Batch and expiry tracking

Batch and expiry tracking means recording the batch number and expiry date of the stock you receive, so you can sell the oldest first, pull out a batch if needed, and see what is about to expire. It matters most for pharmacies, medical stores, grocery and food distributors, and bakeries buying packaged ingredients.

Example

A pharmacy holds two batches of a cough syrup. Batch A has 30 bottles expiring in March. Batch B has 40 bottles expiring in September. Staff pick from whichever box is in front, which is often batch B. By April, 12 bottles from batch A have expired on the shelf.

At a cost of Rs 180 per bottle, that is 12 × 180 = Rs 2,160 lost on one product. Across a pharmacy with hundreds of items, the yearly loss from unnoticed expiries can be large.

Why it matters

• Less money lost to expired stock.
• Customers are not sold medicine or food that is out of date.
• If a supplier or regulator recalls a batch, you can find it quickly.
• Near-expiry stock can be returned to the supplier or sold early while it still has value.

Physical rotation matters as much as records. Placing new stock behind old stock, the shelf version of FIFO, stops most expiries before they happen.

How software handles it

Software for this records batch and expiry when stock comes in and shows near-expiry stock in a report. In Taajir, batches and expiry come with the Manufacturing add-on at Rs 2,000 a month: it sells the earliest-expiring batch first (FEFO), traces each batch, and has a recall report. See batch and expiry tracking software. The 7-day free trial gives full access, so you can test it with your own items.