Warehouse management software for electronics

Serial tracking starts at receiving. Each unit's serial is captured, ideally by scanning the barcode or GS1 DataMatrix on the box, and becomes part of that unit's identity in stock. From then on, a move, a count or a shipment refers to specific serials rather than an anonymous quantity.

The payoff comes later. When a customer reports a fault, you look up the serial and see when it arrived, from which supplier and delivery, and which order it shipped on. When a supplier flags a faulty production run, you can find which units came from that delivery and hold them without freezing unrelated stock. The serial number tracking page covers the mechanics.

• Capture serials at receiving by scan, not by typing long strings.
• Decide which SKUs are serialized; cheap accessories usually aren't.
• Keep serialized units in bins where they can be counted serial by serial.
• Record a reason for every adjustment, so write-offs are explained.

Treat high-value items as a separate zone, even in a small warehouse: a caged area or locked shelving with its own location codes. Limit who can move stock there, and make every move a scanned transaction with the user recorded.

Count high-value locations more often than the rest. A common pattern is to count the cage weekly and the long tail of accessories quarterly, using blind counts so counters record what they find rather than confirming what the system expects. Variances above a set value go to a supervisor for approval before stock is adjusted.

Accessories need the opposite treatment. They are cheap, fast and numerous, so set them up for speed: pick faces near packing, topped up from reserve cartons, counted by quantity rather than serial. Keeping both regimes in one system, with the rules set per SKU and per location, means one pick list can carry a tablet from the cage and a case from open shelving without switching tools or reconciling two stock files at the end of the day.

Illustrative example: a distributor of phones and accessories. In the morning, 200 phones arrive in master cartons of 10. The receiver scans each unit's IMEI barcode, and a carton that holds 9 instead of 10 is flagged as a short receipt for approval. Phones go to the cage; cases and chargers go to open shelving.

By midday, orders are allocated. A retail order for 20 phones and 40 cases is picked from both areas and scan-verified at packing. Web orders pairing a phone with a case ship in single boxes.

In the afternoon, returned devices are graded. A phone with a faulty screen, its serial matched to the original order, goes to a supplier-return location for credit. An unopened return goes back to available stock.

Test the serial workflow end to end with real units, not just the receiving screen. Include a deliberate mis-scan and see how the system responds.

• Scan your suppliers' actual serial or IMEI barcodes and check they land in the right field.
• Confirm how serials are verified at picking or packing, and what happens if the wrong unit is scanned.
• Look up one serial and trace it from receipt to customer.
• Run a defective return end to end, including a supplier return and the credit that should follow.
• If you ship goods with specific handling rules, such as lithium batteries, validate your own packaging and carrier requirements; a WMS does not certify shipments.

NextStock captures serial numbers at receiving, including from GS1 barcodes, and keeps them as part of stock identity alongside location, SKU, owner and status. Holds can be scoped by SKU, location, LPN, supplier or ASN. Returns use an RMA with unit-level grading and dispositions, and supplier returns track the credit you expect back. Cycle counts support blind counts, recounts and variance approval, and every quantity change is a ledger movement with a reason and a user.

What's not available yet: live carrier label purchase and tracking with specific carriers is planned, though the shipping workflow and ZPL label printing work today. Native store connectors are planned too, so orders arrive via the office UI, CSV or the API. For distributors selling to retailers, delivery notes, bills of lading and proof of delivery are built in; see the distributors solution page.