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Releases & shipments

A release is one club shipment cycle — the wines, which clubs and members get them, the charge and ship dates, and the payment cleanup afterward. Releases live on the Club Releases tab of /admin/wine-club, with a Plans / Shipments toggle and a New Release (Wizard) button that opens the Shipment Wizard at /admin/wine-club/releases/new.

Who can use it​

  • View releases and reconciliation — wineclub.read.
  • Create, edit, commit, lock, cancel, waive — wineclub.update: Managers, Ambassadors, and Wine Associates (and Admins).

The release lifecycle​

A release plan moves through six states (plus cancelled, reachable from any of the first five):

draft → built → committed → locked → charging → reconciled

  • draft / built — you're assembling it in the wizard.
  • committed — inventory is reserved for the release.
  • locked — the plan is frozen; only audited Emergency Edit changes are allowed.
  • charging — the Charge Date arrived and Avero is billing members.
  • reconciled — charging is finished and the books are closed.

Shipping status (shipped, delivered, tracking) belongs to each member's individual shipment, not to the plan — see Fulfillment.

The Club Releases tab​

The tab's Plans view lists every release plan — Name, Club, Tier, State, Items, Allocations, Created, Actions — with an eye icon to inspect a plan and a pencil to reopen it in the wizard (empty state: "No release plans found").

The Shipments view is the per-member shipment ledger for club orders: search "Search by ID, tracking, name...", filter by All / pending / completed / issue / skipped / canceled, and read Provider, Shipment ID, Guest, Plan, Status, Method, Items, Tracking, and Created. Pending shipments (and ones flagged issue) offer a mark-picked-up action for bottles handed over in person — "Marked picked up", "The club shipment was recorded as picked up."

Build a release — the Shipment Wizard​

The wizard has six steps. It autosaves continuously — closing it returns you to the Club Releases tab, and reopening a plan resumes at the step you left. The first step's button reads Create & Continue (toast: "Release plan created"), then Next through to Done.

The Shipment Wizard — build a club release across six steps.

The Shipment Wizard — Basics, Bottle Selection, Club Build, Profitability, Communications, Review & Lock.

  1. Basics — "Set the release name, brand, and target date." Release Name (required — "Release name is required"), optional Brand, and a Release Date.
  2. Bottle Selection — "Select wines to include in this release." Search the catalog by name or SKU and build the Selected (N) list; "A collection will be automatically created for this release. Products you select will be added to it." Only products marked "Released to Club" appear — if the list is empty: "No products are currently marked as 'Released to Club'. Enable them in the Product Catalogue to make them available here." Low- and out-of-stock wines are flagged, and wines whose inventory policy blocks club sales are marked with the blocking policy.
  3. Club Build — "Choose participating clubs and configure bottle quantities." Pick the Participating Club Types; each club's card shows its bottles-per-release promise and member count while you set per-bottle quantities per club. The Required Inventory summary (Product / Required / Committed / Shortfall) totals the demand — quantity × members, per club. Then Commit Inventory reserves the bottles — "Inventory committed" (reversible with Uncommit Inventory until the release is locked).
  4. Profitability — the page heading is Profitability & Substitutions: "Review gross profit margins and swap wines as needed." Set a Target GP % and Minimum GP Floor %, and review per-club margins (retail vs member price and GP%).
  5. Communications — heading Communications & Dates: "Schedule emails, SMS, charge, and ship dates." Six scheduled touchpoints: Announce Email, Reminder Email, SMS Notification, Charge Date, Ship Date, Follow-up Email — the wizard enforces their order ("Announce must be before Reminder", "Charge Date must be before Ship Date", and so on). A Custom Notifications card takes extras.
  6. Review & Lock — "Review all details before locking the release." Summary cards for every step, then Lock Release — "Locking this release will prevent most changes. Are you sure you want to proceed?" — toast "Release locked". The button stays disabled until inventory is committed: "Commit inventory on the Club Build step before locking."
A locked release charges itself

Once locked, the release charges members automatically when its Charge Date arrives — there is no manual "charge now" button. A locked release with no Charge Date never charges, so always set one on the Communications step.

After locking, changes require Emergency Edit — "You are editing a locked release. Changes will be audited." — with a mandatory audit note ("Audit note: why is this edit necessary?"). Cancel Release (toast "Release cancelled") is available up to the charging stage.

Allocations​

When a release is built, every eligible member of a participating club gets an allocation — their bottles in this release. The release detail lists them under Allocations (N) with Guest Name, Email, Tier, Status, and Created. Members with an open skip (set from the member drawer) are left out of the next release, and their skip clears automatically once it runs.

Member billing​

On the Charge Date, Avero charges each allocated member's card on file. Every attempt is one of Pending, Succeeded, Failed, or Waived. Failures go straight into the dunning cycle — automatic retries on the schedule set at Dunning Policy (default: 4 total attempts at 0 / 3 / 7 / 14 days, then pause) — and land on the reconciliation page for the humans.

Reconcile a release​

Once a release is charging (or reconciled), open /admin/wine-club/releases/:id/reconciliation — Reconciliation: [release name]. In any earlier state the page declines: "Reconciliation is only available for releases in 'charging' or 'reconciled' state."

Release reconciliation — payment status per member with recovery actions.

Reconciliation — summary tiles, filters, and per-member recovery actions.

Five summary tiles — Total, Pending, Succeeded, Failed, Waived — sit over a table of every member: Member Name, Club Type, Payment Status, Failure Reason, Last Attempt, Retry Status (pending, scheduled, exhausted, skipped, or none), Next Attempt, and Actions. Search by name, email, or phone; filter by status or club type. A Release Documents panel generates the release paperwork (needs wineclub.update).

Per-row actions on unresolved payments:

  • Waive — write the charge off. Mark Payment as Waived confirms ("This action can be reversed.") — toast "Payment marked as waived".
  • Call — Log Phone Contact shows the member's phone and stores your note ("Phone contact logged").
  • Dunning — send a specific dunning email now: Send first-attempt email, Send second-attempt email, or Send on-hold (final) email — "Dunning email sent". Suppressed recipients are blocked: "Recipient is on the suppression list."
  • Skip retries / Resume retries — take a row out of (or back into) the automatic retry schedule — "The dunning worker will skip this row." Skipped rows show an amber "auto-retry off" marker.

There is no per-row "retry now" — retries run on the dunning schedule. To trigger recovery immediately, use the member drawer's Retry charge (resets failed charges to pending) or, at the tasting room, the POS Resolve actions.

Where fulfillment takes over​

Once a member's charge succeeds, Avero automatically creates their club order and pushes it into the shipping pipeline — no manual step. From there:

  • Pickups surface in the POS Pickup Queue for tasting-room handoff.
  • Shipments are tracked on the Club Releases tab's Shipments view (provider, tracking, carrier, status) and in the company-wide shipping queue at /admin/shipments (see Orders & fulfillment); warehouse fulfillment via FORT WMS is configured at /admin/integrations/fort, and DTC compliance at /admin/compliance.

Reference​

ControlWhereWhat it does
New Release (Wizard)Club Releases tabOpens the six-step Shipment Wizard.
Commit InventoryClub Build stepReserves the required bottles; Uncommit Inventory reverses.
Lock ReleaseReview & Lock stepFreezes the plan; charging runs itself on the Charge Date.
Emergency EditReview & Lock stepAudited edits to a locked release.
Cancel ReleaseWizardCancels the plan (toast "Release cancelled").
WaiveReconciliation rowWrites off a member's failed charge (reversible).
DunningReconciliation rowSends a first-attempt / second-attempt / on-hold email now.
Skip retriesReconciliation rowRemoves a row from the automatic retry schedule.
ReconciliationRelease in chargingThe per-member payment cleanup table.

Troubleshooting​

  • "No products are currently marked as 'Released to Club'…" — flag the wines for club release in the Product Catalogue first; the Bottle Selection list only shows released products.
  • "At least one product must be selected" / "Club Build: At least one club must be selected" — the Review step repeats each step's gap with its step name; jump back and fill it.
  • "Announce must be before Reminder" (and friends) — the Communications dates must run in order: announce → reminder → charge → ship → follow-up.
  • Lock Release is disabled — "Commit inventory on the Club Build step before locking."
  • "Reconciliation not available" — the release hasn't started charging yet; reconciliation opens once the Charge Date runs.
  • A locked release never charged — check the Communications step: a locked plan without a Charge Date is never charged automatically.
  • "Release plan not found" — the plan was deleted or the link is stale; Return to Releases.