Batches, serial numbers and bin locations

Batches and serials on the item

On the item record, set tracking to none, by batch or by serial number. Use batches for food, pharmaceuticals or chemicals with an expiration date, and serials for equipment you track unit by unit. You can't change tracking while the item has stock.

Each batch stores its number, the supplier's batch number, the manufacturing date, the expiration date and the receipt date. Each serial number is one unit, with its warehouse and bin location while it's in stock.

When receiving

In goods receipts, transfers and Receiving by scanner, each line lists its batches, serials and bin locations underneath. A button opens the dialog to enter them: scan the batch or serial, type the expiration date and choose where it's stored.

If you leave them blank, Nori can number batches (date plus a sequence number) or serials (item code plus a sequence number) automatically, if your company turned this on in the sales settings.

When selling or picking

• Batches: Nori suggests the batch that expires first (FEFO) and, on a tie, the one received first. If your company prefers to choose batches manually, you pick them in the same dialog.
• Serials: you always specify which unit goes out. In the point of sale and goods delivery, just scan the serial and the item is added with it.
• A batch or serial can't go negative unless the company allows selling without stock.

Returns use the batches and serials from the original document, so exactly what went out comes back.

Inventory › Inventory hub flags batches that expire soon. You set how many days in advance per company.

Bin locations inside the warehouse

Turn on bin locations for the warehouse (Catalogs › Inventory › Warehouses) when you need to know the aisle, rack or level of every item.

1. In Catalogs › Inventory › Bin sublevels and attributes, name up to four sublevels, for example Aisle, Rack, Level and Position.
2. Create the bin locations in Inventory › Bin locations. The code is built from the warehouse and the sublevels, for example CEDIS-A-03-2. Each one can have a barcode, a minimum, a maximum, and restrictions on receiving or issuing stock.
3. Set each item's default bin in Inventory › Default bin per item.

From then on:

• Incoming stock goes to the item's default bin. If it has none, it goes to the warehouse's default bin, and if that's missing too, to an "unassigned" bin that Nori creates automatically.
• Outgoing stock comes from the default bin first, then from the fullest bin.
• Moving goods from one rack to another is a transfer within the same warehouse.
• A bin location with stock can't be deleted.

Inventory › Stock by bin shows what's in each place, with filters by sublevel, item and batch, and compares the total against the minimum and maximum.

If you use an ERP

With an ERP connected, bin locations, sublevels, default bins and batch and serial settings come from the ERP and are read-only in Nori. Nori sends each document's batches, serials and bin locations to the ERP. Without an ERP, you edit everything in Nori.