For recalls and proof of compliance, you need to be able to trace when each product batch arrived in your warehouse, where it is stored, and which customers it was shipped to. Pickware supports you with tracking profiles, so you can consistently capture batches and best before dates (BBD) in your warehouse processes and trace them without gaps.

Open the relevant product in the Admin and scroll to General → Stock management. Select the tracking profile you want (Batch only / BBD only / Batch & BBD) and save.

If you work with variant products, the tracking profile must be configured for each variant.

For product sets, no separate tracking profile is maintained on the main product of the set. Tracking is configured at the level of the sub-products. If sub-products are tracked, the mechanisms apply automatically during shipping.

In the Admin, navigate to Warehousing → Batches. Click Create batch here.

Here you enter the product, the batch number, the best before date (if relevant), the production date, as well as comments and tags. In the interface, a small asterisk shows you which fields are required for the selected tracking profile (e.g. batch number and/or BBD). These required fields must be filled in before you can save or complete the process.

A product can have multiple batches, while a batch always belongs to exactly one product.

Our custom fields are also available for individual information, and you can access their configuration directly from this view.

In the batch overview, you will then find all created batches and can open and edit them at any time.

In the batch details, you can also see which tracking profile is assigned to the associated product. This way, in the context of the batch, you can quickly tell whether, for example, only a BBD is tracked or batch & BBD.

The batch overview hides batches without stock.

In the batch overview under Warehousing → Batches and BBD, you can import and export batches via CSV.

Click Export to download the batches currently shown in the overview as a CSV file. The export takes into account the visible columns and active filters, so you export exactly the data you see in the overview. You can also write a user comment right away, which is saved on the export detail page.

Click Import to create new batches via CSV file. You can drag and drop the file into the popup or upload it via Select file. With Download minimal CSV template, you get a template with the available columns.

The following information can be imported: batch number, BBD (in the format DD.MM.YYYY), product number, production date, and tags. If you want to import multiple tags for a batch, separate them with the character | (e.g. Bio|Kühlware|Charge 2025). Tags that do not yet exist in the system are created automatically.

The same rules apply during import as when creating batches manually: the required information for the product's tracking profile must be present, and the combination of batch number and BBD must be unique per product.

If errors occur during import (e.g. an unknown product number, missing required information, or an already existing batch/BBD combination), the import is not aborted. The faulty rows are documented with an error message in the import log, and all valid rows are processed. You can find the import and export logs under Import/Export (Pickware).

For traceability, it is crucial that you capture the batch (and, depending on the tracking profile, the BBD as well) before putting goods into stock. In practice, this often happens directly at goods acceptance, because you have the information at hand there and can assign it unambiguously.

When you generate a stocking list for a goods receipt, the relevant tracking information for tracked products is shown on the document. For products with batch & BBD, you see the batch number and BBD; for BBD-only tracking, you see the BBD including the remaining shelf life in days. This way, when stocking, you can check right away whether the goods have been captured correctly and match the desired remaining shelf life.

In the Admin, you usually assign goods receipts from supplier orders to batches that have already been created, and add the allocation before stocking if needed.

For products with a configured tracking profile, a BBD and/or a batch must be specified for every goods receipt. A BBD or batch can be assigned to a goods receipt line item and changed as long as the goods receipt is in the state Created or Approved. Once a goods receipt has been stocked, the batch specified for the goods receipt can no longer be changed.

If no suitable batch or BBD has been created yet for a line item, you don't need to switch to batch management separately: in the batch selection of the line item, choose + Create new batch, enter the batch number and BBD, and confirm with Create batch. The new batch is then immediately assigned to the line item.

To do this, open the Goods receipt mode in the WMS App and select a goods receipt. Capture the delivered quantity for each line item. You can specify a batch for each delivery line item.

If an item is delivered in multiple batches, you can create multiple line items for it in the goods receipt and thus capture all batches in the corresponding quantity with one goods receipt.

If the BBD or batch information is only available at goods acceptance, you can add it during the process. The tracking information must be complete at the latest before stocking.

If a batch for a goods receipt does not yet exist in Pickware, you can create it directly while capturing by selecting Add. The batch can be entered manually or simply by scanning.

Scanning batches via QR code works if the code contains only the batch number. For UDI codes, it is best to check with a barcode decoder whether the number sequence they contain matches the batch number. If it does not, create your own codes for your batches.

When adding, moving, or removing tracked products with Pickware, you must always specify a batch or BBD. For batch-managed products, stock is therefore always assigned to a batch.

If a bin location already holds a batch of the same product, this bin location is automatically suggested for stocking. Because bin locations are kept batch-pure, no other batch can be selected for stocking in this case:

Once you have selected a batch or BBD for a stock movement, you can also only select bin locations that do not hold stock of a different batch of the same product.

Batches are not retroactively "rewritten" in old stock movements. Corrections, e.g. for incorrect allocations, are made via stock movements (remove, add, move) so that the stock and movement logic remains traceable.

When picking via the WMS App, you can recognize products that require a batch right away by this icon:

When you pick an order that contains tracked products, a batch must be assigned to each line item before you can confirm the product. Since bin locations are kept pure by batch and BBD, this information is carried along automatically through the selection of the bin location and no longer needs to be confirmed separately.

If the batch at the bin location is not unambiguous (e.g. if the stock is on Unknown), you select the batch in the WMS App or capture it by scanning the batch number/label.

If you change the bin location, the WMS App automatically adjusts the associated batch. When you open the product details, you can also see which batches of this product are still available.

If the quantity from one batch is not sufficient, the WMS App splits the line item into multiple line items (one per batch) so that the order can be picked completely.

When you ship orders via the Admin, batches are determined automatically in bin location order (alphanumeric) and do not take best before dates or remaining shelf life into account. If you want to control picking selectively, pick the order via the WMS App.

You can check traceability in two central places.

In the details of a batch, you can see

This way, you can always trace without gaps where a batch comes from, where it currently is, and who it was delivered to, and act immediately in case of recalls, for example.

In the order, the shipped tracking information can be viewed in the order line item via a pop-up. Here you can also see which batch was shipped in which quantity.

There are processes in which a batch cannot be captured or is not unambiguous. In these cases, Pickware only adopts what can be derived with certainty, in order to avoid incorrect information. You can find more information in the article How do I work with BBD & batches in Pickware?.

In the stock overview, you can display batch stock in the warehouse context and, depending on the view, filter by batches, e.g. to check which batches of a product are available and where they are stored. Depending on the tracking profile, different tracking information is displayed there, for example the batch number, the BBD and, if relevant, the remaining shelf life in days.

In the stock overview, you can add missing batch information directly on the respective entry, for example by double-clicking the entry to open it for editing.

If you want to add information for stock without complete batch information, you can activate the filter Bin locations with missing batch information in the stock overview in the profile By product and bin location. This shows you only bin locations where batch information is still missing for tracked products, so you can close the gaps in a targeted way.

If a small gear icon appears next to a batch entry in your stock history, it means that the batch information was determined automatically by the system because no manual information was provided for the corresponding stock movement.

Depending on the configuration, tracking information (batch number and/or BBD) can be output on the delivery note and invoice. Which information is shown depends on the product's tracking profile. If no tracking information is available yet at the time the document is generated, no tracking information is output on the document.