Barcode Inventory System
Scan with the camera your team already carries. Frostbyte Pro reads GS1, retail and internal barcodes straight from a phone browser with nothing to install, prints your own labels as a PDF for the stock that carries none, fills in batch and best-before at the receiving door, and keeps one barcode tied to exactly one product.
Manual inventory processes are slow, error-prone, and impossible to scale. Every time a warehouse team member writes down a product code, types a quantity, or searches for an item by name, there is a chance of error. Those errors compound: a mis-received item becomes a wrong stock count, which becomes a wrong pick, which becomes a customer complaint.
A barcode inventory system eliminates these errors at their source. Instead of relying on humans to identify products and enter data correctly, you scan a barcode and let the system do the work. The result is faster operations, accurate records, and a warehouse team that can handle higher volumes without more people.
What scanning does for you in Frostbyte Pro today, from reading the labels you already have, to printing labels for the stock that has none, to counting a stock take and checking a pick, to capturing batch, best-before and serial numbers as stock arrives.
Turn any smartphone or tablet into a barcode scanner using the built-in camera. It is a web page, not an app: open Frostbyte Pro in your mobile browser and start scanning, on iOS or Android, with nothing to install and no hardware to buy. Where your browser has its own barcode reader we use it, and where it does not we fall back to a bundled decoder, so iPhones, Firefox and Windows tablets all work.
Use the labels your stock already carries, or print your own. Store your supplier's EAN or UPC against the product and scanning the existing label finds it with no re-labelling. Where a product carries no code at all, Frostbyte Pro can give it an internal one and print the label for you. Codes can be typed in, imported in bulk on the product CSV, or set through the API. Every barcode is unique within your organisation, enforced by the database rather than by a warning, so one code can never resolve to two products.
Scan a GS1 barcode at the receiving door and the batch number, best-before and manufacture date are read out of the code and filled in for you, ready to check rather than type. Batch-tracked stock is then traceable from that lot forward to the customers who received it and backward to the supplier. When you fulfil an order, Frostbyte Pro picks the lot closest to expiry first, so the oldest stock moves first without anyone deciding.
Scan any code and Frostbyte Pro tells you what it is. A product barcode returns the product with its stock on hand broken down by warehouse and bin. A serial number returns that individual unit: its status, where it is, the lot it belongs to with its expiry, and its recent history. A code it does not recognise offers to create the product with the barcode already filled in, or to attach it to a product you already have.
Scan a delivery at the door and book it in on the spot. Choose an open purchase order line for that product and the outstanding quantity is filled in for you, or take it as free stock with no order at all. Capture the warehouse and bin, the batch number, best-before and manufacture date, and a receipt temperature for cold chain goods. Receiving raises a numbered goods receipt, advances the purchase order and updates the product's weighted average cost.
For products where every unit matters, Frostbyte Pro keeps a record per physical unit. Serial numbers are allocated automatically when you complete a production order, receive goods or make a stock adjustment, formed from the product SKU and a running number, or you can use the numbers your supplier applied. Scan a serial to see that unit's status and history, or to allocate it straight to an open sales order line.
Print barcode labels for products, lots and serial numbers as a PDF you run on your own printer. Choose Avery L7160 or L7163 sheets, a Dymo 99014 roll or a 50 by 25 millimetre thermal roll, set how many copies of each, and start part way down a sheet you have already used. Frostbyte Pro measures every code against the stock you picked and refuses anything that would print too small to read, suggesting a bigger stock where one would carry it, before it draws a thing. There is no label designer, no custom sizes and no direct printing to a Zebra or a Dymo over the network.
From recording your barcodes to counting a stock take, here is how barcode scanning works at each point Frostbyte Pro supports it.
Start with the labels your stock already carries. Enter each product's EAN, UPC or your own internal code on the product, or bring them all in at once on the product CSV import. Scan an unknown code and you can attach it to an existing product in one tap. For the products that carry no code at all, Frostbyte Pro assigns an internal one and prints the labels as a PDF. From then on that code resolves to that product and nothing else.
When goods arrive, scan each item to book it into stock. Pick the open purchase order line it belongs to and the outstanding quantity fills in for you, with an over-receipt warned before you commit, or receive it as free stock. Batch number, best-before and manufacture date are captured here, read straight out of a GS1 barcode where the supplier uses one, so traceability starts at the door.
Taking an order at a counter or a trade desk? Open a sales order, tap Scan, and each product you scan is added as a line, or its quantity stepped up if it is already there. Scan a serial number and the unit's product is added. It is faster than searching a catalogue by name and it cannot pick the wrong product, because the code resolves to exactly one.
For serial-tracked goods, scan a unit and Frostbyte Pro lists the open order lines waiting on that product, showing only the orders that unit's warehouse can actually fill. One tap allocates it. The unit is then reserved against that line, and the serial travels with the order through dispatch, so you know exactly which unit went to which customer.
At stocktake, open a count for a warehouse or a single zone, press Scan items and walk the shelves scanning. Each scan tallies onto the count line, with a units per scan box so one carton label can stand for the units inside it. Where a product has more than one lot on the sheet you are asked which one you are holding, and nothing is recorded until you choose.
When an order goes to picking, your team scans each item off the shelf and Frostbyte Pro checks it against that order's pick list before the line is confirmed. The right product in the right lot confirms the line at the quantity the order asked for. The wrong lot is refused on the spot, and the message names the lot and the bin the order actually wants.
Taking parts off the shelf for a job, or writing damaged stock off? Open a stock adjustment, choose the reason and tap Scan beside Add Line. Each part you scan is added as a line, or its quantity stepped up, with a units per scan box for cartons. The reason decides whether stock comes off or goes on, and nothing moves until you complete the adjustment. Lot and serial tracked products still go on through Add Line, where you choose the lot or the unit.
Frostbyte Pro reads the formats inventory, retail and manufacturing labels usually carry: Code 128, Code 39, EAN-13, EAN-8, UPC-A, UPC-E, ITF, Codabar, QR and DataMatrix. No configuration required, because the format is detected on the scan.
The most commonly used barcode format for internal inventory management. Code 128 supports alphanumeric characters and is compact enough to fit on small labels, which makes it the usual choice when a business prints its own product codes. Frostbyte Pro reads Code 128 and prints it. Product, lot and serial labels are drawn as Code 128, so codes produced here and codes produced by your own label software both resolve to the right product.
The standard 13-digit barcode used for retail products worldwide. If you sell products with EAN-13 barcodes from your suppliers, Frostbyte Pro can import and recognise them. Scan a supplier-labelled product and the system automatically identifies it, so there is no need to re-label goods that already carry standard retail barcodes.
Two-dimensional barcodes that can store significantly more data than linear barcodes. QR codes are ideal for encoding batch numbers, expiry dates, lot numbers, and product URLs in a single scannable code. Frostbyte Pro reads QR codes through your smartphone camera, including GS1 Digital Link codes, so one scan finds the product and carries its lot and expiry through to the receipt. It prints them too: where bars will not fit readably on the label stock you picked, the label carries that same code as a QR code instead.
The 12-digit Universal Product Code used primarily in North America. If you import products with UPC-A barcodes, Frostbyte Pro recognises them at the point of scan. Map supplier UPC codes to your internal product records and scan goods in without re-labelling, which is useful for businesses that distribute imported products alongside locally manufactured goods.
An older but widely supported barcode format that encodes uppercase letters, numbers, and a few special characters. Some industries and legacy systems still use Code 39, and Frostbyte Pro supports scanning products labelled with this format. It is less compact than Code 128 but remains common in manufacturing, government, and defence supply chains.
A compact 2D barcode format commonly used for marking small components, medical devices, and electronics. DataMatrix codes can encode large amounts of data in a very small footprint, making them ideal for items where label space is limited. Frostbyte Pro supports DataMatrix scanning via smartphone camera for industries that require this format.
The practical advantages of replacing manual processes with barcode scanning, measured in accuracy, speed, and reduced costs.
Every time someone types a product code or a batch number by hand there is a chance of error, and receiving is where those errors are cheapest to prevent and most expensive to miss. A scanned code either resolves to a product or it does not, and where the supplier uses a GS1 barcode the batch and best-before come across with it rather than being read off a carton and retyped.
Scanning is quicker than searching a catalogue by name, and it removes the pause where someone decides which of two similar products they are holding. Frostbyte Pro supports it at seven points: booking a delivery in at the door, looking a code up, building an order at a counter, allocating a serial to an order line, counting a stock take, picking an order, and scanning parts out on a stock adjustment. Each of those is a moment where a queue forms while somebody types or writes on paper.
A receipt booked from a scan updates stock immediately. There is no delay between the pallet landing and the system showing it, so your sales team sees the availability they can actually promise and your purchasing team reorders against real figures rather than yesterday's spreadsheet.
Point the camera at the barcode, check what came back, confirm the quantity. There are no product codes to memorise and no hardware to learn, because the scanner is a page in the browser your team already uses. If a label is damaged or a phone has no camera, the same box accepts a typed code or a USB scanner.
For chilled and frozen goods, the receipt temperature is recorded against the lot as you book it in, and checked against that product's storage condition. A reading outside the range is raised there and then, while the delivery is still on the dock and the driver is still in the yard, rather than being discovered in a paper file weeks later.
Stock movements are recorded against the lot and the user who made them, so the trail is there when you need it. Trace forward from a supplier lot to the finished products that used it and the customers who received them, and backward from a complaint to the supplier batch behind it. For serial-tracked goods the trail runs to the individual unit.
Common questions about barcode inventory systems and how barcode scanning works in Frostbyte Pro.
Any USB or Bluetooth scanner that types what it reads, which is how most commercial scanners work out of the box, will work with Frostbyte Pro. It types into the entry box on the scanner page, on a stock take count and on a pick list, and the terminating character it sends is stripped automatically, so there is no driver and nothing to configure on our side. If you would rather not buy hardware at all, any modern smartphone with a camera works through the scanner page in your browser.
Yes. Frostbyte Pro includes a scanner page that uses your phone's camera, and it is a web page rather than an app, so there is nothing to download. Open Frostbyte Pro in your mobile browser, tap Start Scanning and point the camera at the code. It works on iOS and Android and reads Code 128, Code 39, EAN-13, EAN-8, UPC-A, UPC-E, ITF, Codabar, QR codes and DataMatrix. A code has to read the same way twice before it counts, so one pass of the camera is one lookup rather than a stream of half-read codes. With the fallback decoder, striped codes read from the middle of the picture, so centre the label in the preview.
Yes, as a PDF you print yourself. Choose the products, lots or serial numbers, pick your label stock, and Frostbyte Pro draws the barcodes and hands back a PDF ready for your own printer. It prints on Avery L7160 and L7163 sheets, a Dymo 99014 roll or a 50 by 25 millimetre thermal roll, and it can start part way down a sheet you have already used. Avery L7651 is offered too, but at 38 millimetres it is too small for readable bars, so labels on it are printed as QR codes, which need a camera or a 2D imager rather than a laser scanner. What it still does not do is design labels for you: there are no custom sizes, no label templates, no printer driver and no direct printing to a Zebra or a Dymo over the network. It cannot issue you a retail EAN or UPC either, because those carry a company prefix you buy from GS1 New Zealand. Any code Frostbyte Pro creates for you is an internal one, shaped so it can never be mistaken for a retail number. If you already own a retail EAN or UPC, store it against the product and we print those digits as a Code 128 barcode. It scans and resolves to the right product, but it is not shelf-ready retail artwork, which your packaging supplier produces.
Yes, at the point it matters most. When you scan goods in at receipt you set the batch number and best-before in the same step, and if the supplier uses a GS1 barcode those values are read out of the code and filled in for you, along with the manufacture date. Leave the batch number blank and Frostbyte Pro numbers the lot for you. From then on the lot is traceable forward to the customers who received it and backward to the supplier, and orders are filled from the lot closest to expiry first. Scanning a serial number shows the lot that unit belongs to, with its expiry.
Yes. Create a count for a warehouse or a single zone within it, press Scan items, and count with your device camera or a handheld USB or Bluetooth scanner. Count up tallies each scan onto the line, and a units per scan box lets one carton label stand for the units inside it. The count sheet shows the lot and the bin on every line, and you can search it by lot number or bin code. The lot is never guessed: a GS1 label carrying its lot goes straight to that lot, and otherwise, if a product has more than one lot on the count, you are asked which one you are holding and nothing is recorded until you choose. Worth knowing before you plan around it: there is one barcode per product rather than a separate carton code, the camera will not count the same barcode twice until it has left the picture, scans that do not reach the server are listed as not saved and are never resent on their own, and serial-tracked products are counted as a quantity rather than unit by unit, so a variance on one of those is corrected with a separate stock adjustment rather than from the count itself.
Frostbyte Pro reads Code 128, Code 39, EAN-13, EAN-8, UPC-A, UPC-E, ITF, Codabar, QR codes and DataMatrix, including GS1 DataMatrix and GS1-128. The format is detected on the scan, so there is nothing to configure, and if your suppliers use different formats on different products they all resolve the same way. Where a GS1 code carries the application identifiers for lot, best-before, production date or serial, those are read out of the code and offered to you at receipt rather than typed.
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