Traceability
Tracing a lot forward and backward
How to run a trace in Crown: enter a lot code, follow the chain in either direction, and export a mock-recall record.
When you need to answer "where did this come from?" or "where did this go?", Crown runs the trace for you. Enter any lot code and Crown follows the recorded links in both directions, so you can investigate a supplier problem or a customer complaint in minutes. This article covers running a trace and turning the result into a record.
Running a trace
- Open Traceability
Select Traceability from the main menu.
- Enter a lot code
Type any lot code: an ingredient lot, a batch number, or a finished-good lot, and select Run trace. With Type left on Auto-detect, Crown works out which kind of record the code belongs to, so you don't pick a category first.
- Read the chain
Crown draws the full chain around that lot, linking backward to where its inputs came from and forward to what they became.
When more than one record uses a code
A code can belong to more than one record. For example, a supplier's lot code can match one of your batch numbers. When that happens, Crown lists every record that uses the code, each labelled with what kind of record it is, and asks you to choose the one to trace.
If a record was archived or removed after your search, choosing it tells you it can't be traced and takes it off the list, so you can choose another. If that leaves nothing to choose, search again to see what's current.
Tracing from a lot or batch
The Trace button at the top of a lot's drawer in Inventory, or a batch's drawer on the Batches page, traces that exact record. You skip the search, and a code that another record shares can't send you to the wrong one. A finished-goods lot whose lot code other sizes from its batch share traces the whole batch, so every size is covered.
Backward and forward
A trace reads in both directions from whatever lot you entered:
- Backward: from a finished-good lot to the batch that produced it, and from there to every ingredient lot that went in and the supplier receipt each came from.
- Forward: from an ingredient lot to every batch that consumed it and the finished-good lots those batches produced.
What else the trace shows
Depending on what you traced, Crown adds a summary:
- For an ingredient lot: a mass-balance view of how much you received versus how much was consumed, wasted, and is still on hand, shown as an accountability percentage. Lots you entered by hand have no receiving record to measure against, so their accountability shows as N/A instead of a percentage.
- For a batch: the batch's actual yield against the recipe's expected output.
- For a finished-good lot, including an assembled pack: a Stock accounting card showing where the lot's stock came from and where it went. A batch trace shows the same accounting for each of the batch's finished-good lots. See Stock accounting.
- For an assembled pack: a Packed from card listing every component lot inside it, each linked to the batch that produced it. A pack has no batch of its own, so this card is how a recall on a pack reaches your production records.
- For a finished-good lot that shipped inside a bundle: a Packed into card naming every pack it went into, how much of it was used, and how much of that pack is still on hand. This is the direction you need when one lot goes bad and you have to find the gift sets it ended up in.
Stock accounting
The Stock accounting card adds up every recorded change to a finished-good lot's stock and ends with what's On hand. Each line is the net change for one kind of movement, shown with a plus or minus sign. Only lines with recorded activity appear:
- Made: what the lot's batch produced into it, or what was assembled into a pack.
- On hand when stock history began: what the lot already held when Crown started keeping its stock history.
- Packaged from bulk: stock packaged into this lot from a bulk lot.
- Corrections (count variances, amended output): differences found when the lot was counted, and changes to its batch's recorded output.
- Shipped, net of returns: stock shipped, less shipments undone and stock returned.
- Donated: stock given away.
- Samples (lab, QC, retained, trade): stock taken as samples.
- Waste (breakage, expired, contaminated, quality reject): stock written off.
- Packed into other lots: stock packaged into SKUs or used in bundle packs.
If the lines don't add up to what the lot holds, the card says so. Stock may have moved while the trace ran, so run it again, and contact CrownQ support if it still differs.
Exporting a mock-recall record
The trace screen times how long the lookup took and lets you export a mock-recall PDF of the result, a ready-made record you can file for your recall readiness exercises. Exporting it also logs the exercise to your recall plan. When you trace a batch or a finished-good lot, the PDF includes its stock accounting. If stock or a record in the trace changes before you export, the PDF still downloads but Crown doesn't log it. Run the trace again, then export.
What's next
To understand how the chain is built in the first place, see How lot traceability works. The links come from everyday work: receiving records where lots enter, and assigning lots to a batch records where they're consumed.
- Your recall plan: where the mock recalls you run are logged.