Serial Number Tracking
Follow each individual unit of a product, not just the count. Kantivo records a unit's serial number when it arrives, which customer it went to, and every movement in between.
Overview
Serial tracking is for products where each unit is distinct: generators, e-bikes, appliances, power tools, medical devices, anything a customer may later call about by its serial. It is switched on per product, so the rest of your catalogue is unaffected.
Serial tracking sits on top of normal inventory. Quantities on hand, FIFO/LIFO/average costing and cost of goods sold are calculated exactly as they would be without it. A serial problem never blocks a stock update; at worst it is reported as a warning.
Turn On Tracking
- Go to Inventory and click 🔢 Serial Numbers
- Open the Tracked products & settings tab
- Tick Track serials next to each product that needs it
Only products that track inventory are listed. If a product is missing, turn on inventory tracking for it first.
Receiving Stock
When you save a Receive Inventory entry that includes a tracked product, Kantivo opens a Serial numbers dialog with one box per product line.
- Enter one serial per line. A barcode scanner works: each scan ends the line.
- A counter under each box shows how many you have entered against the quantity received.
- A serial that is already in stock is refused, so the same unit can't be received twice.
Selling a Unit
Saving an invoice or sales receipt with a tracked product opens the same dialog. Under each box Kantivo lists the serials currently in stock for that product; click one to add it, or scan the unit in your hand.
A serial already sold on another document is refused with the document it was sold on, for example "serial GX-40871 was already sold on Invoice INV-0142".
Customer Returns
Record the return as a line with a negative quantity on an invoice or sales receipt. The serial dialog then asks which units came back, and each one returns to In stock with a Returned by customer event in its history. A serial that is already in stock can't be returned.
Credit memos created through the API accept a serial_numbers array on each restocked line and record returns the same way. Voiding the credit memo puts those units back to Sold.
Edits, Voids & Deletes
| You do this | The serials do this |
|---|---|
| Edit an invoice and change which serial it carries | The old unit returns to stock; the new one is marked sold |
| Edit an invoice without touching its serials | The same units stay on it |
| Void or delete an invoice or sales receipt | Its units return to stock |
| Delete an Inventory Receipt | Units it brought in that are still in stock are marked Removed; units already sold keep their sale |
Every one of these is written to the unit's history, so nothing disappears silently.
Look Up a Serial
On the Lookup tab of the Serial Numbers panel, search by serial number or product name and filter by status (In stock, Sold, Removed). Each row shows when and from which vendor the unit was received, when and on which document it was sold, and to which customer.
Click a row to open its full history: every receipt, sale, return and reversal, with the date, the document and the user who recorded it. That is the answer to a warranty call in a few seconds.
Requiring Serials
By default serials are optional: leave a box empty and the line saves without one. To enforce them, tick Require a serial number for every unit on the Tracked products & settings tab. Receive Inventory, invoices and sales receipts will then not save a tracked line until every unit has a serial. Only admins and managers can change this setting.
Serials need a whole-number quantity. A line for 2.5 units can't carry serials.
Stock You Already Had
Units on hand before you turned tracking on have no serials recorded. You don't need to enter them all at once: when one of those units sells, type its serial at the sale and Kantivo records it as first recorded at sale. The Serials in stock column on the products tab is highlighted while on-hand quantity is higher than the serials recorded, so you can see where the gap is.