I. Business Use Case Examples

For large mechanical equipment, home appliances, 3C products, and similar items, the sales process is not the endpoint. Post-sale services such as equipment maintenance and servicing are critical, and these services rely on tracking product serial numbers. Therefore, serial number management is essential for overseeing the entire product lifecycle.

II. Serial Number Management in Detail

2.1 Enabling Serial Number Management

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Serial number management is an industry-specific plugin for the Inventory module and is disabled by default. CRM administrators must enable it via the Inventory Management settings.

Path: CRM Management → Business Rules Management → Inventory Management → Plugin Management → Industry Plugins

• Both Full Version (Type A) and Integrated Version (Type B) Inventory support the Batch & Serial Number Management plugin.
• Once enabled, the system initializes the serial number object.
• This action is irreversible—the plugin cannot be disabled after activation.
• Enabling the plugin does not automatically apply serial number tracking to all Products. Users must manually enable serial number management for specific Products based on business needs.

2.2 Serial Number Operations

2.2.1 Creating Serial Numbers

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• Manual Creation: Navigate to the Serial Numbers list page.
• Import: Refer to the Import Guide.
• Serial Number Field: The serial number is the primary attribute and must be unique.
• Product Association: Each serial number must be linked to an active Product with serial number management enabled.
• Version Restrictions:
  • Type A (Full Version): Allows manual creation or import of serial numbers in CRM.
  • Type B (Integrated Version): Serial numbers must be synced from ERP or third-party systems; direct creation in CRM is disabled.

2.2.2 Serial Number Stock-In

• For Products with serial number management enabled, stock-in requires selecting the corresponding serial number. The system validates whether the serial number already exists in Inventory.
• Inventory Query: The stock count for such Products in the Inventory list reflects the number of serial numbers linked to the selected Warehouse.
• Auto-Populated Fields: After successful stock-in, the system updates the Warehouse and Inventory ID fields automatically.

2.2.3 Serial Number Stock-Out

• For stock-out, the system verifies that the serial number exists in the designated Warehouse and is not reserved by other transactions.
• Post-Stock-Out: The Warehouse and Inventory ID fields are cleared.

2.3 Unique Business Attributes of Serial Numbers

• Uniqueness: Each serial number must be unique within a single tenant. Duplicate serial numbers are prohibited.
• Reservation Status:
  • If a serial number is selected in a pending transaction, its status changes to “Reserved” and cannot be reused until the transaction is completed (status reverts to “Available”).
  • After stock-out, the status updates to “Used”, indicating the serial number has been deployed in a business transaction.

2.4 Key Considerations

• Pre-Enablement Check: A Product cannot enable serial number management if it has existing Inventory records.
• Workaround: Contact ShareCRM Support to initiate a special request for Inventory data reset or deletion before enabling serial number management.