What are Serial Numbers and Serial Number Formats?

Serial Numbers can be applied to items which you want to be able to trace through the processing functions in your system. For example, for perishable items. You can define the format of these serial numbers using Serial Number Format Setup (SNF). This enables you to specify the characteristics of up to four parts of a serial number. For example, you can define a prefix or suffix for a series of numbers, or the number of characters a user can enter.

You can also assign a number stream to a serial number format which is a predefined format for numbers to be used.

If you use a number stream you can automatically create serial numbers for an allocation instead of having to create them individually.

To apply a serial number to an item, you must check the Serialized box on the Item Master record.

To apply a Serial Number Format to an Item you must also use Item Master Assign Serial Number Format.