Trace Lookup answers one question: where did these serialized units go? Open it at Operations > Serial Numbers > Trace Lookup when a supplier recalls a lot, a customer asks which units they received, or an auditor wants the history of one serial number. It only reads records. It never changes a serial, an order, stock, or the ledger.
Before You Start
- Permissions: opening Trace Lookup needs View Inventory. The screen has no buttons that change data, so nothing else is required.
- Serial tracking: only products with Serialized Inventory turned on have serials to trace. See Serial Numbers for how serials are captured at receiving and fulfillment.
- Company scope: results come only from the company you are signed in to. A lot, customer, or serial from another of your companies is reported as not found until you switch to that company.
- Search for Trace Lookup in the command palette.
- All Serials, the page next to it under Operations > Serial Numbers, is the full registry. Use it when you want to browse and filter instead of trace.
Trace Serials
The screen is titled Serial Genealogy Trace. Three tabs choose what you search by, and each one has its own search box.- Open Operations > Serial Numbers > Trace Lookup.
- Pick a tab: By Lot, By Customer, or By Serial.
- Type the value in the search box. The Trace button stays dimmed until the box has something in it.
- Select Trace, or press Enter.
- Read the summary line above the table, then the table itself.
By Lot
Enter the exact lot number, as it was recorded when the stock was received. The result lists every serial in that lot, with the customer and order each one went to. The summary line reads “Lot:” followed by the lot number, then a count such as “3 of 3 serials traced”. Use this for a supplier recall: it shows which units are still in your stock and which have already shipped.By Customer
Enter the customer account’s ID. The result lists every serial shipped to that account, newest shipment first, including units that came back, because Arcus links a returned unit to its last order. The summary line shows the account name and how many serials were traced. A short note under the search box reminds you that this tab takes the account’s ID from the Accounts page, not the customer’s name, and that you can use the Serial Numbers page to look up serials for one order.By Serial
Enter one serial number. Extra spaces at either end are ignored. The result is that unit’s record, with its customer and order. The summary line shows the serial and a count such as “1 of 1 record found”.Read the Results
The table has these columns. Some change with the tab you traced.
An empty cell shows two dashes. On a phone or a narrow window, each serial appears as a card with the same fields.
Filter by status
When the traced units carry at least two different statuses, a Filter traced serials by status list appears beside the summary line. It offers All Statuses and only the statuses that actually appear in this result. The summary then reads, for example, “2 of 12 serials traced”. The filter works on the units already traced; it does not search again.Serial statuses
The status badge shows where a unit is in its life. The values you can see on this screen are:- Available: in stock and eligible for future fulfillment.
- Allocated: set aside for an order that has not shipped yet.
- Sold: captured on an order that shipped or completed.
- Returned: received back through a return and waiting for a disposition decision.
- Damaged: not available for normal sale.
- Quarantined: held for inspection, warranty review, or another exception.
- End of Life: retired from normal stock tracking.
- Consumed (Mfg): used up as a component in a production run.
- Disassembled: taken apart, so the unit no longer exists as one item.
Messages You May See
What Trace Lookup Changes
Nothing. A trace reads serial, lot, order, account, product, and location records and writes nothing back. It posts no ledger entry, moves no stock, sends no email, and adds nothing to the activity log. Results are kept for about half a minute, so tracing the same value twice in a row may not show a change made in the last few seconds; trace again after waiting, or reload the page.Common Scenarios
A supplier recalls a lot
Trace By Lot. Filter the result to Available to see the units you can still pull from the shelf, and to Sold to build the list of customers to contact. Open any unit’s detail page to review its history.A customer asks which units they bought
Trace By Customer with their account’s ID. The Order column ties each serial to its order, and the Returned column shows any that came back.A warranty claim names one serial
Trace By Serial. The customer, order, shipped date, and returned date answer who had the unit and when. Open the serial’s detail page for the warranty state and history.The lot has no serials
A lot can exist before any serial is assigned to it. Serials are assigned at receiving, so confirm the receiving record captured them.Related Articles
Serial Numbers
The serial registry, serial detail pages, statuses, and disposition of returned units.
Serial Capture
Capture serials while packing so each shipped unit can be traced later.
Customer Returns
Receive returned units and decide what happens to each serial.
Inventory Transactions
Audit stock movement history for the products you traced.