One lot has gone bad, and we cannot say which customers received it.
Batch and serial tracking puts a number on what you make or buy, then follows it out to the customer. A batch carries its date and shelf life; a machine or a pump carries a serial of its own. Ask who received a bad lot and the answer takes a minute. A warranty claim stops depending on a bill the customer lost two years ago.
The chemical came in three drums from two suppliers, and the mixing man used whichever was open. A dealer rings about a bad lot. Somebody now walks the godown reading labels, and the answer is a guess with a confident voice.
A batch number is given when the material is received or when the lot is made, and it travels with the stock. Issues, bills and despatches carry it. Pieces that deserve a number of their own, an inverter or a pump, get a serial instead, and that serial stays on the invoice and on the service history.
What batch and serial tracking does.
Batch at receipt or at production
A number is given when the supplier’s lot is received, or when your own run finishes, with the date it was made.
Shelf life and expiry
Best-before or expiry on the batch, so the oldest stock is sold first and the counter stops reaching for the front row.
Serial number per piece
Machines, pumps, inverters and gold pieces carry their own number from purchase through sale.
Where the lot went
Every invoice, challan and job that drew from a batch, on one list. A recall notice goes to those names only.
Supplier lot on your record
The lot number printed on his drum or his bale is kept beside yours. A complaint can be taken back to him with evidence.
Stock counted by batch
The balance is not one figure. It is a figure per batch, with the date beside it.
The people who open this every day.
Storekeeper
Records the batch at goods receipt and issues by the oldest one first.
Quality checker
Holds a batch, releases it, or marks it rejected, and the stock obeys.
Service desk
Types a serial number and sees the sale date, the warranty and every visit made since.
Owner
Asks one question after a complaint: who else got it.
It is one part of a system, not an island.
A module earns its place by what it passes to the next one. These are the connections we set up most often.
- Goods receipt
- Stock
- Quality control
- Invoice management
- Job cards
Products that include it.
How we would put it in.
Questions owners ask about batch and serial tracking.
We sell loose. Can we still keep batches?
Yes, at the level you actually handle: the drum, the bag or the day’s run. Tracking finer than you can physically separate in the godown only creates data nobody believes.
Is any of this already in your products?
Consumable stock in our Spa Management System carries batch expiry dates, and Jewellery Retail Management Software follows each piece by its tag and weight. Other trades get the same idea fitted to their unit.
Does the batch print on the invoice?
Yes, on the line it was sold from. Dealers ask for this most, because their own customer asks them.
Is a register enough if we make one product?
It can be. One product, one supplier and a shop you can see across: the register wins. Two suppliers of the same input is where it starts to fail.
Businesses that ask for this.
Modules that work with it.
Tell us how you handle batch and serial tracking today.
A spreadsheet, a register or another system: say which, and we will tell you plainly what is worth changing.
- No obligation
- We reply the same working day
- Your details stay private