With batches and best-before dates (BBD), you can manage stock in Pickware in a traceable way – e.g. for recalls, quality records or to keep an eye on remaining shelf life. To make this work reliably, Pickware controls the behavior via tracking profiles on the product.

In the General tab, under the Stock management headline, you can define for each product individually which information should be carried along during goods receipt and stock movements. The following tracking profiles are available:

If you want to set the tracking profile for many products at once, you can also configure it via the bulk edit in the product overview. Products for which stock management is deactivated are skipped, since tracking requires active stock management.

The tracking profile applies going forward. It defines which information Pickware expects from now on. Data that has already been recorded is not deleted automatically.

So if you switch from Batch & BBD to BBD only, existing batch numbers are kept – but in future only the BBD is mandatory. If you later switch back to Batch & BBD, Pickware requires the missing batch information for future movements.

If you work with variant products, the tracking profile is set per variant. There is no automatic inheritance to variants.

For product set products, no tracking profile is set on the product set product itself. Tracking is configured exclusively via the sub-products, so that batch and BBD are managed in the warehouse process at the level of the items that are actually picked.

Pickware works with single-batch bin locations. This means: for a batch-managed product, you are prevented from storing different batches in the same bin location. This way it is clear in all subsequent processes which batch is located at the bin location – and the batch can be carried along automatically.

If, due to your warehouse conditions, you need to physically store multiple batches in the same place, you can split the bin location in Pickware into multiple virtual compartments/bin locations (e.g. Shelf A-1 top, Shelf A-1 bottom). This way the warehouse reality stays the same, and the allocation becomes unambiguous.

The Unknown bin location is the exception. Since it is not a classic bin location, multiple batches of the same product can be booked to the Unknown bin location.

Although Pickware only allows stock movements with batch information for batch-managed products, it is possible that stock of these products has the note No batch information. Possible causes are that

You can add the BBD and batch information afterwards by simply removing the quantities without a batch and storing them again with the corresponding batch.

With the WMS App, tracking information is fully recorded at goods receipt and carried along automatically in warehouse processes and shipping.

Batch numbers and BBDs can be conveniently captured with a scanner or entered manually.

When picking with the WMS App, Pickware automatically proposes the oldest batch for products with the tracking profile Batch, and the stock with the earliest BBD for products with a BBD. You can find out exactly how these proposals are made in How does Pickware decide which bin location to remove stock from?.

You can find more information on handling batches in the WMS App here.

Open Warehousing → Batches and BBD, search for the batch and select Open batch in the context menu. There you can change the BBD. For the tracking profiles BBD only and Batch & BBD, the BBD is a required field.

In the product view, first move the stock to the correct batch. Once the wrong batch no longer has any stock, you can remove it via the context menu.