Every batch and serial number in Qoblex keeps a full movement history: where the stock came from, and where it went. When you need to answer a question like “which customers received units from this lot?” or “why does this batch show a quantity I don’t expect?”, the trace view puts the whole story of a single batch on one screen.

This article shows you how to open the trace view from the batch list, how to read the summary totals, and how to use the Overview, Upstream, and Downstream tabs to follow a batch from receipt through to sale, return, transfer, adjustment, or manufacturing. A serial number is simply a batch with a quantity of one unit, so tracing a serial works exactly the same way.

Open the trace view

Go to the batch list (the Batches & Serial Tracking page).
Find the batch or serial number you want to investigate. You can filter by product, SKU, batch number, or location to narrow the list.
In that row’s Actions column, select the Trace button.

A side panel slides in from the edge of the screen. It is headed by the batch number, the product variant, the location, and the expiry date (when the batch has one). Below the header you will see the summary totals, then the Overview, Upstream, and Downstream tabs. Select Cancel to close the panel.

The trace view is read-only. Opening it never changes stock, and you can close it at any time without saving.

Read the summary totals

At the top of the panel is a grid of quantity totals for this batch. Each tile adds up one kind of movement across the batch’s entire life, so you can see at a glance how the batch was built up and drawn down.

Received – units brought in when the batch was received against a purchase order (a goods receipt).
Produced – units created by a manufacturing (assembly) order that output this batch.
Consumed – units of this batch used up as a component inside a manufacturing (assembly) order.
Sold – units shipped to customers on sales orders.
Transferred in – units moved into this location from another location.
Transferred out – units moved out of this location to another location.
Adjusted – units added or removed by a stock adjustment (for example a stock-take correction or a write-off).
Sale returned – units returned by customers back into this batch.
Supplier returned – units sent back to the supplier from this batch.
Remaining – the quantity of this batch still on hand.
Reserved – the quantity of this batch committed to open orders and therefore not freely available.

When you are chasing a discrepancy, these totals are the fastest check: they tell you whether an unexpected number came from a receipt, a sale, an adjustment, a transfer, a return, or manufacturing, before you drill into the individual records.

Important: For a product recall, the Sold total and the Downstream tab together tell you how many units left your business and which sales orders they went out on, so you can identify the affected customers.

Overview, Upstream, and Downstream

The trace splits the batch’s history into three tabs.

Overview shows a lineage diagram (a small connected graph). Each node is a batch or a linked record such as a purchase order, a customer, a transfer, a return, an adjustment, or a manufacturing order, so you can see how the batch connects to everything around it at a glance. If the batch has no recorded movements yet, the tab shows “No trace operations found.”
Upstream lists where this stock came from – the events that brought units into the batch, such as a goods receipt, a manufacturing output, a transfer in, or a customer return. If there is nothing, it shows “No upstream operations found.”
Downstream lists where this stock went – the events that took units out of the batch, such as a sale, a transfer out, a supplier return, or manufacturing consumption. If there is nothing, it shows “No downstream operations found.”

A simple way to remember it: Upstream = the past that filled the batch; Downstream = where the batch ended up.

The operation list

The Upstream and Downstream tabs each show a table of individual movements. The columns are:

Timestamp – when the movement happened. Hover over it to see the full date and time.
Batch N° – the batch number involved, with the product name underneath.
Transaction – the type of movement and the record it belongs to. This is a link: select it to open the source document (in a new tab) so you can see the full order, receipt, transfer, adjustment, or return behind the movement.
Quantity – how many units moved. Increases are shown in green, decreases in red.

Operation types you will see

Each row is one of the following movement types. The Transaction link takes you to the matching record.

Received – a goods receipt against a purchase order. The row shows the purchase order number and the supplier, and links to the goods receipt. In the Overview diagram this appears as a Purchase order node.
Sale – units shipped on a sales order. The row shows the sales order number and the customer, and links to the shipment. Shown as a Sale node in the diagram.
Sale return – units a customer returned. Links to the return on the original sales order.
Supplier return – units you returned to a supplier. Links to the supplier return on the original purchase order.
Transfer – stock moved between locations. The row shows the source and destination locations and links to the transfer.
Adjustment – a manual stock adjustment. Links to the adjustment record.
Assembly – a manufacturing (assembly) order that produced or consumed this batch. Links to the production order.

Serial numbers behave like single-unit batches, so a serial’s operation list reads the same way: each row is one movement of that one unit, from receipt through to its final sale, transfer, or write-off.

Expiry warning on the batch list

The trace panel header shows the batch’s expiry date, but no status label. The place that flags expiry on the batch list is a warning icon next to the batch number: it appears when a batch is close to its expiry date or has already passed it. Hover the icon to read the tooltip, which shows “This batch is expiring soon !” for a batch nearing its date, and “This batch has expired.” once the date has passed.

Use this together with the trace when investigating: if an expired or expiring batch still shows a Remaining quantity, the Downstream tab tells you whether any of it has already shipped to customers. For the exact expiry windows and for finding all expiring stock, see the related article on expiry dates.

What Qoblex does automatically

Qoblex records a movement for the batch every time stock is received, shipped, returned, transferred, adjusted, or produced or consumed in manufacturing. You do not build the trace by hand; it is assembled from these movements.
The summary totals are recalculated from the batch’s full movement history each time you open the trace, so they always reflect the current picture.
The Overview diagram, the operation lists, and the source-record links are generated for you from the same underlying movements.

Batch, lot, serial, and expiry information is internal to Qoblex. It is not pushed to or pulled from your connected stores or accounting integrations, so the trace is the authoritative record of a batch’s history inside Qoblex.

Trace a Batch or Serial