Does it track both the supplier's warranty and the warranty I give the customer?

Yes, as two separate clocks on the same unit. The supplier clock starts on receipt, the customer clock on sale. The Warranty Gap and Exposure report prices the period where a failure would cost you rather than the vendor.

What happens when a customer returns a unit under warranty?

RMA in records the return against the original invoice and moves the unit to inspection. It ends in restock, resale as open box, return to the vendor on RMA out, or write-off, each with a reason on the serial's history.

Can I stop staff from selling a serialised item without scanning the serial?

Yes. The outbound gate setting decides whether an invoice can post without its serials assigned. Overrides carry a reason and can be made to require approval.

Can I import serial numbers for stock I already hold?

Yes. The serials importer accepts a spreadsheet of serials against products and warehouses, so opening stock is serialised from day one.

What if two staff scan the same serial?

The duplicate-scan policy decides: reject, warn, or allow with a reason. Every scan is logged either way.

Does it work with a normal barcode scanner?

Yes. Settings for idle flush and tab terminator match most hardware scanners, and the phone camera works as a scanner in the app.

Can I see which units are about to lose supplier warranty?

Yes. Supplier Warranty Expiry lists units whose vendor cover ends within a window you choose, so claims go in before the date.

How do I know which units are still with the supplier for repair?

The RMA Register lists every unit sent to a supplier under warranty, how many days it has been away, and what came back: repaired, replaced or credited. A per-supplier view shows open and overdue cases and the average turnaround for each vendor.

Does the warranty print on the customer's bill?

Yes. The standard invoice prints a Warranty line beside the totals, in words: 12 months, until a date, or No warranty when you chose none. It hides itself when no term was recorded, and a per-line warranty column can be added in the document designer.

Inventory · Serial Numbers & Warranty

Every Serial Has a History. Every Warranty Has a Date.

For electronics, appliances, mobiles, machinery and anything else sold by the unit, E-Khata tracks each serial from the supplier's invoice to the customer's receipt and back again if it returns. Two warranty clocks per unit, the one your supplier gave you and the one you gave your customer, so a claim is answered from the record and never from memory.

Book a free demo See it in action

Serial tracking in E-Khata Cloud gives each physical unit its own record: which purchase it arrived on, which supplier warranty covers it, which warehouse it sits in, which invoice sold it, what warranty the customer got, and every scan and state change in between. Units move through real states, in stock, in transit, quarantine, open box, at inspection, out to the vendor on RMA, and every transition is written with who did it, when, and why. Six reports turn that history into answers about warranty exposure, expiring supplier cover, units still with a supplier on RMA, and whether the serials on the shelf match the serials in the system.

Updated September 2026

Scan in on purchase, scan out on sale

Serials are captured where the unit enters, on the goods receipt, and confirmed where it leaves, on the sales invoice. A scanner or the phone camera reads the barcode; a serial that does not belong to the product on the line is rejected on the spot. Mandatory vendor purchase data can be enforced per business, so a unit cannot be received without the supplier, the supplier's invoice and the supplier's warranty term behind it.

Multi-serial scanning on receipts, with a duplicate-scan policy you choose.
An outbound gate that decides whether a sale can post without its serials assigned.
Scanner-friendly input: idle flush and tab terminator settings for hardware scanners.
Bulk serial import from a spreadsheet for opening stock.

Two warranty clocks on every unit

A unit carries the warranty the supplier gave you, in months or as a date, and the warranty you gave the customer, which can be none, a number of months, or a fixed date. The supplier clock starts on receipt and the customer clock starts on sale, so the gap between them, the period in which a failure costs you and not the vendor, is a number, not a guess. Warranty bands set a company-wide ladder of what each product category gets, and HQ and branches publish the same tiers.

Supplier warranty per receipt line, with free-text terms for the printed record.
Customer warranty per invoice line: none, months, or date.
Company-wide warranty bands with per-category overrides.
Editing a warranty date is an override with a reason, and can require approval.

States that match what actually happens to a unit

A serial is not just in or out. It can be in transit between branches, in quarantine after a rejected transfer, open box after a return, at inspection, on RMA to the vendor, found in a count, or missing in one. Every state change is a serial event with a sequence number, a trigger and, where the transition demands it, a written reason. Nothing is deleted; a voided serial is a state with a reason too.

In stock, in transit, quarantine, open box, resellable open box, inspection, RMA, lost in transit, found or missing in count.
Serial Number History report: the full timeline of one unit.
Serial Number Reconciliation report: system serials against what the count found.
Overrides (warranty date, reassign variant, void, force state) carry a reason and an optional approval step.

RMA out to the vendor, RMA in from the customer

When a unit fails, the RMA out screen sends it to the vendor against its serial, with the supplier warranty visible so you know whether the repair is on them. When the customer brings one back, RMA in records it against the original invoice and the customer warranty, moves it to inspection, and ends in a decision: restock, resell as open box, return to the vendor, or write off. A swap records the counterpart serial on both units' histories.

RMA sent and RMA back as their own screens under Stock.
Inspection outcomes: restock, open box, return to vendor, write off.
Swaps link the outgoing and incoming serials.

Reports that show where the exposure sits

Customer Warranty Status lists every unit still under the warranty you gave, by product and by customer. Supplier Warranty Expiry lists the units whose vendor cover is about to run out, so a suspect batch is claimed before it is too late. Warranty Gap and Exposure is the one the owner reads: units where the customer warranty outlasts the supplier's, and by how much, priced.

Customer Warranty Status, Supplier Warranty Expiry, Warranty Gap and Exposure.
Serial Number History and Serial Number Reconciliation.
Every report filters by product, warehouse, party and date, and exports.

The RMA Register: every unit that is with a supplier

When units go back to the vendor, the RMA Register shows where each one is and how long it has been away. The case view lists every serial with its supplier, the day it went out, the days it has been gone, its outcome, any replacement, and whether the customer's own cover ran out while it waited. The supplier view adds it up per vendor, so you can see which supplier sends units back quickly and which one keeps them for months.

Summary at the top: units with a supplier, overdue cases, average turnaround, and units whose cover ran out while still away.
You set the overdue threshold in days, and filter by status, outcome and the dates units were sent.
Per supplier: sent, open, overdue, repaired, replaced, credited, average turnaround and the oldest open case.
The register stays reachable if serial tracking is later switched off, because a claim outlives the setting.

The warranty, in words, on the bill the customer keeps

The printed invoice carries the warranty you gave, written as a term a customer can read a year later: 12 months, until a date, or No warranty when that was your decision. A sale where nobody recorded a term prints nothing, so the bill never states a denial you did not make. Serial numbers print with a long list summarised so the page still fits, and they stay on the gate pass while every price is removed.

A Warranty line beside the totals on the standard invoice and the 80 mm slip, hidden when no term was recorded.
Different terms on one bill are listed together, so one item's warranty is never promised for all.
A per-line warranty column can be added to your layout in the document designer.
The first ten serials on a line printed, with the rest counted, never silently dropped.
Serials on the price-free gate pass, where the receiving end checks the box against them.

How a unit moves through E-Khata

Receive and scan
On the goods receipt, scan each serial. Supplier, supplier invoice and supplier warranty are recorded against it, mandatory if your settings say so.
Hold or transfer
The unit sits in a warehouse, or travels to a branch as in transit, and lands in stock or in quarantine at the other end.
Sell and assign
On the invoice, assign the serial. The customer warranty starts. The outbound gate decides whether a sale can post without it.
Return, inspect, decide
If it comes back, RMA in moves it to inspection and ends in restock, open box, vendor return or write-off, with a reason.
Report
Warranty status, supplier expiry, exposure, history and reconciliation, whenever you need them.

Who it is for

Electronics and mobile shops

Every handset and appliance by serial, with the customer warranty on the receipt and the supplier's on record.

Appliance and machinery distributors

Units across branches and in transit, RMA to the vendor with the supplier warranty in view.

IT and computer hardware

Multi-serial receipts, open-box resale, and a reconciliation report that matches the shelf.

Manufacturers with serialised output

Serials assigned at production, warranty bands per category, exposure reported by product.

Frequently asked questions

Yes. Each serial has its own record from the receipt it arrived on to the invoice that sold it, with every state change in between written as an event with a reason where one is required.

Explore more of E-Khata

Inventory and stock Barcodes and label designer Branch stock transfers Data import Reports Accounting software for electronics and appliance businesses

See how your business runs on E-Khata.

30-min Zoom or WhatsApp call. We'll walk you through E-Khata with examples that match your business type.

Zain Gohar

Co-founder, E-Khata Cloud

“We built E-Khata so business owners spend less time on the register and more time growing the business.”

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