Barcodes

Barcodes are mainly used to make product handling easier for trading companies. Some businesses use barcodes to simplify the registration of product numbers while others assign a barcode to every single delivery (parcel). Some products, which are unique in their unit for serial number, production number or similar, sometimes also have barcodes. Certain businesses also use barcodes to handle their despatches to customers.

Barcode fonts

Bar codes are merely another way of presenting information other than ordinary text and numbers. In practice, every letter and number is being replaced with a line /bar, so one might look at a barcode as a kind of font. Bar code fonts are used to convert text and numbers, e.g. product or parcel numbers, into a barcode. A barcode reader is then used to read the barcode, and then turn it back into text/numbers.

There are many different barcode fonts and generally the newest fonts offer the greatest flexibility and functionality. Older barcodes only support numbers as a basis for barcode conversion.

EAN 13 is one of the most commonly used barcodes on products. For more information on barcodes you can consult the Internet, e.g. http://www.barcodingfonts.com/barcode.htm (external link).

Example of an EAN 13 barcode font

Many printer manufacturers sell barcode fonts as well. A number of printers also include barcode fonts in the software that comes with them. You can also purchase barcode fonts on the Internet.

Barcode readers

Most barcode readers connect to the keyboard port of a personal computer. The barcode readers translate the barcode, which is being input as text/numbers in the same way as if it had been entered by the user with a keyboard.

Printouts

To be able to print out barcode labels you need a label printer. You can select the type you need based on your requirements regarding label quality, label size etc.

Barcodes in Mamut Business Software

In Mamut Business Software, barcodes can be used to represent the Product number and Serial number along with the industry's product number or Customer number.

Product number

If you would like to use a barcode to represent the product number in Mamut, the first thing you have to do is to ensure that the textual content of the barcode is entered either into the product number field or the EAN code field (under the Miscellaneous tab in the Product card). After that the labels will show the product number as a barcode. If the EAN number should show on the label instead, you will need to change the label layout so that it contains the EAN code instead of the product number.

If you would like to have the barcode displayed on the pick list, you will need to make the necessary changes to the pick list template.

When registering sales, Receive/Return, stock counts etc, you can use a barcode reader instead of manually registering the products via the keyboard.

Serial number

It is possible to use the barcode reader instead of the keyboard for entering the serial number in the registration windows for incoming and outgoing products. Any serial number labels need to be created individually and are best printed from Microsoft Word or other text editors.

Customer number

The customer number can be presented as a barcode on internal printouts such as pick lists, order verifications etc. You can also select to use barcodes on letters, direct marketing documents and other material you send out. The use of barcodes on internal documents can help to simplify the process of finding a customer in the system based on paper printouts. The handling of returned mail, too, can be simplified by using barcodes on external documents you send to your customers.