Tracking Inventory by Serial Number
When every unit is unique, a quantity on hand isn't enough. BizBooks Pro can record each unit's serial number from receiving through sale, so you always know where a specific item came from and who has it now.
How it works
You choose which products are serialized. For those products, BizBooks Pro asks for serial numbers whenever units come in or go out, and keeps a timeline of each one. Typical users are dealers in equipment, bicycles, appliances, electronics and anything else covered by a manufacturer's warranty.
The accounting side is unchanged. Stock quantities, your costing method (FIFO, LIFO or average) and cost of goods sold work exactly as they do for any other product. Serial numbers add a unit-level record alongside them, and a serial issue is never allowed to stop a stock or COGS posting.
Choosing Which Products
- Open the Inventory page and click 🔢 Serial Numbers
- Switch to Tracked products & settings
- Check the Track serials box beside each product you want serialized
The list shows products with inventory tracking turned on. Turn that on in the product first if one you need isn't there.
Recording Incoming Units
Save a Receive Inventory entry containing a serialized product and a serial-number window appears, with a box for each product line:
- Put one serial number on each line, or scan the units with a barcode scanner (every scan starts a new line)
- The running count beneath the box compares serials entered with units received
- BizBooks Pro rejects a serial that is already in stock, preventing double entry of the same unit
Recording a Sale
The same window opens when you save an invoice or a sales receipt containing a serialized product. Below each box you'll see the serials currently on hand for that item. Click a serial to add it, or scan the one being sold.
If a serial has already gone out on another document, BizBooks Pro stops the save and names that document, so a unit can never be sold twice.
Handling Returns
To take a unit back from a customer, add the product with a negative quantity to an invoice or sales receipt. When you save, the serial window asks which units are being returned. Those units go back to In stock, and their history records Returned by customer. You can't return a serial that is already sitting in stock.
If you create credit memos through the API, each restocked line takes a serial_numbers array and is handled the same way; voiding that credit memo marks the units as sold again.
When Documents Change
Serial records follow your paperwork automatically:
- Swapping the serial on an invoice puts the original unit back in stock and marks the replacement as sold
- Editing other parts of an invoice leaves its serials where they are
- Voiding or deleting an invoice or sales receipt returns its units to stock
- Deleting an Inventory Receipt marks its still-unsold units as Removed; any already sold keep their sale record
Each of these changes is added to the affected unit's timeline.
Unit History & Search
The Lookup tab searches by serial or by product, with a status filter for In stock, Sold and Removed. Results show the receiving date, document and vendor, and for sold units the sale date, document and customer.
Select any serial to see its complete timeline: received, sold, returned, reversed, with dates, document numbers and the team member responsible. When a customer phones with a warranty question, the answer takes seconds.
Making Serials Mandatory
Out of the box, serial numbers are optional and an empty box simply saves without one. For stricter control, check Require a serial number for every unit under Tracked products & settings. From then on, a serialized line on Receive Inventory, an invoice or a sales receipt won't save until each unit has its serial. This setting is limited to admins and managers.
Serial numbers apply to whole units only; fractional quantities can't carry them.
Units Without a Serial Yet
Stock received before you enabled tracking won't have serials on file, and you don't have to catch up all at once. When one of those units sells, enter its serial on the invoice and BizBooks Pro records it as first recorded at sale. On the products tab, the Serials in stock figure is highlighted while it is lower than the quantity on hand, showing you where serials are still missing.