Know what is about to go out of date
Anything with a shelf life carries a cost that only shows up at the end: stock that quietly became worthless while sitting behind newer stock. Batch and expiry tracking makes that visible early enough to act on.
Switched on per item, not for the whole shop.The loss is invisible until it is total
Expired stock does not announce itself. It sits at the back, newer deliveries go in front of it, and the first anyone knows is when it is found and thrown away. By then the money is gone and there was never a moment where a decision could have been made.
When stock is held by batch with its expiry date, that moment exists. Items approaching expiry can be seen weeks out, which is enough time to move them, discount them, or return them where the supplier takes returns.
Batch in, batch out
Batch and expiry captured at purchase
Entered as goods are received, so the information is in the system from the moment the stock is. Multiple batches of the same item are held separately with their own quantities and dates.
Oldest stock sold first
Billing picks the earliest-expiring batch by default, so the natural behaviour of the counter is the one that loses you the least money. It can be overridden when a customer needs a specific batch.
Expiry visible ahead of time
A report of what expires in the next month, the next week, or whatever window suits what you sell, so the decision is taken while there are still options.
Traceable both ways
Which batch went to which customer, and which supplier a batch came from. If something has to be recalled or returned, the list exists rather than being reconstructed.
This is where most of our work starts
What is described above is how Stock2Track does it out of the box, and for most shops that is the end of the conversation. When it is not — when your business does this one step differently and the difference matters — that part gets built. Over two hundred customers run a version of Stock2Track altered in some way for how they work.
How custom development worksQuestions owners ask
Do I have to track batches on everything?
No, and you should not. It is switched on per item, so the goods that need it get it and the rest are billed normally. Tracking batches on items that do not need it only slows the counter.
What about items with a manufacturing date rather than an expiry?
Both are held. Where only a manufacturing date is printed, the shelf life can be set on the item and the expiry derived from it.
Can I stop expired stock being billed?
Yes. Billing can warn or refuse on an expired batch, depending on what suits your business.