Packing list: packing, shortages and loading

The packing list is the path from your store to the truck: it tells your team what belongs in the crate, records what was actually packed, and shows the event lead where things stand at any moment. It lives in two places — in the Employee Portal for the person doing the packing, and on the event's Bookings tab for the lead. Both work on the same data.

The video shows how to sort bookings by category, supplier or storage location, output the packing list as a PDF and check items off as packed or loaded.

Play video1:29

You’ll find the individual steps written out below as well.

Creating and updating the packing list

The packing list is built from the event's booked line items.

1. Open the event and go to the Bookings area.
2. If there is no list yet, you'll see There is no packing list for this event yet with a button that creates one.
3. When the booking changes later, click Update packing list.

A packing list is only ever created when there is something to pack. If the event has no booked line items yet, Univents does not create an empty list — the Create packing list button stays put until the booking exists.

Until you finalise it, the list keeps itself up to date

While the packing list has not been finalised it counts as a draft — and Univents keeps it in step with the booking automatically. Add an item, change a quantity, remove something, or apply a line-item template, and the list follows in the background. You don't have to remember to press Update packing list.

If Univents does notice that booking and list have drifted apart — because the change came in through a booking page or another route, say — a notice appears in the Bookings area and in the portal: The booking changed after this packing list was last generated. One click on Update packing list brings the two back together.

From the moment you finalise, the automatic follow-up stops. From then on the list is a work order somebody is packing against, and Univents no longer changes it under their hands — it only warns you (see below), and you decide.

Univents shows you what changes first. Instead of writing silently, a dialog opens with the comparison between booking and list:

• Dropped — items that disappear from the list. They deliberately sit at the very top and are highlighted, because they are the only thing you can lose.
• Added — items that are new.
• Quantity changed — items whose quantity moved, with the old and the new value.

The confirm button names the number of changes. Only then is anything written. If you cancel, the list stays exactly as it was — not a single row is inserted, changed or deleted.

Two safeguards apply automatically:

• Items that have already been loaded are not deleted. What is already on the truck does not vanish from the list just because the booking changed. If a change affects a packed or loaded row, the dialog asks a second time.
• If the target quantity drops below the quantity already packed, Univents pulls the packed quantity down with it. The list never says “6 of 3”.

If someone changes the booking while the dialog is open, applying is cancelled and you get the fresh comparison. That way you never apply an outdated state.

Finalising the list

Once the packing list is final, click Finalise packing list. That does two things:

• Everyone with a shift at this event gets a push notification that the list is ready — provided they have installed the portal on their phone and allowed notifications.
• Univents stops following the booking automatically from here on. If the booking diverges from the list afterwards, a clear notice appears instead: in the Bookings area and in the portal on the packing screen. Before, a list in this situation simply sat there quietly out of date, and nobody noticed until unloading on site.

The notice disappears as soon as you update the list.

How your team packs in the portal

In the Employee Portal, the person packing opens the Packing list area — this works with your own login as well as through a portal link without sign-in.

The header carries a slim bar with the event, the delivery time, the time remaining and the progress. Tapping it opens the details (guest count, venue).

Every row shows:

• the product photo, if one is stored in Inventory
• the name
• the pack size — if the product has a packaging size, Univents converts: “9 crates of 20” as the main line, “180 pieces” underneath. If the quantity doesn't divide evenly, the remainder is shown. Without a packaging size you just get the piece count.
• the note, if there is one
• a kitchen chip on items that have to be produced first

One tap on the tick means: packed in full. That stays the normal case and takes one thumb.

Grouped along your route through the store

Items are grouped by product category. As soon as at least two different storage locations are filled in across the list, the storage location takes over the grouping — “Cold room 2”, “Crockery shelf”, “Equipment trolley”. That is the route through your store. A switch in the header lets you flip between the two views at any time.

For that to work, the storage location has to be set on the product. Two quick ways:

• In Inventory as a bulk action: select several products and set the storage location in one go.
• Straight from the packing list row: if the storage location is missing, you can enter it there without leaving the list.

Recording a shortage

If something is missing, the row no longer has to lie:

1. Tap the target quantity next to the tick — it is a button of its own, not a long press and not a gesture.
2. Enter the quantity you actually packed on the number pad, for example 3 of 6.

The row then no longer counts as complete, is marked as a shortage, and moves to the top of the event lead's view. This also works on a row that has already been ticked off. Quantities such as kilograms or litres may be entered with decimals. If you enter 0, the row falls back to open and is marked as unavailable. Univents will not accept more than the target quantity.

Loading as a second step

Alongside “packed” there is now loaded. Only what has been packed can be loaded — the order is binding.

At the truck you don't work item by item but in groups: Cold room 2 — load 8 items ticks off the whole group at once. You can leave individual rows out if they stay in the store.

If a kitchen item later falls back to “not produced”, Univents also resets “packed” and “loaded” for that row — otherwise “loaded” would sit on goods that don't exist yet.

When the signal in the store is poor

A tap that doesn't get through no longer costs you a tick. The row keeps its tick and shows a small clock icon; the change waits in a queue and is sent as soon as the connection is back. A bar tells you how many changes are still on their way.

A tick is only taken back if the server rejects it on the merits — for instance if you enter more than the target quantity, or try to load something that hasn't been packed. A network error never takes anything away.

Who packed it?

Univents records who ticked a row off and when — including people without their own login. You see it as a stamp right after the quantity: the person’s initials and the time, for example MK · 14:32. Loaded rows carry an additional stamp for the loading. This applies in the portal as well as in the Bookings area; whoever ticks a row off in the office appears there by name and no longer as “someone”.

• If the row was packed on a different day, the date comes before the time, for example “30.09. 14:32”.
• If two people on the same event share initials, the stamp shows the first name with an initial instead, for example “Max K.”, so you can tell them apart.
• If the name cannot be matched, only the time is shown. An invented name or a question mark never appears. Rows for which Univents has no timestamp carry no stamp.
• When you tick a row off, you see your own stamp straight away. If you take the tick back, it disappears again. If a tick is still waiting to be sent because of a poor connection, “not sent” appears next to it.
• On a computer the full name is in the stamp’s tooltip, and screen readers read it out.

Who sees the stamps: everyone who sees the row — people with a shift at the event in the portal, people assigned only through a sub-list on the rows of their sub-list, and the admin area on the Bookings tab. Only the display name and initials are transmitted, no email address and no phone number. For now the stamps cannot be hidden. If you have a works council, this belongs in the consultation before your team starts working with the packing list.

What the event lead sees

In the Bookings area the number comes first instead of a long list: 32 of 40 packed · 28 loaded · 2 shortages, plus a progress bar, the delivery time and who last ticked something off — by name, even when that person ticked it off in the office.

Below that come the exceptions first — every shortage. The full list is collapsed and can be expanded. Only items that are genuinely packed in full count towards the headline number; a shortage is a value of its own and is never counted as done.

You can tick items off and correct quantities there yourself.

Splitting the packing list and assigning people

When several people pack — one for the bar, one for the hot kitchen, one for logistics — you split the one packing list into sub-lists. A sub-list is not a second list but a saved filter on the packing list: a name, tags and/or a category, and the people responsible for it. Ticking off, finalising and updating work as before. When the booking changes the sub-lists follow on their own, because they only show a slice of the list.

Creating a sub-list

1. In the Bookings area, open the packing list and click Split & assign in the header. You see the button if you have the right to edit events.
2. Click Add sub-list. If there is no sub-list yet, Univents suggests a starting point for each category on the list (from three positions up, at most six) — one click fills in the name and category.
3. Give it a name and choose tags and/or a category. Several tags work as “or”: a position matches if it carries at least one of the tags. Tags and category together work as “and”: the position must also be in the category. No tag selects exactly the positions that carry no tag.
4. The preview tells you straight away how many positions the filter matches (“Matches 14 of 52 positions”), and Show positions lists which. If positions also appear in another sub-list, the preview says so; you can still save.
5. Under Assigned to, pick people from your staff. Everyone already planned for the event (shift or task) is listed first, all other staff members below; with many people the search field helps.
6. Click Save sub-list.

At least one tag or a category is required: a sub-list without a filter would contain everything or nothing, so Univents does not allow it. A name can be used only once per event.

No tags on your list? Then split by category. The category is set on every product, tags are not — and the dialog tells you when no tags occur on the list.

One person should pack several areas? Create several sub-lists and assign them all to the same person. In the portal the Mine tab combines them.

Editing and deleting: Edit changes the name, filter and assignees, and the More actions menu deletes a sub-list after a confirmation. The ticked-off state of the positions always stays as it was, including stamps and shortages.

Who can be assigned

Anyone active on your staff can be assigned, with or without a shift at the event. So you can also give a sub-list to someone who only has a task there or is not planned for it at all. People marked Left the company or Archived in their staff record cannot be picked; staff on leave or sick leave can.

• With a shift the person sees the whole packing list in the portal; their sub-list comes first.
• Without a shift the person sees exactly the positions of their sub-lists in the portal and ticks off exactly those, nothing else of the event. They cannot change a position’s storage location; that stays with people who have a shift.

So whoever may assign sub-lists also grants a view of those positions. If nobody is planned for the event yet, the dialog tells you; you can still pick someone from your staff or plan shifts first with Save and go to shifts. If an assigned person is later deleted from your staff or set to Left the company or Archived in their staff record, they stay on the sub-list and are marked: “is no longer active staff and cannot see the list”. From that moment on they no longer see the sub-list in the portal, not even with their old link.

The sub-list bar above the packing list

When sub-lists exist, a bar with one tab per view sits above the packing list: Whole list, each sub-list, and Not assigned for positions that are in no sub-list. Each tab shows its progress, for example Drinks 12/20, and counts packed or loaded rows depending on the mode. The assignees’ initials follow the name. Grouping by category or storage location, shortages and loading mode work in every view as usual. The summary at the top always stays the whole list.

The sum of the sub-lists can be larger than the total: a position that matches two sub-lists counts in both — but only once in the total of the packing list. Not assigned is not an error; many people deliberately split off only one area. If a sub-list matches no position any more, for example because you deleted its category, it shows “0/0” with a warning icon and the note that the filter matches no position. A deleted category never silently turns the sub-list into a broader one (“just hot” instead of “hot and crockery”): it matches nothing until you edit it. A renamed tag or a deleted category appears marked in the filter when you edit (“not on this list”, “deleted category”) and can be deselected.

Copy link

Every assigned person has a Copy link button. The link opens that person’s portal straight on their sub-list, without a login. For this to work a chain has to hold:

1. The person is on your staff and assigned to the sub-list. They do not need a shift for this.
2. They have portal access — a portal link or a crew login. If they have none at all but an email address, Copy link creates the access right away, just like the staff record does (your plan needs staff management for this). Without an email address the button is replaced by “no email · Open staff record”; add the address there. If their access was switched off in the staff record, it says “no portal access · Open staff record”; Univents never switches switched-off access back on by itself.
3. You may manage staff. Without that right the button is not active, but the person still finds their sub-list in the portal under Packing list.
4. The packing list is visible in the portal: packing lists show there from 14 days before until 2 days after the start of the event. If the start is further in the future, “Visible from …” appears after copying. An event without a date never appears there.

If the person’s portal access expires before the event, Univents tells you the date; re-linking in the staff record extends it.

⚠️ Send the link only directly to that person, for example as a one-to-one message, never into a group. A portal link opens the person’s whole portal, including their shifts and pay.

What the assigned person sees in the portal

People assigned to a sub-list see their own sub-list first when they open the Packing list: by its name if they have exactly one, under Mine if they have several. The Packing list shows up in their portal menu for this, even without a shift. People who are not assigned to any sub-list see the whole list as before.

With a shift, Whole list and More with the other sub-lists sit next to it, and the assignment only restricts the view, never the ticking off: through Whole list anyone with a shift can tick off any row. So someone can step in for a sick colleague without you having to re-plan anything — the stamp shows who it was. Once someone has packed everything from their sub-lists, a note points to positions that are not in any sub-list.

Without a shift there is neither Whole list nor Not assigned: the person only sees their own sub-lists and only ticks off their positions. If you take them off the sub-list or delete the sub-list, the event is gone from their packing list the next time it loads.

What sub-lists cannot do yet

• Splitting by delivery note does not work. A row of the packing list is one product for the whole event, and one tick applies to the whole row — even if the product appears on several delivery notes.
• No notification on assignment. The message when you finalise still goes to everyone with a shift, but someone who is assigned to a sub-list does not get one of their own. Tell them, or copy them the link.
• No copying. If you duplicate an event, the sub-lists are not copied along.
• Plan: creating and changing sub-lists belongs to the same plan component as the packing list. If you do not have it, existing sub-lists stay readable, printable and linkable.

Printing

Next to Update packing list sits a Print button. It opens the print-ready PDF view and changes nothing about the list — the screen replaces the paper slip, it doesn't abolish it.

You print exactly the slice you are looking at: any category and tag filters you set carry into the PDF. If the event has delivery notes or run sheets, Univents asks first which of them go on the sheet.

The Update packing list dialog gets you to the sheet as well: when there is nothing to change the button there reads Print list; when there are changes it reads Apply … changes and print and opens the PDF right after applying.

Printing a sub-list. You print each sub-list on its own: with Print in its row in the Split & assign window, or in the bar above the packing list as soon as a sub-list is selected there; that works with read-only access too. The same PDF as usual opens, with the sub-list’s tag and category filter, and the print then appears under Last printed. The sheet can show a few more rows than the number in the tab, because it also carries free-typed positions without a stock item. If the event has several packing lists, the sheet prints only the newest one as before, and Univents points that out when you print. If the sub-list matches no position, Print is disabled.

How to create and filter production, ordering and delivery lists is covered in Creating ordering, packing, delivery & production lists.

Frequently asked questions

Why is everything in one single group? Then your products have no storage location, or only one, and the list groups by product category instead. Set the storage location in Inventory as a bulk action for several products at once — from the second distinct storage location onwards the list switches to the storage-location view automatically.

Who is allowed to tick off packing and loading? Everyone with a shift at the event — in the portal with your own login as well as through a portal link without sign-in, and that means every row of the packing list, also outside their own sub-list. People who are only assigned to a sub-list, without a shift, tick off exactly the positions of their sub-lists. Updating and finalising stay in the admin area and require the right to edit events.

How do I tell who packed a row? By the stamp after the quantity: initials and time, for example “MK · 14:32”. On a computer the full name is in the tooltip. More under Who packed it?.

Why don’t I see “Split & assign”? You see the button with the right to edit events, and only once a packing list exists. With less access you see existing sub-lists as a bar above the packing list, can switch between them and print them.

Why can’t I find someone in the assignee list? The list contains everyone on your staff, with or without a shift. If someone is missing, they are not set up as a staff member, were deleted, or are marked Left the company or Archived in their staff record — add them under Staff or change their status there.

Why is “Copy link” disabled or missing? Either the person has no portal access and Univents cannot create one — no email address, access switched off in the staff record, or a plan without staff management; then the dialog takes you to the staff record — or you may not manage staff. In the second case the person still finds their sub-list in the portal under Packing list.

The sub-lists add up to more than the total — is that right? Yes. A position that matches two sub-lists counts in both, but only once in the total of the packing list.

Does an assigned person get a notification? No. Nothing goes out when you assign someone. The message when you finalise still goes to everyone with a shift, provided they have installed the portal and allowed notifications. Tell the person, or copy them the link.

Can I ask the AI assistant about the packing progress? Yes. On an event’s pages the assistant knows the packing list’s progress: overall, per sub-list with the people responsible, and the last action with name and time. It never hands out portal links.

What is the difference between produced and packed? Produced answers “has the kitchen cooked it”, packed answers “is it in the crate”. Those are two questions and two separate steps: a kitchen item can only be packed once it is marked as produced. On kitchen items the produced quantity remains the leading number.

I updated by accident — are the packed rows gone? No. Loaded items are not deleted when you update, and for packed or loaded rows the dialog asks a second time before applying. Without your confirmation, updating writes nothing at all.

Can I use the packing list without the kitchen monitor? Yes. The packing list works fully on its own.

I changed a line item — do I have to update the packing list now? As long as the list has not been finalised: no, it follows on its own. Once it is finalised you change it deliberately via Update packing list — and you see what changes first. If the notice The booking changed is showing, that is exactly what it means.

Why is there no packing list for an event even though I already clicked the button? Because there were no booked line items at that point. Univents does not create an empty list — once the booking exists, one click creates the list.