A Software Company in Miami, Following One Box of Stems Through Inspection

Updated November 2026 · Written and maintained by the Progression Agency strategy team

A box of roses lands at Miami International at night and cannot leave the port until an inspector says so. For a software company in Miami, the interesting part of a flower importer’s system is what happens during that wait, because the federal rule puts a hard stop in the middle of a cold chain and the airport handles around 90 percent of the fresh cut flowers sold for Valentine’s Day. This page follows one box hour by hour, shows the record at each stage, and says what the work costs. Progression is based in New York, builds for Miami companies remotely, and offers on-site sessions on request.

The box that cannot leave

It is a few minutes before midnight. One box of roses sits on a cargo pallet, and the tag on the pallet carries a time and a single word in the status field: held.

The tag is made up, and the word on it is the point. The box has arrived, but it has not been released, so nobody downstream should plan around it yet. A system that shows the box as arrived and nothing more invites a buyer to make promises that an inspector will decide.

What a software company in Miami is really tracking

The Associated Press reported on February 11, 2025 that in the run up to February 14, agricultural specialists at Miami International Airport processed about 940 million stems of cut flowers, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. It also reported that around 90 percent of the fresh cut flowers sold for Valentine’s Day in the United States come through Miami, the other 10 percent through Los Angeles, on hundreds of flights mostly from Colombia and Ecuador.

The rule behind the wait is 7 CFR 319.74-2. Paragraph (a) says all cut flowers imported into the United States must be made available to an inspector for examination at the port of first arrival and must remain there until released, or authorized further movement, by an inspector.

A Miami software company that builds for importers is therefore building two things: a record of where each box is, and a record of who is allowed to change its status. The second is the unusual one. An inspector, not the importer, decides when the stop ends.

A rule published in the Federal Register on October 8, 2026 moves the requirements for specific types of cut flowers into APHIS’s Agricultural Commodity Import Requirements database and removes provisions on chrysanthemum white rust, effective November 9, 2026. It revises paragraphs (c) and (d) and leaves the inspection and action paragraphs described here as they were. Ask a customs broker how it applies to your products.

What does the log have to know that a warehouse system does not?

That a box can be physically present and still not be available to move. The status is a fact about permission, not about location, and the log has to hold both.

• Store location and release status as separate fields.
• Let only a defined role change the release status.
• Stamp every change with the time and the person.
• Show the status on every screen that mentions the box.

The hold and release log

The table follows one illustrative box. The hours are made up, and the order is the point: every row has a place, a status, a person who can change the status, a temperature note and the line the buyer sees.

Arrival: the status starts as held

The record is created at arrival with the status already set to held, and nothing in the importer’s system can change that. Starting from held means no box is ever shown as available by default.

Inspection: what the importer can and cannot do

The importer can make the box available, record when it did, and wait. It cannot release the box, and the log should not offer a button that suggests otherwise. Show the inspector’s step as an event someone records, with the time.

Release: the first time the box can move

Release is the first moment the status changes from held, and the only moment a dispatcher can book the truck. The cost of the log is set at this point, because everything after release is ordinary logistics and everything before it is the new work.

What a hold and release log costs

A software development company in Miami prices this work by the number of systems the log has to connect to and the number of roles that change a status. A log that sits beside the existing warehouse system is a smaller project than one that replaces it.

Hosting, licenses and security testing are on top of these figures. Progression quotes after a written scope, with no price per box. Our software development company page explains how a scope is written.

What drives the price up?

The number of systems to connect, the number of roles, the number of coolers and the volume at the busiest hour.

• Connections to the warehouse, billing and broker systems.
• Roles that can change a status, and the audit trail behind them.
• Views for the buyer and for outside parties.
• Testing at peak week volumes.
• Sensor feeds for cooler temperature, if the importer has them.

When an inspector finds something

Paragraph (b) of the rule says that if an inspector orders disinfection, cleaning, treatment, reexportation or other action for flowers found infested with injurious plant pests or infected with diseases, the inspector provides an emergency action notification, PPQ Form 523, to the importer, owner or their agent.

The importer, owner or agent must act within the time stated on the form and at their own expense. The form can call for destroying the flowers, shipping them outside the United States, moving them to an authorized site, or treating or cleaning them. The rule adds that if the conditions are not met by the time on the form, APHIS arranges destruction and the importer, owner or agent is responsible for the costs.

On a screen, that is a clock. Put the deadline from the form next to the box, notify the people who can act, and record what was done and when. Ask a customs broker about the filings.

• Capture the deadline on the form as a field with a countdown.
• Notify the importer, the broker and the cooler lead the moment a notice is recorded.
• Record the action taken, who took it and when.
• Keep the original notice attached to the record.

The cards show who needs to see the same record, and what each of them sees. The notice and its clock should reach all of them at once.

The Valentine’s week load

The Associated Press figures show how much arrives in one stretch. Avianca Cargo, described as Miami’s largest flower importer, moved about 18,000 tons of flowers on 300 full cargo flights in three weeks, according to the company’s senior vice president. That is a reason to test the log at peak volume, and no more than that.

Invent no volumes for your own business. Take your busiest three weeks of arrival records, load them as test data, and watch what slows down: the status screen, the notice alerts, the buyer view.

• Load your busiest three weeks of records as test data.
• Test the notice alerts with many notices at once.
• Check that the buyer view stays fast.
• Test what happens when two people change a record together.
• Test a late night burst, when many flights land close together.

Who else reads the log

Software development in Miami for an importer means one record with several views. The broker, the freight forwarder, the grower, the wholesaler and the retailer all care about the same box, at different times and for different reasons.

Give each reader a view built for them, and show every reader the same status.

What should the buyer’s screen say while a box is held?

The truth, in a short sentence: held at the port, awaiting inspection. Do not show an estimated delivery time until the box is released, because the time depends on a decision the importer does not make.

Does this work for other perishables?

The rule cited here covers cut flowers. Other products have their own rules, and a broker can tell you which. The log design, a status that starts as held and a role that changes it, carries over.

What should the log never promise?

Three things: a release time, a result of inspection and a treatment cost. All three depend on decisions the importer does not make, so the log records them after they happen and never predicts them.

• No estimated release time while a box is held.
• No label that says a box passed before an inspector has said so.
• No cost figure for an ordered action until the notice states what is required.
• No wording that suggests the software or the importer controls the stop.

Which roles does the log need?

Fewer than most teams expect. Separate who records, who views and who can change a release status.

How long should a status change take to show up?

Within seconds on every screen. A buyer who sees held when the box has been released loses a morning, and a dispatcher who sees released too early books a truck that waits.

• Push a change to every open screen as soon as it is recorded.
• Show the time of the last update on each screen.
• Flag any record that has not changed for an unusual time.
• Keep the full history of every change.

A brief for a perishable import project

Copy the card into a document and fill it in. It is the quickest way to move from a pallet to a scope.

The cards list the six questions to settle first. Our app development in Miami page covers the apps that sit in front of a system like this.

Related services and guides

Pages that sit beside this hold and release log:

• Software development company
• App development agency
• App development in Miami

Frequently asked questions