Chapter 10
Batch & Expiry Tracking
For businesses that sell goods that expire — medicines, food, agro-chemicals — the system can keep each product's stock split into batches, each with a batch number and an expiry date. It's optional and off by default: businesses that don't need it see no change at all.
10.1 Turning it on#
- Administration → Settings → Optional features.
- Switch on “Track batches and expiry dates.” The expiry options below it appear.
- Set “Warn about batches expiring within” — the number of days before expiry that a batch counts as “expiring soon” (default 90, which suits most pharmacies).
- Choose what happens to expired stock under “Selling expired stock”: “Don't allow it” (recommended) or “Allow, with a warning.”
- Click “Save settings.”
- On each product that expires, open Edit and tick “Track batches and expiry dates.” Products you don't tick work exactly as before.
10.2 How tracked stock moves#
| When you… | What happens to batches |
|---|---|
| Receive a purchase or Stock In | You enter a batch number (optional) and expiry date (required); the stock is filed under that batch. |
| Sell at the POS | Stock comes from the batch that expires soonest; expired stock is refused or sold last, depending on your setting. |
| Stock Out | Pick a specific batch (e.g. the expired one) or leave it on “Earliest expiry first.” |
| Transfer to another branch | In-date stock is sent earliest-expiry first; the receiving branch gets the same batch numbers and expiry dates. |
| Void a sale | Stock goes back into the batches it was sold from. |
| Edit or void a purchase | Only stock still left in that purchase's batches is changed — stock already sold stays sold. |
10.3 Keeping an eye on expiry#
- Dashboard — the Critical Alerts panel counts expired batches and batches expiring within your warning period, each linking to the Expiry Report.
- Product list — each tracked product shows its nearest expiry, in red once expired and amber when expiring soon.
- Expiry Report (Reports → ⏳ Expiry Report) — see section 19.1.
10.4 Turning it off#
Unticking the setting hides batch details everywhere but keeps them; turning it back on picks up where you left off. Unticking a single product stops keeping that product's batches up to date (its batch details are kept in case you tick it again).