It is inevitable: you will have a product from a vendor that doesn’t have a barcode formatted using the standards, and that you can’t easily scan in and out of inventory. You may have a vendor who delivers all of their items with industry standard barcodes. There are a few ways to solve this challenge, but our recommendation is to print QR codes to sticker the items for simple use going forward.
But how do you get to the point where you can print QR codes? Since barcodes contain an item number, a lot number and expiration date, you have to have the specific item, with its specific details, in the system in order to print a code that includes its particular lot number and expiration date. In order to add item instances, as we learned from the inventory overview page, you must first add the general item details to your local inventory.
The usual process may not work if the item doesn’t have a barcode or QR code to scan, so how do you find the item in our global catalog? The easy answer is to use the data on the item label to find the item by manually typing in the item number or reference number to search. Often, the easiest number is the reference number, which nearly all vendors use in a fairly consistent manner. On the Add Item screen, begin typing some of the reference number characters into the Search By Item Number field. This field will match any items that have a reference number or item number, that includes the characters entered. If the item is not currently in our global catalog, you will receive a message stating so and you can follow the instructions provided here to submit it to us for inclusion.
Once we’ve included it in the global catalog, you can again search by item or reference number on the Add Item page. When you find the item, use Edit to request it for your local inventory and on the add item popup screen manually enter the lot number and expiration date for each physical item you may have. Make sure the data matches exactly, as they are critical to maintaining data integrity. When you’re done, hit Save to add the item and the item instances, into your local inventory.
From the main Inventory page, find the new item and click on it to view the item details. Below the summary data will be a list of the specific items you entered. At the right side is the button that generates a QR code for you to use.
We recommend using Avery 22805 labels for QR code stickers. These are easy to use stickers that you can use with our QR Code template (available in Microsoft Word template). Right-click on the generated QR code and copy the image. Click in the middle of a box in our template and paste. The QR code should appear there. If you have a collection of items that all have the same lot number and expiration date, you can paste the same QR code as many times as is needed to get the number of stickers required. However, each item with a unique lot number and expiration date must have a unique QR code sticker generated and printed. Make sure you keep track of which QR code is in which position in the Word document so when its printed you can correctly apply the sticker to the correct item.