Serial Numbers

A serial number identifies one physical unit: this particular drill, this particular router. When a product is serial-tracked, SKU.io records a serial for every unit you receive and follows it as the unit moves. It follows the serial through sales, transfers between warehouses, returns to your vendor and customer returns, stock takes, and manufacturing. You can then answer the question a quantity can't: which unit went to which customer, and where is this unit now?

Serial tracking suits high-value, warrantied or regulated goods that you handle one unit at a time. If you track batches of identical units instead, such as a production run of vitamins with one expiry date, use lots instead.

Start here

1. Read How serial tracking works once. It explains the statuses a serial moves through, and what SKU.io does when nobody names a serial.
2. Turn on serial tracking for your account and for each product that needs it.

Find the right page

To…	Go to…
Understand serial statuses, generation modes and the automatic oldest-first rule	How serial tracking works
Switch serial tracking on and choose how serials are created	Turn on serial tracking
Record serials when stock arrives on a purchase order, an inbound shipment or an inventory adjustment	Receive serials
Record which serials a customer sent back, and what happens to each one	Record customer returns
Choose the serials that go out on a shipment, including carrier and 3PL orders	Ship serials with an order
Move serials between warehouses	Transfer serials
Take serials out of stock with an adjustment, a stock take or a return to your vendor	Remove serials from stock
Record the serials used and made when you manufacture or assemble a product	Serials in manufacturing
Look up a serial, see where it is and read its full history	Find a serial
Hold suspect units back from sale, and release them later	Quarantine and release serials
Look up a status, a setting, a format token or an error message	Serial numbers reference