FEFO Expiry Stock Tracker

FIFO ships oldest-received first; FEFO ships nearest-to-expiry first. They coincide only when received-order matches expiry-order — which fails whenever batches have different shelf lives. A short-dated batch received today should ship before a long-dated batch received last month: FIFO would get this wrong, FEFO right. For any dated product (food, pharma, cosmetics, chemicals), FEFO by actual expiry date is the correct rotation discipline; FIFO is a reasonable proxy only when all stock has identical shelf life.

Because expiry is a hard cliff: product is sellable up to its date and worthless (a full write-off plus disposal cost) after it. Ship in the wrong order and you simultaneously create two problems — older stock expires unsold in the warehouse while fresher stock leaves early, and customers receive product nearer its expiry than necessary (driving returns and complaints). FEFO maximizes the sellable life captured from every batch and minimizes write-offs, which on thin perishable margins is often the difference between profit and loss on a product line.

Early enough to act — which depends on your options. The 14-day default suits fast-moving food where a markdown or transfer can clear stock quickly; longer-shelf-life or harder-to-move products warrant a wider window (30–60 days) to allow promotion, transfer to another location, or return to supplier. The point is to flag while the product still has sellable value, not when it's already a write-off. Set the warning window to the time you actually need to move slow stock through your fastest disposition channel.

Yes — tracking stock by batch/lot AND expiry is exactly the record a recall needs: which batches you hold, in what quantity, at which locations. If a lot is recalled, you can identify and isolate it immediately rather than searching. For regulated products (pharmaceuticals, food), batch-level traceability is often a legal requirement anyway, and an expiry-organized board doubles as that record. The same data that enforces FEFO rotation supports recall response and regulatory traceability — one disciplined log serving three purposes.