are two yields: one for wine fermented on its skins and one for wine pressed before fermenting, because juice pressed from fresh fruit yields differently from free run under a cap. The wine's style says which, where it can. A lot on no program, a dessert wine and a pét-nat don't say, and choosing for them would mean the app deciding how the wine is made.

What to doChoose how it will be pressed. A program's style answers this for every lot made on it.

“Record what kind of wine this is (its class and type as the label states it) on the lot's Class and type card first. Taxpaid removals, transfers in bond, wine returned to bond and wine used for tasting all record the kind, and the entry can't be filled in later.”

Logging a taxpaid removal, a transfer in bond, wine returned to bond or wine used for tasting on the ledger panel, or moving cases out of bond to a taxpaid location or back, for a lot whose kind isn't recorded.

The records for taxpaid removals (27 CFR 24.310), transfers in bond (24.309(d)), wine returned to bond (24.312(a)) and wine sent to a tasting room (24.97(b)) each ask for the kind of wine, which 24.10 defines as its class and type under 27 CFR part 4. That's different from the tax class: a red and a white table wine share one tax class but are two kinds. Ledger entries can't be edited, so an entry missing the kind could never be completed. You record the kind once on the lot, because it belongs to the wine.

“Describe the kind of wine in words, as the label states its class and type (such as red table wine), in 60 characters or fewer and with no numbers.”

Creating a lot on the new-lot form, and saving the Class and type card on a lot's page.

The kind is a designation named in 27 CFR 4.21 or stated on the label, and an examiner reads it in the taxpaid removals record, so it has to be words. A number would be an alcohol content or a vintage, not a designation, and a blank would make the card look answered when it isn't. The list offers the common designations. Another kind takes what your label states, because 4.21 names a wine made wholly from one fruit by that fruit, and no list can hold every fruit.

“What fruit is this lot made from? Choose it from the list, or choose Another fruit if it isn't there.”

Creating a lot on the new-lot form, and saving the Fruit card on a lot's page.

Part VII of the operations report has a column for each kind of fruit still fermenting (the form's own note says "State kind - apple, blackberry, etc."), and each lot goes under the fruit recorded on it. It's a list rather than a text box so that one fruit stays one column; "Blueberry" on one lot and "Blueberries" on another would make two. It's asked directly rather than read from the tax class, because hard cider is the only class tied to a fruit, and a lot's class can change while its fruit can't.

What to doChoose the fruit. If it isn't listed, choose Another fruit, and the report shows its gallons for you to write in.

…percent from the calculation…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Entering an estimate of material still fermenting that is far from the figure worked out from the tons.

The estimate is the one figure on the return no one measured, so the winery's own record has to explain it. The calculation is your yield per ton times the tons in the lot. A figure more than twenty percent away from it is saved only with a reason (the fruit or the vintage, juice bled off, a press program, a correction, or something else in your own words), so if anyone asks why that figure was reported, the answer was written down on the day by the person who knew.

What to doChoose the reason, or accept the calculation.

…more liquid than a ton of grapes holds…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Setting the house yields in Settings.

A ton is 2,000 pounds, and 2,000 pounds of water is 240 gallons. Juice is heavier than water, so no ton of grapes gives that much liquid. A figure that high is a typo, such as 1,600 for 160, and every estimate worked out from it would be off by the same factor on a federal return.

…is an estimate, not wine on the ledger…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Logging a loss, samples, a destruction, packaging or another removal on the reports page for a lot still in its fermenters (must on its skins, or juice pressed before fermenting), beyond what its presses have put on the ledger.

Crushing fruit into a fermenter puts nothing on the ledger. What's in the bin is an estimate, reported in Part VII of the report, and production goes on line 2 when the wine is first measured: at the press for a wine fermented on its skins, or at the gauge for one pressed first. Until then the ledger holds nothing for the lot, or only what a press of one of its bins posted. Removing more would record wine that was never produced. Must or juice lost before the gauge was never wine: it changes the estimate, which has its own record of the figure and the reason.

What to doEnter the new estimate on the lot's In the fermenter card.

…would be on line 2 now and again when it is measured…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Logging production by fermentation on the reports page for a lot still in its fermenters.

Production of a lot crushed here is recorded when the wine is first measured, in one of two places: the press on Move wine, which empties the bin and records what came off it, or the gauge on the lot's In the fermenter card, for a wine measured where it fermented or juice pressed before fermenting, once the ferment is done. An entry logged here would put the wine on line 2 while the lot is still fermenting, and the press or the gauge would record the same wine again later: counted twice on a federal return, with no way to tell which entry was the mistake.

What to doRecord the press on Move wine, or the gauge on the lot's In the fermenter card.

…wine arriving can't be logged into it…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Logging wine received in bond, or bottles dumped back to bulk, on the reports page for a lot still in its fermenters.

A lot in its fermenters holds an estimate of must or juice, reported in Part VII until the wine is gauged. An entry on the reports page says wine arrived but not where it went. Poured in with the must or juice, it would be measured again at the press or gauge and recorded on line 2 as produced a second time. Kept in its own tank, it's a lot of its own. It's refused rather than warned about, because the risk is a figure counted twice on a federal return.

What to doLog it against a lot of its own (New lot can make one from bulk received in bond), and blend it in once this lot is gauged.

…changes class on its Tax class card…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Logging a reclassification on the reports page for a lot still in its fermenters.

A lot in its fermenters is mostly an estimate, reported in Part VII by kind of fruit rather than tax class, and its production goes on line 2 in the class the lot has when it's gauged. So you change the class on the lot itself, on its Tax class card, where the class moves with the lot and only wine a press has already put on the ledger moves from one column to another. A reclassification typed on the reports page names no class it came from and changes nothing on the lot, so it would record gallons of must as reclassified without changing anything on the report.

What to doChange the class on the lot's Tax class card.

“That interval is too long for a racking schedule. Enter a shorter number of days.”

Setting racking intervals in Settings.

This is the other end of the same check. A number that large is a typo or a way of turning the schedule off, and neither should be saved as if it were how the cellar works.

…No asks left.…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

The buttons that ask an AI model for advice and use a credit. Billing lists every one.

Everything the app works out itself is included: the protocol's steps and arithmetic, the schedule, the lab calculations, every conversion and every check. Asking an AI model for advice uses a credit, because each question is a real request to another company's service. The readers that fill in a form from your own paperwork are free and never refused for this. What runs out is the month's included asks and any you bought on top. You're never charged for an answer that came back empty, whether the AI model refused, was cut off, or gave an answer the app had to discard. And nothing tops itself up: when you run out, the app tells you instead of buying more for you.

What to doWait for the next month, or add a pack. The rest of the app works as usual either way.

“This account is suspended for non-payment, so that can't run right now.”

Anything that reaches the cellar while an account is suspended. Pages send you to the payment page, and background requests show this message.

Suspension stops only what isn't being paid for. It doesn't stop you signing in, so you can see why. It doesn't stop the export or the full archive, because a subscription is never needed to take your records with you. And it doesn't freeze or delete the records themselves, because a winery has to keep them whatever the invoice says. Everything comes back as it was once you pay.

What to doOpen the payment page. You can download your archive from there at any time, paid or not.

“The trial on this account has ended, so that can't run right now.”

Anything that reaches the cellar after a trial has ended with no subscription. Pages send you to the payment page, and background requests show this message.

This is deliberately a different message from the suspension one, though it leads to the same place. Suspension follows a payment that failed: there was a card, it was declined, a notice was sent and a closing date is running. None of that applies here, because nothing failed. Telling you your account was suspended for non-payment would send you looking for a billing problem that doesn't exist. Like a suspension, it doesn't stop you signing in, exporting or downloading the full archive, and your records aren't frozen or deleted.

What to doSubscribe from the payment page. You can export all your records either way.

“This account has no active subscription, so that can't run right now.”

Anything that reaches the cellar on an account with no active subscription: a new account before its first subscription, or one whose subscription has ended. Pages send you to the payment page, and background requests show this message.

There's no free trial. A new account opens as soon as its first subscription starts, and an account whose subscription ended waits at the payment page until a new one starts. It's not the suspension message, because nothing failed, and not the trial message, because there was no trial. You can still sign in, pay, export, and download the full archive, and your records aren't frozen or deleted.

What to doSubscribe from the payment page. You can export all your records either way.

…no bottling, no return to bond and no glass carried in…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Logging a cased removal on the reports page (taxpaid, family use, a tasting, breakage, a sample or test from bottles, a destruction, bottles dumped to bulk) for a lot with nothing in bottle on the ledger.

The cased book follows the same rule as the bulk book: a lot can't give up more than it holds, and a removal beyond that is refused instead of going negative. What a lot holds in bottle is worked out from its cased entries each time (bottlings and wine returned to bond add to it, removals take from it), plus any bottles it was carried in with. A lot with none of those has nothing in bottle that the record knows about.

What to doRecord the packaging first with Package on the move screen, which adds the ledger's Bottled entries. If the wine was packaged before you started using Fermata, carry the lot in on the new-lot form with what was in bottle that day, or, for a lot already here, enter the count off the line on its wine. The removal is then accepted and the gap is noted.

…in bottle on the ledger…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Logging a cased removal on the reports page that takes more than the ledger has in bottle for the lot (what was bottled and returned to bond, minus every removal since).

This is the same check the bulk book makes: what arrived minus what left is what's there. A removal beyond that would record wine leaving from bottles the ledger says are already gone, on the record behind a federal return. Ledger entries can't be edited, so if an earlier entry is wrong, fix it with a reversing entry rather than this one.

What to doLog what actually left, or a reversing entry if an earlier removal is wrong. If more was bottled before you started using Fermata than the ledger shows, enter the count off the line on its wine. The ledger can't supply that figure and won't make one up.

…bottles the ledger has no record of…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

The message after a cased removal on the reports page that takes more than the ledger has in bottle for the lot, when other records show there's more.

The ledger only knows what it recorded. Wine bottled before you started using Fermata reaches the return as one opening figure for the whole winery, and only a lot carried in with its bottles says how much is that lot's. So for other lots the app never makes up a figure. Three things on record count as evidence of such bottles: the lot is marked as in bottle with no bottling on the ledger, wine came back to bond against it, or its wine was counted off the line at more cases than the ledger's bottlings explain. With any of them, the removal is accepted and the gap is noted instead of refused.

“Choose the material that was delivered.”

Logging a delivery on the additives shelf without choosing a material.

A receipt is the record 27 CFR 24.317 and 24.318 keep of what came onto the premises, and it's balanced against the additions logged under the same material at the end of each period. A quantity with no material can't be balanced against anything, and recording it under a guessed material would change the wrong balance. So the form asks instead of picking the first material on the shelf.

“How much arrived? Enter a quantity for the delivery.”

Logging a delivery, a removal or an allied-product use with the quantity blank or zero.

The regulation asks for the kind and quantity received, and the balance at the end of each period is receipts minus what left. A blank is treated as unknown, never as zero, so an entry with no quantity is refused rather than saved as a delivery of nothing that looks like a checked figure.

“Who was it from? Enter the supplier along with the date and quantity.”

Logging a delivery (not a removal) without naming the supplier.

27 CFR 24.317 asks for the date received, who it came from, and the kind and quantity, and 24.318 asks for the acid account to be supported by purchase invoices. A delivery with no supplier can't be matched to an invoice. A removal has no supplier, so the field is only asked for on a delivery.

“Degrees Brix is a number from 0 to 100. Leave it blank if the paperwork doesn't say.”

Logging a concentrate delivery with a Brix before or after concentration that is negative, over 100, or not a number.

27 CFR 24.315(b) asks for a concentrate's degrees Brix before and after concentration, as the maker's paperwork states them, and the juice record prints the maker's figure. A figure off the scale is a misreading, and recording it would put a number no one measured on a record an examiner reads. If the paperwork doesn't say, leave it blank; the record notes the blank.

“How much was on hand the day your books opened in Fermata? Enter a quantity greater than zero.”

Entering what was on hand when the books opened, on the additives shelf or at a taxpaid location, with no quantity.

An opening entry carries a balance into Fermata from the records you kept before, so the quantity is the whole point of it. An entry with no quantity, or zero, would start an account on a figure no one gave. If a material or wine wasn't on hand, it needs no opening entry; its account starts at its first delivery.

“Where does the figure come from: your old records' closing balance, a count on the day, or both?”

Entering an opening balance without saying whether it was counted or taken from the old records.

A figure from the old books and a count on the day are different kinds of evidence, so the entry says which, and shows both where you have both. Without it, no one could tell a balance someone confirmed on the shelf from one copied off a spreadsheet.

“What did your old records say? With a count, an opening entry also shows the old records' figure.”

Entering an opening balance as a count alongside the old records' figure, and leaving that figure blank.

When a count and the old books differ, the difference is the first thing an examiner asks about after a switch of records, so the entry carries both and shows the difference. A blank isn't zero: leaving the book figure out would look as if the books held nothing.

What to doType the old records' figure, or choose a count alone if the old records don't give one.

“Fermata doesn't know yet when your books open here. First enter the return you last filed, or the year of your opening balance.”

Entering an opening balance on an account whose books-open date isn't known.

An opening entry is dated the day your books open in Fermata, because it records what was on hand then. That day comes from the last return you entered as filed, or January 1 of your opening balance's year. With neither recorded, there's no date to give it, and a guessed date wouldn't agree with the rest of your records.

What to doSettings, Switching to Fermata, walks you through the opening balance and entering your last return.

“Explain why you're restating the opening figure. The earlier one stays on record, marked as replaced.”

Entering an opening balance again for a material or a wine that already has one.

Records can't be edited, so a wrong opening figure is corrected by entering it again. The newest entry is the one that counts, and the earlier one stays visible as replaced, so your note is the only place a reader learns why the figure changed: a miscount, a sack found, a spreadsheet misread.

“An opening entry can only be kept at a place you've stated is your own taxpaid wine premises. Say how this place became one on its Edit page first.”

Entering what was on hand when the books opened at a location that belongs to someone else, is elsewhere, or whose standing hasn't been stated yet.

27 CFR 24.311's record is kept for taxpaid wine on taxpaid wine premises, which a place becomes through the approved application, a notice under 24.131 or an alternation approved under 24.135. Someone else's place, or a place you run elsewhere, keeps no such record, so an opening entry there would start a record the regulation doesn't ask for. And a place whose standing hasn't been stated can't be treated as premises.

“Enter the kind of wine and the tax class, as the cases' marks and labels show them. Cases you can't identify can't be carried in as taxpaid stock; count them first.”

Entering cases on hand when the books opened without a kind of wine or a tax class.

24.311(a) has a receipt carry the kind of wine and its alcohol content or tax class, and an opening entry records them as you read them from the cases' required marks and labels (24.259, 24.257, 4.36(c)). Cases whose kind or class can't be read raise a different question, whether they're taxpaid wine at all (24.135(c), 24.296(a), 24.90), which a count and the old records answer, so they aren't carried in as taxpaid stock.

“This place already has an opening entry for that wine at that size. Reverse it first, then enter it again.”

Entering cases on hand when the books opened for a wine and size that already has an opening entry at the place.

The stock record can't be edited and every line is added up, so a second opening entry for the same wine and size would count the same cases twice. To correct an opening figure, reverse it (it stays on the record, marked as reversed) and enter it again.

“Enter the containers on hand as a whole number, and the old records' count the same way.”

Entering cases on hand when the books opened as part of a container.

Stock at a location is kept as containers at a size, the way a count or a sale records it, and part of a bottle isn't something that sits on a shelf. The volume 24.311 asks for is worked out from the count and the size.

“This block's first interval window has passed, or its record began with a spray logged here. You can only enter sprays from your old log while that window is open.”

Entering a spray from your old log on a block whose first interval window has closed.

A spray applied before a block's record began can be entered so its interval counts toward a pick, and that's all. Once the longest interval on your shelf has passed since the record began, anything sprayed before then has cleared, so an entry would change nothing. Taking entries after that would turn the form into a way to import a spray history, which it isn't.

“An entry from your old log has to be a spray applied before this block's record began. Choose an earlier date.”

Entering a spray from your old log dated on or after the day the block's record began.

A spray on or after the day the record began should be logged as it happened, on the spray form, with the applicator's own attestation. An entry from the old log has no such attestation, so it's only for the days before the record began.

“Pick the product the log names from the shelf. If it isn't there, add it to the shelf first.”

Entering a spray from your old log with no product, or a product not on any shelf.

An application is counted by its product, and its intervals are read from that product's label. A product name typed in with nothing behind it couldn't be found again by the spray log, the label check or the countdowns.

“Enter the product's EPA registration number as the label shows it. The intervals are read from that label.”

Entering a spray from your old log with no registration number.

The person entering it reads the intervals from the label for the product's registration number, and the record says which label that was. Labels are filed by registration number, not brand name, so without it no one could find the label later.

“Enter both intervals as the label states them: the pre-harvest interval in whole days, 0 to 365, and the re-entry interval in whole hours, 0 to 720.”

Entering a spray from your old log with an interval blank, a fraction or out of range.

These figures decide when fruit may be picked and when people may go back into the block. The old log usually doesn't hold them, so they're read from the label when the entry is made. A blank is never treated as zero, which would clear the block the same day, and the limits are the same ones every product on the shelf is held to.

“Name the log and the entry you copied, and where the log is kept.”

Entering a spray from your old log without saying which log, which entry, or where it's kept.

Your original log stays your record, and an entry here is a copy of one line of it. The statement says which line was copied and where to find the original, so anyone reading the entry can go back to it.

“Check the statement box. An entry from your old log carries your own statement of what you copied and read.”

Entering a spray from your old log without checking the transcriber's statement.

The entry has no applicator's attestation, which only the applicator could make on the day of the spray. Instead it carries the statement of the person entering it. The button being grayed out is only a hint in the browser, so the server checks again.

“The label's date has to be a date. Leave it blank if the label doesn't show one.”

Entering a spray from your old log with a label date that isn't a date.

The record says which label the intervals were read from, with its date where the label shows one, because labels are revised and the date tells a later reader which edition it was. A blank is recorded as not known.

“A count can be signed as the opening balance only if this account has no filed return and no earlier signed count.”

Signing a physical inventory as the opening balance on the reports page.

A year's opening balance is the previous return's closing figure, or a carried-in balance for a first year (27 CFR 24.313 with the form's instruction 4). Once a return is filed, the opening balance comes from that signed return, and once a count is signed, the books follow that count; a later count measures the books and records the difference. Letting a later count rewrite the opening balance would change a figure a filed return already shows.

…This count can't be the year's opening balance…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Signing a physical inventory as the opening balance on the reports page.

The opening balance is worked back from what was counted, through everything the ledger recorded between January 1 and the count day, so the operations report starts the year at a figure the ledger agrees with. If the entries before the count remove more than was found, the year would open below zero, which isn't a quantity of wine. The message shows the figure so you can check those entries.

“A clear plate and a malic figure above the finish line can't both be true of one sample. Record the one you trust.”

Logging a lab panel with a chromatography result and a malic figure on the same entry.

A clear plate means the malic is below what the plate can detect, which is about the same level the app calls finished. A figure above that on the same sample says the opposite. Two results on one entry that contradict each other would leave the malolactic status depending on whichever the app checked first, so the entry is refused and you decide. On two entries with different dates, the newer one counts, and the status says which it used.

“Choose the house style this vintage is made under.”

Making a vintage in the New vintage panel on the Wine Program page.

A vintage is one year's making of a house style, and the house style is where its target, its residual sugar and its malolactic decision start. It is also where the vintage sits on the map. A vintage made under none would have nothing to start from and nowhere to be found.

What to doChoose one, or make a house style first with + New house style.

“Enter the year as four figures, such as 2027.”

Making a vintage in the New vintage panel on the Wine Program page.

The year is part of what the vintage is, beside its name: two vintages of one name in different years are two wines, and the map, the house style page and every lot put on it read the year. A year that isn't one would put the vintage somewhere no one would look for it.

“Give the vintage a name.”

Making a vintage in the New vintage panel on the Wine Program page, or renaming one from its panel or its own page.

The name is how the vintage is found: on the map, in the pickers that put a lot on a vintage, and on every lot that names it. The panel opens on the house style's own name, which most vintages carry, so this is said only where the box was cleared.

“That name is taken for that year.”

Making a vintage in the New vintage panel on the Wine Program page, or renaming one.

A vintage's name is unique for its year across the whole program, archived vintages included, because two vintages of one name in one year are easy to mix up later: on the map, on a lot and in the pickers that put a lot on a vintage. The database holds the same rule, so this is the readable version of that refusal.

What to doOpen the one already there, or give this one a name of its own.

“Give the house style a name, the one your buyers know the wine by.”

Saving a new or edited house style in the drawer on the Wine Program page.

A house style is one wine as a buyer knows it, made year after year, and its name is how every vintage of it is found: on the map, in the planner's list of house styles, and when a new vintage saved under the same name lands on it. A house style with no name couldn't be chosen in the planner or found on the map.

“Each of the eight axes needs a figure from 0 to 100.”

Saving a house style with an axis of its house target emptied or out of range.

The house target is where every new vintage of the wine starts, and the planner, a tasting and a trial all read the same eight axes. An axis left blank isn't read as 0, because 0 is a real answer (no tannin at all), and storing it for an emptied box would describe a wine you didn't mean.

…That name is taken.…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Making or renaming a house style with a name another house style holds, archived ones included.

One house style is one wine, and a vintage saved under a name lands on the house style of that name. Two house styles of one name would make that a coin toss. An archived house style keeps its name for the same reason, so the refusal says where to restore it from rather than making a second.

…while wine under it is in bulk…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Archiving a house style that has a vintage with a lot still in the cellar.

Archiving a house style hides it and its vintages from the map, which is the one place that shows which wine a lot is being made for. Hiding a vintage whose wine is still being worked would hide it from the people doing the work. Packaged wine doesn't stop it, and moving the vintage to another house style keeps it on the map, so the refusal names both ways through.

…Only a house style with no vintages can be deleted.…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Deleting a house style that still has a vintage on it, archived vintages included.

A vintage names its house style, and the lots, picks and bottlings name the vintage, so deleting a house style with a vintage on it would leave records pointing at a wine that no longer exists. The database refuses it too. A house style with no vintages is named by no record at all, which is why that one, and only that one, can be deleted.

“A stop gravity is between 0.990 and 1.100. Leave it blank to ferment to dry.”

Saving a wine program in the planner with a stop gravity entered.

The stop gravity is where a ferment is stopped on purpose, and the fermentation status treats the ferment as complete there instead of stalled short of dry. A figure outside what a must or a stopped wine reads, such as 10.10 for 1.010 or a Brix typed into a gravity box, would judge every ferment in the program against a finish it could never reach, or one it passed on day one. Blank is the usual answer: most wines ferment to dry, and a sweet one is often sweetened afterward rather than stopped.

“A result needs the date it was read, and a read date needs a result.”

Recording or reading a cold or heat stability trial on a lot.

A stability trial is read after a wait, so the record has two parts: the sample going in, and someone checking it days later. A result with no date can't be placed against the wait, and a date with no result would look read when no one looked. Half a record is refused rather than saved.

“This is part of a paid add-on this account doesn't subscribe to.”

Any save that belongs to Inventory Management, on an account that hasn't bought it, from a form or from the phone.

Inventory Management is a paid add-on: it tracks where taxpaid wine went after it left bond and what's left of it. Every subscription keeps the taxpaid removal itself on the ledger, the report and the export, and this never affects those. The check is on the save, not just the button, because the phone saves without a button. The message names the add-on so you know where to find it.

What to doOpen Inventory Management in the menu. The offer page says what it records and has the Subscribe button.

“The subscription to this add-on has ended, so nothing new can be recorded here until you subscribe again.”

Any save that belongs to Inventory Management, on an account whose subscription to it has lapsed or been canceled.

When you stop paying for an add-on, you keep everything you recorded: it's still readable on its pages and in your export, which is always available. You only lose the ability to add to it. The records are yours, so you can always read them; recording new stock stops because a stock record no one is keeping up goes stale.

What to doSubscribe again from the Inventory Management page. Everything is where you left it.

“Enter your Commerce7 tenant ID. It's the first part of your Commerce7 admin's web address, before .admin.platform.commerce7.com.”

Connecting a Commerce7 account on the DTC Sales page.

The tenant ID is how Commerce7 identifies your account on every request, so the app checks that it has the right shape (letters, numbers and hyphens). If you paste the whole address, the app takes just that part. A connection saved with a typo would pass every later step and fail at the first order.

What to doSign in to your Commerce7 admin and copy the first part of its web address, before .admin.platform.commerce7.com.

“A Commerce7 account is already connected. Disconnect it before connecting another.”

Connecting a Commerce7 account while one is connected.

You can connect one shop at a time. The SKU map and the orders are read against the connected account, and two connections would leave every entry unclear about which account it came from. Disconnecting marks the connection as ended instead of deleting it, so the history of what was connected when stays complete.

“No Commerce7 account is connected.”

Checking or disconnecting a Commerce7 connection that isn't there, such as from an old page or a second click after disconnecting.

Checking and disconnecting act on the connected account, which the app looks up again when you click. A connection that's already disconnected, or never belonged to this winery, isn't one to act on, and the app tells you rather than pretending the click did something.

“This server doesn't hold Fermata's Commerce7 app credentials, so it can't reach Commerce7. Your account and your SKU map are saved, and checking, reading and sending will work once it does.”

Checking a Commerce7 connection, reading from Commerce7 or sending a count on a server that doesn't hold Fermata's Commerce7 app ID and App Secret Key, such as a laptop without them set.

The credentials are Fermata's, one set for every winery, and they live on the server, never in a table. A request sent without them could only fail in a way that reads like your account's fault, so the app says what is missing instead. Saving your account anyway lets you map your SKUs now.

“Choose a SKU to send its count to Commerce7.”

Pressing Send on the count out with no SKU named, such as from a form that lost its line.

A send sets a count in the shop, so it names the SKUs it sends. Sending every SKU because none was named would change counts you didn't choose to change, so the app asks rather than guessing which you meant.

“Choose a Commerce7 location from the list Fermata last read from Commerce7, then save again.”

Saving a SKU on the map with a Commerce7 location that isn't in the last reading of Commerce7, such as from a page left open after Commerce7's locations changed.

A SKU's count is sent to the Commerce7 location it names, by Commerce7's own id. An id that isn't in Commerce7's list is somewhere a count can't go, and saving it would only hold every send of that SKU later with no way to see why. Reading from Commerce7 again brings the list up to date.

“Enter the SKU as Commerce7 shows it, up to 64 characters.”

Mapping a Commerce7 SKU to a wine on Inventory Management.

An order identifies its lines only by SKU, so the map matches the SKU exactly as the shop shows it. A blank, a SKU that's too long, or one with a control character could never appear on an order, so it would never match a sale and never say why.

“That SKU is already mapped. Edit its row instead.”

Mapping a Commerce7 SKU that's already on the map, in any capitalization.

One SKU is one wine at one size. Two rows for one SKU would give an order line two meanings and no way to choose between them. Capitalization is ignored because a shop never sells two SKUs that differ only in capital letters.

“Check the statement about when staff mark an order fulfilled. Orders post automatically only with it.”

Making the standing statement for the Commerce7 connection on Inventory Management.

A removal is dated the day the wine leaves the bonded premises or is handed over, but Commerce7 only records the day someone marks the order fulfilled. Those are the same day only if your staff mark it then and not when they pack it, so automatic posting depends on you confirming that.

“Choose at least one way your orders leave bond.”

Making the standing statement for the Commerce7 connection on Inventory Management.

An order leaves bond when it's shipped or handed over, or it was moved to a taxpaid location first, or a fulfillment house holding it in bond removes it on its own return. Each one is recorded differently, so the statement names the ways your winery works. A sale made some other way waits for a person to handle it.

“Choose which of your sales channels Commerce7 handles.”

Making the standing statement for the Commerce7 connection on Inventory Management.

Sales on channels Commerce7 handles come in from its orders, and sales on every other channel are logged by hand on the ledger, as they are today. Naming the channels tells Fermata which sales come from Commerce7, so the ledger can warn you before the same sale is logged twice. A statement naming no channels says nothing.

“There's no standing statement for this connection, so there's nothing to withdraw.”

Withdrawing the standing statement for the Commerce7 connection on Inventory Management.

Withdrawing a statement is recorded next to the statement it ends, with who withdrew it and when. With no statement, there's nothing to end, and recording a withdrawal anyway would put a name and date on the record for something that changed nothing.

“Choose one of your bonded fulfillment houses: a trade partner with a registry number.”

Mapping a Commerce7 SKU as sold from a fulfillment house on Inventory Management.

A fulfillment house holding wine in bond is another bonded premises, and the wine that reached it was a transfer in bond recorded against its registry number. A partner with no registry number couldn't have received one, so choose a partner whose card has the number, or add it to the card first.

“Choose how a sale of this wine picks its lot.”

Choosing which lot a wine's sales come from, on Inventory Management.

Each cased taxpaid entry names one lot, so a wine made from several lots needs a rule for which lot a sale comes from: the oldest bottling first, in proportion to what each lot has in bottle, or a lot you choose. That's your decision, not the software's, so anything other than these three is refused.

“Choose the lot this wine's sales come from. It has to be one of the wine's own lots.”

Choosing a specific lot for a wine's sales on Inventory Management.

Every sale of the wine is drawn from the lot you choose, so it has to be one of the wine's own lots. Another lot would put a different wine's bottles on the sale, and a blank would leave the rule with no lot to use.

“There's no rule for this wine, so there's nothing to clear.”

Clearing the lot rule for a wine's sales on Inventory Management.

Clearing a rule sends a wine's sales back to wait for a person whenever the wine comes from several lots. A wine with no rule is already like that, so clearing would change nothing, and saying it did would suggest a rule had been in place when none was.

“Choose one of your wines.”

Setting or clearing the lot rule for a wine that isn't this winery's.

The rule is about your own wine, and the form only offers your wines. A wine ID from anywhere else is either out of date or tampered with.

“Choose one of the mapped SKUs.”

Editing or removing a SKU mapping that isn't this winery's, or was already removed.

The app looks up the mapping again when you click, within your own winery's records. A mapping that belongs to another winery simply isn't found, so the message says the row isn't here and never that it exists somewhere else.

“Enter the fewest containers you want here, as a whole number greater than zero.”

Setting a minimum for a wine at a taxpaid location on Inventory Management.

A minimum is compared with the stock the record expects, in whole containers, so a fraction has nothing to compare with. A minimum of zero would never be reached, so it would mean no minimum at all; to have no minimum, clear the row instead. A blank is refused rather than treated as zero.

“That minimum isn't on the list. It may have been cleared already.”

Clearing a minimum that isn't this winery's, or was already cleared.

The app looks up the minimum again when you click, within your own winery's records, so a minimum cleared from another screen is simply gone. The message says the row isn't here and never that it exists somewhere else.

“Choose what happened to the cases: sold, poured or used, broken, moved to another location, or returned to bond.”

Recording what happened at a taxpaid location on Inventory Management.

Each stock entry either adds to a location or takes from it, depending on what happened, and the stock a location should have is the total of those. An entry with no kind couldn't be counted either way, so it would sit in the record as containers that neither arrived nor left.

“Choose the wine the containers hold.”

Recording stock at a taxpaid location, or mapping a Commerce7 SKU to a wine.

Stock is kept by wine and size at each location, and counts are checked against those totals. An entry with no wine couldn't join any total, so it would never be counted. The list offers the wines the record already expects there, and any other wine on your shelf.

“Choose the location the cases went to.”

Transferring stock between taxpaid locations.

A transfer is two entries, one out of a location and one into another, saved together so the stock is never nowhere. Without the second location, only the half that leaves could be saved, which would look like a loss at the first location, and a later count would wrongly report it as shrinkage.

“A transfer needs two different locations. These cases are already where you're sending them.”

Transferring stock between taxpaid locations.

Moving cases out of a place and back into the same place would save two entries that cancel out, while still showing in the history as a move someone made. Nothing would be gained, so it's refused.

“That entry can't be reversed here. An arrival or a return is tied to a ledger entry, which you correct on the ledger panel with a reversing entry. A count's difference belongs to the count, and a new count corrects it.”

Reversing an entry on a taxpaid location's page.

Reversing only the stock side would leave the ledger and the stock record disagreeing about one event: a removal still on Section B line 8 with its cases back nowhere. A count's difference is the result of a signed count, which another count checks. Only draws (sales, pours, breakage) and the two halves of a transfer can be reversed here.

“A reversal can't be reversed. Record the entry again instead.”

Reversing an entry on a taxpaid location's page.

Reversing a reversal would add a third entry saying the first one stands, and anyone reading the history would have to add up three entries to learn one fact. Recording the event again is one entry that says what happened, and the history reads in order: the entry, its reversal, and the entry as it should have been.

“That entry has already been reversed.”

Reversing an entry on a taxpaid location's page.

A second reversal would put the containers back twice, and the location would then expect more than ever arrived. The database allows only one reversal per entry, so if two people click at once, the second one sees this message.

“That isn't a sale recorded on this winery's DTC Sales page.”

Undoing or taking back a sale on the DTC Sales page.

The app looks up the sale within your own winery's records, so another winery's sale and an ID that never existed both find nothing. The message is the same for both, so it reveals nothing about other wineries, and nothing is saved.

“A sale is recorded on the day the wine left, and that date is after today.”

Recording a sale on the DTC Sales page.

A taxable removal is recorded at the time of sale (TTB's FAQ W5), and the record shows "the date of removal" (27 CFR 24.310). A sale dated tomorrow is a removal that hasn't happened, and recording it now would count it before the wine had left.

“Choose the channel the sale was made through.”

Recording a sale on the DTC Sales page.

Every taxable removal records its channel, and the operations report and the excise working paper add up by channel. A sale with no channel wouldn't be counted anywhere, and a channel that isn't on the list couldn't be added up.

“A sale needs at least one line: a wine, its container size and how many.”

Recording a sale on the DTC Sales page.

A sale is wine that left, and a sale with no lines moved no wine. The form keeps a spare empty row for the next line and ignores it when it's blank, so this means every row was left empty.

“Choose where this line was sold from: bond, or one of your taxpaid locations.”

Recording a sale on the DTC Sales page.

A line sold from bond is a taxable removal on the ledger. A line sold from a taxpaid location is taken from that location's stock, which was removed from bond when it moved there. They're different records, and a line with no source, or a location that isn't yours, can't be saved to either.

“This entry can't be undone here. Correct a bottling, a dump to bulk, a count's difference or an entry from the move screen where it was made.”

Clicking Undo on an entry in the operations report's ledger.

Some entries are part of a larger action. An entry from the move screen moved wine between vessels and lots together with others (a racking and its loss, a press, a blend, production), and undoing one entry would leave the rest. A bottling and a dump to bulk are two entries on two books made together. A count's difference is the result of a signed count, which another count checks. The database refuses the same entries, so the rule holds wherever the request comes from.

What to doFor a move, record the correcting move on the move screen. For a bottling, record what was actually bottled. For a count, take another count.

“This removal was recorded before Fermata kept track of which vessels it came from, so there's nothing to put back.”

Clicking Undo on a bulk removal in the operations report's ledger.

Undoing a removal puts the wine back where it came from: the lot's gallons and each vessel's fill. An older entry doesn't say which vessels the wine came from or how much each gave, and spreading it over the lot's vessels now would be a guess.

What to doLog the correction as its own entry (a gain, with the reason in the note), or take a count.

“A vessel this removal came from no longer exists, so its fill can't be put back.”

Clicking Undo on a bulk removal in the operations report's ledger.

Undoing puts each vessel's fill back to what it was before the removal. A vessel deleted since has no fill to put back, and leaving it out would return the lot's gallons without the vessel that held them.

What to doLog the correction as its own entry, or take a count.

…has changed since this removal…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Clicking Undo on a bulk removal in the operations report's ledger.

Undoing puts each vessel back to its fill before the removal, which is only right if the vessel is still as the removal left it. If it's been racked, topped, refilled or emptied since, putting the gallons back into it would be a guess about where the wine is now.

What to doLog the correction as its own entry (a gain, with the reason in the note), or take a count.

…now holds less on the ledger than this arrival added…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Clicking Undo on wine received in bond in the operations report's ledger.

Undoing an arrival takes its gallons back off the lot. If the lot has since given up more than that, the wine has already moved on (moved, blended or bottled), and taking the arrival off would put the lot below zero.

What to doLog the correction as its own entry where the wine is now, or take a count.

“This loss was recorded by a top-up. Correct it on the top-up instead.”

Clicking Undo on a processing loss in the operations report's ledger.

A measured top-up records the evaporation it replaced as a processing loss, and the two records are linked. Undoing the loss alone would leave the top-up saying wine evaporated when, on the ledger, it didn't.

“An undo can't be undone. Record the entry again instead.”

Clicking Undo on a reversing entry in the operations report's ledger.

Undoing an undo would add a third entry saying the first one stands, and an examiner would have to add up three entries to learn one fact. Recording the entry again is one entry that says what happened, and the ledger reads in order: the entry, the entry that undid it, and the entry as it should have been.

…isn't rounded to the tenth of a gallon…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Logging a taxable removal of bulk wine in the operations report's ledger.

A barrel or any container over 60 liters sold taxpaid is bulk wine taken off the bulk book. Its volume is the wine filled into it, measured and recorded to the tenth of a gallon, with five hundredths rounding up (27 CFR 24.270(b) and 26 U.S.C. 5041(d)). Recorded that way, each day's figure on Section A line 14 is the exact total of its removals.

What to doRecord the measured fill to the tenth of a gallon. The message gives the figure.

“Choose the tank or barrel the wine is drawn from. It has to be one of yours that holds wine.”

Recording a sale of bulk wine from a vessel on the DTC Sales page.

A barrel sold taxpaid is drawn from a vessel in bond, and the record keeps which vessel and its fill before and after, so the lot's gallons and the vessel go down together and an undo can put both back. A vessel that isn't in this cellar, or holds nothing, has no wine to draw.

…is still fermenting, so there's no wine to sell yet…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Recording a sale of bulk wine from a vessel on the DTC Sales page.

A lot in its fermenters holds must or juice that the ledger carries as an estimate, not as wine. Wine can leave bond taxpaid once it's wine: the press or the gauge puts it on the ledger, and then it can be sold from the tank.

“A container of 60 liters or less counts as packaged wine. Package it on the move screen and sell it as cases.”

Recording a sale of bulk wine from a vessel on the DTC Sales page.

27 CFR 24.10 makes a container larger than 60 liters a bulk container, and wine in it bulk wine, which leaves the bulk book on Section A line 14. Wine in a container of 60 liters or less, such as a keg or a large box, is reported with bottled wine and leaves taxpaid on Section B line 8. So it's packaged first and sold from the cased book like any other container.

“Enter how much wine went into the container, measured, in gallons.”

Recording a sale of bulk wine from a vessel on the DTC Sales page.

A barrel sold taxpaid is recorded at the wine actually filled into it, measured, never the container's size, which a barrel rarely holds exactly. It's recorded to the tenth of a gallon, with five hundredths rounding up.

“That fill is more than the container holds.”

Recording a sale of bulk wine from a vessel on the DTC Sales page.

A measured fill larger than the container is a typo in one box or the other, and either figure would be taken as fact by the barrel's tag and by Section A line 14.

“That line of the sale is no longer on record, so it can't be taken back.”

Taking back a buyer's bottles under Recent sales on DTC Sales.

A take-back is counted against a line of the sale as it's recorded now. If the line's entries were undone (the sale, or the entry on the ledger panel or the location's page), it sold nothing that could come back, and recording a return would add bottles that never left.

“This line's ledger entry has no container size, so bottles can't be counted back against it here.”

Taking back a buyer's bottles under Recent sales on DTC Sales.

A take-back counts bottles, but the ledger records gallons. A sale's entry keeps the container size, which turns its gallons back into a number of bottles. An older entry without a size can't say how many bottles it was, and guessing a size could let more come back than left.

What to doRecord the bottles where the record is kept: a return to bond in the operations report's ledger, or on the location's own page.

“Everything this line sold has already come back.”

Taking back a buyer's bottles under Recent sales on DTC Sales.

A take-back is limited to what the line sold minus what has already come back, so the same bottles can't be received twice: once into bond and again onto a shelf, or by two people at once.

…is more than can come back…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Taking back a buyer's bottles under Recent sales on DTC Sales.

A take-back is limited to what the line sold minus what has already come back. More would add bottles that never left, to the location's expected stock and to Section B line 4.

“A take-back can't be dated before the sale.”

Taking back a buyer's bottles under Recent sales on DTC Sales.

The bottles can't have come back before they left. A date before the sale would record wine coming back that no one had bought yet.

“Choose where the bottles go back: into bond, or onto a shelf this line can go to.”

Taking back a buyer's bottles under Recent sales on DTC Sales.

Bottles sold from a location go back on that location's shelf. Bottles sold from bond go back into bond, or onto one of your own locations stated as designated taxpaid wine premises. They can't go onto a bonded tasting room with no taxpaid area, a place you run elsewhere, or someone else's place, because receiving them there counts as a return to bond. The choice comes from a form, so it's checked against the same list.

“Choose which wine the bottles are. The lot is part of more than one wine.”

Taking back a buyer's bottles onto a taxpaid location's shelf on DTC Sales.

A location's stock is kept by wine and size, but a ledger entry names only its lot. If the lot is part of one wine, that's the answer. If it's part of several, nothing on the sale says which one the buyer had, and choosing for you could put the bottles on the wrong line of the shelf.

“Enter the name and address of the person who brought the bottles back.”

Taking back a buyer's bottles onto a taxpaid location's shelf on DTC Sales.

Bottles received on taxpaid wine premises are a receipt in the record 27 CFR 24.311 has the winery keep, and 24.311(a)(1) asks who they were received from, with no exception under 80 liters as there is for a sale. The boxes start with the buyer the sale recorded; a sale under 80 liters didn't record one.

“Bottles were taken back against this sale. Undo the take-back first, then the sale.”

Clicking Undo on a sale under Recent sales on DTC Sales.

Undoing the sale while a take-back stands would leave bottles on a shelf or in bond that, on the record, never left. Each is undone on its own, the take-back first, so the record never shows more coming back than went out.

“That entry has already been undone.”

Clicking Undo on a ledger entry someone has already undone.

A second reversing entry would take the same gallons off line 8 again. The database allows only one reversal per entry, so if two people click at once, the second one sees this message.

“That isn't one of this winery's ledger entries.”

Clicking Undo in the operations report's ledger.

The app looks up the entry within your own winery's records, so another winery's entry and an ID that never existed both find nothing. The message is the same for both, so it reveals nothing about other wineries, and nothing is saved.

“That isn't one of this winery's stock entries.”

Reversing an entry on a taxpaid location's page.

The app looks up the entry within your own winery's records, so another winery's entry and an ID that never existed both find nothing. The message is the same for both, so it reveals nothing about other wineries, and the record stays exactly as it was.

“Check the statement box to sign the count.”

Signing a count of a taxpaid location on Inventory Management.

The statement says the signer checked every line and wrote down what they found, and it's kept word for word on the count. A count signed with a button alone would carry a statement no one read, and the differences it records would rest on it. Checking the box is the one deliberate step the record asks for.

“That count is signed and can't be changed. Take another count.”

Saving, adding to, signing again or discarding a count of a taxpaid location that's already signed.

A signed count recorded its differences as stock entries that point to it, and the database locks the count and its lines from then on. Changing a line afterward would leave those entries pointing at nothing, and signing again would record the differences twice. To count a place again, start a new sheet.

“That wine and size already has a line on this sheet.”

Adding a line to a count of a taxpaid location.

Each wine at a size is one line, and signing compares each line once with what the record expects. A second line for the same wine and size would record two differences against one figure, so the database refuses it. Put the figure on the line that's already there.

“That kind of entry isn't logged here. A count's difference is posted by signing a count, and what was on hand when the books opened is entered under its own choice.”

Posting a receipt of a kind the shelf's form doesn't offer, such as a count's difference typed by hand.

A difference a count found is its own kind of row, posted only by a signed count, so a shortfall can never be typed in as one and later read as a count that was never taken. The opening entry is a statement about the books with its own checks, and it goes through its own path.

“Enter what happened to it. A loss logged outside a count needs its reason, for example a bag that got wet or a scoop that spilled.”

Logging a loss (Lost or thrown out) on the additives shelf with the note blank.

A loss you watched happen is its own row with its reason, kept apart from what a count finds. Without the reason it would be a shortfall you saw and didn't explain, which is exactly what the count's own difference row is for. Register question 19's reading keeps the two apart.

“That isn't a kind of supply Fermata keeps a record of yet.”

Logging a delivery, stating a minimum or starting a count for a kind of supply other than the additives, the yeast strains and the malolactic cultures.

The supplies record holds additives, yeast strains and malolactic cultures, each keyed by its own shelf's key. Spray products and dry goods join it in later slices under their own kinds, and until they do a row under one of those kinds would be a figure no page shows and no count checks.

“Choose the strain that was delivered.”

Logging a delivery on the yeast shelf without choosing a strain, or naming one neither shelf carries.

A delivery is a row of the strain's own account, and what is on hand of that strain is worked out from its deliveries and the weight of every pitch recorded on the lots. A quantity under no strain, or under one that isn't on the shared shelf or the winery's own, would be a figure no shelf line could show, so the form asks instead of picking the first strain on the shelf.

“Choose the culture that was delivered.”

Logging a delivery of a malolactic culture without choosing one, or naming one the shared shelf doesn't carry.

A delivery is a row of the culture's own account, and what is on hand of that culture is worked out from its deliveries and the amount of every pitch recorded on the lots. A quantity under no culture, or under one the shelf doesn't carry, would be a figure no shelf line could show, so the form asks instead of guessing.

“Enter how much was pitched as a number at or above zero, or leave it blank if it wasn't weighed.”

Recording a pitch on the lot page with a weight, or a culture's amount, that isn't a number or is below zero.

The figure takes that much off the shelf's on-hand record, so a figure that isn't a number can't be taken off anything, and a figure below zero would put yeast back on the shelf. A blank is allowed and means the weight wasn't recorded: the pitch stands, takes nothing off the shelf, and the shelf page says how many pitches carry no weight rather than inventing one.

“Choose grams or doses. Those are the units a culture is sold in.”

Logging a culture's delivery or pitch in a unit other than grams or doses.

A culture's account is kept in the unit it is sold in, and a row in another unit is named by the account and left out of the balance rather than converted, because grams and doses of one product aren't one figure without a fact the shelf doesn't hold. Two units are offered so every row is in one of them.

“Choose the spray product that was delivered.”

Logging a delivery of a spray product without choosing one, or naming one neither the shared shelf nor your own products carry.

A delivery is a row of the product's own account, and what is on hand of it is worked out from its deliveries and the amount of it recorded on every spray application. A quantity under no product, or under one no shelf carries, would be a figure no line could show, so the form asks instead of guessing.

“Enter how much of each product went in the tank as a number above zero, or leave its box blank if it wasn't measured.”

Logging a spray application with an amount for a product that isn't a number or is zero or below.

Each amount comes off that product's on-hand figure on the Supplies page, so a figure that isn't a number can't be taken off anything, and a product is either in the tank or it isn't, so zero is a blank box said another way. A blank is allowed and means the amount wasn't recorded: the application stands, takes nothing off the shelf, and the shelf says how many applications carry no amount rather than inventing one.

“Choose the unit: lb or oz by weight, or gal, qt, pt or fl oz by volume.”

Logging a spray application or a delivery of a spray product with an amount and no unit, or a unit not on the list.

A product's account is kept in pounds or gallons, and every other unit on the list is converted by its own definition: 16 oz to the pound, 128 fl oz to the gallon. A unit off the list has no such definition here, so the figure couldn't be counted, and the form asks rather than guessing which unit was meant.

“Log a delivery of this product first, so Fermata knows whether it's measured by weight or by volume.”

Setting a minimum for a spray product, or adding it to a count, when its shelf rate names no unit and nothing about it is on record yet.

A product's on-hand figure is kept in pounds or in gallons, and which one comes from the rate on the shelf or the first delivery logged. A product with neither has no unit to keep a minimum or a count in, and a figure in the wrong one would be compared with weight when it means volume, which no conversion can fix.

“Enter the fewest you want on hand, in the item's own unit, as a number greater than zero.”

Setting a minimum for an additive on the Supplies pages.

A minimum is the winery's own figure, read against what the record holds. A minimum of zero is no minimum at all, and clearing the row is how that is said; a blank or a figure below zero would be read as a figure the winery never chose, which is the figure this record refuses to invent.

“There's no such count of the supplies on this account.”

Opening or acting on a count of the supplies on hand by its ID.

The app looks up the count within your own winery's records, so another winery's count and an ID that never existed both find nothing. The message is the same for both, so it reveals nothing about any count.

“That count is signed and can't be changed. Take another count.”

Writing to, adding a line to, signing again or discarding a signed count of the supplies on hand.

A signed count's lines are what its difference rows were measured against. Changing a line afterward would leave a posted difference pointing at a figure that was never counted, so the database freezes the count and its lines for every role, and a shelf that has moved since is counted again.

“Check the statement box to sign the count.”

Signing a count of the supplies on hand without the statement ticked.

The statement is what the signature means: that every line was walked and the figures are what was found. A required attribute on the box is a hint to a browser, not a boundary, so the server asks for the tick itself before anything is posted.

“That item already has a line on this sheet.”

Adding a line to a count of the supplies on hand for an item the sheet already lists.

A count has one line per item, so one figure is what the record is checked against. A second line for the same item would post two differences for one shelf, and the database keeps one line per item on a count.

“That isn't one of the choices for where a count's difference goes on Part IV.”

Recording the standing decision on Part IV's treatment of a difference a count found, with a choice outside the two offered.

The two choices are the ones register question 19's answer found the form leaves open: Part IV on book figures with the count kept beside it, or a shortfall on line 8 and an overage on line 2 with the Part X sentence. A choice outside them would place a figure on a line the answer never read.

“There's no such count of a taxpaid location on this account.”

Opening or acting on a count of a taxpaid location by its ID.

The app looks up the count within your own winery's records, so another winery's count and an ID that never existed both find nothing. The message is the same for both, so it reveals nothing about any count.

“Enter a name for the place.”

Adding a taxpaid location on Inventory Management.

A location is where taxpaid wine sits, and every stock entry, count and shrinkage figure names it. A place with no name would show as a blank on all of them. You can correct the name later, and a location is never deleted.

“A location with that name is already on the list, active or retired.”

Adding or renaming a taxpaid location on Inventory Management.

A retired location keeps its name so the stock entries, counts and shrinkage that name it still make sense. A second place with the same name would make all of them unclear from the day it was added. For two festivals in two years, adding the year to the name is the usual way.

“Enter the address of this place. Moving cases into someone else's place is a taxpaid removal sold or delivered to them, and the entry records their name and address.”

Saving a taxpaid location run by someone else (a warehouse, a shop, a partner) with no address.

27 CFR 24.310's record of a taxpaid removal includes the name and address of whoever the wine was shipped or delivered to, and moving cases into someone else's warehouse is exactly that. The entry can't be edited and copies the location's name and address the day it's saved, so a location with no address would save entries that could never be completed. Your own taxpaid premises don't need an address here; your winery's name and premises address are used.

“Choose how this place became taxpaid wine premises (your approved application, a notice of a change in use, or an approved alternation), or that it's a place you run at another address.”

Saving one of your own taxpaid locations without saying how it became taxpaid premises.

A place is taxpaid wine premises only if your approved TTB F 5120.25 names it (27 CFR 24.102, 24.109), a notice of a change in use adds it (24.131), or an approved alternation makes it so (24.135). A place none of those cover still holds wine in bond, and moving wine into it would set the tax before the wine left bond. Fermata can't see your application, so you say which applies, and your name is kept with it. It's easy to answer the day you add the place and hard to work out later. A place you run at another address is none of the three, and you say so.

“Enter the address of this place you run elsewhere. Moving cases into it is a taxpaid removal to your winery at that address, and the entry records it.”

Saving one of your own locations marked as away from your wine premises, with no address.

27 CFR 24.310's record of a taxpaid removal includes the name and address of whoever the wine was shipped or delivered to. For your own taxpaid premises, that's your winery at its premises address. For a place you run elsewhere (an off-site tasting room, a shop, a festival stand), it's your winery at that place, and the premises address would record the cases going somewhere they didn't. The entry can't be edited and copies the address the day it's saved.

“That date is after today. Enter the date the application or alternation was approved, or the notice was sent.”

Saving a taxpaid location with the date of its approval, notice or alternation later than today.

Each of the three has already happened: TTB approved an application or an alternation, or you sent a notice before the change (27 CFR 24.131). A future date can't be when it happened, and a record dated ahead of itself would look like a designation you didn't hold yet. The date is optional; a blank is better than a guess.

…records who the wine was sold or delivered to…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Logging a taxpaid removal on the ledger panel, or recording a sale at a taxpaid location, of 80 liters or more with the buyer's name or address blank, or of any size once the 80-liter figure hasn't been checked for a year.

27 CFR 24.310 has the taxpaid removals record include the name and address of whoever the wine was shipped or delivered to, except for an individual sale of less than 80 liters (24.311(b)(1) says the same for the taxpaid wine record). Fermata keeps the 80-liter figure with its source and the date it was checked. If it goes more than a year without being checked, the app asks for the buyer on every sale, to be safe. The entry can't be edited, so a blank couldn't be filled in later. Below 80 liters the boxes are offered but not required.

“Choose one of your taxpaid locations.”

Moving cases out of bond on Inventory Management.

The move records the taxpaid removal on the ledger and the stock arriving at a place, together. Without a place for it to arrive at, it would be an ordinary removal like any logged on the ledger panel, which is where a case sold at the door belongs. This form is for moving wine into a location, so it asks for one.

“That location is retired, so nothing can arrive there now.”

Moving cases out of bond on Inventory Management.

A retired location keeps its history but takes no new stock. Nothing on this record is ever deleted, so retiring is how a place is closed. A festival that's over, or a storeroom given up, stays readable; send the wine to an active place, or add the place again under a new name.

“Choose the wine and one of the lots it's made from.”

Moving cases out of bond on Inventory Management.

The ledger entry the move records is against a lot, which is what the cased book tracks bottles for and what the physical inventory counts. The stock is kept by wine, which is what a shelf, a shop and a count are about. The lot has to be one of the wine's own lots, or the stock would name a wine the bottles never were.

“Enter the container size in milliliters.”

Moving cases out of bond on Inventory Management.

Taxpaid stock is kept as a count at a size, and the gallons on the ledger come from both: twelve 750s and twelve 375s are different amounts of wine. The list offers the sizes on your shelf and accepts one you type. A size over 60 liters is a bulk container and gets its own message.

“Enter how many containers moved, as a whole number.”

Moving cases out of bond on Inventory Management.

A count of zero isn't a removal of none; it's a box no one filled in. Part of a bottle isn't something that sits on a shelf. The gallons on the ledger are the count times the size, so a blank here would be a blank on Section B line 8.

“Enter the date it moved.”

Moving cases out of bond on Inventory Management.

The taxpaid removal is dated on the ledger and placed in a reporting period by that date, and the stock entry has the same date so a location's expected stock can be read for any day. A move with no date couldn't be placed in any period or any count.

“Enter the name the news should be addressed to.”

Signing up for news on the front page.

Every issue opens with the name it was sent to, and a list of bare email addresses fills up with mail no one remembers asking for. The winery, the state and the size are optional; they only help Fermata know who's interested. A letter needs a name and an address.

“That doesn't look like an email address. Check it and send it again.”

Signing up for news on the front page.

The confirmation link is sent to this address, so a mistyped one is a signup that can never be confirmed. The check is deliberately simple (something, an @ sign, a domain with a dot in it), because the confirmation link is what finds out whether the address really works.

What to doThe most common slips are a comma instead of a dot, or a space inside the address.

“One of the choices sent isn't one the form offers. Choose again and send it.”

Signing up for news on the front page.

The state and the size are lists, so the answers can be counted and compared; a state typed six ways would be six states. A value the form doesn't offer can only come from something other than the form, so it's refused rather than saved.

“One of the boxes has more text than the form accepts. Shorten it and send it again.”

Signing up for news on the front page.

A name or a winery runs to a few dozen characters. The limit is generous, and it stops the form being used to store pages of text against someone's address.

“Too many requests from here. Wait fifteen minutes and try again.”

Signing up for news on the front page.

There's a fifteen-minute limit on how many requests one network address can make, kept separate from the sign-in limit, so signing up for news never uses up the limit someone needs to sign in. It stops the form being used to send confirmation emails to a list of other people's addresses.

“An issue needs a subject and a body before it can be sent.”

Sending the news on the staff console.

An issue goes to every confirmed address at once and can't be recalled. A blank subject is the most common sign a draft was sent by mistake, and a blank body is a letter that says nothing, so both are refused before a single message goes out.

“That issue is longer than one email can carry. Shorten it, or send it as two.”

Sending the news on the staff console.

The subject is limited to what an email program shows on one line, and the body to well within what email providers accept in one plain-text message, so an issue is never cut off partway in someone's inbox without warning.

“Enter the name of the product the formula is for, as the approval names it.”

Saving an approved formula in Settings with the product name blank.

A formula is TTB's approval of one product, named on TTB F 5120.29, and the record here is a copy of that approval. A formula with a number and no name couldn't be told apart from the others on a card that holds several, so the name comes first.

“Enter the formula's number as TTB approved it, a whole number from 1 up.”

Saving an approved formula with the number blank, zero, or not a whole number.

27 CFR 24.81 has the proprietor number formulas in order starting at 1, and 24.303(b) has every lot made under a formula record its approved number. The number ties a batch to its approval, so a formula without one can't have anything made under it.

What to doCopy the number from the approved TTB F 5120.29. The box suggests the next number in your own series.

“Another of your formulas from the same series already has that number. Each number is used once, and a new formula takes the next one.”

Saving an approved formula with a number another of your formulas from the same origin already has.

A number identifies one approval. If two formulas shared a number, every batch made under it would be unclear about which formula it was made under. A formula adopted from an outgoing proprietor keeps that proprietor's number in its own series, so your own number 3 and an adopted number 3 are two different formulas and don't conflict.

What to doA changed recipe is a new formula under 27 CFR 24.81: end the old one and enter the new one at the next number.

“A formula adopted from an outgoing proprietor needs both that proprietor's name and the date TTB approved the adoption.”

Saving an approved formula marked as adopted, with the proprietor or the adoption date blank.

Under 27 CFR 24.127, an adoption is an application listing each formula by number, product and approval date, authorized by the outgoing proprietor. The number is theirs and only means something next to their name, and the date TTB approved the adoption is when you could start making wine under it. Without both, the formula belongs to no one's series.

“Choose the class the approval names: vermouth, another special natural wine, or other wine.”

Saving an approved formula with no class chosen, or one the card doesn't offer.

The class decides where Part IX of the report counts the wine and which blending the regulation allows, and it's TTB's decision. Some wines, such as one with a fruit juice added on its own, sit on the edge between classes, and TTB's own formula tool can put them in either. Fermata records the class the approval names and never works it out from the ingredients.

“Fermata doesn't record formulas for agricultural wine yet. This card holds formulas for special natural wine and other wine.”

Choosing agricultural wine as a formula's class, or offering an agricultural formula for a batch.

Agricultural wine needs a formula too (27 CFR 24.201), and for now Fermata lets a lot be a honey wine without one recorded. It's reported like natural wine rather than in Part IX, so its record works differently. A class the card offered and then reported nowhere would look recorded when it wasn't.

“Enter the statement of composition as TTB approved it. It becomes the kind of wine on every batch made under the formula.”

Saving an approved formula with the statement of composition blank.

A formula wine's label carries a statement of composition instead of a class and type (27 CFR 4.34), and the kind of wine on every removal record (24.310) is those words. Each batch made under the formula copies them, so a formula without them would make wine with no kind.

“Enter the date TTB approved the formula.”

Saving an approved formula with the approval date blank or not a real date.

27 CFR 24.80 doesn't allow making the wine before the formula is approved, so the approval date is the first day batches can be made under it, and 24.127 lists it next to the number and product on an adoption. Without the date, the record can't show whether a batch was made under an approval in effect.

“One of the materials isn't on either shelf. Add it under Supplies first, then name it on the formula.”

Saving an approved formula that names a material on neither the shared additive shelf nor your own.

A formula names its flavorings and materials from your supplies shelf, so each batch can record them as additions: the dose, the volume at dosing and the 24.303(h) flavoring account. A name that matches nothing on the shelf can't have anything recorded against it, so the shelf comes first.

What to doSupplies, Additives, Your own materials, in the Flavoring category for a juice, herb or extract.

“Only a special natural wine formula can be the same type as another, and only within its class, such as vermouth with vermouth. Other wine has no blending allowance like this.”

Saving an approved formula that names another as the same type, when either isn't a special natural wine of the same class.

27 CFR 24.198 lets special natural wines made under formulas of the same type be blended without a further formula; its own example is two sweet vermouths. A type is narrower than a class, so a vermouth and another special natural wine are never the same type. 24.218 gives other wine no blending permission at all, so a link from an other-wine formula would claim an allowance the regulation doesn't give.

“Enter a name for each essence, or remove the empty row.”

Saving an approved formula with an essence row that has no name.

An essence is named in the approval, and 27 CFR 24.303(g) and (h) record its purchase, use and disposition by name, so a row with no name records nothing. Usually it's a row that was added and left empty, so the message suggests removing it.

“An essence made elsewhere needs its manufacturer, the manufacturer's nonbeverage drawback formula number, and the date TTB approved it.”

Saving an approved formula with an essence made elsewhere whose manufacturer, drawback formula number or approval date is blank.

27 CFR 24.87 has an essence made elsewhere shown on TTB F 5120.29 by exactly those three things, and the essence can't be used in formula wine before the manufacturer has TTB's approval. Together they tie the flavoring to its own approval, so if one is missing no one can check it.

“An essence made on your premises under a separate formula needs that formula's serial number, a whole number from 1 up.”

Saving an approved formula with an essence made on the premises under a separate formula whose number isn't a whole number.

27 CFR 24.86 has an essence made on your premises under its own formula shown on the wine's TTB F 5120.29 by that formula's serial number. Leaving the box blank means the essence's process is part of this formula, which 24.86 also allows. A number that isn't a serial number means neither.

“That material isn't on either shelf. An essence is stocked as a flavoring on the supplies shelf, or not stocked at all.”

Saving an approved formula whose essence row links to a stocked material that neither the shared shelf nor your own shelf has.

27 CFR 24.303(g) asks for the quantity of essences bought and how they were used or disposed of, and Fermata records a purchase only as a delivery logged against a material on the shelf. The link from the formula's essence to that material is how the record finds those deliveries; a link to a material that doesn't exist would point nowhere and look stocked.

“This essence is stocked as a material that the formula also lists as a flavoring. Enter it once, on the essence row.”

Saving an approved formula whose essence row is stocked as a material the formula's materials list also names.

A batch records the formula's materials with an amount each, and its essences with a volume and an alcohol each, and the gain is measured against what both add up to. One product entered both ways would be offered twice and its liquid counted twice, so it's entered once, as the essence, where the 24.85 limits are worked out for it.

“This formula has ended and can't be changed. A change to a formula is a new formula, with the next number.”

Editing or ending an approved formula that has already ended.

Under 27 CFR 24.80, an approval stays in effect until it's revoked, superseded or surrendered, and 24.81 makes any change a new formula, with the old one surrendered. Once a formula has ended, its record shows what its batches were made under, so the database refuses any change to it, including to the ending.

“Choose how the formula ended (superseded, revoked or surrendered) and enter the date.”

Ending an approved formula without choosing how, or without a real date.

27 CFR 24.80 names those three ways an approval ends, and no others, and the date it ended is the last day batches can be made under it. The ending is saved once and locked, so both are asked for together.

“A formula can't end before the date it was approved.”

Ending an approved formula on a date before its approval date.

An approval can't end before it began, so one of the two dates is a typo. The ending is saved once and can't be changed, so it's refused rather than locking the typo in for good.

“That formula has ended. Batches can only be made under a formula that's in effect.”

Offering a formula that has ended for a new batch of formula wine.

27 CFR 24.80 doesn't allow making formula wine without an approval in effect, and an approval that was revoked, superseded or surrendered isn't in effect. The ended formula stays on record for the batches already made under it; new batches are made under the formula that replaced it.

“Choose the formula this batch is made under. A special natural wine or other wine has to be made under a formula TTB has approved.”

Making formula wine on the move screen with no formula chosen, or one that isn't in effect.

27 CFR 24.80 doesn't allow making a special natural wine or an other-than-standard wine until TTB approves a formula covering every ingredient and process, and 24.303(b) has every lot record its approved formula number. The two entries this step records copy that number, so a batch with no formula is one the record can't say anything about.

What to doRecord the approval in Settings, Approved formulas, then come back to the batch.

“How many gallons of formula wine came out, measured after the flavoring went in? The wine used was measured before; the gain is the difference.”

Making formula wine with the volume produced blank or zero.

27 CFR 24.303(d) has the record show the volume produced and the gain or loss, found by comparing the finished volume with the volume used. That takes two measurements, before and after, never a figure worked out from what went in. Without the volume produced, the record has only half of that comparison.

“Enter the formula wine's measured alcohol and the tax class it puts the wine in. The class is the finished wine's, not the base wine's.”

Making formula wine with the alcohol blank, or a class that isn't one of the still wine classes.

The formula wine goes on the report in the column its own measured alcohol puts it in, which can differ from the base wine's: an extract containing spirits raises it, and juice lowers it. Only still wine classes are offered, because adding flavoring to finished wine makes a still wine. A sparkling or carbonated formula wine is reclassified later, and hard cider is never a formula wine with another fruit in it (27 CFR 24.332).

“Formula wine has to go into an empty vessel, or one holding a lot made under this same formula. It can't share a vessel with standard wine or with wine made under another formula.”

Making formula wine into a vessel that holds standard wine, the base lot itself, or a lot under a different formula.

27 CFR 24.218(b) keeps other wine separate from standard wine, and 24.198 lets a special natural wine be blended only with wine of the same class and kind, or with natural wine when making more special natural wine under its formula. A vessel holding two of those would be an unrecorded blend, and the record couldn't say which formula any of it was made under.

“The volume gained or lost differs from what the flavorings added by more than a measuring difference. Explain why. The explanation is saved with the entry and can't be added later.”

Making formula wine where the change in volume differs from the liquid flavorings' own gallons by more than the tolerance, with no explanation.

27 CFR 24.303(e) has the record explain any unusual loss or gain, and the entry that records the gain can't be edited. Within the tolerance, the difference is just two gauge readings disagreeing, and the explanation is optional. Beyond it, something happened that the readings don't account for, and the person at the tank is the one who knows what.

“That lot code is already in use. Give the new formula lot a code of its own, or leave it blank to use the next one.”

Making formula wine into an empty vessel, as a new lot, with a code another lot already has.

A lot's code identifies it on every ledger entry, return and tank card, and the first batch under a formula makes a new lot for the formula wine. Two lots with one code would put two wines' entries under one name. Leaving it blank uses the next code in the base wine's series.

“One of the amounts isn't a number. Each material the formula names takes an amount in its own unit, or stays blank if none went in this batch.”

Making formula wine with a material's amount, or an essence's volume or alcohol, that isn't a number.

Each flavoring that went in is recorded as an addition at the volume of wine used, for the flavoring account in 27 CFR 24.303(h), and an essence's volume and alcohol are used to work out the two limits in 24.85. A box that can't be read is refused by name rather than treated as empty.

“Formula wine is kept separate from standard wine. It can only be blended into a lot made under the same formula, or under a formula of the same type.”

Blending a formula lot into a lot that isn't formula wine.

27 CFR 24.218(b) keeps other wine separate from standard wine, and 24.198 allows a special natural wine to be blended only with other special natural wine of the same class and kind, with heavy bodied blending wine, or with natural wine when making more special natural wine. Blending into a standard lot is none of those, and the receiving lot's record could no longer say what it is.

“Natural wine can go into a special natural wine only as more production under its formula: make formula wine from this lot into that vessel, under the same formula. Other wine stays separate.”

Blending a lot that isn't formula wine into a formula lot.

27 CFR 24.198 lets natural wine of the same kind of fruit join a special natural wine only when making more special natural wine: a batch under the formula, measured before and after, which is what Make formula wine on the move screen records. 24.218(b) gives other wine no such allowance. A plain blend would be production under a formula without being recorded as one.

“This batch would join a lot recorded in a different tax class, and a formula lot has one class. Record the batch in the lot's class, put it in an empty vessel as its own lot, or change the lot's class on its Tax class card first.”

Make formula wine, putting a batch into a vessel holding a formula lot whose class differs from the one measured.

A lot has one tax class, and every entry copies it (27 CFR 24.303(c) records the volume produced by class). A second batch in a different class would either leave one lot reporting two classes, or change the lot's class without the reclassification entry the Tax class card records. The message lists the three ways forward.

“is recorded by Make formula wine on the move screen, which measures the wine used and the wine produced in one step and records both entries with the formula's number.”

Logging Used for formula wine or Formula wine produced by hand on the ledger panel.

27 CFR 24.303 has the record compare the volume produced with the volume used, and 24.303(b) names the approved formula each lot was made under. The two entries come from one measured step, before and after, and a figure typed on its own would be half a comparison with no formula. The panel doesn't offer these kinds, and the server refuses them too.

“These two lots were made under different formulas. Special natural wines can be blended across formulas only if the formulas are the same type, or under a formula TTB approved for the blend.”

Blending two formula lots made under formulas not recorded as the same type.

Under 27 CFR 24.198, blending special natural wines made under different formulas needs an approved formula for the blend, unless the formulas are for the same type, in which case none is needed. Each formula in Settings records which of your formulas are the same type. If a blending formula is approved, the blend is made under it as a batch from each lot.

What to doIn Settings, Approved formulas, mark the two formulas as the same type if they are, or record the blending formula and make the blend under it.

“Was this wine on the premises on the day your books open in Fermata?”

Carrying a lot in on the new-lot form without answering the question about the opening day.

A carried-in lot puts nothing on the ledger, because its gallons are already in the opening balance. That's only true of wine that was here on the day the opening balance describes. Wine that arrived later isn't in any opening balance, so carried in, it would appear on no line of the report. The answer decides how the wine is brought in.

…is a receipt on the ledger, not a carry-in…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Carrying a lot in on the new-lot form, answering that the wine arrived in bond after the day the books open.

Wine received in bond from another premises is reported on the line for wine received in bond, on the day it arrived, backed by the transfer paperwork. The opening balance covers only the day the books open, so wine that came in later isn't in it. Carried in, it would be on the premises with no figure on any return accounting for it.

What to doChoose Bulk received in bond and date it the day it arrived, which puts it on Section A line 7.

…is production, not a carry-in…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Carrying a lot in on the new-lot form, answering that the wine was made from fruit after the day the books open.

Wine fermented after the opening day was produced in a period this ledger covers, and production is reported on the line for wine produced by fermentation when the wine is first measured: at the press for a wine fermented on its skins, or from the lot's gauge card. Carried in, those gallons would be in no opening balance and on no line of the report.

What to doChoose Fruit you picked. Its production goes on Section A line 2 when the wine is measured.

“A lot that's still fermenting can't be carried in. Enter it as must from Fruit you picked, and its production is recorded when the wine is measured.”

Carrying a lot in at the primary ferment, a stage the form doesn't offer for a carry-in.

Must in a fermenter is an estimate of liquid, reported on the return's In fermenters line, and the form's own instruction is to report production when fermentation is complete. A ferment under way on the opening day is that estimate, not wine the opening balance counted, so it's entered as must and records its production at its gauge, just like fruit crushed here.

…the day the books open, so it wasn't here that day…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Carrying a lot in with a vintage later than the day the books open allows.

A vintage is the year a harvest came in, and none of a year's harvest exists on its first day. A carried-in lot is the wine as it was on the day the books open, inside the opening balance. A wine of a later vintage was made after that, so its gallons aren't in any opening balance and, carried in, would appear on no return.

What to doEnter the year of its harvest (or of its youngest wine, for a blend), or bring it in the way it actually came: Fruit you picked, or Bulk received in bond.

“Choose the stage the wine was at on the day the books open.”

Carrying a lot in with a stage the form doesn't offer for a carry-in.

A carried-in lot is wine that has finished fermenting: in bulk, on its stack, or in its containers. A planned lot holds no wine to carry in, and a stage that isn't on the list didn't come from the form, so it's refused rather than read as one of the others.

…is a sparkling wine's stage, reached at tirage…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Carrying a lot in at tirage, on the lees, riddling or disgorged, with a tax class other than sparkling.

Those four stages are bottle-fermented wine on its stack, and a wine becomes sparkling wine for tax purposes at tirage. Carried in under a still class, every bottling of it would go in the still wine column of the return. How it was made (bottle fermented or bulk process) decides which half of the sparkling column it goes in, so that's asked here too.

What to doChoose Sparkling wine as its tax class, and say how it was made.

“Enter the gallons in bottle as a number, or leave it blank for none.”

Carrying a lot in with the gallons in bottle not a number, or below zero.

The bottles a lot is carried in with are read by every cased removal, the physical inventory and the shop's count as what the lot holds in bottle. A figure that isn't a number, or is negative, would be read by all of them as something no one meant, so it's refused rather than ignored.

“A lot carried in as packaged is in its containers, not in a vessel or in bulk. Leave the vessels and bulk gallons empty and enter what was in bottle.”

Carrying a lot in at the packaged stage with a vessel chosen or bulk gallons entered.

Packaged wine has moved from the bulk book to the cased book: it's counted in bottles, and a vessel holding it would be counted again in bulk by the cellar total, the physical inventory and the cellar-against-ledger check. A lot that's partly packaged is carried in at its bulk stage with its bottles alongside.

“The container size is a whole number of milliliters, 60 liters or less, and only goes with wine in bottle.”

Carrying a lot in with a container size that isn't a size, is over 60 liters, or has no wine in bottle with it.

The shop's count and the tasting room use the size to turn gallons into bottles, alongside each bottling's own size, so a wrong size would be used by both. Wine in a container over 60 liters is bulk wine, not bottled, and a size with no bottles describes nothing the lot holds.

“Enter how much was in bottle that day. A packaged lot is all in bottle.”

Carrying a lot in at the packaged stage with no gallons in bottle.

A packaged lot holds nothing in bulk, so its bottles are all of it. With none entered, it would be a lot of nothing, and every cased removal would be refused against it. Enter the figure in gallons, as the cased book keeps it; counting containers works it out from the number of bottles and their size.

…Enter how many gallons were in…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Carrying a lot in with a vessel chosen and its gallons blank or zero.

A carried-in lot's fills are entered vessel by vessel, never split evenly by capacity, because you know which barrel is short, and an even split would spread the shortfall across all of them. A vessel chosen with nothing in it would say the lot is in a vessel that holds none of it.

…won't fit in it.…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Carrying a lot in with more gallons for a vessel than the vessel holds.

A fill larger than the vessel's capacity is a figure in the wrong box or the wrong unit, and the fill is where the physical inventory sheet and every draw from the vessel start. The capacity comes from the vessel's own record; if that's what is wrong, correct it on the vessel's card in the cellar first.

“How many gallons were in bulk that day? List its vessels with their gallons, or enter the volume.”

Carrying a lot in at a bulk stage with no vessel and no volume.

A lot in bulk is gallons the opening balance counted, and the cellar-against-ledger check adds up every lot's gallons against it. A lot of nothing would tell that check nothing.

“Enter the date it went into its vessels as YYYY-MM-DD, no later than today, or leave it blank if it wasn't recorded.”

Carrying a lot in with a date for its vessels that isn't a real date, or is after today.

The date is what the vessel's page shows as how long the wine has been in it. Blank is the right answer for wine that went in before anyone wrote it down, and the vessel then doesn't say since when. Using the day the lot was entered would say the wine had been there a week when it has been there two years.

“Enter the date that last panel was run. A carried-in lot's panel keeps its own date, not the day it was entered.”

Carrying a lot in with figures for its last panel and no date for them.

The sulfur check, the tax class check and the malolactic status all start from the last panel, and each one looks at how old a reading is. Dated the day it was entered, a panel run in the spring would look like this morning's, and the checks would say nothing is due when a fresh reading is.

“A lot code is letters and numbers, with spaces, hyphens, periods or underscores between them, up to 24 characters.”

Carrying a lot in under your own code when it has no letters or numbers, is too long, or has another character in it.

The code identifies the lot on every compliance record (the ledger, the return's working paper, the tank card and the label sheet) and in the lot's web address in the app. A slash, a # or a question mark would be read as part of the address, and a code longer than a tag can print is one people copy wrong.

…is already used by another lot.…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Carrying a lot in under a code another lot already has, in any capitalization.

Every record in the ledger and the cellar names a lot by its code, so two lots with one code would make each of those records ambiguous. A code that differs only in capital letters is refused too, because on a printed sheet it's the same code and people read it as one lot.

…can't be removed while records point to it…

Part of a longer message. The rest changes with the lot, the role or the number involved.

Removing a carried-in lot from its page after something has been recorded against it.

Removing a carried-in lot undoes the carry-in: the lot, its fills, its pitch and its last panel go together. Anything recorded against it since (a ledger entry, a cost, a count, a reading, a step) points to it, and removing the lot would take those records with it or leave them pointing at nothing. So the removal is refused, and the message lists the records in the way.

What to doCorrect the lot on its own cards instead, or record what it held through a physical inventory, so what was recorded against it stays.

“Only a carried-in lot can be removed. Every other lot was made by records the ledger or the cellar depends on.”

Asking to remove a lot that wasn't carried in, which its page doesn't offer.

A lot made from fruit, received in bond, blended or pressed off was made by a ledger entry or a pick, and the ledger depends on those. Only a carried-in lot was made by its own entry alone, which is why it can be taken back out completely while nothing points to it.

“A sample winery can't subscribe or buy anything. To subscribe, sign up at www.fermata.wine with your real records.”

Billing and Settings in a sample winery, and any button there that would open a payment.

A sample winery runs on its own server with invented records, and it is deleted when its time is up. A payment taken there would belong to an account that is about to disappear, so nothing in the sandbox opens a payment page.

What to doSign up at www.fermata.wine. Your sample winery's records don't carry over.

“A sample winery can't connect a Commerce7 account. A real shop's orders would land in records that aren't real.”

DTC Sales in a sample winery, where the Commerce7 account would be connected.

Connecting a shop lets Fermata read its orders and post each sale to the ledger. In a sample winery that would put real customers' orders into invented books, and send real counts to a shop from records that aren't real.

What to doConnect your Commerce7 account once you have signed up at www.fermata.wine.

“A sample winery doesn't take photographs or documents. Anything you upload would sit beside records that aren't real.”

Reading a bench sheet, a label, a Weighmaster Certificate, a filed return or a vine photograph, and adding photographs to the journal, in a sample winery.

An upload is kept in Fermata's storage or sent to an AI model to be read. A sample winery is made by anyone who signs up, so its uploads would be strangers' files kept and read for records that aren't real. So the sandbox takes none, and each reader has a sample of its own to read instead.

What to doPress Read the sample beside the reader to see it work, or type the figures into the form.

“A sample sheet is only for a sample winery. Choose a file of your own to read.”

Asking a reader for its sample sheet anywhere but the sandbox.

The samples are invented documents made for trying the readers in a sample winery, where uploads are off. In a winery with real records a reading fills a real form, and a sample's figures would land in it as though they were the winery's own.

What to doChoose the label, the sheet, the certificate, the return or the photograph you want read.

“Start over is only for a sample winery. This winery's records are its own, so nothing was deleted.”

Starting a sample winery over, anywhere but the sandbox.

Starting over deletes every record in the winery, the ledger, the filed returns and the signed counts included, and writes a sample again. Those records are kept for good everywhere else, so only the sandbox, where the environment and the database both say so, can do it.

What to doNothing to do. Your records are as they were.

“Only an owner can start this sample winery over, because it deletes everyone's records here.”

Starting a sample winery over, signed in as anyone but an owner.

A colleague invited to a sample winery may be partway through trying something. Starting over takes every record back to the sample, theirs included, so it is the owner's decision, like the winery's other settings.

What to doAsk the owner who invited you.