Creating an Item

Where do I turn on serial number or batch tracking for an item? Creating an item

“Where do I turn on serial number or batch tracking for an item?” On the item’s create screen, Doc Item Maintenance > Items > Create: set Sub Item Type to Serial Number or Batch Number there, before the first save, because from then on the field is locked for every user and a wrong choice means a new item code.

You have a new product and it needs to exist in BigLedger before anybody can sell it, buy it or count it. This page takes you from nothing to an item that works, first time. Ten minutes, and about half of that is the decisions.

Read choosing an item type first if you have not. Three of the fields on the create form cannot be changed afterwards on the edit screen, and the type is one of them.

Meet GadgetSphere

GadgetSphere Sdn Bhd is adding a new flagship smartphone: serialised, sold in all 22 branches and online, SST applies, and it needs a Malaysian e-Invoice classification.

Where to create it — and where not to

Doc Item Maintenance > Items > Create

Create items here. Every tradeable item has two records — the commercial one here, and a stock-keeping one in Inventory Item Maintenance. Creating a Basic Item on this side makes both and links them.

Do not create items in the Inventory Item Maintenance applet. An item created there has no document-item twin, its FI Item Code stays blank, and it cannot be put on any document — not a sales order, not a purchase invoice. It will appear in stock reports and nowhere else, which makes the fault hard to spot and annoying to repair.

Step 1: The three fields you cannot take back

Field	Why it matters
Item Code	Immutable after save unless your company has specifically enabled editing it. It must be unique among live items; a duplicate is refused. It is what everybody will search by for the next decade
Item Type	Locked on the edit screen from the first save; only a Doc Item import of the same code rewrites it (see the warning below). Basic Item for a physical product; see choosing an item type for the rest
Sub Item Type	How quantity is tracked — plain quantity, batch, serial, bin or unity. Settable only on the create screen: from the first save the edit screen locks it for every user, and no permission unlocks it. A wrong choice on an item that has moved stock is replaced with a new item code, not repaired

The one route around the lock is the Doc Item import. Import Item matches each row to an existing item by code and writes the row’s type and sub item type over that item’s — with no check against stock on hand, serial or batch numbers already recorded, or documents already posted. The same row also rewrites the item’s name, base UOM and status, and any other column you filled in; for a Basic Item the inventory record takes the new type, sub item type, name, UOM and status as well. It is built for bulk maintenance, which is why it does not ask. Use it to correct a type only on an item nothing has used yet; anything that has moved stock or appeared on a document is still retired and replaced.

For the smartphone: a Basic Item, sub item type Serial Number, code SP-FLAG-256 under whatever convention your company uses.

Serialise deliberately. Every receipt, sale, transfer and count of a serialised item has to name the serials. That is right for a RM 4,000 phone and wrong for a RM 12 cable.

Step 2: The rest of the create form

Item Name — required, and editable later. Write it the way somebody will search for it.
Base UOM — the unit stock is counted in. Defaults to PCS. Alternative units come later, on the Multi UOM tab.
Currency — defaults to MYR. The item will not save without one.
Inventory — leave it ticked for anything stock-tracked. Un-ticking it also disables the serialised option.
GL Code — optional in general; required in practice for account-code items.
EAN Code — the barcode. Your company may make it mandatory.
Description, remarks, product manager, default supplier — optional, and some appear only if your company has enabled them.

Click Create.

Step 3: Finish it before anybody sells it

The item now exists and is incomplete. Four things to do straight away, on the edit screen:

Tax tab. Tick Tax applicable and set the input tax code (what you pay when you buy it) and the output tax code (what you charge when you sell it). The rate comes from the code. Get this wrong and the item posts to the wrong tax account on every document until a filing deadline finds it.

E-Invoice tab. Item classification, taxable type code and e-Invoice UOM. Nothing here will ever stop you — that is the problem. Leave the classification blank and the e-Invoice goes to LHDN as 022 Others; leave the unit blank and it goes as H87 piece. No warning, no rejection, no pool: an accepted tax document describing something you did not sell. The tab also pre-fills 022 for you the moment you open it on a blank item, so seeing a code there is not evidence anyone chose it. The taxable type behaves differently again — it is replaced at submission by a value derived from the line’s tax amount, so what you choose here usually never leaves the building.

Category tab. Put it in its categories. Price-book rules match on these; an uncategorised item silently misses every category promotion.

Pricing Scheme tab. A price in each of your schemes — retail, member, wholesale. See setting up pricing schemes.

Then, as needed: Multi UOM for alternative units, branch and company linking for where it can be used, Dimension for shipping, images, and — on the inventory record — per-location minimum and maximum quantities.

Adding many at once

Doc Item Maintenance > Import Item

A CSV import that carries items with their links, pricing and categories. For a catalogue migration this is the only sane route. Export Item gives you the current shape to work from — export, edit, re-import is the safe pattern for any bulk change.

What success looks like

Three minutes on the item you just created:

Open the Main tab. Inv Item Code is populated — the inventory twin exists and is linked.
Raise a draft sales invoice line for it. It is findable, the price fills in from its scheme, and tax is calculated. (Then discard the draft.)
Open the E-Invoice tab. The classification is the one you chose for this item — not the 022 Others the tab pre-fills when the field is empty.

If all three pass, nobody downstream will be surprised by this item.

Common mistakes

What goes wrong	What you see	The fix
Created in the Inventory applet	It exists in stock reports but cannot go on a document; FI Item Code is blank	Create items in Doc Item Maintenance
Wrong Item Type	It cannot be changed on the edit screen	Make it obsolete and create a replacement; decide before you save. A Doc Item import can rewrite it, safely only on an item nothing has used yet
Serialising by default	Every movement now needs serial entry	Serialise what genuinely has unit identity
Item saved without a currency	Please select currency, and it will not save	Set the currency on the create form
Tax codes left blank	Documents post with no tax or the wrong tax	Set input and output codes on the Tax tab
E-Invoice tab skipped	Sales work and e-Invoice submissions succeed — as `022 Others` and `H87 piece`, which nobody chose and nothing reports	Fill it at creation; for an item already sold, fix the tab and check the submitted lines
No category	Category-based price rules never match, with no error	Set the Category tab
A code chosen carelessly	Immutable, and unreadable for a decade	Agree a convention before the first item