Preparing to Use Bar Codes

Before you can assign bar codes to items or look up items by scanning bar codes, you need to set up your scanner and add the bar code search option (prompt) to the first tab on the Custom Inventory Lookup screen.

Note: Assigning the bar code search option to the first tab enables you to put items on work orders, quotes, purchase orders, and receiving documents by pressing (for quotes, it’s Shift + ) and scanning the bar code.

To prepare to use bar codes

1. Set up your scanner.

The setup process varies from device to device. Some scanners require installing and configuring software, while others need minimal setup. For more information, see the documentation that shipped with your scanner.

2. Add the bar code search option to the first tab on the Custom Inventory Lookup screen:

a. Select Inventory Lookup from the Setup menu.

b. Click the tab you want to assign the bar code to.

c. In the Prompt column, select the row that you want to use for the bar code search option and select 6 - Bar Code from the drop-down list. Then update the search options for the other rows if needed.

d. To add the bar code search option to other tabs, repeat steps 2 b and 2 c.

e. To save the changes, click OK.

3. Assign up to three bar codes to your items:

For a single item, open the Inventory Maintenance screen, put the cursor in one of the bar code fields, and type or scan the bar code. For more information, see Updating Information for a Single Item.
For a group of items, open the Inventory List Editing screen, select one of the bar code columns, and type or scan the bar codes. For more information, see Updating Information for More than One Item.

Tip: To simplify this task, move the bar code columns next to the product code and description columns.

For a group of items, import the bar codes from an XML spreadsheet. For more information, see Updating Items with an XML Spreadsheet.