Sevo Biz App
Sign inStart free trial
Help centre · Inventory

Expiry dates

Keep the expiry date of milk, medicine or biscuits: type it when goods arrive, sell the earliest date first, and see what is about to expire.

Who can do this: Anyone who receives goods types the dates; anyone with the View inventory permission sees them; writing off needs the Adjust stock permission.

Say which products have a date

  1. Open Catalogue → Products and open the product (or add a new one).
  2. Tick This product has an expiry date. It shows when Track stock for this product is ticked.
  3. Optional: in Usually lasts (days), type how long it keeps, for example 3 for bread. The date then fills itself in when goods arrive.
  4. Click Save.

Stock already on the shelf when you tick it shows as "No date" and sells after the dated goods. Count it or let it sell through.

Type the date when goods arrive

  1. Open the purchase order and click Receive.
  2. Under each dated product, type the Expiry date printed on the goods, and the Batch number if the supplier prints one.
  3. If one line came with two dates, tap Another date, then share the quantity between the two rows.
  4. Click Post receipt. If some goods expire soon, Sevo asks before it takes them in.

Expired goods cannot be received: send them back to the supplier. The receipt shows each line's date and batch.

Stock you already have

  1. Open Inventory → Adjustments and click New adjustment. Choose Opening stock (or Correction).
  2. Add the dated product. Under it, type the Expiry date printed on the goods and the batch number if there is one.
  3. If your shelf holds two dates, tap Another date and type how many have each date. The line adds them up.
  4. Click Save as draft, then Post. The dated stock shows under Inventory → Expiry dates.

Stock going out (a negative line) needs no date: it takes the batch that expires first.

Count by date

A stock count of a dated product asks how many of each date are on the shelf (Inventory → Stock counts). When you complete the count, each date is set to what you counted, even when the total was right, so the Expiry dates screen and the warnings match your shelf.

Selling takes the earliest date first

Nothing changes at the till. When a sale reaches Sevo, it takes the goods from the batch that expires first. Expired batches are taken last, only when nothing else is left.

A void or a return puts the goods back into the batch they were sold from. A transfer takes the same batches to the other store.

On Inventory → Stock on hand, a dated product shows how many dates it has and the next one, for example "2 dates, next 12/10/2026".

On the till, a product's tile says when some of it on the shelf has expired ("2 expired"), and adding it to a sale reminds the cashier to check the date on the pack.

See what is about to expire

  1. Open Inventory → Expiry dates.
  2. Choose a location, or leave it on all locations.
  3. Tap Expired, This week, This month or Later to see only those. Each row shows the batch, the date, the days left, how many are on the shelf and what they cost.

The dashboard shows Expiring soon when something expires within 30 days. Put those goods on offer so they sell first.

A batch's history (recalls)

  1. On Inventory → Expiry dates, click History beside the batch.
  2. The window lists everything that moved it, oldest first: who delivered it, each sale and online order that took some (with the customer when there is one), transfers to other stores, write-offs and counts.
  3. At the top it says how many were received and how many were sold on how many sales, and names the customers on those sales.

If a supplier recalls a batch, this is the list to work from: contact the customers named, and take what is left off the shelf with Write off.

Write off expired goods

  1. On Inventory → Expiry dates, find the batch and click Write off.
  2. Check How many (all of the batch by default) and add a note if you like.
  3. Click Write off. The goods leave stock with the reason Expired and what they cost goes to the books as a loss.

A large write-off waits for a manager's approval, like any stock adjustment. It shows under Inventory → Adjustments.

Send expired goods back to the supplier

  1. On Inventory → Expiry dates, an expired batch that came from a supplier has Return to supplier.
  2. It opens a new supplier return on the goods receipt the batch came in on, with that batch's line filled in: how many are on the shelf, and the reason Expired.
  3. Check it and click Save draft, then Send. The goods leave from that batch, and the supplier's credit is recorded as for any return.

If the supplier does not take expired goods back, use Write off instead: the loss goes to the books as Expired.

Warnings before goods expire

Insights → Stock health also warns you about dated goods that will not sell before their date at the pace they sell, and suggests how much to mark them down.

From there, Put on offer starts an offer for the item that ends on its expiry date, so the tills give the discount by themselves.

More in this area