Canadian inFlow Inventory Launches Batch Number and Expiry Date Tracking

en.Wedoany.com Reported - Cloud inventory management software developer inFlow Inventory announced the launch of batch number and expiry date tracking on August 20, 2026, in Toronto, providing complete batch-level traceability for small and medium-sized manufacturers and distributors across procurement, production, sales, and shipping. The feature, developed over two years and tested for one year with food manufacturers, pharmaceutical distributors, and medical device companies, brings batch tracking capabilities traditionally found in high-end enterprise systems within reach of small businesses.

Many small food producers still rely on spreadsheets to manually record and cross-reference batch information, which is time-consuming and difficult to scale quickly in the event of a recall. While enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are fully functional, their implementation timelines of several months and budgets of tens of thousands of dollars deter most small manufacturers and distributors, who continue to use existing spreadsheet or paper-based systems.

Louis Leung, co-founder and CEO of inFlow Inventory, stated that traceability should not be a luxury feature. He noted that businesses needing this capability are not seeking complexity—they simply want to quickly answer a critical question when problems arise, yet the only tools that have long been able to provide answers are priced for companies a hundred times their size.

The core capabilities of the new feature include: tracking batches from receipt to customer with a complete movement history for each batch (arrival time, products used in manufacturing, storage location, and purchaser), with recalls generating actionable reports directly; setting a shelf life once to automatically calculate expiry dates for each incoming batch, with batch expiry reports sorting inventory by "Expired," "Expiring Soon," or "Past Sell-By Date"; automatic prompts to prioritize picking oldest inventory, sorted by sell-by date, expiry date, and production date in sequence, with first-expiry-first-out rules built into the software; enhanced GS1 barcode support that reads GS1 QR codes, GS1-128 barcodes, and GS1 DataMatrix codes, capturing batch and expiry information in a single scan, and generating and printing GS1 Digital Link QR codes for company-owned labels; individual products can carry both batch codes and per-unit unique identifiers; batch tracking is available in inFlow Inventory for Web, inFlow Manufacturing, and inFlow Mobile, with scanning during receiving, picking, and put-away. Teams can also generate batch codes in standardized formats, rename batch fields to match their own terminology, add custom fields at the batch level, and bulk import or export batch data.

The feature primarily targets food and beverage producers, contract manufacturers and central kitchens, pharmaceutical distributors and pharmacies, medical device companies, health supplement and cosmetics brands, and specialty chemical enterprises. These businesses share common characteristics: they bear tangible traceability obligations, face real expiry date risks, but lack ERP budgets or IT departments. Batch number and expiry date tracking is available in all current plans and is included in the Mid-Size and above plans at no additional cost. New inFlow users can try it for free, with the trial including batch tracking functionality. Setup guides are available in the inFlow Learning Center.

inFlow Inventory is a cloud-based inventory management software built for small and medium-sized businesses. Over 20 million products are tracked through inFlow globally, helping teams manage inventory, sales orders, purchase orders, and B2B wholesale on a single platform, with integrations to 95+ other tools including Xero, QuickBooks Online, Shopify, and WooCommerce. The company was founded in Toronto in 2007, and more information is available at inflowinventory.com.