How lot traceability works

Traceability is the through-line of Crown. Every ingredient you receive, every batch you run, and every finished good you produce is linked, so when an inspector asks where a lot came from, or a customer reports a problem, you can follow the chain in minutes instead of digging through paper.

The chain

Three record types connect in a single chain:

1. Ingredient lots enter Crown through receiving. Each carries a supplier, a lot code, a quantity, and (optionally) an expiry.
2. Batches consume ingredient lots. When you assign a lot to a batch, Crown records exactly how much of that lot went in.
3. Finished-good lots come out of a batch when you record packaging output. Each finished-good lot is linked back to the batch that produced it.

You don't build this chain manually; it's recorded as a by-product of working through receiving, production, and packaging normally.

Backward and forward

Because every link is recorded, you can read the chain from either end:

• Backward: start from a finished-good lot, see the batch that produced it, and from there every ingredient lot that went in, back to the supplier receipt each came from.
• Forward: start from an ingredient lot, see every batch that consumed it, and the finished-good lots those batches produced.

Tracing a lot

Open Traceability from the main menu, enter an ingredient lot code, a batch number, or a finished-good lot code, and Crown resolves the type and draws the chain. For an ingredient lot, it also shows a mass-balance view: how much you received versus how much was consumed, wasted, and is still on hand, as an accountability percentage. For a batch, it shows yield against the recipe's expected output.

What's next

Most of the chain is built during everyday work. See Receiving an ingredient shipment for where lots enter, and Assigning lots to a batch for where they're consumed.