Inventory Batch Management

Definition of Inventory Batches

Inventory batches represent a number of inventory items that need to be grouped and traced as such. Each batch of inventory, of the same product type, may differ. Think of the expiry date the product has, the color that was used to paint the item, the location the product was made, the purchase price or the type of material that was used.

Enabling Inventory Batches

You might want to differentiate between products that do have inventory batches and products that do not need inventory batch management. Therefore inventory batch management has to be enabled before they can be used.

  1. Navigate to Products → Inventory → Inventory → Click on a product. By clicking on a product in the overview, a product inventory ‘view’ page will open.
  2. Click in the top right on ‘Enable Batch Inventory’. This can also be done on the inventory item edit page.
Irriversable Action

Enabling Inventory Batches is an irreversible operation. After the Inventory Batches have been enabled for the Inventory Item, you are not able to go back!

Once an Inventory item is Batch enabled a link ‘Manage Batches’ will be shown for each inventory level, except external warehouses.

Inventory Batch Grid

  1. Click on Products in the menu and then go to → Inventory / Inventory
  2. Click on a product that has batch management enabled
  3. Click on the Edit button in the top right
  4. Scroll to Inventory Levels
  5. Click on Manage Batches link

You will now see an overview of the batches on the Inventory Level known for the product you are viewing.

General Information

  • Name: Name of the Product
  • SKU: Unique Product Code
  • Product status: whether the product is currently active
  • Inventory Qty: total inventory quantity
  • Allocated Inventory Qty: total allocated inventory quantity
  • Virtual Inventory Qty: total virtual inventory quantity
  • Warehouse: The Inventory Level in which the Inventory Batches are placed
  • Pick Location: where within the warehouse the product is located

Inventory Batches

  • Batch Number: a unique number assigned to the inventory batch
  • Quantity: number of products in the batch
  • Adjustment: manually increase or decrease the batch inventory number
  • Purchase price: price batch product was originally bought for
  • Expiration date: when the products in the batch expire (optional)

Creating Inventory Batches

There are multiple ways in which batches can be created, either manually or automatically.

Creating Batches Manually

  1. Click on Products in the menu and then go to → Inventory / Inventory
  2. Click on a product that has batch management enabled
  3. Click on the Edit button in the top right
  4. Scroll to Inventory Levels
  5. Click on Manage Batches link
  6. Scroll to Inventory Batches
  7. Click on “add inventory batch”
  8. Increase the inventory level under “adjustment”
  9. Optionally, add the purchase price and expiration date
  10. Click “Save and Close”
  11. The new batch is now created. The total inventory level has been updated with adding the new batch total.
Expiration Date

The expiration date can be used in strategies such as LIFO, LEFO and FEFO. Read more here.

Adjusting Batches Manually

  1. Click on Products in the menu and then go to → Inventory / Inventory
  2. Click on a product that has batch management enabled
  3. Click on the Edit button in the top right
  4. Scroll to Inventory Levels
  5. Click on Manage Batches link
  6. Scroll to Inventory Batches
  7. Increase (or Decrease) the inventory level of an existing batch under “adjustment”
  8. Click “Save and Close”
  9. The total inventory level has been updated with adding the new batch total.

Creating Batches Automatically

While using Marello, batches will also be created automatically when:

  • Purchase orders supply is received
  • New inventory is manual imported
Updated on december 28, 2020

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