With Pickware, you can capture and manage the expiry dates of your products. This way, you always keep track of remaining shelf life and can control stock efficiently.

For expiry dates to be captured and automatically managed when working with Pickware, a product must have the tracking profile Expiry date only or Batch & expiry date configured. If the tracking profile Batch only is configured for a product, you can maintain an expiry date as additional information for the batch. In this case, however, the expiry date has no effect on Pickware's processes.

Once a tracking profile that requires an expiry date has been configured for a product, the expiry date information must be fully captured during stock movements & shipping.

If you want to capture a new expiry date, navigate to Lagerhaltung (Warehouse Management) → Chargen und MHD (Batches and Expiry Dates) and create a new batch. Here, you select your product and can enter an expiry date. Only products that are actually expiry-date-tracked are available for selection.

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

Expiry dates can be captured individually per line item when working with the WMS App and through the admin, either when recording a goods receipt or when putting away the goods receipt.

If a product is delivered in a shipment with multiple expiry dates, you can represent this in a single goods receipt. To do this, when working via the admin, enter one line item for the product in the goods receipt. After recording the goods receipt, you can split the individual line item of the product into multiple line items using the button:

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

To capture multiple expiry dates for a product in a single goods receipt via the WMS App, you can simply add the same product to the goods receipt multiple times. You can then select an individual expiry date per line item. If the line item is delivered with an expiry date not yet recorded in the system, you can create the expiry date directly within the goods receipt by selecting Hinzufügen (Add).

You can then enter the corresponding date:

In the goods receipt view, you can now view the various line items of the product with their respective expiry date and (if available) batch number.

Expiry dates and remaining shelf life of expiry-date-tracked products can be viewed and analyzed via the menu Chargen und MHD (Batches and Expiry Dates) under Lagerhaltung (Warehouse Management):

In the batch overview, besides the expiry date, you'll also find a Remaining Shelf Life column, which displays the remaining shelf life in days and can be sorted. If no expiry date is set, "–" is displayed; if the expiry date has passed, a negative remaining shelf life is displayed. Additionally, you can use the Remaining Shelf Life filter to filter by a time window, for example with Up to (≤) 0 days to find expired batches, or with Up to (≤) 14 days to check stock expiring soon.

You can also view the tracking information in the product details on the Bestand (Stock) tab. Depending on the tracking profile, the batch number and/or the expiry date including remaining shelf life in days will be displayed there. In the details of a batch, the remaining shelf life is also displayed in the context of the stored expiry date.

The remaining shelf life of an expiry-date-tracked product corresponds to the period from today until the expiry date. With Pickware, working with negative remaining shelf life (when the expiry date is in the past) is also possible. However, if you want to work with negative remaining shelf life, make sure that the minimum remaining shelf life is configured accordingly.

For incoming goods inspection, the putaway list can display the remaining shelf life in days. You can find more on this here.

If you track products with expiry dates, Pickware automatically suggests a suitable storage bin during picking – usually the one with the oldest expiry date for the product. If you're working through the admin, this storage bin is displayed accordingly on the pick list. In the WMS App, you can also deliberately deviate from this suggestion if needed and pick from a different storage bin. Since storage bins for tracked products are kept batch- and expiry-date-pure, the expiry date belonging to the selected storage bin is then automatically applied.

For the most efficient picking possible, Pickware also optimizes the picking route so that you have to visit as few storage bins as possible. Minimizing the number of storage bins visited remains a key criterion here, which means the suggestions may, in certain situations, 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 expiry date, but can be with the second-oldest without additional splitting. In this case, Pickware guides you to the next-oldest matching expiry date to avoid unnecessary additional routes and storage bin changes.

These suggestions are meant to support you and are not a rigid requirement. If you deliberately want to ship a different batch or expiry date, you can always select a different storage bin in the WMS App.

When you ship orders via the admin, batches are automatically determined by storage bin order and are not suggested based on remaining shelf life. For shelf-life-based picking, use the WMS App.

Stock is not automatically removed when its expiry date has passed. You always retain control and decide for yourself how to handle expired goods – for example, through removal from stock, write-off, or a special clearance sale.

You can find goods that have exceeded their expiry date most quickly in the Chargen und MHD (Batches and Expiry Dates) menu using the Restlaufzeit (Remaining Shelf Life) filter. Set it to Up to (≤) 0 days to display all expired batches.

During picking, Pickware automatically suggests expiry dates that meet your configured minimum remaining shelf life. Only stock whose remaining shelf life meets the respective applicable minimum remaining shelf life is suggested. This ensures that goods with too short a remaining shelf life are not automatically selected for shipping. Batches without a stored expiry date are ignored for this check.

You can configure minimum remaining shelf life:

The priority order here is
​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 matching expiry date – without any manual extra effort.

We have two expiry dates in stock – can I specifically "sell off" only the stock with the shorter expiry date?
Pickware doesn't assign batch/expiry date at order intake, but during picking. Automatic "shop control" that binds orders in advance to a specific batch is currently not possible. However, Pickware supports you with the FEFO-oriented removal strategy to remove older expiry dates from stock first.

How do expiry dates work with bills of materials?
For bills of materials, tracking is controlled via the sub-products. Only tracked sub-products are handled accordingly based on expiry date/batch; non-tracked sub-products follow the standard removal strategy.