Barcodes & Label Printing

Barcodes turn slow manual lookups into a scan, and Knowledge ERP can print the labels to match.

What can carry a barcode #

Barcodes aren't limited to Products. Each of these records can carry a code of its own, which you can print, quote and search for instead of typing a name:

• Products — the thing you stock or sell. On a Product this code is the field labelled SKU: type your own or leave it blank and one is auto-generated.
• Units — a specific tracked unit of stock. Barcode auto-generated on creation.
• Bins — a storage location, for put-away and picking. Barcode auto-generated on creation.
• Kits — a bundled set of components. Barcode generated the first time you ask for a label.
• Sales orders and purchase orders — a code you can print on the order. Barcode generated the first time you ask for a label.
• Customers — a code of their own, for a membership card or a job sheet. Auto-generated on creation.
• Loan agreements and rental agreements — scan the agreement to pull it up for check-out or return. Barcode auto-generated on creation.
• Customer returns and vendor returns — scan the RMA when receiving or shipping returned goods. Barcode auto-generated on creation.

Each type has its own barcode prefix (S- for Products, I- for Units, B- for Bins, K- for Kits, PO- for purchase orders, SO- for sales orders, LA- for loan agreements, RA- for rental agreements, C- for customers, CR- for customer returns, VR- for vendor returns).

Scanning a code to open its record works for units, bins, Products, loan and rental agreements, and customer and vendor returns. Kits, sales orders, purchase orders and customers carry a code but the scanner does not resolve them yet — print and quote those, and find the record the usual way.

Scanning drives the everyday flows below — receiving, counting, transfers, and quick lookups — without typing.

Scan-driven workflows #

Several flows are built around scanning, so a handheld scanner (or a phone) can drive the work:

• Transfers — scan units onto a transfer between locations.
• Stock counts — scan stock as you count it for fast, accurate reconciliation.
• Shipping — scan a Product barcode on the Ship Sales Order page to instantly select the matching line for fulfillment.

Printing labels #

The label printing tool generates printable label sheets, so the barcodes you scan are the ones you produced — keeping the physical and digital records in lockstep.

What is waiting to be printed #

The Print Labels page opens on Waiting to print: the labels somebody has asked for and nobody has printed yet. That is also what the number beside Print Labels in the menu counts.

Only the things a sticker physically goes on ask for a label on their own:

• Units — the tool or the machine itself.
• Bins — the shelf or the box it lives on.

Nothing else puts a label in the queue on its own — Products, kits, orders, agreements, returns and customers all keep whatever code they have, and the ones listed above as scannable go on scanning. A Product describes the thing you stock rather than being one of them, so there is nothing for its sticker to go on; an agreement prints its barcode in the header of its own PDF instead.

Asking for one anyway #

For one record, open it and use Queue Label in the buttons at the top of its page. For several at once, tick them on the list and use Queue Labels in the bulk menu. Either adds the record's barcode to the Print Labels page, generating a code first if the record never had one. Nothing is printed at that point.

You will find both on units, bins, kits, sales orders, purchase orders, loan agreements, rental agreements, customers, customer returns and vendor returns — Queue Label on the record's own page, Queue Labels in the bulk menu of its list. Both need the Print Labels page to be reachable, which takes the Inventory module and the account-wide permission to view units, the same read the page takes. Somebody without that read sees neither button. The Products list does not carry them yet.

Queue Label used to sit on every row of those lists, next to View and Edit, and no longer does — it crowded out the buttons people press far more often. The single-record button moved onto the record's own page; the bulk one has not moved.

The Print Labels page has the same thing for codes already listed there: Add to Print Queue and Remove from Print Queue. Turn the Waiting to print filter off to see every code ever issued — which is also how to queue a Product's shelf label in the meantime.

Asking for a label that has already been printed puts it back in the queue, so a sticker that has come off a unit can simply be re-requested.

The barcode also prints on the document itself: the Print action on a loan agreement, rental agreement, customer return, or vendor return opens a PDF with the record's scannable barcode in the header, with your browser's print dialogue over it.

Labels for equipment you don't have yet #

You can print unit labels before the units exist: for donations you are expecting, or a delivery that has not arrived. There is no need to add units you do not have just to get their labels.

On Print Labels, use Print Labels for Equipment You Don't Have Yet. Choose the Product, how many labels (up to 2,000), and optionally a Location and a name for the batch. Each label shows the barcode, its code and the Product's name. The label sheet opens straight away.

Every run is a numbered batch (Batch 1, Batch 2, …). These labels do not join Waiting to print: turn that filter off and use Pre-printed labels not yet used, or Batch, to find them again.

Sending a batch to a vendor or label printer

Select a batch number in the Batch column to open the batch. Its page has two downloads:

• Download CSV: one row per label, with its code, the Product, the batch and the Location it was printed for.
• Download PDF: the labels on Avery 5160 sheets, 30 to a page.

Both list the batch's labels, in the same order each time, except labels that were voided or whose unit has been deleted. Downloading does not mark labels as printed.

If a batch has more than 210 labels to download, it is too big for one PDF. Use Prepare PDF instead: Knowledge ERP makes the PDF in parts of 210 labels, in the background, and zips them. Come back to the batch's page and use Download PDF (zip). You can download the zip for at least 7 days. After that its link says it has expired, and you can prepare it again.

Turning a pre-printed label into a unit

When the equipment arrives, either:

• on Add Units, type or scan the label's code into Barcode. The first unit added takes that code. The Product must be the one the label was printed for; or
• on Print Labels, use Add Units from Pre-printed Labels, scan or type the codes, and choose the Location. Each code becomes one unit of its Product. Leave Bin empty to use the Location's receiving bin. If one code cannot be used, no units are added and the message names that code; or
• on New Loan, scan it into the scan box. The line names the label, and the unit is made at the loan's Location when the loan is saved. See Scanning equipment onto a new loan.

A label printed for a Location can only be used at that Location. A label printed for no Location is not tied to one: anyone who can open Print Labels can see it, and use it wherever they may add units. You need permission to add units at the Location, and a label whose Product has been deleted cannot be used.

For a Product that tracks serial numbers, use Add Units, which asks for the unit's serial number. Add Units from Pre-printed Labels refuses those labels.

Scanning a pre-printed label that has not been made into a unit yet, on any other scanning page, says so and names its Product, instead of "not found". The exception is a label printed for a Location you don't work at: if your access is limited to other Locations, that label is "not found" for you.

Labels you won't use

Select them on Print Labels and use Void Pre-printed Labels. A voided label cannot be made into a unit, and Knowledge ERP never generates its code again.

Mobile #

Barcode scanning is also available through the mobile app API, so the native mobile app can scan in the field to perform check-ins, check-outs, transfers, and rental operations offline.