Maintain Stock field Frozen in the Item master
In the Item master, you will find that some key configuration fields get frozen once the item has stock transactions. The following fields are included in that:
- Maintain Stock
- Has Batch No.
- Has Serial No.
After stock ledger entries have been created for an item, these fields are frozen to keep the data integrity intact and to keep the system's stock valuation and availability consistent.
Why these fields are frozen
1. Maintain Stock
This field indicates that the system shall maintain stock quantities for the item or not. If stock ledger entries are already present, disabling or enabling this field would create inconsistencies in the Stock Ledger as well as in reports like Stock Balance and General Ledger. Hence, ERPNext freezes this field so that mismatches are avoided.
2. Has Batch No.
This setting identifies whether the product is being tracked through the batch numbers. Essential to companies dealing with pharmaceuticals, food or chemicals are batches, where it is desirable to trace production and expiry batches.
Once of an item has transactions, then this setting cannot be changed, as this would make the batch traceability invalid and lead to inconsistencies in the batch-wise stock availability status. This field is not edited when there are transactions installed in order to be able to track properly.
3. Has Serial No.
For serialized items, the stock level is calculated on the basis of the number of individual Serial Nos. in stock. If subsequently the item is converted to a non-serialized item, synchronization between Serial No. records and stock valuation will be lost. This may result in inaccurate stock report balances.
Preventing these errors, the Has Serial No. field is frozen once stock transactions are posted.
How to make these fields editable again
If a business need to change these frozen fields exists, the system applies a strict procedure:
- Delete all stock transactions for the item (e.g., Purchase Receipts, Delivery Notes, Stock Entries, etc.).
- For items with Batch Numbers, delete all pertaining Batch records.
- For Serialized Items, delete all associated Serial No. records.
Only when all stock and related records have been deleted will these fields be editable again.