7. Batch Management
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7. Batch Management
Verified against: Medusa admin dashboard 2.18.0 (inventory-item-attributes,
inventory-create-form — source-read directly, same files verified for
[Section 5]/05-inventory-management/), plus .ai/features/inventory.md.
WARNING — Planned / Not yet implemented. This system does not support batch/lot tracking in any form. There is no batch number field, no manufacturing/expiry date field, and no per-batch quantity — stock is tracked as a single running total per SKU per location (see [Section 5]/05-inventory-management/). This section documents the gap precisely, not a working feature.
What the brief wants vs. what exists
| Brief field | Real support |
|---|---|
| Batch number | Not a field anywhere in the system. |
| Manufacturing date | Not a field anywhere in the system. |
| Best-before/expiry date | Not a field anywhere in the system. |
| Quantity | Real, but only as one combined number per SKU per location — see below, this is the core limitation |
| Cost | Not a field anywhere in the system — confirmed already in [Section 3]/03-product-management/#pricing, there is no cost-price tracking at all, batch-level or otherwise |
| Supplier/source | Not a field anywhere in the system. |
| Current stock | Real — same “In Stock” number from [Section 5]/05-inventory-management/ |
| Status | Not a per-batch status — only the whole variant’s in-stock/out-of-stock state exists |
The core limitation
A SKU’s stock is one number (e.g. SINDHU-GRN-500: 1000 units at India Warehouse). If two
production runs of Groundnut Oil 500ml with different manufacturing dates are both in the
warehouse, the system has no way to represent that as two distinct quantities — it’s all merged
into the same total. There is no way to tell the system “sell the older batch first” (FIFO), and
no way to look up which batch a specific sold unit came from after the fact.
Why this would matter for a food product
Batch-level tracking is a normal practice for food products — it typically supports things like rotating stock so older production sells first, and being able to trace which units belong to which production run if a quality issue ever needs investigating.
[REQUIRES BUSINESS/LEGAL REVIEW] — whether batch/lot tracking is a genuine compliance requirement for this business (given the FSSAI license referenced in [Section 1]/01-getting-started/) has not been reviewed by a qualified professional as part of this wiki. Do not treat the general food-industry rationale above as a confirmed legal obligation for Sindhu Naturals specifically — see the legal note in
.ai/project-context.mdanddocs/gst-assumptions.mdin the codebase, which cover the same caution for GST/HSN.
Working around the gap today
There is no supported in-admin workaround — attempting to simulate batches (e.g. by creating separate SKUs per production run) would fragment the product catalog and the storefront listing in ways this system isn’t designed for, and isn’t recommended.
If batch-level traceability is needed before a real feature is built, it would have to be tracked entirely outside this system — e.g. a manual log correlating date ranges of stock received to date ranges of stock sold. That’s a business process decision, not something this wiki should prescribe on its own.
TO BE CONFIRMED: whether batch tracking is a near-term priority, and if so, what fields the business actually needs (this list is adapted from the original wiki brief, not confirmed against real requirements).
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