Increasingly, many people are looking for strategies that will allow them to use barcodes to help streamline specific processes across their business. D365 offers barcoding options that can make it easy for you to set up and track your products. Do you need to create barcodes in D365? There are several times when it might be appropriate:
1. You Need to Purchase or Sell Products
Barcodes are ideal for both purchasing and selling products because you can track them with ease. Set up barcodes for the products you need to purchase most often so that you can easily scan them into your system and report orders, or set up barcodes for the items you want to sell so that you can easily track sales and manage your supply chain. Right now, supply chain forecasting is more critical than ever, and barcoding can help you keep up with the specific products you need, when you need to stock them, and where they are so that you can keep your business moving smoothly even in the midst of supply chain challenges.
2. You Need to Track Specific Product Variants
Tracking product variants can prove critical to ensuring that you have the right inventory on hand at any given time. You need to know which variants customers are most likely to purchase and need. Furthermore, separate barcodes for those product variants can make it easier to keep track of what inventory you currently have in stock so that you don’t run out.
3. You Need to Set Up Customers or Employees for the Performance of Repeat Tasks
Barcoding is an easy way to track your customers and/or employees as well as your products. When your employees need to be able to sign in quickly, or you want to be able to access a great deal of customer data at the press of a button, barcoding is a great way to accomplish it. With a barcode, all your employees’ information is available with one quick scan–and your customer information is more accessible to employees who need it, which can help set your team up for success and make it easier for you to connect with your customers. Recurring tasks are often an important part of doing business, for both employees or customers alike. With your barcodes, you can easily repeat orders, sign employees into the system, or track movement of employees as they move from station to station.g
4. You Want to Issue & Endorse Coupons Gift Cards, and Credit Memos with Ease
Sometimes, you may want to assign unique, individual numbers to coupons, gift cards, and credits: one-time-use items that consumers cannot duplicate. For example, you might want to put out a coupon that offers a specific percentage off on one item, but not want customers to come back again and again with the same coupon, purchasing multiple items with it and leading to serious losses for your business. By issuing a unique barcode to each coupon, you can prevent customers from using that method to overuse the coupon. Likewise, you can assign barcodes to gift cards that will make them easy to track in your system–and even make it easier to replace a gift card for a customer if it goes missing, since you can simply reassign one with the same barcode.
5. You Need Custom, In-House Barcodes
Your business and your processes are unique. Sometimes, you may want to just use the standard barcodes used across the board by other businesses. Other times, however, you may want to set up your own unique, in-house codes to use for specific purposes. For example, you might need to track variants on a product that aren’t tracked by the manufacturer, or you might need different barcodes to track where a specific product is going. With D365, it’s easy to set up those specific codes so that you can track the information that’s most relevant to you.
6. You Need More Than One Barcode Per Product
Barcodes can help with a variety of processes and needs across your company, and setting up the right ones can prove critical. Sometimes, you might not be sure which barcode is the most relevant to a specific product. In fact, you might need to have multiple barcodes per product because:
- It comes from multiple manufacturers
- It has variants based on size
- It has variants based on style or color
With D365, you can track both total product inventory and those critical variants, which can make it easier to keep up with all your inventory and information.
7. You Need to Easily Track Weight, Price, or Other Relevant Information About a Product
Keeping up with all the information that goes into your products is critical. With your barcodes, you can keep that information readily at hand. Instead of having to check your inventory or refer back to the product for specific information, you can simply refer back to the information in the barcode. Often, you can also use that information to track overall inventory weight or value.
8. You Simply Want to Use Standard Barcodes
While you can create your own custom barcodes from barcode masks, or templates used to create them, you can also choose to simply use standard barcodes that will allow you to easily track and monitor inventory in your system through D365. Standard barcoding, even without many of the additional options discussed above, can help transform your organization. It can help save you money, improve shipping and receiving, and optimize operations across your company.
With all that information at your fingertips, you can more easily track the vital data that keeps your company running, streamline your processes, and sets the company up for success.
Inventory management and tracking are a critical part of your organization. Through inventory management, you can combat shrinkage and decrease many of the challenges your organization faces.
While you cannot natively create barcodes within StockIQ, it’s a strong option to have on hand for inventory based businesses. StockIQ integrates with Microsoft D365 Business Central. Contact us today to learn more about the services we offer and how we can supplement your D365 experience.
