Inventory tells you how many units exist. Serial tracking tells you which exact unit
moved, where it went, which customer received it, and what happened when it came back.
Use the Serial Registry
The Serial Numbers page is the registry for serialized units. Use it to search by serial, product, order, status, warranty state, and location when investigating a shipment, return, warranty claim, or inventory question.
- Total Serials: all serialized units in the current entity.
- Available: units that can still be selected for fulfillment.
- Sold: units captured on customer orders.
- Returned: units received back through a return workflow.
- Warranty Expiring: units near the configured warranty end date.
When Serial Capture Is Required
Serial tracking is controlled by the product. When Serialized Inventory is enabled on the product, Arcus expects one serial number per shipped unit. Operators should capture the serial during receiving or fulfillment depending on the workflow.- Receiving: capture or confirm serials when serialized stock enters inventory.
- Fulfillment: capture the exact unit before shipment or completion.
- Returns: tie the returned unit back to the serial sold to the customer when possible.
- Warranty: use serial history to confirm sale date, product, warranty end, and customer context.
- Quarantine: hold suspect units out of available stock while the team reviews them.
Review Serials From A Product
When a stocked product has Serialized Inventory enabled, the product detail page shows a Serials tab. Use it for a product-specific list of captured serials, status, related order, and date context. The product Serials tab is a lookup view. Capture and status changes still happen in the workflow that owns the event, such as receiving, fulfillment, returns, disposition, or the Serial Numbers registry.Open A Serial Detail Page
Click a serial number to review the unit-level record. The detail page shows current status, product, location, received date, sold date, returned date, previous order, warranty state, and history.
Understand Serial Statuses
- Available: in stock and eligible for future fulfillment.
- Sold: captured on an order and shipped or completed for a customer.
- Returned: received back through a return workflow and waiting for disposition.
- Damaged: not available for normal sale.
- Quarantined: held for inspection, review, or exception handling.
- Voided or End of Life: retired from normal stock tracking.
Handle Returned Serials
Returned serialized units need a disposition decision. After the return is received, use the serial detail action to decide whether the unit should go back into available stock, be marked damaged, be quarantined, or be retired.
- Restock: returns the unit to available inventory, optionally at a selected location.
- Damaged: marks the serial as damaged so it cannot be selected for normal fulfillment.
- Quarantine: holds the serial for further review before a final decision.
- End of Life: retires the unit permanently when it should not return to inventory.
Warranty Review
Warranty status is derived from the product warranty setup and the unit history. Sold serials can show active, extended, expired, or not applicable states. When warranty dates are wrong, review the product warranty setup and the fulfillment date before changing the serial.Search And Export
Use search when a customer provides a serial number, order number, product reference, or warranty question. Use export when a warranty provider, auditor, or operations lead needs a broader serial review.Common Blocks
- No serials appear: serials may not have been captured yet, or filters may be hiding them.
- Product Serials tab is missing: confirm the item is a stocked serialized product, not a service, box, or variant parent.
- Cannot fulfill serialized item: required serials may be missing, duplicated, already sold, or unavailable.
- Serial is already sold: confirm whether the unit is being returned, exchanged, corrected, or replaced.
- Warranty status looks wrong: review product warranty setup, fulfillment date, and any extended warranty date.
- Serial does not match the customer: search the registry and confirm order history before processing a return or warranty claim.
- Returned unit should not be picked: use Quarantine, Damaged, or End of Life until the unit is safe to restock.
View Serials on an Order (CS How-To)
Customer service reps can review all serial numbers tied to an order directly from the order detail page without opening each package separately.- Open the order from the Orders list.
- Click the Fulfillment tab.
- Scroll past the package cards to the Serial Numbers section. The section shows every captured serial grouped by package. If no serialized products were on the order, the section is hidden.
- Serial Number with a copy button
- Product title and SKU
- Lot number and expiry date (when tracked)
- Warranty badge: green shield (active), amber shield (expiring within 30 days), red shield (expired)
- Status badge: sold / available / returned / etc.
- A link to the full serial detail page
Related Articles
Product Setup
Create physical products, services, and product records.
Product Types and Costing
Understand product type conversion rules, FIFO layers, product value, and Recost repair behavior.
Inventory Management
Track stock, locations, reorder points, and inventory movement history.
Inventory Transactions
Audit stock movement history, movement types, supply and demand rows, and FIFO layer detail.
Fulfillment Station
Operate the station view for picking, packing, and shipping.
Customer Returns
Create RMAs, receive returned items, inspect condition, choose disposition, and close customer returns.