Serial Number Tracking for Warranty and Service History

Short answer: Serial number tracking keeps the full history of every device (radio, router, measuring instrument) in one record: when it arrived, who bought it, when its warranty ends and how many times it has been repaired. For technical equipment distributors, serial number tracking stops unfounded warranty claims, keeps repair times under control and makes tender paperwork fast.

In a company that sells two-way radios, network gear, cameras, measuring instruments or industrial electronics, the most valuable thing is often not the product but its history. A customer brings in a device "under warranty", yet nobody can say for sure when it was sold or by whom. A unit taken in for repair sits in the workshop for weeks while the customer keeps calling. This article explains what serial number tracking is, how to keep warranty and service history intact, and what changes after automation, in numbers.

What is serial number tracking?

Serial number tracking means following each individual device by its unique serial number from goods receipt through sale, warranty period and repairs.

Ordinary stock records say "50 radios in the warehouse". With serial tracking, every unit is visible on its own: which supplier and batch it came from, which customer bought it on which invoice, how many months of warranty it has and when that ends. This information stays in one record for the whole life of the device.

We explained the difference between an item code and a SKU in what is a SKU; a serial number goes one level deeper and identifies each single unit.

What problems are common in technical equipment sales?

In our experience with businesses of this type, the same situations keep coming up:

The warranty period is counted from the date the customer quotes, not from the sale date, because the sales document cannot be found.
Devices bought elsewhere are brought in "under warranty" and repaired for free.
Nobody records where a unit in repair is or which spare parts went into it.
Faulty units that should go back to the supplier (RMA) pile up in a corner of the warehouse until the return window closes.
For a tender, collecting "how many of this model have we sold, and to which organisations" takes several days.
Out of hundreds of devices sold to a B2B customer, nobody knows which one works at which branch.

How do you keep warranty and service history from getting lost?

The core principle is simple: the serial number has to travel with the device everywhere.

Receipt: when a unit arrives, its serial number is scanned and linked to the supplier's warranty period.
Sale: on shipment, the serial number is attached to a specific sales order and invoice, and the customer's warranty starts that day.
Warranty claim: when the customer gets in touch, staff enter the serial number and the system immediately shows who sold it, when, and whether the warranty is still valid.
Repair: a repair order records the fault, spare parts used, technician and deadline; the customer is notified whenever the status changes.
RMA: a unit that cannot be repaired goes back to the supplier with a return document and is tracked until the replacement arrives.
History: every movement, repair and replacement for each serial number appears in one report.

In Odoo this is built from Inventory (serial numbers and the traceability report), Sales, Repairs and Helpdesk working together. Read more about digitising the warehouse in our Odoo Inventory article.

What changes after automation: in numbers

Warranty costs become visible: according to Warranty Week, more than 1,400 US-based manufacturers paid $29.2 billion in warranty claims in 2024, an average of 1.329% of product sales (Warranty Week, 2025). With serial tracking, every claim is tied to a specific sale and unfounded claims are filtered out.
Service becomes a revenue stream: in a Bain & Company survey, service made up 22% of total revenue at industrial companies, with an average service gross margin of 39% (Bain & Company, 2015). Serial-level history is the basis for paid post-warranty service and service contracts.
Tender paperwork gets faster: Uzbekistan's Law ZRU-684 on public procurement calls for a balance of quality and cost and sets up an electronic procurement system (lex.uz). With a system, delivered units, certificates and service history are always at hand.
Manual searching disappears: checking a warranty takes one serial number lookup instead of digging through archives and Excel files.

For example, say a company sells 10 billion som of equipment a year. If warranty costs sit at the Warranty Week average of about 1.3% of sales, that is roughly 130 million som a year. If part of that goes to devices sold elsewhere or out of warranty, serial tracking shows it immediately. This is an illustrative calculation; your real numbers depend on your business.

What do serial numbers add in B2B and tender sales?

When equipment is sold in large batches to government bodies, construction firms or security companies, serial tracking matters even more.

For each contract, the list of delivered serial numbers is exported with one click.
The system records which device is installed at which customer branch or site.
Warranty terms can differ by contract, and the system applies them to each device individually.
When an electronic invoice is sent, serial numbers are stored with the document; read about the Didox integration in our e-invoicing article.

For a broader view of wholesale automation, see Odoo ERP for wholesale.

Where should you start with serial number tracking?

You do not have to change every process at once. In practice this sequence works well:

Decide which product groups need serial tracking: usually expensive devices with a warranty, while consumables stay in ordinary stock records.
Count the devices in the warehouse and enter each serial number into the system.
Make scanning mandatory at receipt and shipment: a document without serial numbers cannot be validated.
Set warranty periods by product or supplier so the system calculates end dates itself.
Only then connect repairs, RMA and service contracts.

In the first months the biggest gain usually comes from warranty checks: staff find the answer while still on the phone with the customer. For where to start with process automation in general, see where to start with business process automation.

How does Deep Vision approach this?

Deep Vision is an official Odoo Gold Partner in Tashkent. According to its Odoo partner page, our team has 7 Odoo-certified experts and 24 client references, mostly in wholesale, retail and manufacturing; the largest client has over 100 users, and customer retention is 89% (Odoo). The team of Deep Vision founder Amon Olimov translated Odoo into Uzbek and built ready-made modules for Didox and Asl Belgisi.

On a technical equipment project we usually:

Map the current receipt, sales, warranty and repair process and find where the serial number trail breaks.
Set up serial-tracked Inventory, Sales, Repairs and Helpdesk in Odoo, and connect scanners where needed.
Import past sales and warranties from the old system so history is not lost.
Take standard sales and inventory live in 6–8 weeks in many cases; a full project takes 2–6 months.

Details: Odoo implementation service. To get a plan for your company, fill in the brief.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a serial number and a lot number?

A lot number covers a group of identical items. A serial number is assigned to each single unit and identifies only one device.

Will scanning every device slow us down?

Scanning one unit with a barcode or QR scanner takes a few seconds, far less than the time later spent searching for warranty records.

Can we bring over the history of past sales?

Yes. If serial numbers were kept in Excel or an old program, they are imported and warranty end dates are recalculated.

How does the customer know the repair status?

An SMS or email is sent automatically whenever the repair order status changes.

Are these features standard in Odoo?

Serial-tracked inventory, the traceability report and repair orders are standard in Odoo. Warranty rules and reports are tailored to your business during the project.

Sources

Want your equipment history in order? Fill in the brief or call +998 77 093 00 07.

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