Products usually arrive carrying someone else’s barcode: a UPC code from the manufacturer or a custom barcode from a supplier. Your Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central items, though, use your own item numbers. For barcode scanning to work at receiving and picking, the two have to be connected.
Use item references
The typical approach is to get a list of all the UPC codes, or whatever barcodes the third party uses, and map them to your own item numbers using item references in Business Central. Once an item reference exists, a scan of the third-party barcode finds your item.
How you get that list depends on what the third party provides. Some supply a file of codes, and some offer other ways to retrieve them.
When the third party offers an API
If the third party provides an API call that returns its barcode information, you could set that up in Business Central. That is something to discuss with your Business Central partner, because the right approach depends on the third party’s system and how you want the data to flow.
Scanning third-party barcodes in the warehouse
With references in place, WMS Express and Warehouse Insight scan those barcodes directly. At receiving, the barcode can be a UPC code, a custom barcode, or anything else, and the barcode format does not matter.
Barcodes can also carry more than an identifier. Depending on how the vendor labels the product, a barcode can include the item number, lot number, serial number, expiration date, quantity, unit of measure, variant code, or GTIN, and the handheld pulls those details out based on configuration.
Catch mapping mistakes early
When you scan an item, the handheld can optionally show a picture of it. That gives the worker a visual check. If the scan shows the wrong product, you know the barcode mapping has a problem, and you can fix it before the error spreads through the warehouse.
When products arrive without a barcode
If incoming products have no barcode at all, you can print labels from the handheld device during receiving, using the label report you have set up in Business Central.
Relevant Tools
WMS Express is a main tool for this question: it scans UPC and custom barcodes for receiving, picking, bin movements, and inventory counts in Business Central.
Warehouse Insight scans the same barcodes across the full set of warehouse and production processes.
Barcode Generator PowerTool adds barcodes to Business Central reports, so you can print your own labels when products arrive without a usable barcode.