Track lots and batches
A batch is a quantity of an item that arrived together or was made together, with a number printed on the box and, for some goods, a best-before date. Tracking batches is what lets you answer “which jars came from that wax?”. Switch it on if your goods have expiry dates or can be recalled.
Switch it on
Section titled “Switch it on”- Open Settings → General.
- In Lot and batch tracking, choose With lots. Every receipt, production run and shipment then records the lot it moved. Without lots counts stock with no batches, which is right when goods carry no expiry dates or batch numbers.
- Open each item you want tracked and turn on Lot tracking on its card.
Lot tracking is part of some plans only. If your plan does not include it, Settings → General says so and Plan and usage shows which plan adds it. Switching tracking off deletes no batch: everything stays and comes back untouched. An item that still holds stock in batches cannot be switched off until that stock is consumed, transferred or written off.
Choose which batch goes first
Section titled “Choose which batch goes first”In Settings → General, Batch selection order decides which batch is drawn when nobody picks one by hand:
- Soonest to expire first (FEFO): the batch closest to its expiry date, whenever it arrived. Batches that never expire go last. This is the default.
- Oldest received first (FIFO): the batch that arrived earliest, whatever its expiry date.
This decides which batch physically leaves the shelf, not how it is valued. An operation can still name its own batch. The same order picks among interchangeable materials when a specification line names a group of them.
Give batches their numbers
Section titled “Give batches their numbers”- On receipt of a purchase order, enter the Batch no., Supplier’s batch and Best before. See Receive goods.
- On production, the run creates the batch it makes.
- In Record movement, Transfers and Stocktake, pick the batch the units belong to.
Read an item’s batches
Section titled “Read an item’s batches”Open an item and find Lots and batches. For each batch you see the Batch number, the Supplier reference, how much is On hand and Available, the shelf life (Best before, PAO: months after opening) and its Status: Active, Quarantined (present but deliberately not pickable), Consumed or Expired. A consumed batch is kept, because it is exactly what a recall needs to trace.
Warehouse → Lots and batches is the tracer for finding a batch from any number. See Trace a batch back to its raw materials.