How to identify stock items with stock codes and barcodes
Give each unit a code you can scan, and know what a stock code, a listing barcode, a SKU code and an order reference each do when scanned.
Inventory > Stock items, with two units collected
Open in TWICE Admin
inventory/stock-items
Give each unit a code, put it on the unit, and scan it to collect that unit anywhere in the admin. This page also settles what the other three scannable codes do, because staff conflate the first two.
Code
Identifies
A scan outside an order
Stock code
One physical unit
Collects the unit into Scanned items
Listing barcode
A listing, the thing you sell
Asks what you meant
SKU code
A kind of stock
Opens that SKU’s page
Order reference
One order
Opens that order
Put the stock code on the asset tag and the listing barcode on the shelf label. A picker holding an item asks “which unit is this”. Someone at a counter asks “what is this”.
In the Register new stock item dialog, set Item codes to decide where the codes come from.
Auto-generate lets TWICE create them. Quantity then decides how many units you get.
Manual means you type them, and the Quantity field disappears. The number of codes you enter is the number of units. Three codes, three units.
Count the codes before you submit. That swap catches people out.
2
Add or change codes on an existing unit
Open the item and edit its codes on the General tab.Give one unit more than one code when it already carries a supplier’s label and you want your own alongside it. Both resolve to the same unit when scanned.
3
Put the code on the physical unit
Print the code and stick it where a picker will look. Keep it off a part that gets removed, and off anywhere that will be scuffed within a season.Use a document template to render the barcode, so the label comes out of TWICE rather than a separate tool.
4
Scan the code
Scan anywhere in the admin. There is no scan field to focus first: TWICE watches for scanner input and acts on the code.A stock code collects the unit into the Scanned items drawer instead of navigating away, so you can build a pile off a shelf and act on all of it at once. Scan a second unit of a bulk stock item and the count on its row goes up.
5
Act on the pile
Pick an action in the Scanned items drawer. It carries four.
Action
What it does
Add all
Sends the units somewhere. Three destinations, in the next step
Edit
Opens the units in a bulk edit session. Quantity stays per unit and cannot be set for several at once
Archive
Archives every collected unit, after a confirmation. Restore them under Settings → Archived assets
Clear all scans
Empties the list, after a confirmation, and changes no stock item
Inventory > Stock items > Scanned items > Edit
6
Send the pile somewhere with Add all
Open Add all and pick a destination. Read the second row before you use the first.
Destination
What it does
Into available stock
Ends the orders and reservations holding the units
Into reservation
Creates the same internal reservation on each unit
Into order
Starts a new order with the units on custom lines
Into available stock frees units by ending what holds them, so a unit still out with a customer has its order ended. Use it to clear stale holds, not to tidy a pile you scanned by mistake. Clear all scans is the one that changes nothing.
Inventory > Stock items > Scanned items > Add all
7
Know what a scan will resolve to
Expect one string to be checked against all four kinds at once. Each kind is unique only within itself, so one string can name a unit, a listing, a SKU and an order together.A code matching exactly one thing is acted on as the table at the top of this page says. A code matching more than one is reported rather than resolved: a dialog headed “This code matches more than one thing” lists the matches and asks you to pick. No kind of code outranks another.
One code naming both a stock item and a listing
Order references match more loosely than the other three, on purpose. A reference matches in full, and a bare number matches too, so scanning 42 finds the order shown as #42. Only a query of digits alone is read as an order number, so 123-A never finds order #123.
Scanning the label adds the unit to Scanned items, named on its own row.
A code that does not resolve says so:Code not found, in a notification. TWICE read the scanner fine and found nothing, which is a different problem from the scanner not working.
The code is on the item’s General tab, alongside the item’s other codes if it carries several.
Click on empty page space and scan again. Scanning is deliberately ignored while an input, textarea or editable field has focus, so a scan into a form field goes into the field.Check whether you are on an order page. Orders run their own scanner, which puts things on the order rather than collecting them. That is intended while picking, not a fault.
"Code not found"
The scan worked and the lookup found nothing. Codes match exactly, after trimming surrounding whitespace, with no partial or fuzzy matching.Search the inventory table for the code as text. If it is not there, the unit does not carry it. If it is there and the scan still fails, compare the two character for character: a scanner configured to add a prefix, a suffix or a carriage return produces a string that no longer matches.
A scan asks which one I meant
Pick the one you meant and the scan carries on. The string is on more than one object, most often a manufacturer barcode used as both a stock code and a listing barcode.Keep the namespaces apart to stop the question being asked. Give units their own stock codes, auto-generated or prefixed, and leave the manufacturer barcode to the listing.
A scan asks which unit, and both are the same model
Find both units and re-code one. Two units carry the same code, or a label went on the wrong unit, so both match and the scan asks rather than choosing.Use auto-generated codes on stock that has no external identifier of its own. They avoid this by construction, which is the main argument for them.
I set codes manually and got the wrong number of units
Count the codes before submitting. With Manual codes the number of codes is the number of units, which is why the Quantity field is hidden. Enter five codes for five units.
Which code goes on the shelf label, and which on the unit?
Give the unit the stock code and the shelf, bin or product label the listing barcode.Labelling them the other way round works right up until you need to tell two identical units apart, which is the entire point of individual tracking.
