A "lot" is a specific batch of goods received, shipped, or stored from your warehouse. This article will walk you through how to create a Lot, add Lot tracking to products, how and why to make a lot inactive and changing a lot for a specific product.
Create a New Lot
Add Lot Tracking to Products
Make a Lot Inactive
Change a Lot for Specific Product
How to Enable Lot & Expiration Tracking
Create a New Lot
- Log into Shiphero.com and go to Inventory & Locations > Lots.
- Select Create Lot from the top right-hand side of the page:
- When adding the new lot, a pop-up window will appear. You can input the lot name/code, product SKU, expiration date, and when you received the product.
- Click Create to create the lot.
NOTE: Make sure to leave the Is Active? box toggled on so the lot will show up in your dashboard.
Create Lot During Receiving
You can also create a lot when you receive the product at the warehouse into inventory.
- Once you have scanned the product to accept it, you can click on Add Lot.
- Enter the Lot Name and Expiration Date and then click Save at the bottom of the screen.
- Then receive the SKU and it will be assigned a Lot Code.
Add Lot Tracking to Products
- Choose the SKUs that need lot/expiration tracking by going to app.shiphero.com > Inventory > Products > Edit.
- Select Needs Lot Tracking:
NOTE: Each lot code can only have one expiration date. As a result, the same SKU can have multiple lots. For example, potato chips with the same SKU can have different expiration dates, meaning that they'll require different lots.
Activate Lot During Receiving
- If a product does not require lot tracking, but you would like to enable it, you can click Activate Lot on the Product page.
- This will take you to the Inventory page in appdot where you can then enable the Lot Code setting.
How to Make a Lot Inactive
ShipHero does not believe in deleting lots completely in case you need to track the lot for a recall. If you no longer want or need a specific lot you can instead mark it as inactive.
- To make a lot inactive, go to https://shipping.shiphero.com/inventory/lots toggle off the button of the Lot you are looking to change in the Active column.
How to Edit a Lot
- To edit a lot, got to https://shipping.shiphero.com/inventory-lots/lots and click on the pencil icon on the line of the lot you want to edit.
- An edit window will pop-up and allow you to make changes.
- Click Save to implement edits.
NOTE: You can also mark a lot as inactive on the Edit Lot screen as well. Just toggle off the blue button next to the Lot name or code and click Save.
Changing Lot for a Specific Product
- Go to https://app.shiphero.com/dashboard/product-locations.
- Look up the SKU.
- Click on the Edit Lot button.
- If the desired lot is not available in the dropdown, you will need to create a new lot.
NOTE: If you would like to customize the lot code to the label, please reach out to Customer Support.
How to Enable Lot and Expiration Tracking
You will want to use lot and expiration tracking to keep track of products with lot codes (like food, perishable items, cosmetics), track which customers receive each lot so that you can easily do product recalls, and to track expiration dates to ensure you are not sending out expired products.
NOTE: To enable Lot and Expiration Tracking on your account, please contact support@shiphero.com.
Setting up Lot and Expiration Tracking
- Set up Lot Tracking settings by going to app.shiphero.com > My Account Settings > Lot Tracking.
NOTE: If enabled, the available quantity pushed to the store will exclude any Lots that are expired or are within the picking disabled timeframe
For 3PL customers, this feature needs to be enabled at the child account level.
- Indicate the priority you would like inventory to be assigned to orders with one of the two options:
- FEFO (First Expired First Out): This option is used to ensure that you are prioritizing inventory with the most recent expiration date (for example, when shipping perishables).
- FIFO (First In First Out): This option is used to ensure that you are prioritizing inventory based on the age in which it was received (for example, when shipping electronics).
NOTE: ShipHero does not consider FIFO and FEFO when using the "Set as fulfilled" feature. We do not recommend using the "set as fulfilled" button to fulfill these type of SKUs.
- Indicate the number of days that you want to disable picking before product expiration (to prevent expired products from being shipped to customers).
- Set up automated email reminders to receive a report about lots ready to expire (indicate email address).