Serial, lot and expiry

Bitta Consignment tracks vendor stock with the same item tracking codes you use for your own stock. Serial numbers, lot numbers, package numbers, expiration dates and warranty dates are stored on every consignment entry, so you always know which unit belongs to which vendor, where it is and when it expires.

Consignment documents (receipts, adjustments, transfers, returns to vendor, ownership changes, physical counts, usage reports and site counts) and Consignment Journal lines have one line per item. The serial numbers, lots and packages of the line, with their expiration and warranty dates, are its item tracking lines. You enter them on the standard Item Tracking Lines page, as on a purchase or sales line.

Item Tracking Lines on a consignment line

1. Enter the item and the total Quantity of the line, for example 3.
2. Choose Line > Item Tracking > Item Tracking Lines, or press Ctrl+Alt+I. On usage reports, site counts and the Consignment Journal, the action is under Line.
3. Business Central opens the Item Tracking Lines page you know from purchase and sales lines. Enter a row per serial number, lot or package with its Quantity (Base) and, for stock that comes in, its Expiration Date. Assign Serial No., Assign Lot No., Create Customized SN and Select Entries work as usual. On a line that takes vendor stock (adjustment, transfer, return to vendor, ownership change), the lookup and Select Entries list the vendor's open consignment stock.
4. Close the page. The Tracked Qty. (Base) column on the line shows how much the item tracking lines hold. Choose the value to open Item Tracking Lines again.

As on a purchase line, the page does not save more than the line's quantity. Less is saved, and release and posting then tell you that the numbers do not add up.

On receipts, returns to vendor, transfers and ownership changes, the page also shows Qty. to Handle (Base) per serial or lot: set it to post only some of the units now and keep the rest on the open document. The part that earlier postings posted shows as Quantity Handled (Base).

On a physical count or a site count, Item Tracking Lines opens Count Item Tracking Lines instead, with the expected and the counted quantity of every serial and lot. See Move, adjust and count.

Which numbers are required

The item's Item Tracking Code decides what each line needs, exactly as for your own stock:

• serial-specific tracking: every unit of the line needs a Serial No., so a line of 3 units has three item tracking lines;
• lot-specific tracking: the whole quantity needs a Lot No.; one line can hold several lots;
• package-specific tracking: the whole quantity needs a Package No.;
• Man. Expir. Date Entry Reqd.: every serial or lot that comes in needs an Expiration Date.

An item without an item tracking code has no item tracking lines on consignment lines.

Assign serial numbers

1. On a receipt, adjustment or physical count line, enter the item and the total Quantity, for example 3.
2. Choose Line > Item Tracking > Assign Serial Nos.
3. In the Assign Serial Nos. dialog, Number of Serial Nos. shows how many numbers are needed: one per unit in the base unit of measure that has no serial number yet.
4. Either switch on Use Item Serial Nos. to take numbers from the Serial Nos. series on the item card, or enter a First Serial No. that ends in a number, for example SN0001. The next numbers count up from it: SN0002, SN0003.
5. Choose OK. The line stays one line: each unit gets its own serial number as an item tracking line of the line. Choose Item Tracking Lines to see or change them.

Assign a lot number

1. Select one or more lines of the same item.
2. Choose Line > Item Tracking > Assign Lot No.
3. Enter the Lot No. When the item has a Lot Nos. series, the next number is proposed.
4. Enter the Expiration Date of the lot. Leave it empty to keep the dates already on the item tracking lines.
5. Choose OK. The lot number and expiration date are put on the item tracking lines of the selected lines. A line whose serial numbers are already assigned gets the lot on each serial; any other line gets one item tracking line with the lot for its quantity.

When the tracked quantity differs from the line

Release and Post refuse a line whose item tracking lines do not add up to its quantity, for example "The item tracking lines of the line for 1896-S add up to 2, but the line has 3 to post. Change the item tracking lines or the line quantity." Fix it in one of two ways:

• choose Set line quantity to the tracked quantity in the message, which sets the line's quantity (and its Qty. to Receive or Qty. to Handle) to what the item tracking lines hold;
• or open Item Tracking Lines and add or remove serial numbers and lots.

On a line posted in parts, the Qty. to Handle of the item tracking lines must also add up to what the line posts now. When a line has a single lot, its item tracking line follows the line quantity, so you only change the line.

In the Consignment Journal, posting refuses a line whose item tracking lines do not add up to its quantity in the same way; change the item tracking lines or the quantity.

A released document shows its item tracking lines, but they cannot be changed: choose Reopen first. The mismatch message on a released document says so instead of offering the fix-it action.

Posted documents

A posted consignment document has one posted line per document line. Choose Item Tracking Lines on a posted line to see its serial numbers, lots and packages on the Posted Item Tracking Lines page. The printed notes (receipt, return, transfer, count sheet, count result and usage confirmation) list the serial numbers and lots of each line, lots with their quantity.

Lines with their own serial or lot number

Lines from documents created before this version, and usage report lines imported from Excel, can carry a Serial No., Lot No. or Package No. on the line itself. They post as before, one serial or lot per line. Item Tracking Lines is blocked on such a line until you clear those fields on it; once a line has item tracking lines, its own Serial No. and Lot No. cannot be filled.

Tracking on the documents the app creates

When the app hands consignment stock to Business Central documents, the item tracking goes with it, one item tracking line per serial number or lot: drop-shipment purchase lines, the purchase orders of Warehouse Mode receipts and ownership changes, transfers, and the sales invoices of usage reports and site counts. Invoice lines get their serial and lot numbers with the expiration and warranty dates.

One serial, one place

• A serial number can be in stock only once. Posting is refused when the serial is already in consignment stock or already in your own inventory, or when it is twice on the same document.
• When you sell or remove a serial, you must name it. The app never picks "any serial" for you on a document that takes stock.

One expiration date per lot

A lot has one expiration date across your own inventory and the Consignment Ledger. When you receive more of a lot that already exists, use the same expiration date, or posting stops with the message that the lot already has an expiration date.

Packages

Package numbers work like lot numbers on consignment documents: enter the Package No. on Item Tracking Lines. Package numbers are carried to sales when the consignment entry has one. Automatic assignment on sales orders does not choose packages on their own: it chooses by serial or lot.

Selling by FIFO or FEFO

When you sell consigned stock of a serial- or lot-tracked item, you can pick the serials and lots yourself with Select Consignment Stock, or let the app assign them when the sales order is released. The setting Auto-Assign Tracking in Consignment Setup decides how:

Value	What happens on release
Never	Nothing is assigned. Choose the stock yourself.
FIFO	The oldest received stock is assigned first. This is the default.
FEFO	The stock that expires first is assigned first.

See Sell consigned stock.

Expiry reporting

The Consignment Aging and Expiry report shows open vendor stock that has expired or expires within the number of days you choose. See Find entries and reports.

Expiry alerts

Bitta Consignment warns you about stock that expires soon, both vendor stock that you hold and your own stock at customer consignment sites.

1. In Consignment Setup, on the Expiry Alerts FastTab, enter the Expiry Alert Days, for example 30. Stock with an expiration date on or before the work date plus that number of days counts as expiring soon. Stock that has already expired counts too. Enter 0 to switch the alerts off.
2. On the Order Processor or Purchasing Agent role center, the Consignment cue group shows Lots Expiring Soon: the number of open lots and serial numbers that expire soon.

3. Choose the cue to open Expiring Consignment Stock. Each line shows whether it is Vendor stock or stock At customer site, the expiration date, the days left (negative when it has expired), the item, lot or serial number, quantity, location and the vendor or the site's customer. Choose Show Entry to open the consignment ledger entry or the item ledger entry behind the line.

When stock expires soon, the role center also shows a notification with Show expiring stock. Choose Don't show again to switch it off, or switch Consignment: lots expiring soon on or off in My Notifications.

Trace a lot or serial number

For a recall, choose Lot and Serial Trace on a Consignment Ledger Entries line, Consignment Lot and Serial Trace on the lot or serial number information card, or run the Consignment Lot and Serial Trace report with the item and the lot, serial or package number. It lists every consignment ledger entry and item ledger entry of that number, the customers that received units, and where the remaining units are now. Switch on Show Customers Only for the list of customers to contact.

Limits

• The item tracking code's rules that serial or lot number information must exist, and its warranty date rules, are not checked for consignment stock.
• A serial number that a customer returned and that you kept in your own inventory cannot be received into consignment again while it is still in your own stock.
• Item tracking lines on open consignment documents do not reserve or commit vendor stock. Two open documents can name the same serial number; the second one is refused when you post it.

What's next

Work with bins and variants: Bins and variants.