A serial-number item is a unique instance of a base product. It differs from an ordinary product by having its own identification number — for example a frame number on a bicycle, a serial number on a chainsaw or a registration number on a vehicle. This makes it possible to track the individual item throughout its entire lifecycle: from purchase through sale to any rental contracts and service history.
Serial-number items are particularly relevant in industries such as workshops, appliance retail, machine dealers and the bicycle industry, where you need to know the precise status of each individual item.
In Financial, select "Product" in the menu and then "Serial-number items".
Serial-number items can also be accessed embedded in an individual product card via the "Serial-number items" tab directly on the base item.
If you cannot see the menu item, you probably do not have permission for it. Contact support.
The list view shows all serial-number items as a grid with the option to search, filter and sort on the columns.
New (+): Creates a new serial-number item. If the list view is not already filtered on a specific product, a dialog for selecting a base product opens before the edit screen is shown.
Edit (pencil): Opens the edit screen for the selected serial-number item. The button is active when a row is selected.
Copy: Opens the copy dialog for the selected serial-number item. The button is active when a row is selected.
Delete: Deletes the selected serial-number item. The button is active when a row is selected.
Export report: Exports a report of serial-number items based on the current view and filtering.
Help (?): Opens the help article for the screen.
Refresh: Reloads the list.
More menu: Contains the following functions: "With sales order" enables a filter that limits the list to serial-number items that have an associated sales order. "Send SMS" sends an SMS message to the owners of the selected serial-number items. "Send email" sends an email to the owners of the selected serial-number items.
Via the checkbox column on the far left you can select individual rows. The "Select all" checkbox at the top selects or deselects all rows at once.
When one or more rows are selected, the following actions are enabled in the secondary toolbar:
Add to inventory and label journal: Adds the selected serial-number items to an inventory journal and/or label journal for subsequent posting or printing.
Recalculate inventory value: Recalculates cost prices for inventory entries for the selected serial-number items. This function is only available to administrators.
Recalculate messages: Starts a recalculation of service messages (communication workflow) for the selected serial-number items.
The list view contains many columns, some of which are hidden by default. Visible and hidden columns can be controlled via the column selector in the grid. The default columns include Product, Variant, Number, Serial number, Barcode, Reg. no., Display name, Category, Used-goods VAT, Is used, Sold on, Created, Updated and Current owner.
Among the hidden columns are, for example: Product identifier, Product display name, Is serial number automatically created, Available, Total available, Stock count, Total stock count, Reserved, Total reserved, Availability (color code), Posted to new inventory account, Posted to used inventory account, Total posted to inventory accounts, Inventory value, Cost price excl. VAT, Sales price incl. VAT, Sales price excl. VAT, Product/variant sales price, Effective sales price, Discount price, Discount price excl. VAT, Purchase price, Service type, Service start date, Last added to inventory on, Last removed from inventory on, Primary supplier, Primary supplier number, Address, Address line 1, Postal code, Postal district, Country, Created on organizational unit, The current inventory organizational unit, With sales order, User, as well as dynamic instance attribute and custom columns.
The Availability column shows a color code: green means the item is available, yellow that it is reserved, red that it is not in stock, and grey that it is not available at all (e.g. sold).
The edit screen opens when creating a new serial-number item or when editing an existing one. At the top of the form, any reservation labels are shown if the serial-number item is reserved on a sales order or other source document — click a label to open the source entity directly.
The edit screen has a toolbar with the following buttons:
Add to label journal: Dropdown that lets you select a label journal and add the current serial-number item.
Add to inventory journal: Dropdown that lets you select an inventory journal and add the current serial-number item.
Show cost price / Hide cost price: Toggles the display of cost price fields on and off. Normally Purchase price/Buy price and Inventory value are hidden and only shown when this button is activated. Permission to use the button depends on your user role.
Copy: Opens the copy dialog for the current serial-number item.
Payment details: Opens the payment plan tab for the current serial-number item.
Count: Registers the serial-number item in an inventory count. The button is only active if inventory support is enabled.
Export report: Exports a report for the current serial-number item.
Number: Sapera's internal identifier for the serial-number item. Filled in automatically if the field is left empty. The field is locked by default and can be unlocked by clicking the lock icon.
Serial number: The unique identification number for the given item, e.g. frame number, engine number or manufacturer's serial number. The field is mandatory and must be unique — either within the base product's serial numbers or globally across all products, depending on the configuration. The serial number can be automatically generated from a barcode scan.
Display name: The name shown on invoices, quotes and other printouts for this specific serial-number item.
Reg. no.: Registration number, typically relevant for vehicles. Like the serial number, it must be unique.
Barcode: The barcode for the serial-number item. Normally generated automatically, but can also be entered manually, e.g. if the item has its own barcode from the manufacturer. Used for scanning and label printing.
Product: The base item the serial-number item is based on. The field is a searchable dropdown; there is also an edit button that opens the base item's product card directly.
Variant: Only shown if the base product has variants (e.g. color or size). Here you select the relevant variant for the serial-number item.
Product fields: Shows read-only attributes defined on the base item (read from the product template and cannot be changed here).
Variant fields: Shows read-only attributes from the selected variant (read from the variant and cannot be changed here).
Instance fields: Editable EAV fields (attribute fields) specific to serial-number items and defined via an instance template. These are separate from the product's and variant's fields and can contain serial-item-specific information such as engine number, model year, equipment, PIN code or similar. The number and type of instance fields depend on the configuration set up for serial-number items at your warehouse.
Purchase price / Buy price: The price the item was purchased for, e.g. from a purchase invoice or a return sale on a sales order. The field is normally hidden and shown via the "Show cost price" button in the toolbar. As a rule it cannot be changed manually; however, there is a setting that allows manual correction — this is not recommended, though, as the financial value and inventory value then risk not matching. Only administrators can change the field if the setting is enabled.
External cost: External cost (initialCost). Specifies a starting cost typically used when serial-number items are imported from another system with an already specified cost price. Only administrators can edit the field.
Sales price excl. VAT: The price the serial-number item is sold for excl. VAT. Specified here if the price should differ from the base product's standard price. The field is updated automatically if the sales price incl. VAT is changed, and vice versa.
Sales price incl. VAT: The price the serial-number item is sold for incl. VAT. Specified here if the price should differ from the base product's standard price.
Discount price excl. VAT: A discount price for the serial-number item excl. VAT, highlighting that the item is on offer.
Discount price: A discount price for the serial-number item incl. VAT.
Service type: A dropdown that specifies which communication workflow type is associated with the serial-number item. Used for controlling service notifications and messages.
Service start date: The date from which the service/communication workflow is considered started for this serial-number item.
Current owner: The actor (customer or contact) that currently owns the serial-number item. The field is an actor lookup with autocomplete. Typically changed on sale or change of ownership.
User: The actor that currently uses the serial-number item, which may differ from the owner (e.g. in a rental arrangement). The field is a separate actor lookup.
Used-goods VAT: Checkbox that marks whether the item is subject to the used-goods VAT rules (margin scheme taxation). Only administrators can change this field.
Is used: Checkbox that marks whether the item is a used item. The field is automatically set to true when Used-goods VAT is enabled, but can also be set manually and is thus independent. Is used is used to classify the item as used, regardless of VAT status.
Inventory value: A read-only field that shows the current inventory value for the serial-number item. Only shown when "Show cost price" is enabled. Next to the field, a color indicator (in parentheses) is shown: green = available, yellow = reserved, red = not in stock, grey = not available.
Address: The address field is only shown if the setting "supportAddressOnInstance" is enabled in the configuration. It makes it possible to register an address directly on the serial-number item — e.g. relevant for equipment located at an end user.
Stats: At the bottom of the form, statistics about the serial-number item are shown: created on organizational unit, created date, created by, date of last addition to inventory and date of last sale.
When you create a new serial-number item from the list view (and the list is not already filtered on one specific product), a product selector dialog is shown. Here you search for and select the base product the serial-number item should be based on, before the edit screen opens.
The copy dialog makes it possible to mass-copy an existing serial-number item. The dialog shows a grid with rows that can be added, edited and removed. For each copy the following is specified:
Serial number: The serial number for the new copy.
Barcode: The barcode for the new copy.
Is used: Checkbox that specifies whether the copy should be marked as used.
Instance fields: Opens an edit dialog for instance attributes for the given copy.
The dialog is confirmed with "Save", and one new serial-number item is created for each row in the grid.
The Properties dialog gives access to editing supplementary properties and settings for the serial-number item that are not directly available in the main form.
This dialog opens when "Add to inventory and label journal" is clicked for one or more selected serial-number items. The dialog shows information about the selected serial-number item — including display name, sale date, current owner and sales price — as well as a text with an action message. From here you can select:
"Normal sale" sends the item as a normal sales line. "Purchase (std. VAT)" registers a buy-back with standard VAT. "Purchase (used-goods VAT)" registers a buy-back with used-goods VAT. "Return/credit note (new)" creates a credit note.
If the item is available at another organizational unit, a warning about this is shown.
The dialog opens via "Send SMS" or "Send email" in the More menu. Here you write the message that is sent to the owners of the selected serial-number items.
For email, a subject is also specified. The "Recipient preference" field controls whether the message is sent to the recipient's preferred communication channel or a specific channel.
The edit screen contains a number of tabs below the main form that give access to additional information about the serial-number item.
Shows files attached to the serial-number item. A new file is added with the plus button, and for existing files a title and document type are specified. You can mark whether the file should be included on the invoice, sales order, quote or all document types. Files can for example be service manuals or warranty certificates.
Shows a history of cost price registrations for the serial-number item. For each entry the following is shown:
Date: The date of the cost price registration.
Inventory date: The date the entry is registered in the inventory.
Display name: Description of the entry.
Source: The type of source document (e.g. sales order, invoice or inventory journal).
Number: Identification number of the source document with a link to the source.
Amount: The cost price amount for the entry.
Archived: Indicates whether the entry is archived.
Voucher no.: Voucher number on the associated inventory entry.
Excluded from inventory value: Indicates whether the entry is excluded from the total inventory value calculation.
At the top, the total for all entries is shown as well as the total for non-archived entries.
Shows financial entries related to the serial-number item, e.g. from sales, purchases and returns. The list contains the same information as financial entries generally in the system.
Shows all rental contracts associated with the serial-number item. For each rental the following is shown:
From: Start date for the rental contract.
To: End date for the rental contract.
Source: The type of source document for the rental contract.
Number: Identification number on the source document.
Customer: The tenant associated with the contract.
Created: Date and time of creation.
Terminated: Indicates whether the rental contract is terminated.
Shows a complete change trail for the serial-number item. For each event the following is shown:
Type: The type of event (e.g. inventory addition, sale, change of ownership).
Date: Date of the event.
Display name: The item as it was named at the time of the event.
Reg. no.: Registration number at the time.
Owner: Owner at the time.
Sold on: Sale date, if the item was sold.
Used-goods VAT: Whether used-goods VAT was active.
Is used: Whether the item was marked as used.
Sold with std. VAT: Whether the item was sold with standard VAT.
External cost: External cost at the time.
Purchase price: Purchase price at the time.
Cost price excl. VAT: Cost price at the time.
Sales price incl. VAT: Sales price at the time.
Service type: The associated service type at the time.
Created: Time of the change.
Created by: The user who made the change.
Shows the payment plans associated with the serial-number item. From here, payment plans can be created, edited and deleted. It is also possible to set a plan as default. For each payment plan, the system name and display name are shown.
Editing or creating a payment plan is done in a separate edit form with the following fields:
System name: The internal unique name of the payment plan.
Display name: The name shown to the customer.
Financial costs: Any financial surcharges on the plan.
Service fee: A fixed fee per agreement.
Periods: Number of periods the agreement runs over.
Period fee: The amount paid per period.
If you have questions, you are welcome to contact support.
Want to know more?
Read more in these related articles:
Serial-number items
The Serial-number items printout gives a unified overview of your serial-number items with serial/frame number, owner, price and inventory status.
Serial-number item card
Product card for a single serial-number item, which can be used as a financing or sales document.
Getting started with serial-number items
What a serial-number item is, and how to quickly create one.
