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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.

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Use the Serial Registry

The registry at Operations > Serial Numbers > All Serials lists every serialized unit. Use it to search by serial, product, or order, and to review status, warranty state, and location when investigating a shipment, return, warranty claim, or inventory question. You can also reach it by searching Serial Numbers in the command palette, and its sibling page Trace Lookup follows a serial, lot or customer through its history. You need the View Inventory permission to open the registry and each serial.
Serial Numbers registry with KPI cards, status tabs, search, warranty states, product rows, order links, locations, and export action

The registry gives operators a single place to find serialized units by status, product, order, warranty state, and location.

The tiles above the table are:
  • Total Serials: all serialized units in your company.
  • Available: units that can still be selected for fulfillment. Select the tile to open the Available tab.
  • Sold: units captured on customer orders.
  • Warranty Expiring: serials with an active warranty ending within the next 30 days. Select it to open that tab.
The tabs narrow the table by status, each with a count: All, Available, Sold, Returned, Damaged, Quarantined, and Warranty Expiring. The Allocated, End of Life, Consumed (Mfg) and Disassembled tabs appear only when your company has serials in that status. An older bookmark that names a tab still opens that tab. Search by serial, product, or order with Search by serial, product, or order…. Columns are Serial Number (always shown), Product with its part number, Status, Order (a link to the order), Warranty, Location and Created; turn the others on or off, reorder them, or reset them from the Columns menu. Saved views keep a tab, search, sort and column layout. Select a row to open that serial. The list follows the location picked in the header. If that location holds no serials but others do, a note offers to switch to all locations. An empty list reads No serial numbers found: “Serial numbers are captured during order fulfillment.” If the list cannot load, a red notice reads Failed to load serial numbers. with the reason.

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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.
Do not bypass missing serials Shipping a serialized product without serial capture breaks warranty, return, and audit traceability. Stop and correct the product, receiving, or fulfillment record instead of completing the shipment without the serial.

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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.
If the Serials tab is missing Confirm the product is a stocked item and that Serialized Inventory is enabled. Services, boxes, and variant parents do not show product-level serial tracking.

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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, created date, returned date and previous order when it came back, the sold order, customer and fulfillment date, the Warranty card, and a History timeline of everything recorded against the unit. The sold order is a link, and Back returns to the registry. If you open a serial link that belongs to another company you work in, Arcus switches to that company and says Switched to (company name) to open this serial number. A serial no company of yours holds shows Serial number not found.
Serial number detail page with returned status, product SKU, serial details, warranty card, actions, and history timeline

Serial detail keeps status, product, order, location, warranty, and timeline context together for one exact unit.

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Understand Serial Statuses

  • Available: in stock and eligible for future fulfillment.
  • Allocated: captured against an order during fulfillment and not yet shipped.
  • 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.
  • End of Life: retired from normal stock tracking.
  • Consumed (Mfg) and Disassembled: set by manufacturing when a work order uses or takes apart the unit.
A serial that is allocated or sold cannot be deleted. Status moves through the workflows that own the event; the only status change you make by hand on this page is the disposition of a returned unit.

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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. The Actions card with Set Disposition appears only while the serial’s status is Returned.
  1. Open the returned serial and select Set Disposition.
  2. Choose Restock, Damaged, Quarantine or End of Life. Apply Disposition stays disabled until you choose one.
  3. For Restock, optionally pick a Restock Location (optional), and add Notes (optional).
  4. Select Apply Disposition. The confirmation reads Disposition applied; if it fails you see the reason, or Failed to apply disposition.
The disposition changes the serial’s status, and for a restock its location, and records who did it and the note in the unit’s history. It does not move stock quantities or post to the ledger by itself, so settle the return and any inventory movement in the return workflow.
Set Disposition modal with Restock, Damaged, Quarantine, End of Life, restock location, notes, and Apply Disposition

Disposition controls what happens to the returned serial after inspection.

  • 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.
Inspect before restocking Restock only when the physical unit has been inspected and should be sold again. Use Quarantine when the warehouse needs more time, photos, warranty review, or vendor review.

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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 in the Warranty column of the registry and on the Warranty card. The card shows the Start, Standard End and Extended End dates and either how many days remain or Warranty expired. Before a unit is sold the card explains why there is no date: “Warranty of 12 months starts when fulfilled.”, “No warranty configured for this product.”, or, when a duration was entered without a unit, a warning that no warranty is offered until both fields are configured on the product. To give a sold unit a longer warranty, select Extend on the Warranty card (shown only for sold serials that have a warranty), pick the New Warranty End Date and select Save. The messages are Select a warranty end date, Warranty extended and Failed to extend warranty. When warranty dates are wrong, review the product warranty setup and the fulfillment date before changing the serial.

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Search And Export

Use search when a customer provides a serial number, order number, product reference, or warranty question. Use Export in the registry header when a warranty provider, auditor, or operations lead needs a broader serial review. You can export the rows in your current view (tab, search, sort and location) or every serial, still limited to the header location. The file has Serial Number, Product, Part Number, Status, Order, Location and Created.

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Common Blocks

  • No serials appear: serials may not have been captured yet, or the tab, search or header location may be hiding them. Switch to All and to all locations.
  • Extend or Set Disposition is missing: Extend needs a sold serial with a warranty, and Set Disposition needs a Returned serial. The page does not hide either by permission.
  • 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.

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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.
  1. Open the order from the Orders list.
  2. Click the Fulfillment tab.
  3. 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.
Each serial row shows:
  • 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
Use the Export CSV button to download all serials for the order. Use Print to open a printable serial list for physical records or customer documentation.
Serials are read-only here The CS serial summary is a read-only view. To capture, release, or update serials, use the Package card serial capture flow or the Serial Numbers registry.

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.