Batch traceability
Batch traceability without the spreadsheet acrobatics. Full upstream + downstream chain in under 30 seconds.
Every batch carries its full chain inside Keystone — supplier deliveries upstream, dispatches and customer branches downstream. Two clicks, signed PDF, done. No more Vlookup chains, no more 'which version of the Excel was current that week.'
Home › Batch Traceability Software
Proof points
In one glance.
- Forward trace: batch → dispatch → customer → retailer branch (incl. private-label re-codes)
- Backward trace: dispatch line → batch → supplier delivery → raw-material lot
- Mock-recall in 90 seconds (BRCGS Issue 9 compatible)
- Immutable audit log — every change, signed, who/when/why
How it works
Every batch is a node in a chain. We hold the chain.
When a batch is created in Keystone, every input — supplier delivery, raw-material lot, QC record, transformation step — is recorded as an upstream link. When that batch is dispatched, every customer and retailer branch it reaches is recorded as a downstream link. The chain is cryptographically signed at every write, so neither side can be tampered with after the fact.
What you can answer
The questions auditors actually ask.
- Where did this batch end up? — Forward chain: every dispatch line, every customer, every retailer branch, every private-label code.
- What went into this dispatch? — Backward chain: every batch, every supplier delivery, every QC test along the way.
- Which batches share a supplier delivery? — Cross-trace: pick any supplier delivery and see every batch that used it — typical recall trigger.
- Who changed the spec mid-run? — Audit log: every spec change with user, timestamp and reason — immutable.
Intermediates & rework
The chain survives silos, brines and rework — where spreadsheets break.
The hard part of batch traceability is never the happy path; it's the intermediate stages. Milk from three farms pools into one silo. Offcuts from Tuesday's batch fold into Thursday's. A brine bath touches six batches a week. In spreadsheet systems these commingling points are exactly where lot identity dies — and why mass balances refuse to close during the annual traceability test. Keystone models intermediates as first-class links in the chain: a silo run knows its contributing deliveries, a rework entry names its source and destination batches with weights, so the chain passes through every commingling point intact, in both directions.
The mass balance
Produced = dispatched + stock + waste + samples. Computed, not reconstructed.
BRCGS Issue 9 expects the annual traceability test to close a mass balance within 4 hours — and unexplained quantity gaps fail the exercise regardless of how fast the trace ran. Because Keystone's dispatch lines, stock counts, waste entries and sample logs all reference batch identity, the reconciliation for any batch is arithmetic the system already knows: quantity produced against every documented destination, with the variance percentage on screen. Producers who used to spend the afternoon hunting for missing kilograms now spend it writing the two-paragraph narrative report.
From spreadsheets
What actually changes when you switch.
- Trace time — From hours of VLOOKUP archaeology to under 30 seconds, any batch, either direction — benchmarked on the founding-customer dataset.
- Key-person risk — Anyone with the right role can run the trace. The system holds the map, not one production manager's memory.
- Re-keying errors — Batch codes flow from production to dispatch note to trace report without a human transcribing them — the transposed-digit findings disappear.
- Audit posture — The vertical audit (auditor picks a lot, watches you trace it) becomes a live demonstration instead of the tensest hour of the year. New to the exercise? Read our free step-by-step mock recall guide.
FAQs
Frequently asked.
How is Keystone different from a generic ERP?
A generic ERP treats batches as inventory line items. Keystone treats them as nodes in a directed chain with cryptographic signing — built for traceability first, accounting second.
What about variable-weight production (e.g. cheese wheels)?
Native support. Each unit can carry its own weight, with case-level and pallet-level rollups that reconcile against your dispatch totals.
Can I trace by customer SKU code, not just mine?
Yes — bidirectional mapping is built in. Search by your code or by the retailer's private-label code.
How far back does the audit log go?
Forever. Nothing is ever truly deleted in Keystone — soft-deletes with restore, hard-deletes blocked.