Identifiers

A variant is identified in two different ways: the SKU you choose, and the barcodes it's scanned by.

SKU

The SKU is yours to choose. It must be unique across your organisation among variants that haven't been deleted — deleting a variant frees its SKU, so a new variant can reuse it.

Barcodes belong to a unit of measure, not the variant

Barcodes are recorded against a unit of measure, not against the variant directly. An Each and a Case of 12 carry different barcodes, because they're different physical things to scan — one barcode for the single item, another for the case.

GS1 trade-item barcodes are normalised to 14 digits

For the six GS1 trade-item types — EAN-13, EAN-8, UPC-A, UPC-E, GTIN-14 and ITF-14 — a barcode is stored normalised to 14 digits: shorter codes are zero-padded up to that length. This means the same code entered at different lengths — an EAN-13 and its GTIN-14 equivalent, for example — matches as the same barcode. Other barcode types, such as Code 128, Internal and Custom, are kept exactly as entered and are not normalised.

Barcodes aren't forced to be unique

Unlike a SKU, a barcode isn't required to be unique across your organisation. Suppliers sometimes reuse the same code across genuinely different variants, so entering a barcode already in use doesn't refuse it — it asks you to confirm you meant to share it.

Minting a barcode

If an item arrives without a barcode, Yessort can mint one for you: an in-store EAN-13, generated automatically for that unit of measure. Minting in bulk only fills in base units that have no barcode yet.

Products group variants, and it's the variant that carries the SKU — see how the catalogue works.