Using barcodes on products and barcode scanners for warehouse processes makes these processes faster and more accurate. Once inventory items have attached barcodes, then, for instance, when issuing the product from the warehouse, you can open a corresponding document and scan the barcodes to add to document the correct items and enter the correct quantities of the items.

Setting up the functionality

To turn on the functionality of barcodes, open the Administration > Settings > Purchasing and Warehouses form and select the Enable Barcodes for Items option. 1-D barcodes, by default, include item code, characteristic, batch, UOM, and serial number.

Note. In FirstBIT ERP, only 1D barcodes are supported.

Using the Administration > Master Data > Peripherals form, set up connection to barcode scanners and label printing scales. For details, refer to Adding a Barcode Scanner.

Assigning barcodes to items

For purchased items, you can decide whether you want to use manufacturer (external) barcodes or generate new ones. When using external barcodes, you may encounter barcode duplicates, assigned to different units of product or even to different products. If you generate new internal barcodes in FirstBIT ERP, duplicates are excluded.

If the organization decided to use new barcodes, you can manually create barcodes for items or generate them automatically.

Notice that you need to assign barcodes to items using the following rules:

• For items with serial numbers, you need to first assign (generate) a serial number to each unit of the item; barcodes are assigned on per unit basis.
• For items with batch numbers, you need to first assign a batch number to units of each batch; the same barcode is assigned to all units of the batch.
• For items for which serial numbers and batch numbers are not used, you can use the same barcode for all units of the item.

For actually assign barcodes to specific item, locate the Sales > Master Records > Items form, select this item, open its master record, click Item Barcodes link on the top of the form. The Item Barcodes form opens. Initially, the list of barcodes is empty.

Manually Creating a Barcode

To manually create barcodes for the selected item, click Create on the toolbar.

The Item Barcodes form with the Item Barcodes (create) dialog box

In the Item Barcodes (create) dialog box, specify the UOM and, if applicable to this item, characterictic, batch, or serial number.

The Item Barcodes (create) form

Click the Generate Barcode button or type the digits of the required barcode in the Barcode field.

Automatic Generation of Barcodes

To automatically generate barcodes for the selected items, click Generate Barcodes on the toolbar. The Barcode Generator form appears.

The Barcode Generator form

To generate barcodes for the selected items, do the following:

Create filter for items for which barcodes should be generated as follows:

1. Include the condition that barcode is not yet assigned (select the Empty Barcode check box).
2. Select specific items (by using the Equal to condition) and group them in OR Group.
3. Select items from specific folders by using the In List or Not in List conditions and group then in OR Group.
4. Click Fill on the toolbar - this populates the list of items in the lower part of the form based on the applied filters. You can review the list and remove some of the particular items.
5. Click Generate Barcodes on the toolbar. The resulting barcodes appear in the Barcode column in the lower part of the form. You can print them on special labels.
6. If you will use label printing scales in the store, click Upload to Peripherals – the item list with barcodes will be loaded to the connected equipment.

The generated barcodes can be printed using the Sales > See Also > Print Labels and Tags service tool and a label printer. Then, you need to attach the printed labels to units of the items.

Using barcodes when issuing or transferring items

You can use barcodes and barcode scanners for counting the items to be moved or issued from warehouses with the following documents: Customer Order, Invoice, Goods Dispatch Note, Transfer Order, Inventory Transfer, Production Order, Subcontractor Reports, and Employee Expense Reports. On toolbars of these documents, click the Load Data from DCT ( ) button and scan the barcodes of the items - the list of items with their quantities will be generated automatically.
Also, you can use the Search by barcode button on the toolbar or F7 on the keyboard to locate the particular item by its barcode in the document list.