UPC barcodesĪ universal product code (UPC) is for external use. SKUs for intangible products help you access details, such as services rendered or units of time spent on consultations, estimates, service calls, or repairs. You can scan SKU barcodes into inventory management software to analyze product quantity, purchases, or sales. Characters in the SKU represent details about your products or services.

It’s an 8-to-12-character alphanumeric code that represents a physical product or an intangible product. SKU barcodesĪ stock-keeping unit (SKU) is for internal inventory tracking.

Two types of 1D barcodes are SKU barcodes and UPC barcodes. Inventory management software can help you set up a barcode database system. (A barcode scanner could be a clunky piece of equipment, or even your smartphone.)įor a traditional barcode to mean anything, it must be linked to some kind of database. You’ll often find 1D barcodes on items like a bag of chips at the supermarket and other traditional consumer goods.ġD barcodes hold a limited amount of data, and they are read horizontally by a barcode scanner. When you think of an old-school barcode, you’re thinking of a 1D barcode. Here’s a little bit more about the types of barcodes used today.ġD (or one-dimensional) barcodes are linear. When your barcode reader scans a barcode, it interprets the unique sequences of bars, then performs the desired action. These bars represent the numbers 0 and 1 (binary digits)-and they are sequenced to represent any number from 0 to 9. Barcodes are a visual representation of data, displayed as a unique combination of parallel bars and spaces.

Museum inventory database for mac