Lots, batches and the dates that matter

The Expiry screen turns 'some stock is going off' into numbers an owner can act on: value at risk inside the window, expired batches still showing stock, batches watched. Choose the horizon — expired, 7, 30 or 90 days — and the markdown decision has a dollar figure to weigh against.

Only batch-tracked items appear, and the screen says so: an empty list means nothing is near date, or tracking is not on for those products — never a silent maybe.

Lot numbers and expiry dates are keyed as goods arrive — on the purchase or the GRN, where the carton is still in front of somebody. From then on the batch is a first-class record: it holds stock, it ages, and every sale that draws from it is remembered.

When a sale does not name a batch, the system picks the oldest with stock — FEFO by default, so leaving it alone is usually the right call and the shelf rotates itself.

Open any batch and the recall view lists every sale it went out on, with customer and invoice. A supplier recall or a complaint is worked from this screen in minutes: who got lot 4471, when, and how much is still on the shelf to pull.

That trace is the difference between a controlled recall and a week of guesswork — and it costs nothing to have, because the data was captured in the normal flow of receiving and selling.

What happens on expiry is a stated policy on the screen — keep selling, or stop — so the business decision is visible, not buried in configuration. Expired batches still holding stock surface at the top of the list until someone clears and writes them off, with the write-off carrying its reason into the adjustments record.

Dashboard cards echo the expiring value, so the weekly review starts itself.