Assigning serial numbers to purchased items enhances traceability—from supplier to stock to customer orders. When serial tracking is enabled, Katana lets you add unique identifiers during the receiving process.
Why use this feature?
Ensures every stocked product has a unique serial number for customer orders or audits.
Supports traceability from receipt to sale - especially important for warranty or compliance tracking.
When can you add serials
Must have serial tracking enabled for the product.
Works on both purchase orders (PO) and outsourced purchase orders (OPO).
Applicable whether the item row is Not received or already Received—provided serials weren’t fully assigned.
Step-by-step: Adding serials
Open a PO or OPO for the relevant product.
In the items table, find the Tracing column with an exclamation icon ⚠️ if serials are missing.
Click the icon to open the serial input modal.
Enter serials manually (one per line) or copy/paste in bulk.
Click Done.
Input rules & limits
Allowed characters: letters, numbers, spaces, and
- _ / , .Max length: 32 characters per serial.
Max count: 1,000 serial numbers at a time.
Completing the process
If serials match the ordered quantity, the ⚠️ icon changes to a ✅ checkmark.
To re-open the input modal, click the checkmark—only available while the row is Not Received.
Serial numbers can be removed (🗑️) or added (+).
When marking the row as Received, serials are timestamped with the received date and appear in Stock screen → Serial numbers tab.
Bulk upload tip
For fully received orders, you can bypass the modal by using Katana’s serial import template under Settings → Data import.
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