Glossary
What is Batch or lot?
A batch, also called a lot, is a group of identical items received or produced together and identified by a batch number so they can be traced as a unit. It matters wherever each batch carries its own manufacturing and expiry date.
A batch number ties a quantity of stock to the consignment it came from. When a supplier recalls a lot, or a customer brings back a strip with a problem, you can find every unit of that batch you received, sold and still hold, instead of pulling the whole product off the shelf.
How it works in practice
The batch is recorded when goods arrive, on the goods received note or the purchase bill. From then on, stock of that product is held as several lots, each with its own remaining quantity and often its own cost and expiry date.
As an example, a pharmacy holds paracetamol in three batches: 40 strips from a Baisakh delivery, 120 from Jestha and 200 from Asar. A sale of 10 strips should come off the oldest lot. If the distributor then recalls the Jestha batch, the pharmacy can see how many of the 120 are left and which bills the rest went out on, and send the remainder back against a debit note.
When the same product moves between warehouses, the batch has to travel with it. A transfer that records only the quantity loses track of which batch moved.
Common mistakes
- Entering one batch for a delivery that actually contains two. The recall search then finds the wrong strips.
- Picking whichever batch is first in the list at billing, rather than the one physically handed over.
- Skipping the batch on transfers and adjustments, so lot quantities stop agreeing with the shelf.
- Treating batch numbers as optional for fast-selling items. Those items go through the most lots, so their lots are the easiest to confuse.
Where it matters most
Pharmacies and medical distributors, food and beverage wholesalers, agrovet and veterinary suppliers, cosmetics dealers, and manufacturers who buy raw material in lots. A hardware shop selling nails by the kilo rarely needs it.
In Kuver Books, batches are created per product and per warehouse when the goods receipt or purchase bill is approved. Sales, adjustments and transfers ask which lot is moving, and a quantity can be split across lots. The pharmacy software page shows how that looks at a medicine counter.
Glossary
Every billing and tax term, A to Z.
See how Kuver Books handles batch or lot.
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