Situation: you sell products that require traceability. Think of warranty handling in electronics, expiry dates in food, or a recall of medical items. You need to be able to answer the question 'which batch did customer X receive?' within a minute — not after an afternoon of digging through delivery notes.
Lot number or serial number?
Odoo has two flavours of tracking, and the choice determines how much extra work your warehouse gets:
- By Lots (lot number): one number for a whole batch. An olive oil importer gives each pallet of 600 bottles one lot number. Few extra steps, fine for food and most trading companies.
- By Unique Serial Number (serial number): every item gets its own number. Needed for laptops or machines, for example, where the warranty runs per device. More scanning, but full traceability per item.
How to switch it on
- Go to Inventory → Configuration → Settings and tick the Lots & Serial Numbers option under Traceability.
- Open the product and, on the Inventory tab, set the Tracking field to By Lots or By Unique Serial Number.
- From now on, Odoo requires the numbers at every receipt and delivery — so forgetting is not an option.
Tracing back when it matters
The return is in the Traceability report: open a lot via Inventory → Products → Lots/Serial Numbers and click Traceability. You immediately see where the batch is now and which customers it has been delivered to. In a recall, you call exactly the right customers within ten minutes — and nobody else.
Praktische tip
Don't let your warehouse staff type. Combine tracking with the Odoo Barcode app and a simple handheld scanner: scanning is roughly three times faster than retyping and eliminates typos in long serial numbers — and one wrong digit makes your entire traceability worthless. Want to know which tracking variant suits your products, or need help with the set-up? Contact DAADit Group.
Situation: you sell products that require traceability. Think warranty handling for electronics, expiry dates in food, or a recall of medical items. The question 'which batch did customer X receive?' should take you one minute to answer — not an afternoon of digging through delivery notes.
Lot number or serial number?
Odoo offers two flavours of tracking, and the choice determines how much extra work your warehouse gets:
- By Lots: one number for an entire batch. An olive oil importer gives each pallet of 600 bottles a single lot number. Few extra handlings, ideal for food and most trading companies.
- By Unique Serial Number: every unit gets its own number. Needed for laptops or machines, for example, where warranty runs per device. More scanning, but full per-unit traceability.
How to switch it on
- Go to Inventory → Configuration → Settings and tick Lots & Serial Numbers under Traceability.
- Open the product and, on the Inventory tab, set Tracking to By Lots or By Unique Serial Number.
- From now on, Odoo requires the numbers on every receipt and delivery — so forgetting is not an option.
Finding it back when it matters
The payoff is in the Traceability report: open a lot via Inventory → Products → Lots/Serial Numbers and click Traceability. You immediately see where the batch is stored now and which customers received units from it. In a recall, you call exactly the right customers within ten minutes — and nobody else.
Practical tip
Do not let your warehouse staff type. Combine tracking with the Odoo Barcode app and a simple handheld scanner: scanning is roughly three times faster than typing and eliminates typos in long serial numbers — and one wrong digit makes your entire traceability worthless. Want to know which tracking variant fits your products, or need help setting it up? Contact DAADit Group.