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FIFO by Production Date Challenge

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Posted on by Gabe Longoria

Hello,

We’re working with a Client whose bottles are lot-tracked but without expiration dates.

The challenge is that a single Lot No. can have multiple production dates associated with it. Their request is to enforce FIFO picking based on Production Date, not Lot No or Posting Date.

The problem: Base BC FIFO logic doesn’t support multiple production dates within a single Lot, and the system only allows one expiration date per Lot.

That eliminates the option to use expiration date as a workaround unless we split the Lot by production date.

Has anyone dealt with a similar scenario?

We’re considering either appending the production date to the Lot No at receipt or exploring custom logic to enable FIFO by production date.

Open to ideas or any clever configurations, extensions, or workaround suggestions are welcome!

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techreviews.digital 376 on at

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Dear @Gabe Longoria,

Greetings!!!

The following three types of Item Tracking are available in Business Central.

1- Serial Number

2- Lot Number

3- Package Number

I would suggest testing multiple scenarios with the combination of Lot and Package-specific tracking. In the package number, we suggest updating the production dates for your reference.

This combination of item tracking might resolve all of your concerns.

Best Regards,

Sheikh Muhammad Jawad

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YUN ZHU 95,331 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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If a lot number is associated with multiple production dates, it will be impossible to trace back if there is a problem. I personally think you should use different lot numbers when producing. And you can create a production date field on the Lot No. Information Card

If the customer needs another unified number to manage the same lot number, you can add a new custom field for reference only.

Hope this can give you some hints.

Thanks.

ZHU

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Andrés Arias 4,188 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Hello,

I would recommend using Lot Number to get control. If this is not possible, the best thing to do would be to do a little development.

I hope I can help.

Regards,

Andres

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Mansi Soni 8,907 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Hello,

You can build custom logic to sort picks by a separate Production Date field, but doing that means changing how Business Central handles picks or reservations by default which can make the system harder to maintain over time. A simpler and more system-friendly approach is to split the lots at the time of receipt, adding the Production Date to the Lot No. This way, FIFO can work as expected without needing to alter core functionality.

Hope this answer will help you as well!

Regards,
Mansi Soni

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Gerardo Rentería Ga... 25,157 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi

You could try setting the "Expiration Date" field to "Production Date" and enabling FEFO. I haven't tried this before, so I'm not sure if it would work.

Best

Gr

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Jainam M. Kothari 15,631 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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May this can help : https://community.dynamics.com/forums/thread/details/?threadid=1af628c8-5ae1-4a74-b644-b9a3a5242ff2

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Jeffrey Bulanadi 8,760 on at

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Hi Gabe,

Good question to be honest — and a classic example of where real-world operations outpace base system logic.

You're correct: BC's standard FIFO logic is tied to Lot No. and Posting Date, and it assumes a single expiration date per Lot. That makes it tricky when a Lot spans multiple production dates, as shown in your spreadsheet.

Here are a few modular options to consider:

Option 1: Append Production Date to Lot No at Receipt

This is the cleanest workaround if operationally feasible. You’d treat each production batch as a unique Lot (e.g., 63345-20250709, 63345-20250710). This allows FIFO logic to work as intended, since each Lot now represents a distinct production date.

Option 2: Custom Sorting Logic in Pick Worksheet or Warehouse Activity Lines

If splitting Lots isn’t viable, you can extend the Pick logic to sort by Production Date. This requires:

Adding a custom field for Production Date on Item Ledger Entries or Warehouse Entries

Modifying the sorting logic in the Pick Worksheet or Warehouse Activity Line generation to prioritize oldest Production Date first

Option 3: Shadow Expiration Date Field

If you want to retain a single Lot No but still enforce FIFO by production date, consider adding a “Shadow Expiration Date” field that mimics expiration logic based on production date. You can then use this in custom reservation or pick logic.

Option 4: Custom Reservation Engine

For full control, you could build a reservation engine that filters and ranks available inventory by Production Date, even within the same Lot. This is more complex but gives you precision.

Your spreadsheet clearly shows the need — multiple entries under Lot 63345 with different production dates and quantities. So yes, you're not alone in facing this!

Helpful References:
Item Tracking Overview
Warehouse Picking
Forum Thread: FIFO by Production Date

If you find this helpful, feel free to mark this as the suggested or verified answer.
Cheers
Jeffrey

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