Introduction to Traceability

Learn how our traceability and compliance features allow you to track your products from the purchase of material through to the ultimate sale.

We'll Cover

What is Traceability?
Assigning Lot Numbers to Material Purchases
Linking Lots to Manufactures
Assigning manufactures to orders
Traceability Reporting

This tutorial should take approximately 12 minutes to complete.

What is Traceability?

Traceability refers to the ability to track and trace products, parts, and materials throughout the entire supply chain. It involves collecting and recording data at every production stage, from raw material sourcing to manufacturing and distribution, to ensure that products meet quality and safety requirements.

Traceability helps you identify the source of any issues or defects in their products and enables you to respond and take appropriate action quickly. It also plays a critical role in compliance with regulations and standards, as well as in building trust with customers who increasingly demand transparency and accountability in the products they buy.

Assigning Lot Numbers to Material Purchases

A lot number is an identification number assigned to a particular quantity or lot of material from a single manufacturer. This can be either a code provided to you by the vendor of the material or can be of your own creation.

Lot numbers are useful for GMP and CSPC compliance as they can provide traceability between your material purchases and the products you sell.

Lot numbers can be entered whenever a new batch of materials is purchased. This can be done via the Add Purchase form.

In the example below, the Lot Number for this purchase of a single jar of Coconut Oil is 23432DP:

Each unique lot number you create via the purchase process will be added to a reference list under the Lots tab for each of your materials.

Linking Lots to Manufactures

The lot numbers you have entered into the system can then be assigned to manufactures as you make your products. This is done on the manufacture form for each of your materials allocated to the manufacture.

Linking your manufacture to specific lots creates a direct relationship between your purchase and the manufacturers in which it was used. Continuing the example above, the Coconut Oil material is added to the manufacture for a soap product with Lot Number 23432DP to indicate that this particular batch was used in this manufacture:

Assigning manufactures to orders

The last step to ensure the full traceability of material purchase and product is to link your manufacturer to the order. To do this, navigate to the Order page, select an Order, then click on the tab called "Manufactures."

Traceability Reporting

Once you have your lot numbers and manufactures associated, you can use the Material Traceability Report to create a full traceability summary of material usage. This report will display all expenses, manufactures, and orders that have involved a particular lot of material, allowing you to have the information at your fingertips to initiate a product recall if need be.

As you can see from the report, we can quickly identify that Kyla Olsen has been shipped a product manufactured using the 23432DP lot number of coconut oil. In the case of a material defect with the oil, this means you can analyze the impact and begin recalls immediately without taking weeks to comb through your records.

Have some questions?

If you have any additional questions, please get in touch, and we'll be happy to give you a hand.