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Procure-to-pay · Pharma manufacturers & distributors

Received is not released. And the receiver cannot release it.

For pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors: stock received into quarantine and released only by a second person, certificate results judged against a specification, the temperature at the dock, approved and licensed sources per item, serial numbers captured at receipt, and controlled stock kept in restricted locations with a witness on every move.

Quarantine on receipt, released by someone else One checklist per batch, before release Serials captured — not verified Add-on · US$10,000 a year per country
Why a general P2P tool falls short

Three distinctions a general system flattens.

A general system treats goods on the dock as stock, a certificate on file as a pass, and a supplier on the list as approved for anything. For a regulated material, each of those is a different fact, and Atlas keeps them apart.

Received is not released

An item can be set to arrive into quarantine. Its stock cannot be used until somebody other than the person who received it releases the batch, and the release can ask for that person's password again at the moment of signing, recorded with what the signature means and a fingerprint of the record signed.

A certificate on file is not a batch that passes

The results on a certificate of analysis are recorded against the item's specification, test by test. A batch that fails a test, or has no result for a test the specification requires, is not released. An item with no specification says so on its page. It is never shown as a pass.

An approved supplier is approved for something

Approval is recorded per item, with a status and an end date. An order for that material goes only to a source approved for it and still in date, and a controlled item also needs the supplier's current licence for its class, held as a document on the supplier's record.

Quarantine & release

One list per batch. The release refuses on the same grounds.

The release readiness checklist reads every control and gives each one's answer for the batch: the hold, the second person, the date, the certificate, the specification, the temperature and the supplier. It decides nothing the controls do not already decide, and the release itself refuses for the same reasons, so the list cannot say ready while the release says no.

  • Received into quarantine, item by item. Off by default. Switched on for the items that need it, and everything else is usable on receipt as before
  • The person who received the batch cannot release it. Release is a second person's check, and the screen says so in those words
  • Signed at the moment of release. The password again, with the meaning of the signature and a fingerprint of the record, when your workspace asks for it
  • A failed test, or a missing required result, keeps the batch from release. So does a batch whose date has passed, or a delivery still owed its certificate
  • Temperature at the dock for a cold-chain item. A reading outside its range puts the batch on hold. No reading is recorded as not recorded, never as in range
.../inventory
Quarantine and release on a cold-chain item: each held batch with its release readiness checklist
Release readinessEvery control's answer for the batch, in one place.
Approved sources & licences

An order goes only to a source approved for that material.

An item can be restricted to approved sources. The approval names the supplier, a status and an end date, and the check runs in the one place every order already passes through on its way to a supplier, so there is no second route around it.

  • A supplier that is not an approved, in-date source for the item is refused, with the item named and the fix on the screen: approve the source first, or order from one that is
  • A conditional approval travels with its condition. The order may proceed, and the condition is shown rather than forgotten
  • A controlled item also needs the supplier's current licence for its class. No current licence document on the supplier's record, no order
  • A suspension or a condition needs a reason. A status changed with nothing written is a decision nobody can check later
.../inventory
Approved sources on a controlled item: each supplier with its status and end date, and the licence the supplier must hold
Approved sourcesPer item, in date, and licensed for a controlled class.
Serial numbers

Captured at receipt, unit by unit. Captured, not verified.

The receiver enters the serial numbers on the delivery. Atlas records each one against the receipt, the item and the batch, and refuses the entries that cannot be true. It does not check them against any national verification system.

  • One serial, one unit, recorded against the receipt, the item and the batch, with who captured it and when
  • A serial number that has already arrived for this item is refused. The same unit cannot arrive twice
  • More serial numbers than units accepted is refused. A serial number identifies one unit
  • Atlas does not connect to the EU's FMD verification system or the UAE's Tatmeen. Nothing is verified against either. That connection is built for a customer who needs it, and until then this is a record of what arrived, not a check of it
.../inventory
Serial numbers received for a cold-chain item, each with its batch, order and who captured it
Serial numbers receivedCaptured at receipt. Not checked against a national system.
Restricted custody

Controlled stock goes into the vault, and somebody watches it move.

An item with a control class, a narcotic for example, is received and moved only into a location marked restricted, such as a cage or a vault. Every move names a second person as witness, and the activity log records the move and the witness.

  • Receiving or moving controlled stock into an ordinary location is refused. Controlled stock goes only into a location marked restricted
  • A move with no witness is refused, and so is a move where the person moving the stock names themselves
  • On a Canadian workspace the control classes are Health Canada's: narcotic, controlled drug, targeted substance, restricted drug, and class A and class B precursors
.../inventory
A transfer of controlled stock between restricted locations, with the witness named
A witnessed moveInto a restricted location, with a second person named.
Where you operate

Canada and the UAE first. Local words only where we found them.

The controls work the same way everywhere. What changes is what the screens call things, and Atlas uses a regulator's own words only where they were taken from that regulator's published text.

When it stops you

What this pack refuses, and what to do about it.

Atlas refuses a lot here, on purpose, and every refusal carries its reason on the screen. These are the ones this industry meets, in the words the screen actually uses — so that meeting one is a thirty-second fix rather than a support call.

What Atlas will not do
What the screen says
What to do
An order to a supplier not approved for that material
Refused. “This item may only be ordered from a supplier approved for it.” An approval past its end date counts as no approval.
Approve the source on the item's page first, or order from one that is.
A controlled item from a supplier with no current licence
Refused. “A controlled item may only be ordered from a supplier whose licence for that class is current.”
Ask the supplier to upload it — the licence for that class, with its expiry date, on their record.
Releasing a batch you received yourself
Refused. “You received this batch, so you cannot also release it. Release is a second person's check.” If nobody is recorded as receiving it, Atlas cannot confirm a second person either, and says so.
Ask someone else with the authority to release stock.
Releasing a batch while a required test has no result
Refused. The batch “has no result yet for …, which the specification requires.”
Record the results from the certificate first.
Releasing a batch that fails its specification
Refused. The batch “fails its specification (…), so it is not released.”
Reject it, or record a re-test if the result was wrong.
A cold-chain delivery with no reading, treated as in range
It is not. No reading at the dock is recorded as not recorded, never as in range, and a reading outside the item's range puts the batch on hold.
Record the reading at receipt. An excursion is a quality decision: decide it, and record why.
A serial number that already arrived
Refused. “A serial number identifies one unit — the same one cannot arrive twice.”
Check the delivery against the earlier receipt. Atlas captures serial numbers; it does not verify them against any national system.
More serial numbers than units
Refused. “A serial number identifies one unit, so there cannot be more of them than units.”
Correct the quantity accepted, or the list.
Controlled stock put into an ordinary location
Refused. The location “is not a restricted location. Controlled stock goes only into a location marked restricted.”
Choose the cage or vault it is being secured in, or mark the location restricted if that is what it is.
Moving controlled stock with nobody watching
Refused. “Moving controlled stock (…) needs a second person named as witness.” And the mover cannot name themselves: “The witness has to be somebody other than the person moving the stock.”
Name the colleague who watched it move.

Every one of these is also written into the guidance drawer on the screen it happens on, and into the process guides your own workspace generates — so a person who meets it at four o’clock on a Friday does not need us, or you.

Said plainly

Where this pack stops, and why.

Named so you can decide with them in view. Two are not built, one is a customer this pack is not for, and two are judgements Atlas will not make for you.

Where Atlas stops
What is true today
Verifying serial numbers
Not built. Serial numbers are captured at receipt and checked only against each other and against earlier receipts. Nothing is sent to or checked against a national verification system, including the EU's FMD system and the UAE's Tatmeen. That connection is built for a customer who needs it.
Supplier corrective actions (CAPA)
Not built. Atlas records non-conformance and holds the batch, but it does not track a supplier's corrective and preventive actions through to closure.
Hospitals and pharmacies
This pack is for manufacturers and distributors. Dispensing, ward stock and recall to the patient are a different job and are not in it. A hospital still runs its whole procurement on Atlas, without this pack.
Reading a data logger
The receiver records the reading, and the logger's file can travel with the supplier's delivery note as evidence. Atlas does not read logger files, and it does not know how long an excursion lasted or whether the product tolerates it. That is the decision the hold exists to force.
Judging your compliance
Atlas makes no compliance claim on your behalf. It supplies the controls and the evidence of every decision taken under them. Compliance is your quality system's to establish, and your regulator's to judge.
See it on your own batches

Receive a batch. Then try to release it yourself.

A short demo on your own items: a delivery received into quarantine, the release refused to the person who received it, a result that fails its specification, and controlled stock moved into a vault with a witness. The pharma pack is an optional add-on at US$10,000 a year for each country that uses it; the rest of Atlas, end to end, is included in the licence.

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