MYOB Acumatica Barcode Scanning and Warehouse Management: What Is Built In

MYOB Acumatica has barcode scanning built in. With the Warehouse Management feature enabled, eight warehouse operations run on a barcode scanner or the MYOB mobile app: pick and pack, wave picking, batch picking, receive and put away, issue, transfer, receipt and stocktake counting. It reads GS1-128 and GS1 DataMatrix barcodes, so one scan can fill the item, lot, expiry date and quantity.

At a glance

• Who it is for: Australian wholesalers, importers and manufacturers on MYOB Acumatica (called MYOB Advanced until 2024), or shortlisting it, who still pick from printed paper and key receipts in by hand
• Problem it solves: mis-picks, receipts keyed a day late and stocktakes that close the warehouse, all of which come from stock moving without the system being told at the time
• Platforms: MYOB Acumatica, in the browser and in the MYOB mobile app
• Typical cost: no public price. The scanning functions are switched on as features inside MYOB Acumatica, and your partner’s quote confirms what your licence covers. Scanners, label printers and setup time are extra. Implementation ranges are in our MYOB Acumatica cost guide
• Typical timeline: usually set up as part of a distribution implementation, which runs three to six months for most projects per our timeline guide
• Last verified: 8 October 2026 (MYOB Acumatica help: automated warehouse operations)

Most distributors we meet assume scanning means buying a separate warehouse management system (WMS) and integrating it. Sometimes it does. More often the functions they need are already in MYOB Acumatica, sitting behind feature switches nobody turned on during the original implementation. This post sets out what is built in, how it works on the floor, and where the built-in tools stop.

What barcode scanning does MYOB Acumatica include?

MYOB’s help documentation lists the warehouse operations you can run on a scanner or a mobile device with scanning support:

• Pick and pack. Picking and packing the items for a single shipment.
• Wave picking. One picker collects several shipments in one pass, sorting into a tote per shipment.
• Batch picking. Items for many orders are picked in bulk and sorted at the packing bench.
• Receive and put away. Receiving against a purchase order to a receiving location, then putting stock away to storage locations.
• Issue, transfer and receipt. Stock issued out, moved between locations or received in without a purchase order.
• Stocktake counting. Counting against a physical inventory document by scanning locations and items.

Each one has its own screen with a single scan box, and the same screens appear in the MYOB mobile app. Workers move between modes by scanning command barcodes. Scanning @pack, for example, switches from picking to packing and keeps the same shipment selected, so nobody has to touch a keyboard between steps.

How does a scan-based pick, pack and ship work?

The picking and packing workflow runs on one screen called Pick, Pack, and Ship. In practice it goes like this.

1. The picker scans the shipment number on the pick list. The lines appear on the device.
2. At each bin, the picker scans the location barcode, then the item barcode. The system finds the matching line and counts the pick.
3. A line shows in bold when it is partly picked and turns green when it is complete.
4. If the scanned barcode is for a carton or other non-base unit, the system converts it to the base unit quantity.
5. At the bench, the packer scans the box, scans each item into it and confirms the package. Weight can be confirmed per box if you need it for freight.
6. The packer confirms the shipment. With a print service configured, the shipment confirmation and labels print automatically.

Two settings decide how strict this is. Short shipment confirmation can be set to forbid, so a picker cannot confirm a shipment until every line is picked, or to allow it with a warning. And a scan log keeps the last two weeks of operations on the screen, which is where you look when a customer says the wrong item arrived.

Which feature switches turn on what?

Nothing above appears until the right features are enabled. This is the part most often missed, because a system implemented for finance first may have Warehouse Management switched off entirely.

Whether each of these is in your licence is a question for your MYOB quote, so check it line by line before you plan around a feature.

How do receiving and stocktakes work with a scanner?

On the receive and put away screen, the worker scans the purchase order number and the system creates the purchase receipt. Each item scanned is counted against the order. If more arrives than was ordered, the system asks for confirmation and adds the extra as a separate line that is not linked to the purchase order, which keeps over-deliveries visible instead of buried.

You can also add a second pair of eyes. With receipt verification turned on, the warehouse worker confirms quantities but cannot release the receipt. A manager reviews and releases it. That matters when receipts feed straight into accounts payable matching.

Stocktakes follow the same pattern. The counter scans the count document, then a location, then every item in it. MYOB’s documentation is direct about the precondition: scan-based counting assumes all stock items and locations in the warehouse are barcoded.

Does MYOB Acumatica read GS1 barcodes?

Yes. MYOB’s documentation states that GS1-128 and 2D GS1 DataMatrix barcodes are supported. These are the barcodes that carry more than a product number. MYOB Acumatica reads the application identifiers for the Global Trade Item Number, batch or lot number, serial number, best before date, expiry date and quantity.

The practical effect is that one scan of a supplier’s carton label can fill the item, the lot number, the expiry date and the quantity on a receipt. If you hold dated or regulated stock, that is the difference between lot tracking people keep up with and lot tracking people skip. Our post on MYOB batch tracking covers the tracking side.

If your products have no barcodes yet, GS1 Australia is the body that issues the numbers retailers accept. For internal bin and shelf labels you do not need GS1 numbers at all, and our free barcode label generator will print them.

What to get right before you buy scanners

The software is rarely what holds a scanning project up. These five things are.

• Location barcodes. Every bin, shelf and receiving bay needs a label and a matching location in the system. Scanning does not work in a warehouse with one location called Main.
• Item barcodes. Each stock item needs its barcodes recorded, including carton and inner barcodes with their units of measure.
• Pick path. Pick lists are ordered by a path value on each location. Walk the warehouse and number the locations in the order a person would move through them.
• One picking method. Decide between per-order, wave and batch picking before go-live. Wave suits many small orders. Batch suits a few items across many orders.
• A baseline. MYOB Acumatica has a picking and packing efficiency inquiry showing time spent, lines processed and errors per pick list, by user. Capture a few weeks of it so you can see whether the change worked.

“Scanning projects go wrong in the racking, not in the software. If the bins are not labelled and the item barcodes are not loaded, the scanner beeps at everything and the team is back on paper within a week.”

Bill Alvarez, Practice Manager, Auboros

When do you need a dedicated WMS instead?

The built-in tools are directed scanning workflows. They tell the system what moved, where and when, and they cover picking, packing, receiving, transfers and counting. For a single site, or a few sites with a manageable order volume, that is typically enough.

A dedicated WMS earns its cost when the warehouse itself needs optimising: automated slotting, labour planning across shifts, conveyor or robotics control, or third-party logistics billing by client. Those systems integrate with MYOB Acumatica, and the integration becomes a project of its own with its own upkeep. Start with what is built in, measure it, and add a WMS when you can name the specific thing the built-in tools cannot do.

Wholesalers with a standard flow can also look at MYOB FastStart for wholesale distribution, a fixed-scope 12 week program. Ask the delivering partner which warehouse features are in scope before you assume scanning is included. For the wider question of what a distributor should expect from an ERP, see our page on ERP for wholesale distribution in Australia.

Goes well with

• MYOB inventory management: where MYOB Business and AccountRight stop and MYOB Acumatica starts
• MYOB batch tracking: lot numbers, expiry dates and recall traces
• How much does MYOB Acumatica cost in Australia?

Planning barcode scanning in MYOB Acumatica?

We are a MYOB Acumatica partner in Brisbane working with distributors and manufacturers across Queensland and the rest of Australia. If you are still picking from paper, book a free consultation and we will walk through which warehouse features your system already has, what needs labelling first, and whether the built-in tools will carry your volume.