Serial number support is available in inFlow v3. Not sure which version you’re on? Check by going to the Main Menu > Settings > About inFlow.

If you’re on v3 please see this article for help with the new serial number feature.

If you’re not on v3 and would like to use serial numbers, we have two workarounds you can choose from, outlined below:

Using Sublocations

If you’re not already using sublocations, you could try using them to keep track of the serial numbers. This isn’t exactly what it’s designed for, but it’s worked well for a number of people. This same trick will also work for lot numbers, batch numbers, expiry dates, and so on. We recommend you enter expiry dates in a yyyymmdd format so that they can be sorted properly.

To turn on sublocations, make sure the option “Show Sublocation” is on under Company Settings > Company > Products & Inventory.

To purchase/receive your products:

1. Open your purchase order.
2. Click Advanced to expand to advanced workflow.
3. Click the Receive tab and split your items out line by line (entering the serial number into the sublocation). This will allow you to stock each item to a separate sublocation which is named after that item’s serial number.

To sell/ship the items:

1. Open your sales order.
2. Click Advanced to expand to advanced workflow.
3. Click the Pick tab and select your items from the correct sublocation (i.e. match the sublocation to the serial number you’re selling)

If you want to find what happened with that serial number, you can:

1. View the Movement History from the Inventory module.
2. Click the More link to bring up the advanced search options.
3. In From Sublocation, type in the serial number that you want to look up.
4. Click Search.

From the History screen, you can also double click on the row to bring up any related orders. This will let you quickly look up who that particular item was sold to.

Setting up individual product records

If you are already using your sublocations, or you are in an industry where you need to track different costs etc. what you may try is setting up an individual item record for each serial number.

To create your product:

1. Go to Main Menu > Inventory > New Product
2. Enter all the relevant details for your product and be sure to use the serial number as the item code.
3. Save your product record.

To create another serial of the same product:

1. Open the product record for an item that is the same as the serialized item you’d like to create.
2. Click the Copy button at the top, this will replicate the record and simply ask you to enter a new item code.
3. Enter the serial number and click Save.

You can also set these items up ahead of time (let’s say your vendor sends you a list of serial codes) by importing the information into the system. Simply match the serial number column to the Item Name/Code field in inFlow and be sure to include any relevant details such as product name or model category in separate columns within that spreadsheet. For more information on importing data please see our article on How to Import Data into inFlow.