Control Numbers
Purchasing uses three types of control numbers: lot numbers, serial numbers, and stock locators.
Purchasing provides you the ability to assign lot and serial numbers to items as they are transacted to their destinations by direct receipt or delivery and to track these items by lot and serial number.
You assign lot and serial numbers to items as you are entering individual deliveries or performing direct receipts. You can access the Lot and Serial Numbers window directly from each transaction that you enter, and assign lot and/or serial numbers to each unit of the item in the transaction.
Stock Locators are used for deliveries to inventory destinations. Purchasing uses the locator controls defined in Inventory.
Entering Lot Numbers
In the Lot Numbers window, there may or may not be existing lot number information corresponding to your transaction. If such information exists, you can pick the lot number that you want to assign to your receiving transaction. If you are entering a supplier receipt, you have to enter a lot number that has not been previously assigned to an item. If you are entering any other type of receiving transaction, you have to pick a lot number from the list of lot numbers that are valid for the given item. For example, if you enter an intransit receipt or a transfer, you cannot assign a completely new lot number, but rather you must choose the appropriate lot number that has been previously assigned to the item.
Based on the lot number you enter, Purchasing automatically enters the expiration date if you defined shelf life control for the item and specified a number of shelf life days. If you defined the item by specifying lot control with shelf life control that is user definable, then you can enter an expiration date that is the same as or later than the current date. Purchasing displays the quantity of each lot number that is available for assignment, and you cannot assign more units to a lot number than are available.
Entering Serial Numbers
For deliveries, you must enter serial number information if the item is under serial number control. Purchasing displays a running total of the number of units that have been assigned to serial numbers.
There may be existing serial number information corresponding to the item in this transaction. For example, if you were receiving an item from intransit and the sending organization had assigned serial numbers to the item at the time of shipment, these numbers would be available in a list of values. On the other hand, if you were entering a supplier receipt, you would have to assign new serial numbers.
You enter serial numbers by assigning a range of numbers for each item or lot quantity. Purchasing then assigns each unit of the item or lot quantity to a serial number within your selected range. When you enter a beginning serial number, Purchasing automatically defaults the ending serial number to the same value. You can override this default if you want to specify a range of serial numbers rather than just one serial number.
Lot and Serial Numbers in Inter-organization Transfers
When you perform an inter-organization transfer, the source and destination organization may have different lot/serial controls. Purchasing handles this situation as follows:
- When the source organization uses controls and the destination organization does not, the control numbers are recorded as being issued from the source organization. Lot/serial transactions are recorded for the destination organization.
- When the source organization does not use controls and the destination organization does, the transaction is processed normally.
- When both source and destination organizations use controls, the control numbers are recorded as being issued from the source organization. These control numbers are tracked to insure that the same control numbers that were shipped are the ones that are received. When items are returned from inventory to receiving or to the supplier, only the control numbers originally recorded for the delivery transaction can be used.
Entering Stock Locators
When you enter a receiving transaction that will result in a delivery to an inventory destination, and when locator control is required for the organization/item/subinventory, Purchasing displays the Stock Locator flexfield during entry of the destination information in the Receipts, Receiving Transactions, Returns, and Corrections windows.
See Also
Lot and Serial Number Control
Defining Stock Locators
