With release of PU1 for Sage 300 ERP 2012 (formally known as Sage Accpac ERP v6.1) many new features and functionality is released to help user make business smarter and efficient. In this blog, we would be discussing about this new feature available in Inventory Control for providing the unique serial number to items. This will ensure that serial numbers are unique to individual items.
In the earlier versions of Sage 300, Inventory control allows users to assign same serial number to multiple items (Note: we cannot assign same serial number multiple times with a single item). With PU1 installed; this is now default function that user can override.
To ensure that no serial number is assigned to more than one item, user needs to edit the IC.INI file present at Sage 300 ERP installation path (for e.g. C:\Program Files\Sage\Sage 300 ERP\IC61A).
Also Read: Yield and Waste Management in Sage 300 ERP
Thus with below mentioned steps, users can control the assignment of unique serial numbers:

1. Navigate to Inventory control folder present at path where Sage 300 ERP has been installed (its default path would be C:\Program Files\Sage\Sage 300 ERP\IC61A), open the IC.INI file.
2. Then navigate to General section >> AllowSameSerialForMultiItems switch and specify one of the following settings:

a. Set AllowSameSerialForMultiItems option as No – Each serial number can be assigned to only one item.

Let’s take an example; Item A1-900/0 and A1-900/B are serial items with Next serial number set same for both April-10033.In this case when we set AllowSameSerialForMultiItems option as No in IC.INI file, then while generating serial number next serial number  April-10033 will not be assigned to both the items.

Note: This selection does not change existing assigned serial numbers, so any existing duplicated serial numbers remain. If you do not want to ship items with duplicated serial numbers, you can set the status of duplicated serial numbers to Not Available.

b. Set AllowSameSerialForMultiItems option as Yes – A serial number can be assigned to multiple items.

Let’s again take an example as taken in first case; Item A1-900/0 and A1-900/B are serial items with Next serial number set same for both April-10033.In this case when we set AllowSameSerialForMultiItems option as Yes in IC.INI file then while generating serial number next serial number  April-10033 will be assigned to both the items. Which means both the item will have April-10033 serial number.

Hence, with AllowSameSerialForMultiItems switch set in IC.INI file user can prevent the assignment of a same serial number to more than one item, or can assign same serial number to multiple items depending on the option set.