Hi Everyone, Pretty new to Netsuite. I started my ERP journey with Sage X3. Joined my current company and it was decided to migrate to Netsuite. We have completed the migration and over all have thousands of products. Majority of which utilize Lot number and of course Expiration date. In X3 you can modify expiration date if you have permissions to via manual or use the mass update utility to update multiple lots. When we imported inventory into netsuite we brought over without validation (Trust me I argued but I was overruled by management) So long story short Lot numbered inventory was brought in with false dates. like some are set to expire in 2099 or 2999. I know I can go into each lot number then edit the date. Our current implementation party advise against this as how they explain is that this will allow you to edit the date but it will end up causing the system to generate negative inventory/ cost adjustments. I would like to better understand this? Does anyone have experience with this or word of wisdom? (unfortunately inventory manager has already made changes to say like 50 lot numbers already)

Hi Arthur, We work with Lot Numbered lots and change the expiration date sometime cause our products has only Month/Year so it causes some issues. I don’t know any cost related issues related to this change once it doesn’t change the lot number on transactions, just the information on related record. Maybe if you are using FEFO costing method it could be a problem. About negative inventory, it only happens if you change the lot number in an inbound transaction after it’s relieved once Netsuite doesn’t allow negative quantites for Lot Numbered items. Long story short, if you don’t change transaction information, I don’t think there is impact.

Thank you Luiz, this does make me feel more comfortable since I am only changing the Date not Lot number.

In a controlled inventory environment I have created a couple different solutions where the field is made mandatory on the Item Receipt for certain items . It will not allow you to save the IR until the Expiration Date is entered and then it is locked for editing unless done by QA personnel.

I do want to update what I have tested and found thus far. I can confirm so far changing the expiration date of an existing LOT did not generate a negative cost adjustment, it did retroactively update the date on prior transactions. My last test will be with open Work orders to see how that will be impacted.

Yeah I have never experienced a negative inventory cost adjustment after changing the Expiration Date on Lot Numbered inventory. Native NetSuite doesn’t provide any Internal Controls with the Exp Date field though which is unfortunate. Just having the date to view in a controlled environment doesn’t really help without the missing Internal Controls piece.

Yes, totally agree even in Sage X3 changing the expiration date there was a utility for it and made is so much easier. Netsuites lack of this or any internal control on it makes unfortunate.

What type of Industry is your company operating in? Does it require a controlled inventory environment? Do you have some inventory items that have Exp Dates and some that don’t? Also, I would just do a CSV import to update the existing Lot Numbers with the correct Expiration Dates.

We manufacture fertilizers for the Cannabis industry. Majority of our RAWs and Finished Goods are lot controlled. I did do a test in Sandbox by issuing out say 100 QTY of Item A with Lot xyz exp date 10/01/2099 and brought it back in with the same lot number but a different date but when I went to that LOT it still showed the old expiration date. (all this was done through UI via Inventory adjustment) When you say do a CSV import I assume run a CSV update on existing lot numbers? not through an Inventory adjustment correct.

No you have to do it through an Inv Adj. Here are the steps to do it. I tested this and it did work to update the Exp Dates

Hi Andrew, Thank you! I compared what I did vs the guide and the only thing I did different was I did 2 adjustments. 1st dedicated to issue out and 2nd dedicated to issue In. I will test once more and follow the guide and see if the dates update.