Master Data · Setup & configuration · 9 min read

Set tracking policies, site defaults and account mappings

Control lot tracking and shelf life, replenishment defaults per warehouse, and sales and stock accounts, with a second person approving the sensitive ones.

Before you begin

These three screens keep versions. A change never overwrites the active version; you propose a new one, and the earlier one becomes superseded when the new one is active. All are under Master Data > Products.

Tracking and expiry policies

Open Tracking policies and media, choose the product, and press Propose version.

1. Choose Tracking: none, lot, serial or lot and serial. Only stocked goods can be tracked: 'Only stocked goods are tracked.'
2. Tick Expiry managed. It needs lot tracking: 'Expiry needs lot tracking.'
3. Choose Count from: Manufacture date or Receipt.
4. Enter expiry days (0 to 36,500; 0 means no shelf life).
5. Enter best before days (counted from the start date), and removal days and alert days (counted back from the expiry). None may be above the expiry days.
6. Enter minimum receipt life and minimum delivery life, also not above the expiry days: 'A minimum life longer than the shelf life can never be met.'
7. If lots are already in stock and the version changes tracking or expiry, write a Conversion plan of at least 20 characters saying what happens to each lot. Otherwise: '<code> has lots in stock. Write the reviewed conversion plan - what happens to each lot - before this tracking change.'
8. Press Propose, then Activate on the draft row.

When lots are in stock, the person who proposed the change cannot activate it: 'Somebody other than the person who prepared this tracking change must decide it.' Without stock, activation does not need a second person.

Worked example. Policy: lot tracking, manufacture date, expiry 365, best before 300, removal 30, alert 60. A lot received with manufacture date 1 October 2026 and no dates gets: expiry 1 October 2027 (+365); best before 28 July 2027 (expiry minus 365 - 300 = 65 days); removal 1 September 2027 (expiry - 30); alert 2 August 2027 (expiry - 60). Dates typed on the receipt are never replaced.

Product pictures

On the same screen press Upload to add a picture (PNG, JPEG or WebP, up to 5 MB, up to 16 megapixels). It is re-encoded to PNG with its longest side at most 1,600 px. SVG is refused for safety. A renamed text file is refused: 'The picture could not be decoded.' Every picture uploaded here is published to channels with the next catalogue publish, and the screen has no remove button.

Site defaults

Open Site defaults and press New version.

1. Choose the Product and Site (a warehouse of this company).
2. Choose the Route: buy, make, transfer or dropship.
3. Optionally set ABC class (A, B or C), storage, min and max quantity, reorder point, safety stock, order multiple and lead days (0 to 3,650).
4. Save. Max 0 means no maximum; otherwise the max must be at least the min: 'The maximum is below the minimum.'

Version 2 becomes active and version 1 is superseded. The reorder point is not compared with min or max.

Account mappings

Open Account mappings and press New mapping.

1. Choose the Scope: Category or Product, then the category or product.
2. Choose the sales account, stock account, expense account and variance account from this company's chart.
3. Save. The mapping (MAP-000001) is a draft.
4. A Finance approver with mdm.finance.approve, not the drafter, presses Activate.

On activation the system checks the account kinds: sales must be income, stock must be an asset, expense must be an expense account, variance may be expense or income, and every account must be active and postable. Example refusal: '4000 Sales is an income account; the stock account must be asset.' For a category mapping the stock account is also written to the category. Product managers who press Activate see 'Activating an account mapping is Finance's decision (mdm.finance.approve).'