Batch tracking in Katana allows full traceability of materials and products throughout their lifecycle, from purchasing and manufacturing to sales and beyond. With this feature, you can assign unique batch numbers (also called lot numbers) and optional expiry dates to purchased or manufactured items.
Note: Batch tracking is part of the Full Traceability add-on, which is automatically available on Professional plans.
What is Batch Tracking?
Batch tracking helps you:
Monitor product and material movement across your supply chain.
Assign unique batch numbers to each set of purchased or manufactured items.
Optionally set expiry dates ("best before") to manage shelf life.
Expired batches cannot be added to any new orders.
This system gives you full backward and forward traceability:
Backward: From a sales order to the batch used, manufacturing data, and the ingredients that went into it.
Forward: From purchased ingredients to their use in manufacturing and final sales.
Enabling batch tracking
Batch tracking is controlled per item (product or material). It is disabled by default, but can be switched ON individually for each item.
To enable it:
Open the item card for the product or material.
Under tracking, select Batch / lot numbers.
Full traceability workflow
Here's how batch tracking flows through your inventory operations:
Items added via purchase orders are assigned to new or existing batches in stock.
Manufacturing – Ingredients
When completing a manufacturing order (MO), ingredients must be selected from specific batches.
Manufacturing – Products
Finished goods created in an MO are added to new or existing batches.
Products are selected from specific batches when fulfilling sales orders.
This ensures end-to-end traceability — from a product sold back to its manufacturing process and even the specific ingredients used.
Key points and behavior
If batch tracking is ON for an item, you must select a batch for all stock movements:
Purchasing
Manufacturing
Selling
Stock adjustments
Stock transfers
Each batch is unique to a single item variant:
You cannot combine multiple variants into one batch.
Batch numbers must be unique per variant, but the same number can be reused across different variants.
Batch tracking is global, not location-specific:
Turning it on/off applies to all locations.
Batches can be distributed across multiple locations.
Expired batches:
Cannot be added to new orders.
Appear after unexpired ones in search results.
Batches can be assigned when:
Creating stock adjustments
Making stock transfers between Locations
How to find sales orders linked to a batch
To track which SOs used a specific batch:
Go to the Stock screen.
Click on the item tied to the batch.
In the Inventory intel window, use the Batch # dropdown to filter and view relevant sales orders.
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