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Location, lot and expiry

“How many of these are on shelf A versus shelf B?” “I need to count these separately by best-before date.” That’s what location, lot and expiry are for. Together they’re called stock fields.

All three are off initially, so stock is simply counted per product. Turn on only what you need.

The three

Field What it represents Example
Location Where inside a site it sits Shelf 1-1, Warehouse A, cold room
Lot A manufacturing lot number or similar identifier LOT-20260601
Expiry A best-before or use-by date 2026-12-31

Turn one on and stock is counted per “product + the fields you enabled.” With location and expiry on, for instance, you can hold “Product A, shelf 1-1, 2026-12-31: 20” and “Product A, shelf 2-3, 2027-03-31: 5” separately. The product’s overall stock is their total.

There’s no master data to set up. You type the shelf name or the date directly when you record a transaction.

Which should I turn on?

  • Food and drink — expiry. Split by best-before date for first-in-first-out and to avoid waste.
  • Pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, manufacturing — lot (and expiry). For lot-level tracking and traceability.
  • Managing where things sit — location. For shelves and areas inside a warehouse or store.

Keep it to the minimum

Every field you turn on becomes something to fill in on every transaction. More fields mean more typing and a more fragmented stock list. Turn on what you’d struggle without — not what might be nice to have.

Sites and locations are different things

Warehouses and stores you run independently are separated by sites. A location is where something sits inside one of those sites. “Tokyo warehouse” and “Osaka warehouse” are sites; “Shelf A” and “Shelf B” inside them are locations.

Turning them on and off

Administrators manage this.

  1. Open “Other.”
  2. Choose Location, lot, expiry.
  3. Toggle each switch.

Once on, the field appears on transaction and stock screens.

Entering them on transactions

When a field is on, it appears while you enter a transaction — inbound, outbound, move or stocktaking.

With location and expiry on, an inbound records “into which location, with which expiry, how many.” Fields that are off don’t appear at all.

Combine identical rows

Within one transaction you can’t split the same product, location, lot and expiry across two rows. Combine the quantity into one row (you’ll see “The same product is registered multiple times in this transaction”).

If you turn one back off

Stock and history you’ve already recorded stay as they are.

  • Existing stock and transaction history keep showing that field’s values.
  • The field only disappears when you create a new transaction or edit an existing one.

So trying a field and deciding it’s too much work won’t damage past data.

Common questions

Q. The location field doesn’t appear A. Location is off. An administrator can turn it on under “Other” → “Location, lot, expiry.”

Q. I want to move stock to another shelf A. Use the Move transaction type. Choose the source stock, then the destination location and the quantity to move, and the stock moves across. Lot and expiry can be changed the same way, which makes it the way to fix a wrong entry as well. → Inbound, outbound, move and stocktaking

Q. I want to manage several warehouses or stores A. If they hold independent stock, use sites. If it’s where things sit within one site, use locations.