Scanning and quantities
Two ways to scan
Every screen with a scan button can be used with either:
- The camera, on any iPhone, iPad or Android device. Tap the scan button and hold the barcode up; the camera closes on a match, except where staff scan item after item, such as counting a pick.
- The trigger on a Zebra handheld. Pull it, with no camera open and no tap first, on every screen that has a scan button. It does the same thing that screen's scan button does.
Zebra handhelds need no set-up. The app creates its own DataWedge profile, HiiRetailInventory,
the first time it starts, and the trigger works from then on. There is nothing to push from a device
management system.
What a scan does depends on the screen: on a list it finds the delivery, order or item; on a count it adds to the quantity; on a pick it counts one more unit of that line. Each module's section in Modules describes it.
What the app reads from a barcode
The app identifies items by the barcodes in Product, Price and Promotion. Beyond a plain EAN-13 or UPC, it understands:
- GS1-128 and GS1 DataMatrix labels, from which it takes the item's GTIN.
- Scale labels printed in the store: the in-store EAN-13s starting with
20to25. These are the subject of the next section.
Scale labels: the item and its weight in one barcode
Goods weighed and labelled in the store carry an EAN-13 that holds both the item and its weight. The app reads both, so the weight does not have to be typed.
| Starts with | Carries | What the app does |
|---|---|---|
23, 24, 25 | a weight, with 3, 2 or 1 decimals | finds the item and fills in the weight, in kg |
20, 21, 22 | a price | finds the item, and leaves the quantity to the colleague |
🛑 The app never reads a price from a barcode. It is an inventory app: it records how much, not what it cost. A price label identifies the item, and the quantity is counted or typed.
How the item is found. The app looks the item up by the first eight digits, with the variants of
the same label kind folded together: 21 and 22 are looked up as 20, and 24 and 25 as 23.
So for scale labels to resolve, the item needs that eight-digit code among its identifiers in Product,
Price and Promotion: 23045670 for the weighed item above.
What happens to the weight depends on the screen:
- Counting (Quick count, and Scan to count on an item): the first scan sets the quantity to the label's weight, and each further label adds its weight. Three packs of 0.452, 0.398 and 0.405 kg count as 1.255 kg.
- Picking a weighed line: each scan adds the label's weight. A label without a weight adds the item's net content from the catalogue, and when neither is known the picker is asked to weigh it. A weighed line is accepted within 10 % either side of what was ordered, because packs never weigh exactly the ordered amount.
- Store transfers: the weight is filled in as the requested quantity, to be checked before sending.
Quantities follow the item's unit
Whether a quantity takes decimals is decided by the item's sales unit of measure in Product, Price
and Promotion, and the app shows the unit after the quantity: 0.452 kg.
| Unit | Decimals | The − and + buttons step by |
|---|---|---|
| kilogram, litre | 3 | 0.001 |
| decilitre, metre | 2 | 0.01 |
| centimetre | 1 | 0.1 |
| each, piece, pair, set, and every other unit | 0 | 1 |
- A comma is accepted as the decimal separator.
- ⚠ A fraction of a whole-unit item is refused, with "This item is counted in whole units — enter a whole number". Half a tin of beans cannot be counted or received, and the app does not round it for you.
- Offline, the app may not know the unit of an item it has not seen before. It then accepts up to three decimals, and checks the quantity against the unit once the item has been looked up. A fraction of a whole-unit item is then held for review instead of being sent. See Working offline.
A unit mismatch is caught in the app, where the colleague can see it, rather than in the stock figures afterwards.