INVENTORY

Product Traceability

Tracing and tracking the location of each component of a product at different stages of the inventory is a crucial part of inventory management. This process needs to be managed with utmost care so that you can ensure easy transfer throughout the inventory. The product traceability features available in Odoo 16 will simplify the tracking operations. These features will bring all inventory operations under control with advanced tracking.

We use lots and serial numbers for the purpose of effective tracing of stock movement in inventory. You can use them to keep track of a product from manufacturing to delivery. This will also improve the efficiency of stock management in your company. Using the lots and serial numbers, it is possible to easily locate the missing components, which is helpful in reducing the risk factors in stock movement. Odoo will keep a record of the stock movement of each component of a product as a traceability report.

In Odoo 16, you can use lots and serial numbers to track your products. Both these traceability features have a sight difference in their functions. In general, lots act as a unique identification number to identify a group of products under the same type. The products, which are comparatively small and difficult to count as single products, can be put together in a single pack and a lot number to the pack. The products will be picked as batches in the inventory. The serial numbers can be used for individual products in inventory. These numbers will perform the function of an identification number for individual products.

During the inventory management of products, you can assign lots and serial numbers on products. The advanced inventory management tools available in the Odoo Inventory module support these traceability features that will improve the efficiency of tracking. Now, let's go to the Settings menu to activate the complete features of the traceability in the Inventory module. Here, you can find the Lots & Serial Numbers option to activate under the Traceability tab.

Once you activate this feature, you can find the corresponding sub-menu under the Products menu of the Inventory module, as shown in the image below.

The pre-configured list of lots and serial numbers can be seen here. The list view will provide the details of Lots/Serial Number, Internal Reference Number, Product, Creation Date, and Company. In order to create new Lots/Serial Numbers, you can use the New button. This will lead you to a form view, as shown below, to configure a new lot/serial number.

In the given space, you can add a unique Lot/Serial Number for a product. The corresponding product can be specified in the Product field. The Quantity of this product available in the inventory will automatically appear in the corresponding field once you mention the product. You can add Internal Reference in the form in case it varies from the manufacturer’s lot/serial number. After mentioning the Company, you can add a description related to this lot/serial number in the Description field. After configuring the new lot/serial number, you will get the Location smart button on the screen which can be used to observe the location of the product in your inventory.

It shows the details of Location, Product, Package, Lot/Serial Number, Owner, On Hand Quantity, Received Quantity, and Unit. Here, you can use the History button to get the movement history of this particular product. It is possible to replenish the product from this window using the Replenishment button. If you want to get the latest inventory details of the product, you can use the Inventory at Date button.

Traceability is another smart button available on the lot/serial number window. This button will open the tracking report of the product as shown in the screenshot below.

This report shows the Reference, Product, Date, Lot/Serial Number, From, To, and Quantity.

You can decide the traceability of a product from the product configuration window in the Inventory module. For this, you can select the Inventory tab from the product form view.

As shown in the screenshot, you will get the Traceability section here which will help you to define how to track that particular product. You can set the Tracking based on a Unique Serial Number or Lots. If you don’t want to set any tracking on the product, you can select the No Tracking option.

At the time of receiving a new product in your inventory, Odoo will allow you to allot a new lot/serial number to that product. This can be done on a confirmed purchase order. The product will reach your company within the expected arrival date mentioned in the purchase order.

To allow a new lot/serial number to the product, you can click on the Receipt smart button available on the purchase order.

In the Receipt window, you can observe the purchased product under the Operation tab. Here, you will see an advanced icon to get the detailed operation window.

This pop-up window can be used to mention the lot/serial number for the new product. Along with this, you can mention the Destination Location also so that the product will be moved to this location once it reaches your inventory. Now, click on the Confirm button. Later, you can validate the receipt and click on the Receive Product button when the product arrives at your location. When you check the product form of that particular product, you can see the new lot/serial number.

For this, select the product from the Product menu.

Click on the Lot/Serial Number smart button. As shown in the image above, the new lot/serial number for the product will be shown in this window.

In order to display lots/serial numbers on the delivery slips, you can activate the Display Lots & Serial Numbers on Delivery Slips option from the Traceability tab available in the Settings menu.

Activating the Display Lots & Serial Numbers on Invoices from the Valuation tab will show lots & serial numbers on invoices.

Expiration Date

To maintain a healthy business relationship with your customers and prosper your business, you need to ensure that you don’t send expired products to your customers. Hence, you must check the expiration date of your products before selling them. Enable ‘Expiration Dates’ and ‘Display Lots & Serial Numbers on Delivery Slips.’ After enabling the latter, the option ‘Display Expiration Dates on Delivery Slips’ appears. Check the box next to it to activate it.

To set a product’s expiration date, head to the form view of any product; under the Inventory tab, enable the Expiration Date option. New fields to enter expiry details will appear below it.