Logging a lot

In short

• Logging a lot starts with the journey the coffee took, not with the paperwork.
• You cannot finish a lot until the chain names at least one origin and you have attested every party in it.
• "Logged" means your record is complete. It does not mean a buyer can see the coffee.

The first screen asks one question

The page opens with "Where did this coffee come from?", and it shows the sourcing chain and nothing else. The chain reads from the bottom up: the source is at the bottom, and you are at the top.

Each party is a card. You give it a role — a region, a farmer, a cooperative, a mill, an exporter — and a name, and you attest that what you wrote is true.

The order is deliberate. The journey is the part only you know. A weight and a variety can be typed by anyone, at any time.

The floor you have to reach

The button under the chain reads "Continue — add the details". It stays switched off until two things are true.

First, at least one party must be an origin: a region, a farmer, or a cooperative. A chain of mills and exporters alone does not say where the coffee grew. Second, every party in the chain must be attested by you.

Until both are true the page tells you so, under the button: "Name and attest each party in the chain — with at least one origin — to continue."

Then the details

The second half of the page asks for the rest. Whether the lot is Limited or Standing, the weight, the variety, the process, the harvest year, your green grading figures, and how much of all this a buyer sees.

Most of it is optional. The lot code can be left blank — LotsLog builds one from the country, the year and a running number when you save.

Draft, or logged

There are two buttons at the end. "Save draft" keeps what you have written so you can come back to it. "Log lot" finishes the record.

A draft is not a lot yet. It cannot be added to a catalog, and the catalog builder will not offer it to you, so no buyer can reach it. If you save a draft, come back and finish it.

Logged is not visible

This is the part that surprises most people. "Logged" describes your record. It does not mean anyone can see the coffee.

A buyer reaches a lot through a catalog and through no other way, and adding the lot to a catalog is a separate step on a separate page. The next entry is about exactly that.