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Traceability and Recall — A Guide from Scratch

When a supplier says "there is a problem with this batch" or a customer reports a defective product, two answers are needed within minutes: "Which products and which customers did this raw material lot go to?" and "Which lots, which supplier and which machine was this product made from?" The Traceability window answers both questions with one click from the lot log, production confirmations and invoices; if needed it opens a recall case from the same trace that lists the affected customers and the stock in the warehouse, and follows it until everything has been collected.

1. What it is for

The window has four tabs; the card of the selected lot or case opens on the right:

• Trace — a multi-level forward and backward trace starting from a lot, serial number, product, supplier lot, account or document number (section 3). Clicking a lot opens the Lot card (section 5).
• Recall — the scope → simulation → open case wizard (section 6).
• Cases — the list of open recall cases and the case card: notification, return/disposal, advancing the status (sections 7-8).
• Missing link — a report of movements whose lot was not recorded on lot-tracked items (section 9).

The window sits in two places in the dock: in the Stock / Warehouse group after Shipping and in the Production / Quality group next to Quality. The same window also opens from the Traceability tab of the stock card (section 10). All rules run on the server; the office, the phone (Garden+Step) and the reports see the same calculation.

2. Where the trace comes from

The backbone of the trace is the lot log: every lot movement is written with its date, direction (in/out), quantity, warehouse, source and document or confirmation number. When two lots are at the two ends of the same event (e.g. in the same production confirmation one was consumed and the other produced), there is a link between them. Which transaction creates which link:

How lot tracking is turned on

An item counts as lot-tracked in two ways: if the flag is on in the Lot / Batch Tracking box of the stock card, or if the flag was never set but the item already has lot history. An item whose flag was explicitly set to "no" does not count as tracked even if it has lot history. The flag is changed by an administrator or a warehouse clerk; after it is turned on, purchases of this item open a lot automatically.

Enter the lot number and expiry date of the line on the purchase invoice. The supplier's own batch number (supplier lot) can be recorded in two ways: with the lot.tedarikciLot field on purchase lines that are imported or come through an integration (at most 60 characters; the supplier is the account of the document), or later with the Add supplier lot link on the lot card (section 5). If only the supplier lot is given and the internal lot is left empty, the warehouse's automatic lot pattern generates the internal lot number.

3. The Trace tab: forward and backward trace

1. Type a lot, serial, product, supplier lot, account or document no. in the search box. Suggestions appear after two characters; each is marked with its type (Lot / Serial / Supplier lot / Product / Account / Document). Pick a suggestion, or press Trace if there is only one. QR text (HNRL|code|lot or code|lot) opens the lot directly.
2. Choose a direction. Direction: automatic decides from the starting point: forward for a lot, serial number or product; forward for a supplier lot or supplier; backward for a customer or a sales document (where the goods that went to this customer came from). You can also choose Forward trace (where it went) or Backward trace (where it came from) yourself.
3. The result comes in two views: Tree (expandable nodes; the first three levels are open) and Flat list (level, type, source, target, quantity, date, document / confirmation and package columns). The summary line at the top shows the number of lots traced, customers · documents · shipped quantity for a forward trace, the number of suppliers for a backward trace, and the number of unresolved links.
4. Click a node: a lot opens the lot card on the right, an account opens the account card, Document opens the invoice and Work order opens the production order. The confirmation line shows the machine and the operator.

The trace goes at most 6 levels deep (enough for recipe chains such as raw material → semi-finished → finished → customer) and draws at most 5,000 nodes; a branch that reaches the limit is marked with the depth limit badge, and a cut-off trace with the The trace was cut off at the depth limit warning. If the same lot is reached a second time it is not expanded again and shown above is displayed; if a lot links back to its own ancestor (a faulty record), a loop badge appears and the trace stops there. These two protections keep the trace tree from growing without end.

4. Unresolved link

An unresolved link is a point where, because no record exists, the trace cannot know where something came from or where it went. It is shown with a yellow badge, listed in the Unresolved links box under the tree and never guessed: HNR does not invent a link such as "it was probably taken from that lot", because a wrong trace makes a recall search the wrong customer or skip the right one. The reasons:

• Receipt not recorded (legacy data) — the lot exists but there is no purchase, production, transfer or subcontracting receipt in the log; usually stock from before lot tracking started.
• Opened by a stock count surplus or Opened manually (origin unknown) — the lot came into being through a count difference or a manual entry; its supplier or production is unknown.
• Component without lot — the lot of a component consumed in a production confirmation was not recorded (the component is not lot-tracked or was consumed without a lot).
• The production confirmation has no product lot — the confirmation consumed component lots but no lot was opened for the product; the forward trace stops at that confirmation.
• Supplier unknown / Document not found — the log points to a document, but the document or its account cannot be read.

To reduce unresolved links: (1) use Add supplier lot on the lot card to link the internal lot to the supplier's batch number and the supplier (section 5); (2) a manual line × lot link can be added for a sales line whose lot was not recorded — this version has no screen button for it; an integration writes it with POST /api/izlenebilirlik/kalem-lot (document, stock code, lot, quantity). A manual link does not change the lot quantity, appears in the trace with a manual badge, and only manually added links can be deleted; a link written by FEFO is removed only by cancelling the document. Both require the traceability or recall permission (section 12). The real fix looks ahead: turn on lot tracking and have the component lot selected in confirmations.

5. The lot card

The lot card gathers the whole story of a lot on one screen. At the top are the lot number, the stock code (click to open the stock card) and badges: On hand quantity and unit, total In · out, Expiry (red if past) and On quality hold if the lot is blocked. Below are three buttons: Forward trace (where it went), Backward trace (where it came from) and, for users with the recall permission, Start recall (fills the wizard with this lot). The sections:

• Current locations — the open lines in the lot ledger: warehouse, quantity, expiry and status (Available / Depleted / Blocked: reason [reference]).
• Origin — supplier, purchase document and supplier lot; if the lot came from production, the work order, confirmation, machine, operator, the staff recorded on the confirmation and the component lots consumed. An unresolved origin is written in yellow. The Add supplier lot link (with the link permission) takes a supplier lot number, a supplier account code and an optional manufacturer.
• Where used — the product lots made from this lot (with quantities), the customers it was shipped to (quantity, date, document, package) and end events such as loss / disposal.
• Timeline — every line of the lot log in date order: event (purchase receipt, sales shipment, consumed in production, output from production, warehouse transfer, subcontracting, loss, disposal, stock count, quality decision…), +/− quantity, warehouse, document or confirmation, user.
• Quality decisions — block / release records, nonconformances (NCR) opened for this lot, samples and certificates. Serial numbers — the serials tied to the lot's production confirmation. Recall cases — the cases that include this lot and their status.

6. The recall wizard

The wizard has three steps: 1. Scope → 2. Simulation → 3. Open case. The first two steps are open to everyone and write nothing; opening a case requires the recall permission.

1. Scope. Enter the type and what it requires. Shipment date from / to (optional) takes only the customer shipments of a given period. If Also add sales without a lot link as candidates (legacy data) is ticked, the sales lines of these products whose lot was not recorded also enter the list with an unresolved badge — a "who it may have gone to" list for sales made before lot tracking; it is not certain.
2. Simulation. Run simulation computes the forward trace and shows the affected lines. The simulation writes no records. Four boxes at the top: affected customers, documents, quantity at customers, in warehouse / in transit. Every row in the table has a location: At customer (shipped, with document and date), In warehouse or In transit (still in the company, from the lot ledger). Untick Included for a row you do not want in the case; that row enters the case as out of scope and is not deleted.
3. Open case. Enter the Recall reason (at least 5 characters), the Class (I — serious health/safety risk · II — temporary or correctable risk · III — low risk, label/appearance), the Responsible user (you, if left empty) and Put the affected lots in the warehouse on quality hold (on by default). Open the case assigns the case number (GC<year><sequence>) and switches to the Cases tab. The quality hold is placed on every affected lot in the warehouse with the case number as its reference; a user with the quality permission releases it from Warehouses › Lots. If the responsible user is not you, they receive a "Recall … opened" system message.

7. Following a case: statuses and gates

The Cases tab lists every case with a status filter (case no., date, type, scope, reason, lines, collected / at-customer quantity, status, responsible). Clicking a row opens the Case card on the right: summary boxes (customers, affected quantity, notified lines, returned + disposed, collection rate), customer lines, remaining in warehouse / in transit, status buttons, the event log and Print closing report.

The status only moves forward, one step at a time: Opened → Notified → Collected → Closed; the card shows the next one on a single Advance status: … button. A closed or cancelled case cannot be changed.

Line statuses

• Customer line: Pending → Notified → Returned or Disposed; Pending or Notified → Out of scope. Tick pending lines and use Mark selected as notified to notify them in one go (section 8); the next buttons are in the row's Action column.
• Warehouse / in-transit line: no customer notification is needed; it goes directly to Disposed, Returned (return to supplier) or Out of scope.
• If no returned or disposed quantity is given, the whole line is counted; the two together cannot exceed the line quantity and the quantity must be zero or positive. Every change is written to the case's event log as who, when, old → new, and goes to the audit trail.

8. Notification, customer letter and returns

• Customer letter. Each customer button on the Customer letter line of the case card opens a one-page A4 letter as a PDF with that customer's lines (document, date, product, lot, quantity): the heading "Product recall notice", the reason and class, the request to stop using and selling, to set the products aside for return and to report the quantity held in writing. The letter's sentences are in your interface language; company names, lots and document numbers are not translated. If the message service (PDF generator) is off, "The PDF service is unavailable. Print the letter from the browser." appears; Printable preview opens the same letter as HTML.
• Notified mark. After sending the letter, select the lines and press Mark selected as notified: the notification date and channel (letter) are written on the lines and go to the event log. HNR does not email the letter by itself.
• The WhatsApp hook is off by default. If the server is started with the HNR_IZ_BILDIRIM=wa environment variable and the WhatsApp message service is paired, a short text can be sent with the notification request to the mobile phone on the customer's card (or phone 1 if none); if there is no phone or the service is off, it is skipped silently and the line is still marked notified.
• System message to the responsible user. When a case is opened, the responsible user (if not the person who opened it) receives an important-priority system message linked to the case.
• Receiving returns. When a line is set to Returned, today only the line status and the returned quantity are written; a return delivery note or RMA document is not opened automatically (the return logistics module does not exist yet). Enter the return document from Document entry as usual.

9. The missing link report

The report counts, within a date range (by default the last 365 days), the movements on lot-tracked items whose lot was not recorded, and puts the item with the most gaps at the top. Clicking a row opens the stock card. The measures:

Because sales delivery notes and sales returns do not touch lots today, these documents naturally fall into the report as "without lot"; this is not an error but the result of lots being deducted with FEFO only on the sales invoice (section 14).

10. Stock card › Traceability tab

The Traceability tab of the stock card lists all lots of the code: lot, first receipt, on hand, warehouses, expiry, supplier lot and status (Blocked / Available / Depleted). The sentence at the top says whether the item is lot-tracked ("This item is lot-tracked (N lots)." or "This item has no lot records. Purchases and sales are traced without lot (missing link)."). On each row the Lot card, Forward trace and Backward trace buttons open the Traceability window with that lot. A finished product card is the same stock card; the question "which lots was this product made from" starts here with Backward trace.

11. On the phone (Garden + Step)

On screens smaller than 7 inches the window opens in the step layout with large touch targets. The tabs:

• Lot — with Scan QR code, show the QR code on the lot label (HNRL|code|lot or code|lot) to the camera, or type the lot / supplier lot number and press Search. If there is a single result, the lot card opens at once; the Forward trace / Backward trace buttons below the card open the trace and Back to lot card returns. Use the phone's HTTPS address for the camera.
• Cases — the case list as cards; tap a case and change a line's status with a single tap using the buttons on the line cards (Notified / Returned / Disposed / Out of scope). The letter, advancing the status and cancelling work as on the desktop.
• Recall — visible only to users with the recall permission; the same three steps (Scope → Simulation → Open case), with the simulation rows as tickable cards.
• Missing link — the same report, one card per item.

12. Permissions

The gates are on the server: an unauthorised write request returns 403 with "Recall permission is required for a recall case." or "Traceability permission is required for a lot link." Putting warehouse lots on quality hold also checks the quality permission on the Java side; a lot that cannot be blocked does not break the case. If the company's traceability tables are not installed yet (older Java version), tracing works but cases cannot be opened, and a warning appears at the top of the window.

13. Analysis Studio: the "Lot movements" cube

In the Analysis Studio, the Lot movements cube lets you use the receipts and issues of the lot log in pivots, charts and dashboards. Measures: lot receipt quantity and lot issue quantity (base unit), number of lot movements, number of lots with movements, number of items with movements. Dimensions: product, stock type, lot, warehouse, direction and lot movement source (Document (purchase / sales), Production consumption, Production output, Warehouse transfer, Loss, Disposal, Released from quarantine, Subcontracting, Stock count, Production confirmation reversal, Document cancellation, Manual lot entry). Example: "Which products had lots opened manually or by a stock count last quarter?" — put the source dimension on rows and the product on columns.

14. Frequently asked questions

Does a sales delivery note deduct a lot? No. A lot is deducted only when a sales invoice is saved, with FEFO (from the lot with the nearest expiry date), and which lot was deducted for which line is recorded at that moment. A sales delivery note does not touch the lot ledger; for a sale whose delivery note is issued first, the lot is deducted when the invoice is issued.

Why does a customer return have no lot link? A sales return does not touch the lot ledger today; which lot the returned goods came from is not recorded. In a recall, the return is followed on the case line with Returned and the returned quantity (section 8).

Why is the trace always "unresolved" on my old data? Purchases and sales made before lot tracking was turned on never recorded a lot; if no component lot was selected in old production confirmations, there is no link either. HNR does not fill these gaps by guessing. Complete the critical lots with supplier lot mapping and (if needed) manual line × lot links; new movements are linked automatically while lot tracking is on.

The same lot is in two warehouses; why is it a single node in the trace? A transfer moves the lot with the same number and expiry date; the node is stock code × lot number and the warehouses appear in the lot card's locations (section 3). That way a customer shipment appears only once in the tree.

How are packages related to lots? A package has no lot column; the relation is made through the delivery note line. When the sales invoice writes a lot to the line with FEFO and that delivery note line was packed into a package in Shipping, the package number appears on the shipment link and on the customer row of the lot card.

What happened to the old "recall" list in the Quality window? The single-level lot list in the Quality module stays as it is. Use this window for the multi-level trace (raw material → product → customer), unresolved links and case follow-up.

Related guides: Warehouse · Stock Card · Production · Quality · Shipping · Document Entry · Analysis Studio · Mobile · Settings.