Barcode & label printing.

Either. Vertex can generate unique internal identifiers for items that do not carry a code, and it can map an existing supplier barcode straight onto the matching inventory item, including through an imported vendor mapping spreadsheet rather than item-by-item. The generator handles EAN, QR and custom alphanumeric strings, and labels can be produced per batch. One thing worth being clear about: Vertex stores and prints whatever code you assign, and that is the whole of its role in the numbering. If you need genuine retail identifiers — GTINs or UPCs for products you sell on beyond your own four walls — you obtain those from GS1 yourself, under your own company prefix. We are not a GS1 member on your behalf, we do not certify or validate the codes you enter, and putting a number into Vertex does not make it a registered identifier. Internal codes you invent are fine for internal use and are not a substitute for that.

The scanning interface is built for handheld devices and for fixed workstations at a receiving bay or prep bench, with visual and haptic confirmation on a successful scan. In broad terms, the common classes work the way you would expect: keyboard-wedge and HID scanners that present themselves to the device as a keyboard, and phone or tablet cameras where a dedicated scanner is not warranted. Beyond that we would rather not guess at your kit. Whether a particular unit, dock, printer or label stock behaves correctly depends on the model, the firmware and how it is configured, so please confirm your specific hardware with our sales team before you buy against it — we would sooner check than have you take a compatibility claim from a web page.

The builder is drag-and-drop, across multiple label sizes: you place the components you need — item name, a high-resolution barcode, prep and use-by dates, allergen icons, batch number, storage location and the preparing member of staff's signature — and the template then produces that layout consistently. What it does not do is decide what belongs on the label. Vertex prints the allergen icons, dates and text your team enters against the item; it does not read your recipes, check what a supplier changed in a specification, or determine what your market's food-information rules require you to declare. A printed allergen icon is a statement your business is making. Keeping those entries correct as recipes and suppliers change, and confirming that your label meets your legal obligations, stays with you and your food-safety adviser.

Scanning is not a standalone log — it is the input to the inventory workflow. A receiving scan books the delivered quantity into stock against the batch and expiry you captured; a stock move records the transfer between locations; and the movements feed cost of goods and the reorder rules you have configured, so a line that drops past its threshold can raise a reorder without someone noticing it manually. The important caveat is that all of this acts on what was actually scanned. Stock that arrives and is put away without a scan, or a code assigned to the wrong item, produces a book figure that has drifted from the shelf — which is why counts still matter and why the unknown-scan count is worth clearing rather than ignoring.

Every barcode interaction is written to an audit trail across your sites: the time, the person and the device they scanned on, the action — receiving scan, stock move, label printed — the item and whether the scan resolved. That gives you something specific to work from when a figure looks wrong, and it supports the traceability process you run: if you need to trace where a batch went or pull it back, the log tells you where that code was scanned and by whom. It does not, on its own, make you compliant with any food-safety or product-recall regulation — designing and running that process is yours. On accuracy, we would rather set the expectation honestly. Vertex records scans; it does not enforce them. What you get out depends on the print quality of the label, on the right code having been assigned to the right item in the first place, and on staff actually scanning at the point the stock moves rather than reconstructing it later. Damaged labels, unlabelled repacks and skipped steps show up as unknown scans and gaps, and those are prompts to investigate rather than something the system can resolve for you.