Impact of updating/changing Serial Numbers on existing transactions

1. If we go back to an old transaction to change the Serial Number, it will not update all other existing transactions to which the former serial number is associated. 

2.  Update of Serial Numbers have an effect on both Serial Number Count and Costing.  Please see example below:  

a. Transaction History of a Serial Number: 

Transaction # 1 Item Receipt > Quantity 1 > Serial Number = X1

Transaction # 2 Item Fulfillment > Quantity 1 > Serial Number = X1

b. In the Item Record > Inventory Detail > Serial Number X1 will not be on the list since the last transaction, which is an Item Fulfillment, took the serial number out of Inventory.  

c. Edit Item Receipt > change Serial Number from X1 to X2.

d.  Refresh the Item Record page, Inventory Detail now includes Serial Number X2.

e. Notice that the Serial Number in the Item Fulfillment did not update, it remained to be X1. 

3.  The change made post three problems:

a. Discrepancy between On Hand Quantity and Serial Number in the Item Record, wherein the Serial Number Count is higher than the Quantity on Hand.  If MLI = Yes, then Inventory Detail is greater than Location On Hand Quantity.  

b. Serial Number X1 is now negative.

c. Item Fulfillment will no longer show GL Impact for this item. Changing of the Serial Number in the Item Receipt will disconnect the costing between the two transactions.  This is because Item used is a Serialized Item and it is the nature of this item type that costing is based on Serial Numbers.

4.  If the change of Serial Number is made on the Item Fulfillment instead of the Item Receipt, the same scenario applies.

Note: There are two Enhancement Request associated to this article.

- Enhancement 221918: Item Record> Serial Number> Edit Purchase/Receiving Transactions>Change Serial Number>Ability to warn users that changing the serial number on existing transaction will not automatically update the subsequent transactions.  

- Enhancement 221915: Item Record> Serial Number> Edit Purchase/Receiving Transactions>Change Serial Number> Preference to make the system automatically update the subsequent transactions associated with it.