Decide which units leave first
Send what expires first
Why this step
Sealant and structural adhesive have a cure date, and using them past it is a failure that appears on a facade two years later. FEFO picks by expiry rather than by arrival, which is not the same thing.
What this does
FEFO — first expired, first out — reserves the units whose expiry date comes soonest, so nothing dies on the shelf while fresher stock ships. It exists in WindoorERP as part of expiration-date tracking — and it is not enabled on this system: the Expiration Dates module is not installed, there are no expiry fields on lots, and the removal-strategy list you see on categories and locations deliberately offers only FIFO, LIFO, Closest Location and Least Packages. For a windows-and-doors operation this is a reasonable default — profiles and glass age, but they do not expire; if you stock items that genuinely do (sealants, adhesives, chemicals), this page is how you ask for the capability.
What enabling it would add
- Four dates on every tracked lot — Expiration, Best before, Removal, and Alert — pre-filled from per-product day counts at receipt.
- The First Expiry First Out (FEFO) entry in the removal-strategy lists, reserving by removal date instead of arrival date.
- Expiry alerts (activities on lots whose alert date arrives) and expiry visibility on quants and operations.
- It requires lot/serial tracking to be switched on first — expiry dates live on lots, and the Lots & Serial Numbers feature is currently off here too.
In the meantime
FIFO — the default everywhere on this system — is the honest approximation: the oldest-arrived stock leaves first, which for shelf-life goods tracks expiry closely as long as suppliers deliver in date order. For the few products where a date on the tin matters, a naming convention on manual lot references (the batch's expiry in the lot name) keeps the information visible to pickers without any module.
Asking for it
Tell your WindoorERP administrator which products actually carry expiry dates and whether alerts or just expire-first picking is the goal — enabling this installs the Expiration Dates capability and turns on lot tracking, which is a workflow change for receiving, not just a setting.
Checkpoint
A material with an expiry date is picked by that date, and near-expiry stock surfaces before it lapses.