For Australian warehouse and finance leads: one distributor's move from paper pick lists to NetSuite scanning, with setup steps and costs.
Last reviewed: 24 October 2026. Product details reflect this review date. Availability and behavior can vary by account, role and release.
NetSuite barcode scanning in Australia works best with NetSuite WMS and a handheld scanner at five points: receive, put away, pick, pack and count. Map each supplier's GS1 carton code to the item once. After that, every scan updates stock straight away. A hypothetical Melbourne distributor recovers its one off setup cost in about 15 months.
Key takeaways
Barcode scanning is the use of a handheld device to read a code on an item, bin, carton or order. NetSuite records the movement without anyone typing it. The scan fills the item, quantity, lot and expiry on the screen, and NetSuite posts the receipt, transfer or fulfillment in real time.
NetSuite gives you two ways to do this. They suit different warehouses, and many companies start with one and add the other later.
| Need | Bar Coding and Item Labels | NetSuite WMS |
|---|---|---|
| Print item labels from NetSuite | Yes | Yes |
| Read a code into an item field on a record | Yes | Yes |
| Guided mobile screens for receive, put away, pick, pack and count | No | Yes |
| GS1 codes with lot, expiry and serial details | No | Yes |
| Best fit | Small stockrooms, counter sales, simple receiving | Warehouses with bins, waves and many daily orders |
Bar Coding and Item Labels is a feature you switch on in your account. NetSuite WMS is an add on module with its own mobile app, so it appears as a line in your NetSuite quote. Our example uses NetSuite WMS, because the distributor runs bins and ships to retailers every day.
A hypothetical homewares distributor runs one warehouse in Melbourne's south east. It stocks 2,400 active items, employs 14 warehouse staff and ships about 4,000 orders a month to retailers and online customers. All amounts below are in AUD and exclude GST.
Before scanning, pickers work from printed pick lists. Receivers type quantities from supplier packing slips, which takes about two hours a day. Mispicks run at 1.2% of orders, or 48 a month. Each one costs about A$45 in return freight, a repick and a credit note.
The EOFY stocktake is the hardest week of the year. The warehouse closes for two eight hour days, and 10 staff count every bin on paper. That is 160 hours of counting before finance can value stock at 30 June.
The team walked the dock before buying anything. Most supplier cartons already carried a GS1-128 code holding a 14 digit GTIN, the global trade item number that identifies a carton of a product. Pallets from the larger suppliers carried an SSCC, the serial shipping container code that identifies one pallet.
Single units carried the 13 digit code shoppers see at the checkout. Two retail customers also asked for SSCC labels on the pallets they receive. That told the team two things. They would scan existing codes, not print new ones, and their label design had to include outbound pallet labels.
The team set up and tested everything in a sandbox account first, using real supplier labels. A good rule of thumb: if a carton label fails in the sandbox, it will fail on the dock on a Monday morning.
For lot items, the GS1 code carries the lot in application identifier 10 and the expiry date in identifier 17. NetSuite reads both into the lot and expiry fields during the scan. Pickers can then take the earliest expiry first.
NetSuite WMS runs on Android 7.0 or later and on supported iPhone and iPad models. Each device needs a 1D scanner, a touch screen of at least 4 inches, Bluetooth and a wireless network connection. GS1 codes contain a special separator character called FNC1, so choose a scanner that passes it through. Where staff scan into a browser, use Chrome.
The team bought 8 rugged Android scanners for 14 staff across two shifts. A wireless survey found two dead spots at the back of the high racking, so they added access points there before go live.
An administrator with the WMS Warehouse Manager role handles the setup screens. Floor staff get roles limited to the mobile processes they use, so a picker never opens the receiving screens by mistake.
Training happened on the floor, not in a meeting room. Each process got a 45 minute session with real cartons, and one super user per shift took the questions in the first week.
Receivers open Receiving > Purchase Order and scan the PO number or a carton into the Scan/Enter PO # or Item field. NetSuite lists the open purchase orders for that item, and the receiver picks the right one. Each carton scan reads the alias and adds 12 units, with lot and expiry filled from the code. The receiver then posts the item receipt from the app.
Our post on NetSuite mobile receiving and barcode validation covers the tests to run on this screen.
The receiver opens Receiving > Putaway, scans the staging bin or the item, then scans the storage bin on the Enter To Bin page. Stock moves from the dock to its shelf in one transfer. If your bins are not set up yet, start with our guide to the Bin Management feature in NetSuite.
Pickers open Picking > Single Order Picking, scan the order number, then scan the bin and the item. NetSuite checks each scan against the pick task. A wrong item or wrong bin is stopped on the spot, before it reaches a carton. When the task is done, the picker taps Go to Staging and scans the outbound staging bin.
With pick cartons turned on in the WMS system rules, pickers scan a carton label as they pick. At the pack bench, packers confirm each carton and print the shipping label from your shipping setup. NetSuite creates or updates the item fulfillment as orders are staged, based on your fulfillment preference.
Counters open Inventory > Cycle Count, scan the plan number, then scan each bin and item. NetSuite compares the count to the expected quantity, and a supervisor reviews any variance before the count posts. The team counts fast moving items every month and slow items every quarter.
Clean item data makes every one of these steps faster. The item and stock load order in our NetSuite data migration guide applies in any market, including the step where codes are added to each item.
The rollout took 10 weeks from the dock walk to go live. These are the one off costs, excluding the NetSuite WMS subscription, which comes from your own NetSuite quote.
| One off cost | Amount |
|---|---|
| 8 rugged Android scanners at A$1,800 | A$14,400 |
| 2 label printers at A$1,200 | A$2,400 |
| Wireless access points for the back racking | A$6,000 |
| Partner setup, testing and training | A$24,000 |
| Total | A$46,800 |
Three months after go live, the team priced its yearly savings. It used a loaded labor cost of A$40 an hour.
The yearly saving is A$38,280, or about A$3,190 a month. The one off cost of A$46,800 is paid back in about 15 months. Add your WMS subscription to see the full payback for your account.
Three issues came up, and each one took less than a day to fix.
A 15 minute stand up at the start of each shift kept the list short. By week three, the super users had nothing new to report.
Correct receipts help your BAS. When the item receipt matches the vendor bill, the bill passes the three way match on time. The GST credits you claim at label 1B then reflect goods you actually received. Fewer bills sit on hold at quarter end.
The ATO expects you to value trading stock at the end of each income year, using cost, market selling value or replacement value for each item. A scanned count gives finance a dated, bin level record to support that value. Confirm the valuation method with your tax adviser. Our NetSuite EOFY checklist for Australian finance teams shows where the count fits in the June close.
At CuriousRubik, we plan scanning as a process change first and a device purchase second. CuriousRubik's NetSuite implementation team can design your scan points, set up NetSuite WMS and train your floor staff. Our NetSuite Australia page explains how we work with Australian businesses from the first workshop to go live.
You can test your readiness in an afternoon, before you talk to anyone about devices.
How Australian distributors run purchasing, stock and fulfillment in one NetSuite account.
The warehouse requirements to agree before you configure NetSuite WMS.
How to set up lot tracking and pick the earliest expiry first.