Serial Numbers

Overview

BOS Enterprise provides functionality to record Serial Numbers when you Receive, Issue or Return products. The Receive transaction will add a new Serial No. to your database while the Issue and Return transactions will select a Serial No. that already exists in your database.

The benefits of Tracking Serial No's include knowing:

  • when and from which Supplier a product was received

  • which Customer purchased a product and when it went into service

  • which Customer returned a product and if it is still in the warranty period.

Settings

Only one Transaction Type setting is required to enable this functionality - Settings > Transaction Types > Default: Use Serialized Stock. Options include

  • Receive/Issue (Scan Code) - Scan the Item Code and then Scan the Serial No's for that Item. A new Serial No. is created and linked to the selected Item.

  • Issue (Scan Serial No.) - The Serial No. is checked against numbers that were received.

  • Return (Scan Serial No.) - The Serial No. is checked against numbers that were issued.

How it works

When one of the above settings is linked to a Transaction Type, a menu item Menu > Serial Number will be added to the Transaction menu as well as a button (with a scanner icon) which is displayed in the top right, next to the Info button and can be fired using a keyboard shortcut - Alt+T. Click the menu item or the button to open the Serial No. module.

Receive

When Receiving Items, you first need to select an Item to which the Serial No. will be linked. To do this, focus the cursor on the Item Code edit box and enter the Item Code or scan a barcode which contains the Item Code. If the Item exists in the transaction, it will be located else the Item will be added to the Transaction. If an Item is located, focus will move to the Serial No. edit box so you can enter the Serial No. or scan a barcode which contains the Serial No.

Click the Add button, the Serial No. will be added to the Transaction and the Item quantity will be updated. (Default Button)

The Remove button can be used to remove the multi-selected Serial No./s.

If the Serial No. has already been added to the Item, nothing will happen - duplicate Serial No's are not allowed.

Issue

When Issuing items, the Serial No. locates the Item that it was Received against. If the item exists on the transaction, it is located, else it will be added to the transaction. If the Serial No. has already been added to the transaction or it is not found, an error message is displayed.

To add a Serial No., focus the Serial No. edit box and enter the Serial No. or scan a barcode which contains the Serial No. If the Add button is clicked, the Serial No. will be added to the transaction and the item quantity will be updated. If the Remove button is clicked the Serial No. will be removed from the transaction and the item quantity will be decremented.

When Returning items, the Serial No. locates the Item that it was Issued against. If the item exists on the transaction, it is located, else it will be added to the transaction. If the Serial No. has already been added to the transaction or it is not found, an error message is displayed.

To add a Serial No., focus the Serial No. edit box and enter the Serial No. or scan a barcode which contains the Serial No. If Add is clicked, the Serial No. will be added to the transaction and the item quantity will be updated. If Remove is clicked the Serial No. will be removed from the transaction and the item quantity will be decremented.

Note

When you Receive, you can check the Selected Item on Transaction checkbox and use the Next and Previous buttons (Up & Down arrow) to scroll through items in the transaction, checking the Serial Numbers linked to each Item in the Transaction.

When you Issue or Return, the Next and Previous buttons (Up & Down arrow) are always enabled for scrolling.

A trigger is used to delete Serial No's when a Transaction is Cancelled (Status changed to a Cancelled group). When a Transaction or an Item on a Transaction is deleted, the linked Serial Numbers are also deleted.

Reporting

A Serial Numbers view has been added to the Inventory Reporting module. This view let's you search on a Serial number to see exactly when it was Received, Issued and Returned (if applicable).