Add a barcode to a product you already have

The sample gift shop in this tour has sold stoneware mugs for months, rung up by tapping a tile at £9.50 each. Now a new delivery has arrived with a barcode printed on every mug, and the supplier has started sending a gift box of four with a different barcode on the box. The owner wants both codes on the existing product, so the till finds the mug by scanning and the gift box adds four mugs in one go. This tour shows that done in five stops, starting at 10:30 on a quiet weekday morning.

Each stop is expanded below into what you click, what you see and why it matters. Then come a summary table, tips, common mistakes and where to go next.

Where do barcodes live on a product?

Under Edit product there are three tabs: What it is, Price & stock and More details. Codes sit in More details, described as "codes, packaging and everything else". There you find the SKU (your own product code, MUG-STONE in the sample), the Maker's barcode, and Other barcodes for boxes, cases and multipacks.

In the sample the mug already has one entry under Other barcodes: a supplier's outer case with "Pack of 12" beside it. That is the code on the carton the mugs arrive in.

Step by step

1. Open the product you already sell. In Products, find the stoneware mug and open it. Go to More details. Nothing about the product changes except its codes: the name, price and stock stay as they are.
2. Click the Maker's barcode box. The hint under it reads: the code already printed on the pack; click here and scan it with your scanner, or type it.
3. Scan the code on the mug. The number fills the box. Scanners send Enter at the end of a code, and in this box that Enter stays in the box, so the form is not saved by accident before you have finished.
4. Read the warning if one appears. In the sample the code already finds the oak serving board, so a warning says "Scanning this already finds Oak serving board. One barcode can only point at one product." Someone typed the wrong code on the board months ago, or a label was stuck on the wrong item.
5. Fix the clash before saving. Either the mug code is right and the board's code is wrong, or the other way round. Check the physical items. A real duplicate cannot be saved, so the till never has to guess which product a scan means.
6. Add the gift box under Other barcodes. At 10:34 the owner scans the barcode on the gift box into the Barcode field, sets Units in pack to 4, and presses Add. A new row appears beside the carton row.
7. Leave Units in pack empty for singles. The hint gives the rule: 24 for a case of 24, so one scan adds 24; leave it empty for a single item.
8. Save changes. At 10:35 the product is saved. Every till finds the mug by the maker's barcode, the gift box or the carton straight away.

What does each code do at the till?

The gift box is sold as four mugs, so stock goes down by four and the price is four times £9.50. If you sell the gift box at a different price from four loose mugs, that is a separate product, not an extra barcode.

Why add codes to the existing product rather than create a new one?

Because a second "Stoneware mug (barcode)" product splits your stock and your sales history in two. Half the mugs would be counted under one name and half under the other. Running low would warn about one while the other had plenty, and the profit report would show two half-sellers instead of one good one.

Adding codes keeps one product with one stock figure, however it is scanned. It also keeps counting simple: when you check the shelf against the system, there is one mug figure to check, not two. Our guide on how to do a stocktake covers the count itself, and stock control explains why one product per item matters.

Tips

• Click the box before you scan. The scanner types wherever the cursor is. If it is in the name field, you will get a mug called 5060412300164.
• Check new deliveries for new codes. Suppliers change barcodes when they change packaging. A scan that finds nothing at the till is usually a new code.
• Record outer cases too. If a trade customer ever buys a full carton, one scan rings up all twelve.
• Keep SKUs short and readable. MUG-STONE tells a colleague what the product is; a long number does not.
• Test after saving. Scan the mug and the box at the till once each. If both add the right number, you are done.

Common mistakes

• Ignoring the "already finds" warning. It is telling you another product has this code. Fixing it now saves a wrong sale later.
• Putting the gift box code in Maker's barcode. The maker's box is for a single item. A pack code belongs in Other barcodes with its Units in pack.
• Forgetting Units in pack. A gift box code with no units in pack adds one mug when four leave the shop, and stock drifts.
• Creating a new product for a new barcode. Add the code to the product you already have.
• Typing codes by hand when a scanner is available. One wrong digit is a code that never scans. Scan where you can.

What should you do next?

See scanning at work on a busy day in the Saturday till tour. If a scanned item comes back later, a mug comes back chipped shows the return. If you are choosing equipment, our guide on choosing a POS system covers what to test with a scanner before you commit.

How EasyTaskr helps

EasyTaskr lets a product carry its maker's barcode plus extra codes for boxes and cases with how many units each holds, refuses a barcode already used by another product, and finds the product by any of its codes at the till. The shop, products and codes in this tour are sample data.