Expiry & reminders

Tracking expiration dates is what makes Kalta different from a generic inventory app. This page covers how expiry dates flow through the app: display, sorting, reminders, notifications.

Three ways an item handles expiry

When you add or edit an item, the Expiry section gives you a segmented choice:

• Has expiry — the default. A date picker appears below; pick the expiration date from the product packaging.
• Never expires — for things that genuinely don’t expire (batteries, flashlights, tools, fabric, hand-warmers). The date picker is hidden, the item is shown as Never in lists, and no expiry reminders are scheduled.

You can also leave the Has expiry option selected without picking a date — this is the “I’ll fill this in later” state. Such items appear with a grey No date label and don’t trigger reminders until you set the date.

The five expiry states

Every item shows one of these states in lists:

You’ll see this coding everywhere an item or box appears: in the warehouse dashboard, inside boxes, in the cross-box Items tab.

Sorting by urgency

Items inside a box are sorted by expiry, soonest first. The critical things are always at the top.

Boxes in a warehouse are sorted by the earliest expiry of any item inside. If a box has one can expiring next week and everything else in 5 years, that box still floats to the top.

Items across boxes (the Items tab at the warehouse level) combine both: items are sorted by expiry urgency, with opened items appearing first (since they typically degrade faster once opened).

This is the core “what needs my attention now?” view. Open a warehouse and the top of the list is always the most time-sensitive thing.

Reminders (local notifications)

Kalta can schedule local iOS notifications for items as they approach expiry. Everything is scheduled on-device — there’s no push server involved, so reminders work fully offline.

Default reminder windows

When you enable notifications, Kalta schedules:

• 30 days before expiry
• 7 days before expiry
• 1 day before expiry
• On the day of expiry

You can disable any of these windows individually in Settings → Notifications.

Enabling notifications

1. Open Kalta → Settings → Notifications.
2. Toggle Expiry reminders on.
3. iOS will ask for notification permission. Tap Allow.
4. Customize which windows you want (30d / 7d / 1d / today).

The first time you enable notifications, Kalta schedules reminders for all existing items. Newly added items are scheduled automatically as you save them.

Notification tap behavior

Tap a notification → the app opens directly to the box containing the expiring item. No hunting through warehouses.

The notifications bell

Inside the app, the header on every list screen carries a bell icon that consolidates open issues into one tap. The bell appears with a colored dot only when there’s something worth your attention; the colour matches the worst signal:

• Red — readiness is critical (less than 25% of your goal), or items expire within a day
• Amber — readiness is below goal, items expire within 30 days, or there are purchases waiting to be restocked
• Sage — items expire within 60 days, or you have a shopping list with items to buy

Tap the bell and a panel slides out of the icon containing the matching cards (Readiness, Expiry tier, Shopping). Each card is tappable and takes you straight to the relevant screen.

Two flavours of bell:

• Per-warehouse (Boxes / Items / Settings / Shopping tabs of a warehouse) — alerts scoped to that warehouse
• Global (Warehouses root screen) — cross-warehouse expiry summary

The bell is intentionally alert-only — when nothing’s wrong, it’s not in the header. The Shopping list and Readiness dashboard have their own permanent entry points (Shopping is a tab, Readiness lives in Settings) so the bell never has to double as navigation.

Badge count

When notifications are enabled, Kalta’s app icon shows a red badge with the count of expired items across all your warehouses. Items in the “critical” state (0–30 days) are not counted by default — only items that are already past their expiry date.

To clear the badge, open each item and either consume / discard it (delete from Kalta) or update the expiry date.

Why notifications are local-only

Kalta schedules notifications on your iPhone using iOS’s local notification API — not a push server. This has several implications:

• Works offline — no network needed to deliver reminders.
• Private — we don’t have a list of what you’re tracking or when.
• Device-specific — if you have the app on two devices (yours and a family member’s), each device schedules its own reminders based on its local data.
• Depends on iOS state — notifications respect Focus modes, Do Not Disturb, and Low Power Mode restrictions.

Troubleshooting reminders

If notifications aren’t showing up:

1. iOS Settings → Notifications → Kalta — make sure alerts are allowed.
2. Check that you’re not in a Focus mode that suppresses Kalta.
3. In Kalta → Settings → Notifications, verify the windows you expect are enabled.
4. For items added before you changed your reminder windows, the old schedule may still apply. Reopen the item and save it again to re-schedule with current settings.

What’s next

• See how the bell’s signals are computed in Readiness dashboard.
• Use Shopping list & restock to close the loop when something’s low.
• If you want a family member to help you keep track, read Sharing & P2P sync.
• For printing the QR labels you’ve generated, see Printing QR labels.