Lot tracking follows stock in batches. Each delivery of an item can carry a batch (lot) number and an expiry date. SeroBooks keeps every batch's quantity, cost and location separately, lets you choose the batch an invoice line sells from, warns you about batches that are about to expire, and traces any batch in both directions: which supplier and bill it came from, and which customers bought it.
The Expiry screen (the Lot Expiration report in the Reports menu) is the watchlist: every batch approaching or past its expiry date, with the money at risk.
Turn on lot numbers and expiry dates
Lot numbers and expiry dates are company-wide settings, kept in the company's Business Settings on the web:
| Setting | What it does in SeroBooks |
|---|---|
| Enable Lot number | Adds a Batch / Lot no. box to each line when you receive stock. |
| Enable Product Expiry | Adds an Expiry date to each received line. When the setting asks for the manufacturing date as well, a Mfg date is added too. |
| On Product Expiry | Keep selling: expired batches can still be chosen on an invoice. Stop selling: expired batches are greyed out and cannot be sold. |
When neither lot numbers nor expiry dates are turned on, none of the boxes described below appear.
Record batches when stock arrives
On Receive Items and on the lines of Enter Bills, each line gains the tracking fields your settings turn on:
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Batch / Lot no. | The batch or lot number printed on the goods or the supplier's paperwork. |
| Mfg date | The manufacturing date, when your settings ask for it. Select the chip to pick the date. |
| Expiry date | The expiry (best-before) date. Select the chip to pick the date; the picker opens a year ahead. On a bill line, a date already in the past shows in red, and the small cross on the chip clears the date. |
Each received line becomes a batch with its own quantity, purchase cost, location, supplier and bill. Stock received on a transfer and opening stock form batches too.
Sell from a batch
When lot numbers or expiry dates are turned on, each line on an invoice (see Create Invoices) shows a Pick batch chip under the item name.
- Select Pick batch. The Pick batch — item dialog lists the batches of that item with stock at the line's location, oldest expiry first (FEFO), and says how many units the line sells.
- Choose a batch. Each one shows:
- Batch number, with a FEFO tag on the first unexpired batch, EXPIRED on expired ones, or a tag such as 12d left when it expires within 30 days;
- the expiry date, location, supplier and bill;
- how many are available, in amber when that is fewer than the line sells.
- The chip changes to Batch number · exp date: green, or red when the batch is past its expiry date.
Select the chip again to change the batch, or choose Clear batch in the dialog to remove it. If the batch holds fewer units than the line sells, SeroBooks warns Batch X only has N — selling N. Split the line across batches if needed. When On Product Expiry is Stop selling, expired batches are greyed out and cannot be chosen.
If the dialog says No batches with stock at this location., the item has no tracked batch stock where the line sells from. Receive it on a purchase to create a batch.
The batch chosen on each line is what the recall trace later uses to find the customers who bought that batch.
Open the Expiry watchlist
- Reports ▸ Inventory ▸ Lot Expiration, or
- the Expiry tab of the Inventory module in the left navigation, or
- from the Dashboard: when batches expire within 30 days, the Needs attention card shows N batch(es) expiring within 30 days with the value at risk; select it to open Expiry.
The Expiry screen
The watchlist covers every batch still in stock at the locations you may see, received on a bill, a transfer or opening stock, whose expiry date falls within the window you choose. Goods ordered but not yet received are not included.
Window and search
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Expired | Only batches already past their expiry date. |
| ≤ 7 days, ≤ 30 days (the default), ≤ 90 days | Batches expiring within that many days, including those already expired. |
| Search item, batch or code… | Narrows the list by item name, batch number or SKU as you type. |
| Refresh | Reloads the watchlist. |
The heading shows how many batches are listed, and adds expired stock is blocked from sale when On Product Expiry is Stop selling.
The summary tiles
| Tile | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Value at risk | On-hand quantity × purchase cost of the batches in the window (within N days, or already expired). It totals every matching batch, even when the list below is cut short. |
| Expired batches | How many listed batches are already past expiry, and their value to write off (or none). |
| Batches watched | How many batches are listed. When there are more than can be shown it reads N of N with showing the soonest — value covers them all. |
| Policy | Block sale or Keep selling: what happens on expiry, from the On Product Expiry setting. |
The list
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Item | The item, with its variation. |
| Batch | The batch (lot) number, or — when none was recorded. |
| Location | Where the batch is held. |
| Expires | The expiry date. |
| Status | A label such as Expired 12d ago (red), Expires today or 18 days left. Batches within 7 days of expiry are flagged more strongly than those further out. |
| On hand | Units of the batch still in stock. |
| Value | On hand × the batch's purchase cost. |
The list is sorted soonest expiry first. You can sort by a column heading, filter, and Export the list like other lists in SeroBooks. Press Enter or double-click a row to open its batch trace.
If the list cannot load you see Could not load the expiry watchlist with Try again.
Trace a batch (recall view)
The batch trace answers both halves of a recall in one window. Open it from a row on the Expiry screen, or from BATCHES & EXPIRY in an item's Product 360 view (see An item's history and drill-down).
The heading shows the item, an Expires date (or EXPIRED date) tag, the batch number and the SKU.
RECEIVED FROM (upstream)
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Supplier | Who you bought the batch from. |
| Bill | The bill or receipt reference it arrived on. |
| Received | The date it arrived. |
| Into | The location it was received into. |
| Unit cost | Its purchase cost per unit. |
| Received qty, Sold, Returned, Adjusted | What has happened to the batch. |
| Still on hand | What is left. |
SOLD TO (downstream) lists every invoice that sold from this batch, with a count of sales, units and customers: INVOICE, CUSTOMER (with any serial numbers recorded on the line), CONTACT (mobile and email), WHEN and QTY. Copy customer list copies the names of every affected customer, one per line, ready to paste into an email or a spreadsheet. When nothing from the batch has been sold, the trace says so: there is nothing to recall from customers.
Dealing with expired stock
The Expiry screen shows and traces; it does not change stock. To remove expired goods from inventory, record an inventory adjustment for the items (see Adjust Quantity/Value on Hand). The adjustment is what reduces the quantity and posts the loss to the books.
Common problems
- There is no Batch / Lot no. box when I receive stock. Lot numbers are not turned on for the company. Turn on Enable Lot number (and Enable Product Expiry for dates) in Business Settings.
- A batch I received is not on the Expiry screen. It has no expiry date, its expiry is beyond the window you chose, it has no stock left, it is at a location you cannot see, or the goods have not been received yet. Widen the window to ≤ 90 days and check the bill line.
- The batch picker says no batches at this location. The stock was received at another location, or received without a batch. Transfer it, or check the receipt.
- An expired batch cannot be chosen on the invoice. On Product Expiry is set to Stop selling. This is intended.
- A recall trace shows fewer sales than expected. Some invoice lines were sold without choosing the batch. Those sales cannot be linked to it.