With Pickware you can record and manage the best-before dates (BBD) of your products. This way, you always keep track of remaining shelf life and can manage your stock efficiently.

For BBD to be recorded and managed automatically when you work with Pickware, the tracking profile BBD only or Batch & BBD must be configured for a product. If the tracking profile Batch only is configured for a product, you can maintain a BBD as additional information for the batch. In this case, however, the BBD has no effect on processes in Pickware.

As soon as a tracking profile that requires a BBD has been configured for a product, the BBD information must be recorded in full for stock movements & shipping.

If you want to record a new BBD, go to Warehousing → Batches and BBD and create a new batch. Here you select your product and can enter a BBD. Only products that are tracked by BBD are available for selection.

The required fields you need to fill in, which differ depending on the selected tracking profile, are marked with an asterisk.

You can also create a batch including its BBD directly when recording a goods receipt, without leaving the process. You can read how this works in the section How do I record BBD?

When working with WMS and via the Admin, BBD can be recorded individually for each line item when recording a goods receipt or when stocking the goods receipt.

If a product is delivered in one delivery with multiple BBDs, you can map these in one goods receipt. To do this, when working via the Admin, record one line item of the product for the goods receipt. After recording the goods receipt, you can split the single line item of the product into multiple line items using the button:

You can then select a different batch for the split part:

If the right batch is not yet stored in the system, you don't have to leave the goods receipt: With + Create new batch you create a new batch including a BBD directly at the line item and can select it right away.

To record multiple BBDs for one product in a goods receipt via WMS, you can simply add the same product to the goods receipt multiple times. You can then select an individual BBD for each line item. If the line item is delivered with a BBD that has not yet been recorded in the system, you can create the BBD directly in the goods receipt by selecting Add.

You can then enter the corresponding date:

In the goods receipt view, you can now see the different line items of the product with the respective BBD and (if available) the batch number.

BBD and remaining shelf life of products tracked by BBD can be viewed and analyzed via the menu Batches and BBD under Warehousing:

In the batch overview, in addition to the BBD you will find a Remaining shelf life column, which shows the remaining shelf life in days and is sortable. If no BBD is set, "–" is displayed; if the BBD has been exceeded, a negative remaining shelf life is displayed. You can also use the Remaining shelf life filter to filter by a time window, for example with To (≤) 0 Days to find expired batches, or with To (≤) 14 Days to check stock that will expire soon.

You can also see the tracking information in the product details in the Stock tab. Depending on the tracking profile, the batch number and/or the BBD including the remaining shelf life in days is displayed there. In the details of a batch, the remaining shelf life is also displayed in the context of the stored BBD.

The remaining shelf life of a product tracked by BBD corresponds to the time range from today until the BBD. With Pickware, it is also possible to work with negative remaining shelf lives (when the BBD is in the past). If you want to work with negative remaining shelf lives, make sure that the minimum remaining shelf life is configured accordingly.

For incoming goods inspection, the stocking list can output the remaining shelf life in days. You can find more about this here.

If you track products with BBD, Pickware automatically suggests a suitable bin location when picking – usually the one with the oldest BBD of the product. If you work via the Admin, this bin location is output accordingly on the picklist. In the WMS App, you can also deliberately deviate from this proposal if needed and pick from a different bin location. Since bin locations for tracked products are managed by batch and BBD, the BBD that belongs to the selected bin location is then automatically adopted.

For picking that is as efficient as possible, Pickware also optimizes the picking route so that you have to visit as few bin locations as possible. Minimizing the number of bin locations visited remains a key criterion, so in certain situations the proposals may deviate from a strictly FEFO-sorted order in favor of efficient picking. This is the case, for example, when an order line item cannot be fully fulfilled with the oldest BBD, but can be with the second-oldest without additional splitting. In this case, Pickware guides you to the next-oldest suitable BBD to avoid unnecessary additional travel and bin location changes.

The proposals are meant to support you and are not a rigid requirement. If you deliberately want to ship a different batch or BBD, you can select a different bin location in the WMS App at any time.

If you ship orders via the Admin, batches are determined automatically by bin location order and not proposed by remaining shelf life. For picking based on remaining shelf life, use the WMS App.

Stock is not automatically destocked when the BBD has expired. You always stay in control and decide for yourself how to handle expired goods - for example through destocking, write-off, or a special sale.

The quickest way to find goods that have exceeded the BBD is in the menu Batches and BBD using the Remaining shelf life filter. To do this, set To (≤) 0 Days to display all expired batches.

When picking, Pickware automatically suggests BBDs that match your configured minimum remaining shelf lives. Only stock whose remaining shelf life meets the applicable minimum remaining shelf life is suggested. This way you make sure that goods with too short a remaining shelf life are not automatically selected for shipping. Batches without a stored BBD are ignored for this check.

You can configure minimum remaining shelf lives:

The order of priority is as follows:
​customer's minimum remaining shelf life > product's minimum remaining shelf life > global remaining shelf life.

This way, you can, for example, always automatically send customers with specific requirements for remaining shelf life goods with a suitable BBD - without any manual extra effort.

We have two BBDs in stock – can I specifically "sell off" only the stock with the short BBD?
Pickware does not assign batch/BBD when an order is received, but when picking. An automatic "shop control" that ties orders to a specific batch in advance is currently not possible. However, thanks to the FEFO-oriented destocking strategy, Pickware helps you destock older BBDs first.

How does BBD work with product sets?
For product sets, tracking is controlled via the sub-products. Only tracked sub-products are handled by BBD/batch accordingly; non-tracked sub-products follow the default destocking strategy.