Business Central: How will Item tracking affect Inbound, Outbound and Internal transactions?

Introductions:

Once we setup Item tracking codes for a Item, we’ll have to assign Serial No’s and Lot No’s to each flow of transaction e.g. Inbound transaction like Purchase document, Outbound transaction like Sales document and Internal transactions like Inventory adjustment journals.

For Inbound transaction like Purchase document, we create new Item tracking and for outbound transaction like sales document we select the existing item tracking used for the Purchase document.

Hence, it becomes very easy to track which Purchase document item was used to to create the finished product. In case, of defects, we can easily track it back to the source and reject the entire lot causing problem or identify the defective component

Pre-requisites:

Business Central

Steps:

1. Check for Item tracking code on the Item you would like to track. In below example I’m assigning Specific serial No. tracking for Item 80001

Note: Serial Nos and Lot Nos fields left empty can be assigned and that can be useful if we have to post production or assembly orders as you will be able to assign your own Serial or Lot Nos.

2. Assign LOTALLEXP (Lot All with manual expiration date) to Item 80002

Note: Item tracking code can be changed only when it has never been used else it cannot be changed.

3. Inbound transaction – Lets create a Purchase order for an inbound transaction using the above two items 80001,80002 and assign quantity against it.

4. As these Items are setup for Item tracking, if we post the purchase order without assigning the serial no. for the first item and Lot no. for the second item, it will pop up as an error.

5. To assign Item tracking, go to lines in the ribbon and click on Item tracking lines.

6. We can integrate assigning item tracking using barcode scanning or we can assign serial Nos manually or autogenerate it by clicking on actions and using Assign Serial No. or Create Customized SN

7. Lets click on Create Customized Serial Nos by clicking on Create Customized SN

8. Enter the Customized SN as per your requirement. I’m using the below for the example.

9. Based on the format entered, the serial No will be populated. As we have 100 as Quantity, 100 serial No’s are created. Click on Ok to close the page.

10. Similarly, select your second line item and click on Item tracking lines to assign Lot Nos.

Please Note: The Lot No. assigned requires the manual expiration date to be assigned as per our item tracking code LOTALLEXP

11. Open the Item tracking lines page and click on Personalize if you do not find expiration date column.

12. Click on personalize then click on More, select field and all fields will be visible on the right hand corner. Select your field and drag it next to your column Lot No. and click on Done

13. We can Lot Nos either manually or assign Lots Nos using the function in the Action tab. In the below example, I will create the Lot No manually. I’ve assigned 200,300,500 as quantity with expiration date.

14. Now if you try to click on Post and receive, it will receive and the Quantity received can be viewed from Quantity received column.

15. If you now navigate to Items 80001 and Item tracking entries, you can view the tracking code assigned to the 100 Items each which makes each entry unique and easy to track

16. Similarly, we can check for Items 80002, but here the Item ledger entries will have only 3 entries

Similarly, you can use Item tracking for Outbound transactions like sales and internal transaction like Item journal, Physical Inventory journal.

Outbound transaction:

1. From any outbound document, select the line that you want to select serial or lot numbers for.
2. On the Lines FastTab, choose the Actions action, choose the Line or the Item action, and then choose the Item Tracking Lines action.
3. In the Item Tracking Lines window, you have three options for specifying lot or serial number:
   • Select the Lot No. or Serial No. field, and then select a number from the Item Tracking Summary window.
   • Choose the Select Entries action. The Select Entries window shows all lot or serial numbers along with availability information.
4. In the Selected Quantity field, enter the quantity of each lot or serial number that you would like to use.
5. Choose the OK button, and the selected item tracking information is transferred to the Item Tracking Lines window.
6. Type or scan in the item tracking number.

Internal transaction – Item Reclassfy journal

Reclassifying item tracking for an item means changing a lot or serial number to a new lot or serial number or changing the expiration date to a new expiration date. If you are working with lots, you can also merge multiple lots into one. You perform these tasks using the item reclassification journal.

1. Choose the  icon, enter Item Reclass. Journal, and then choose the related link.
2. Choose the Item Tracking Lines action.
3. In the Serial No. or Lot No. field, select the current serial or lot number.
4. If you want to enter a new item tracking number, enter it in the New Serial No. or New Lot No. field. If you want, you can merge one or more lots to one new or existing lot. 
5. If you would like to enter a new expiration date for the serial or lot number, enter it in the New Expiration Date field.
6. Post the journal

Thanks for reading!