Every product variant and every warehouse location (zones, aisles, shelves, and bins) gets its own barcode automatically the moment you create it, so you can label your shelves and products and then scan them to look things up in seconds. This page covers where those barcodes come from, how to print labels, and the two ways to scan.
How barcodes are created
You do not have to generate barcodes by hand. Organizely assigns one automatically whenever a variant or a warehouse location is created.
Variants: each product variant gets a barcode when it is created. If you enter your own barcode on the variant it keeps that value; if you leave it blank, Organizely falls back to the variant's SKU, and if there is no SKU either, it generates a unique code for you.
Warehouse locations: each zone, aisle, shelf, and bin gets a barcode when you add it. On the location form the Barcode field is optional (it carries an "auto generated" hint), so you can type your own code or leave it blank to have one assigned.
Auto-generated codes use a short prefix and a number so they stay unique across your organization (for example a bin might be BIN-1024 and a shelf SHF-58). A location's barcode appears in the Barcode column of the warehouse location table.
Tip: If you already print your own location or product labels, enter those codes on the variant or location so the physical label and Organizely match. Scanning works the same either way.
Printing barcode labels
Barcodes print as a PDF that you can preview in the app and then download or send to your label printer.
Print product barcodes
Go to Catalog → Products.
To print one product's variants, open the actions menu (the three dots) on its row and choose Print Barcodes .
To print several products at once, select them with the row checkboxes, then click Print Barcodes in the selection toolbar.
A preview titled "Product Barcodes Preview" opens with a barcode for every variant of the selected products. Download or print it from there.
Note: The PDF contains one label per variant, so a product with multiple sizes or colors produces multiple labels. A product with no variants has nothing to print.
Print warehouse location barcodes
Go to Warehouses and open the warehouse tree.
To print a single location, open its actions menu and choose Print Barcode . You can also use the manage menu on the location's header.
To print several at once, select the locations in the table and click Print Barcodes in the selection toolbar.
Preview the generated PDF, then download or print it.
Note: Print Barcode is available for zones, aisles, shelves, and bins. The top-level warehouse itself and individual inventory rows do not have a printable location barcode.
Scanning barcodes
There are two ways to scan, and you can use whichever fits your hardware.
Scan with your phone camera
On a phone or tablet, use the camera to scan without any extra hardware.
Open Organizely in your mobile browser.
Tap the scan (barcode) button in the top bar. (It appears on small screens.)
A full-screen "Scan Barcode" view opens and uses your device's rear camera. Point it at the barcode and hold steady until it reads.
Organizely looks the code up and jumps straight to the match: a product variant opens its variant page, a warehouse location opens in the warehouse tree, and an order opens its detail page.
If the code does not match anything, you see a brief "No item found" message (it names the barcode you scanned) so you know the scan was read but nothing lined up.
Tip: Get close and center the barcode inside the on-screen frame. Good lighting and a steady hand make reads much faster.
Scan with a USB or handheld scanner
A USB or handheld (wired or Bluetooth) barcode scanner acts like a keyboard: it types the scanned code into whatever field is focused and presses Enter. That means you can scan into the search bar and other inputs across the app.
Click into the search bar at the top of any page (or the search box on the page you are working on).
Scan the barcode. The scanner enters the code and presses Enter for you.
Organizely matches the barcode and opens the corresponding product, variant, or location, the same jump-to-match as the camera scan.
Some workflows have dedicated scanning built in for hands-free, back-to-back use:
Stocktakes (cycle counts): scan or type a barcode in the count worksheet to add one to the matching line. The input stays focused so you can keep scanning item after item, and an unknown code or one that is not part of the count is flagged.
Work orders: on the work order list, scan a product barcode to filter the list down to that product's work orders (requires the Raw-Material Tracking plan, available on Pro and Scale).
Tip: Most handheld scanners work out of the box because they behave like a keyboard. If a scan does nothing, make sure the cursor is in the search box first, and confirm your scanner is set to send an Enter (carriage return) after each code.
Need help?
If you run into trouble printing or scanning barcodes, reach out to our support team.