Serial number tracking in Inventory

[Unregistered]

Is there any way to track serial numbers for the same items in the inventory function? i.e. lawn mowers with the same model number all have specific serial numbers. Is there anyway to track this???

[Marka]

As far as I know there is no way to do this within peachtree. But you could set up MS Access to accept serial numbers either by hand entery for each order being shipped or automatically being scanned by a scanner where you scan the serial number bar code, the serial number is entered into ms access and then you enter by hand the customer, the item and then the date it was being shipped and the invoice or sales order #. in ms access you would keep this in a table. i believe you can also do this within excel also. yes, this requires hand entry and this would mean human error can take place.

[johnp900]

When tracking serial # , set costing type to "U". I have been tracking serial #s on lawnmowers & related equipment for years. It works well & you can query # find customer info in A/R. Contact me if you have questions, it seems we are in the same line of business

[riscniaga]

hello john

i have a few clients who would really love to track serial numbers in pcw. at the moment, they use job numbers as serial numbers - so that they can track customer and invoice numbers.

i did not quite understand your posting - what do you mean by setting the costing type to U ? the only cost methods in inventory that i have is fifo, lifo and average. have i missed something?

appreciate if you explain further with a simple example. thanks.

[johnp900]

In all versions I have used, from the "maintain inventory items" screen, scroll down to "costing types" & it should give you a pop up box & a selction of "S" for standard, "A" average, "L" lifo, "F" fifo & "U" specific unit. Setting costing type to "U" allows you to track serial #'s. The inventory balance has to be zero to change it to "U", but it work great. You can loojup a specific unit that was sold or a range of items.. Hope this helps.

[bluegal]

I think you're referring to a function that is available in the DOS version, not in the Windows version of Peachtree.

[riscniaga]

ahhh... that explains it, the dos version.

wish they had the same features in windows that they do in the dos version. never had the opportunity to use the dos version, but have gathered that it had some really good features for inventory control and project management.

thanks for explaining.

[bluegal]

The DOS version did have the handy specific unit costing available in inventory, valuable if you need to provide a warranty on certain products and need to track them. The job cost module also let you establish a separate labor and material markup on each cost entry sent to the module, giving you a true picture of your job cost, not the raw data that's sent in the Windows version.

[Robert Walraven]

I have just implemented functionality in a custom application I'm working on that allows you to assign serial numbers to individual items. The serial numbers are kept in an external Access database. If you would like to discuss this with me, give me a call at 530-756-3291.

Bob Walraven
Architect of PawCom

[DALE]

I would like to know if Peachtree is planning to add specific unit costion to any of the Windows Accounting soptware. Would like to upgrade by specific unit costing is a necessity.

[Robert Walraven]

I doubt it. That would require a significant redesign of the way they handle cost of sales. However, I wouldn't rule out the possibility for, say, a future release of the Manufacturing version.

Peachtree currently uses a "bin" concept for purchases and sales. When you purchase inventory, think of the items as being stamped with the receipt date and cost and thrown into a separate bin for each item. When you sell inventory, the way items are selected from the bins depends on the costing method you have specified for each item:

1. FIFO - the oldest items are selected and the cost of these items is used for cost of sales.

2. LIFO - the newest items are selected and the cost of these items is used for cost of sales.

3. AVERAGE - the average cost of all items in the bin is computed and used for cost of sales and items are removed randomly.

The obvious way to add specific costing would be to modify the sales/invoice screen so that when items are sold a box pops up with the entire stock, showing how many are available at each cost, so that you can select which ones you want to sell. The way Peachtree handles cost of sales would also need to be modified to accomodate this functionality.

Another approach would be to allow specific items to be tagged with a serial number on purchase and then allow you to sell an item with a specific serial number. This is basically what we did with our external application.

The main reason I think Peachtree would not implement specific costing is that they do not have enough pressure to do so - with each new version they can only include the features that are most highly requested by users and this is probably not one of them. Also, they can't make Peachtree TOO good or people wouldn't want to move up to MAS90.

[Diane Koers]

I suspect you will soon see serialized inventory capability. Don't give up yet.

[Jim Dale]

I think that Bob is correct. The tightrope that P'tree walks is to continue to improve to give customers reasons to not buy quickbooks, but also to have a clear upgrade path. I am certain that they expect larger users to move to MAS. With that in mind, I am surprised to find that p'tree can handle 124,000 items and TS. (For example) You would think that this would be way beyond their capacities

[Santa]

Serial Numbers in 2005

[riscniaga]

have you seen the new peachtree 2005 ? pcw 10 and 11 have not been that interesting for non-us business. i am still using pcw 9 - esp because of the cartoonish and colorful navigation aids.

[Santa]

Check out the new version here...

http://www.peachtree.com/05upgrade

[jcnixon]

Note that the serialized inventory capability will be available in the PREMIUM 2005 version, not in the Complete 2005 version.