How to receive 100 phones in five minutes, IMEI by IMEI

A delivery of 100 phones is 100 different products. Each has its own IMEI, and sooner or later someone will ask about one of them: a customer with a warranty claim, the police with a stolen device, a supplier with a faulty batch. If the IMEIs were never recorded, the answer is a shrug.

Recording them doesn't have to take an afternoon. Done right, it takes about as long as opening the boxes.

Before the delivery: have the purchase ready

Put the order in as a purchase before the boxes arrive: which models, how many of each, from which supplier. When the delivery comes, you're not creating anything, only confirming what arrived and adding the numbers.

Make sure each model is set to be tracked by serial number. Chargers, cases and cables that come in the same delivery don't need it.

While you unpack: scan, don't type

An IMEI is 15 digits. Typing 100 of them is slow and one wrong digit makes the record useless. Every phone box carries the IMEI as a barcode on the label, so scan it instead:

1. Open the purchase and tap the phone model's line to add its serial numbers.
2. Point the phone's camera, or a barcode scanner, at the IMEI barcode on the first box.
3. Pick up the next box and scan again. The number appears in the list and the counter goes up: 1 of 20, 2 of 20, and so on.

A scan takes about a second. With the boxes stacked next to you, 100 phones is a few minutes of work. A scanner gun is faster still, because the codes arrive as if typed.

Some boxes show two IMEIs (dual-SIM phones). Pick one and always use the same one; the first is the usual choice.

If the supplier sends a list

Many suppliers send the IMEIs in a spreadsheet or in the delivery email. Copy the column and paste it: each line becomes a serial number. Then scan a few boxes to check the list matches what arrived.

Catch mistakes as they happen

Two things go wrong when receiving by hand, and both should be stopped on the spot:

• The same number twice. A box scanned twice would count as two phones. Binhop refuses a number that's already in the list.
• A number already in stock. A phone can't arrive twice. Binhop refuses a serial that's already in stock, which also catches boxes that were returned and put back in the wrong pile.

Receive and you're done

When the count matches, receive the purchase. Stock goes up by the number of serials, every phone is linked to the supplier and the date, and the whole delivery is one change you can undo if something was wrong.

Why it pays off

• Selling the right phone. Scan the box at the counter and that exact unit leaves stock, linked to the customer.
• Warranty in seconds. A customer comes back with a faulty phone: search the IMEI and see when it was bought, from which supplier and when you sold it.
• Stolen or swapped phones. If someone tries to return a phone you never sold, the IMEI says so.
• Recalls. A faulty batch is a list of IMEIs; you see which ones are still on the shelf and who bought the rest. Read how lots and serial numbers differ.

See how serial number tracking works in Binhop.