Starting with Sorting and Grading

Do you want to start sorting and packing fruit in Agromanager? It is important to configure a number of basic settings correctly first.

In this article, we guide you step by step through getting started with Sorting and Packing. You will learn how to add contacts, empty packaging materials and packaging configurations, how to receive and sort fruit, and how to deliver and invoice your sorted products.

The sorting process consists of four main parts: Stock, Sorting, Delivery and Invoicing. These work together to turn unsorted fruit into sorted products while maintaining traceability.

Step 1 – General: configure basic information

Before you start sorting, enter the necessary basic information. Normally, you only need to do this once. You can always add to or update it later.

1.1 Add contacts

Open the General tile on the dashboard and go to Contacts.

Add your customers, suppliers and growers here. Fill in the contact details as completely as possible, including the VAT number where applicable.

Important: A grower whose fruit you sort is not only a grower but also a fruit supplier. Therefore, select both Grower and Supplier for this contact.

More information: How do I add a new contact?

1.2 Add empty packaging materials

Next, create the empty packaging materials you use for sorting and packing.

Empty packaging materials include all individual packaging components, such as:

• Packing sheets
• Collars
• Pallets
• Crates
• Colli
• Corner protectors and strapping
• Other packaging materials

Each component is created separately as an empty packaging item. This allows you to combine different components into a complete packaging configuration later.

You can also link purchase prices, sales prices, rental prices and the applicable VAT rate to each empty packaging item.

More information: How do I add new empty packaging materials?

1.3 Create packaging configurations

After adding your empty packaging materials, you can assemble packaging configurations.

A packaging configuration consists of a combination of different empty packaging items.

For example, a packaging configuration may consist of a pallet, a colli, a base, a packing sheet, corner protectors and strapping.

When assembling your packaging configuration, it is important to add the components correctly:

• Colli and colli accessories: these form the basis of the packaging configuration. You can add additional colli accessories later when creating a product.
• Pallet and pallet accessories: components such as pallets, intermediate pallets, corner protectors and strapping must be added directly to the packaging configuration. You cannot add them separately later when creating a product.

Tip: Also create a packaging configuration for stock crates belonging to third parties. This makes it easier to create products and process fruit from other growers.

More information: Add a new packaging configuration

Step 2 – Configure stock and empty packaging management

The stock module provides an overview of your available unsorted and sorted products and your empty packaging materials.

Your unsorted fruit stock includes, among other things, stock crates from your own harvest registrations and fruit received from other growers.

An important part of the sorting process is managing your empty packaging stock. You can choose between two approaches, depending on how strictly you want to monitor stock and traceability.

2.1 Option 1 – Strict empty packaging traceability

Do you want full traceability of your empty packaging, for example for BRC certification? You can enable strict empty packaging traceability via:

• Sorting and Packing > Configuration > Settings > Sorting
• Or via General > Configuration

Enable the setting Sorting: Enable empty packaging traceability.

With this approach, empty packaging is linked to a lot number. You can find this lot number later in the details of the sorted product.

To guarantee traceability, register received empty packaging materials using an incoming delivery note. This assigns a unique lot number to the received empty packaging materials. 

More information: How do I add empty packaging materials to my stock using an incoming delivery note?

Important: With strict empty packaging traceability, you cannot register a sorted product if insufficient empty packaging is available.

If there is insufficient empty packaging during sorting, the relevant product is displayed in red on the production screen. You can also see which empty packaging item is missing.

2.2 Option 2 – Track empty packaging stock without blocking registration

Do you mainly want to know how much empty packaging you have available, without blocking sorting when there is a shortage? You can allow your empty packaging stock to drop below zero.

You can configure this via:

• Sorting and Packing > Configuration > Settings > Sorting
• Or via General > Configuration

Enable the setting Sorting: Allow negative empty packaging stock.

When this setting is enabled, you can continue registering sorted products, even if insufficient empty packaging is available.

The stock of the missing empty packaging materials will then become negative.

When you receive more empty packaging later through an incoming delivery note, you will have the option to clear the negative stock balance.

More information: How do I add empty packaging materials to my stock using an incoming delivery note?

Part of the received quantity will then be used to make up for the earlier shortage.

Tip: Even if you allow empty packaging stock to drop below zero, we recommend registering received empty packaging materials using incoming delivery notes. This keeps your stock records as accurate as possible.

Step 3 – Prepare for sorting

Once you have configured your basic information and stock management, you can prepare for sorting.

Open the Sorting and Packing tile on the dashboard.

3.1 Add sorting machines

If you work with several sorting machines, add them first under Configuration in the Sorting and Packing tile.

This allows you to select the correct sorting machine when creating a sorting lot.

More information: How do I add a sorting machine?

3.2 Create products

Before creating a sorting lot, we recommend adding the products you want to register during sorting.

In the menu on the left, go to Sorting - Product overview and click + New product at the top.

When creating a product, you start with an existing packaging configuration.

You can then specify the product further based on:

• Size
• Class
• A specific customer, if applicable
• Additional colli accessories
• Weight per colli

If the number of colli, colli accessories or weight per colli differs from the original packaging configuration, you can adjust this when creating the product.

Tip: Do you need to use the same packaging configuration for different sizes or classes? You do not have to create a completely new product each time.

You can duplicate an existing product, adjust the required details and save the new product. This saves a lot of time when creating your product overview.

More information: How do I create a new product?

3.3 Configure additional categories and packing methods

Under Configuration, you can add extra categories and packing methods if necessary.

This allows you to organize your products according to your company's processes.

3.4 Check empty packaging stock

Before you start sorting, check whether sufficient empty packaging materials are available.

You can view the current stock of your empty packaging materials in the Empty Packaging Stock module.

Especially if you use strict empty packaging traceability, it is important to replenish any shortages beforehand.

Step 4 – Sort fruit from other growers or your own fruit

Before you can sort fruit, it must be available in your unsorted fruit stock.

If you sort fruit from other growers, register it using an incoming delivery note.

4.1 Receive unsorted fruit

Create a new incoming delivery note for the grower supplying the fruit.

Use this delivery note to register the received unsorted fruit.

Once the fruit has been entered, it is added to your unsorted fruit stock.

More information: How do I import fruit from third parties?

Barcodes are used to ensure the traceability of received fruit.

There are two possibilities:

• The grower also uses Agromanager: you can reuse the existing barcodes.
• The grower does not use Agromanager: you can create new barcodes yourself for the received fruit.

4.2 Sort your own fruit

If you sort fruit from your own crops, you must first register your harvest using the Harvest tile.

Before you can create a harvest registration, you must first add your plots and crops. This allows you to indicate which crop the fruit comes from when registering your harvest.

The registered harvest is automatically added to your unsorted fruit stock. From there, you can use the stock crates when creating a sorting lot.

More information: How do I register my harvest? 

Step 5 – Create a sorting lot or repacking lot

Once your products have been created and your fruit is available in stock, you can start sorting.

You can choose between a sorting lot and a repacking lot.

5.1 Create a sorting lot

A sorting lot is used to process unsorted or pre-sorted fruit into sorted products.

When creating a sorting lot, enter information including:

• The sorting company
• The customer
• The grower
• The sorting machine
• Details of the fruit to be sorted
• Information to appear on the label

At the bottom, you will see an overview of the products eligible for sorting.

That is why it is useful to create these products in advance through the product overview.

More information: How do I add a new sorting lot?

5.2 Create a repacking lot

A repacking lot is used when you want to repack or reprocess products that have already been sorted.

This may be necessary, for example, when:

• Pallets are returned by a customer.
• An order is changed.
• You want to rework or repack existing pallets.

A repacking lot can contain products from different growers. When registering the new pallets, you must decide which grower will be listed on the new product.

Please note: You cannot register multiple growers within a single sorting lot.

Reuse released empty packaging materials

Repacking products often releases empty packaging materials, such as pallets, colli or other packaging components. Some of these items can be reused.

Within a repacking lot, you can specify what should happen to the released empty packaging materials. There are two options:

• Reuse immediately: the released empty packaging is reused directly within the same repacking lot to pack new products.
• Add to empty packaging stock: the released empty packaging materials are returned to your stock so they can be used later in other sorting or repacking lots.

This allows you to use reusable packaging materials efficiently while keeping your empty packaging stock records accurate.

More information: How do I create a repacking lot?

Step 6 – Register products during sorting

After creating a sorting lot or repacking lot, you can open it through Production registration.

This is the screen you use to register finished products during sorting.

6.1 Select the correct product

The production screen shows an overview of the products you linked to the sorting lot.

More information: Add products to a sorting lot

To find the correct product more quickly, you can use the size and class filters.

For example, if you want to register a pallet of size 50-55, class 1, select that size and class in the filters.

The overview will then show only the products that match your selection.

Products are displayed with an image and a short description so that you can quickly select the correct product.

6.2 Stock is updated automatically

When you register a product during sorting, it is added to your sorted fruit stock.

You can find these products in your stock overview, for example under sorted stock crates or colli/pallets.

At the same time, the empty packaging materials used are automatically deducted from your empty packaging stock.

This keeps both your sorted fruit stock and packaging material stock up to date.

Step 7 – Deliver sorted fruit to customers

After sorting the fruit, you can dispatch it to your customers through the Delivery module.

7.1 Create an outgoing delivery note

Create a new outgoing delivery note for the customer receiving the fruit.

You can add different types of items to this delivery note, such as:

• Sorted fruit
• Unsorted fruit
• Empty packaging materials

When you dispatch products, the corresponding stock is updated.

This allows you to see which products are still available and which have already been delivered.

More information: How do I create an outgoing delivery note?

7.2 Exchange deliveries with other Agromanager users

Does your customer also use Agromanager? You can set up a connection through the contact details under General.

Once the connection is configured, you can send an outgoing delivery note directly using the Send button and then selecting Data via Agromanager.

The receiving customer can then import the data and barcodes directly into their own environment.

This simplifies the receipt of fruit and helps maintain traceability.

More information: How do I send/receive delivery notes directly through Agromanager?

Step 8 – Close a sorting lot

Once all the fruit in a sorting lot has been processed, you can close the sorting lot.

Before doing so, we recommend checking that all registered products are correct.

For example, check whether any incorrectly created labels or products remain in stock.

More information: How do I close a sorting lot?

8.1 View the sorting report

You can print a report for a sorting lot showing an overview of:

• The unsorted fruit entered
• The sorted fruit registered
• The empty packaging materials used

You can use this report to check the sorting process and identify any discrepancies.

More information: How do I create a sorting report?

8.2 View the delivery report

Under Reports, you can also find a delivery report.

This provides an overview of the delivery notes and fruit delivered from the relevant sorting lot.

More information: How do I create a delivery report with prices?

8.3 Change the sorting lot status

In the sorting lots overview, you can view the status of each sorting lot.

• Waiting: the sorting lot has been created, but no fruit has been entered or registered yet.
• In progress: fruit has already been entered or registered in the sorting lot.
• Paused: the sorting lot is temporarily paused and does not appear in product registration. You can change it back to In progress later.
• Completed: the sorting lot is closed. No more fruit can be entered or registered.
• Invoiced: a sorting order or sales order has been created from the sorting lot. This does not necessarily mean that the order has already been invoiced.

To close your sorting lot, change its status to Completed.

If necessary, you can change the status again later under Status in the sorting lot details.

Step 9 – Invoicing: create orders and invoices

Once you have received, sorted or delivered fruit, you can invoice the corresponding costs and sales.

To do this, open the Invoicing tile.

The available options depend on the invoicing package you use: Basic or Premium.

More information: How do I create an order?

Invoicing with the Basic version

If you use the free or Basic version of Invoicing, you create invoices manually.

Invoicing with the Premium version

With Premium Invoicing, you can create invoices based on existing orders. 

More information: How do I create an invoice?

9.1 Sales order from a delivery note

You can create a sales order from a delivery note.

For example, use this when selling sorted fruit to a customer.

You can then use this sales order to create an invoice for the delivered products.

Using existing orders to create invoices is available in Premium Invoicing.

9.2 Sorting order from a sorting lot

Do you sort fruit for another grower or customer? You can create a sorting order from the sorting lot.

You can use this order to charge the sorting costs to the grower or customer whose fruit you sorted.

You can then use the sorting order to create an invoice.

This process is also available in Premium Invoicing.

Ready to get started!

Once you have completed the steps above, your environment is ready to manage the entire sorting process in Agromanager.

The complete process at a glance:

1. General: add contacts.
2. Configuration (under the Sorting and Packing tile): add empty packaging materials and packaging configurations.
3. Stock: manage empty packaging materials and stock.
4. Prepare for sorting: create products.
5. Delivery: receive and register unsorted fruit.
6. Sorting: create sorting lots and register products.
7. Delivery: dispatch sorted fruit to customers.
8. Complete sorting: check registrations and reports.
9. Invoicing: create sorting orders, sales orders and invoices.

This allows you to manage the complete process from receipt through delivery and invoicing in Agromanager, with traceability from start to finish.