The traceability explorer shows where a batch or serial number came from, what it went into, who received it and what is still in stock, in one screen.

Use it to answer a customer complaint, act on a supplier's recall, or run a mock recall for an audit. From the same screen you can write off or move the affected stock and export the list of customers to contact.

The explorer opens from Stock > Batches and Stock > Serial numbers. You can start from one batch or serial number, from several at once, or from a product and the dates it was added to stock.

One batch or serial number

Several batches or serial numbers in one trace

Katana traces them together: one list of customers, one stock list and one mass balance, with no duplicates where the batches meet on the same order. Use this when a supplier warns about several lots or a range of serial numbers. You can trace up to 100 batches and serial numbers at once.

A whole product or material: see Tracing a production period below.

The header names what you traced: the batch or serial number, the product as [SKU] name, its origin (the purchase order, manufacturing order or stock adjustment that added it to stock), and its created and expiry dates. With several starts, the header shows each one as a button: click it to focus on that batch or serial number. A stock transfer only moves stock between locations, so it never shows as the origin: find transfers on the Documents and Timeline tabs.

Under Known impact from, chips count what is at stake: In stock at risk, Customer orders, Open order to stop and Serials for where it went, Input batches and serials and Suppliers for where it came from.

The graph draws the chain: orders in the middle, batches and serial numbers around them. Left is where it came from, right is where it went. The legend under the graph explains the colours; a dashed line means assigned to an order but not used or shipped yet. Click Hide graph to give the tabs the full width.

Click a card to focus the chips and tabs on it; Back to initial scope returns to what you traced. Click Trace from here on the card, or in Details, to start a new trace from that batch or serial number. Use Fit View under the graph to see a long chain whole.

The explorer opens on Details. Each tab answers one question about the trace.

Shows the focused card: its location (and bin, if you track bins), its mass balance and its history with links to every document. With several starts and nothing focused, it lists the items you traced.

Made from goes down to every supplier; Went into goes up to every customer, one tree per traced item. An order reached twice is shown once and marked shown above. Use it to answer a complaint: what is in this unit, and from which delivery. Click Export CSV to save it.

Every sales order that shipped the affected stock: customer, email, phone, ship-to address, the batch or serial number each one got, the quantity and the date. Below, the open orders that still hold affected stock, so you can stop them. Click Export CSV for your call list.

What is left of the affected stock, per location (and bin). Untick what to leave out, then act on the rest: see Acting on a recall below.

Every dated event along the chain: added, produced, used, transferred, shipped and adjusted, with location, document, partner and who issued the number.

For each batch or serial number: how much came in, and how much was used, shipped, adjusted and is on hand. Anything unaccounted for is flagged. Auditors ask for this in a mock recall.

Every purchase order, manufacturing order, sales order, stock adjustment and stock transfer in the trace, with status, date, partner, address and side (where it came from or where it went), plus every location with its address.

The Stock tab turns the trace into documents, one per location, so you don't have to look the stock up again.

Stock whose bins don't add up is shown with a warning and can't be acted on until the bins are corrected.

A problem on the line is usually known by its dates, not its batch numbers. Trace product finds every batch and serial number of a product added to stock in a date range and traces them together.

On a material, Trace product without dates traces every lot of it at once: useful when a raw material turns out to be contaminated.

By default, Katana counts every product made on a manufacturing order as containing every ingredient the order used. That is how mixed production works, and it never leaves an affected unit out. For assembled products, where one battery goes into one bike, it can make a recall wider than it needs to be.

Ingredients can be batches or serial numbers, including serial-tracked materials such as bought-in motors or heating elements. Link each one to the unit it went into, and the explorer can trace per unit:

In the explorer, switch between Per unit and Whole order:

Ingredients you don't link on an order are traced the whole-order way.

Turn on Direct links only to see just the item's own suppliers, orders and customers: one step back and one step forward, with names and addresses.

To save a trace:

All dates use YYYY-MM-DD.

The explorer keeps the records many traceability requirements ask for (who supplied what, what went into what, who received it) and helps you put them together on request. Whether that meets a particular food-safety scheme, customer requirement or regulation is for your business to confirm.

Why does the trace include products that didn't use the faulty ingredient? Without per-unit links, every product made on a manufacturing order counts as containing every ingredient that order used. See Tracing assembled products per unit.

Why is some stock listed both as at risk and on an open order? Stock assigned to an open sales order is still in your warehouse, so it is counted in both places until it ships.

Why does the trace stop at an order? A banner names the order and the reason: it made a product that isn't batch- or serial-tracked, or it hasn't produced or received anything yet. Traces also stop 10 orders deep and are marked as partial.

Can I trace from my supplier's lot number? Yes, if you entered the supplier's lot number as the batch number when you received the purchase order.

Are stock transfers part of the trace? They are listed on Documents but not drawn in the graph.

Does the mass balance show only the traced order's share? No. Mass balance is per batch or serial number, so it shows the whole batch: for example everything received of an ingredient lot, not only what one order used.

I made per-unit links but the trace shows the whole order. Check the toggle is on Per unit. Then open the manufacturing order's Traceability tab and check that each unit shows its linked ingredients.

Can Katana notify the affected customers? Not directly. Export the Customers list as CSV and use it for your emails or letters.

Can I get the trace through the API? Yes. The public API has a Beta trace endpoint; see the API reference.

Your feedback is invaluable. Let us know your thoughts on this article or anything in Katana you'd like to see improved: [email protected]