Copy Serial No. Information

Overview

The Master Data Copy Serial No dialog is a guided options screen that appears before the serial number copy process runs. It allows users to duplicate an existing Serial No. Information record — including its master data specifications — into one or more new serial numbers. The new serial numbers can be assigned to a different item, given a different description, and sequenced by auto-incrementing from the entered base number. After the user confirms their selections, the underlying copy report executes silently and a message confirms the result.

This dialog is the serial number equivalent of the Master Data Copy Lot No dialog, with two structural differences: it is a StandardDialog (rather than a Card page) and it has no number series support — new serial numbers are always generated by incrementing the previous one using INCSTR.

When Is This Page Used

This dialog opens automatically when a user triggers the Copy Serial No action from the Serial No. Information Card or Serial No. Information List. It is not opened in isolation — it always runs in the context of a specific source serial number. The user reviews and adjusts the copy options, then clicks OK to run the copy, or Cancel to abort.

Typical scenarios include creating a new serial number with the same specification profile as an existing one, or seeding a batch of sequentially numbered serial records with a shared set of master data attributes in one operation.

Who Are Typical Users

• Warehouse / Inventory Manager — creates new serial numbers based on an existing serial number's specification profile.
• Quality Manager — copies a tested or certified serial number's attributes to a related new serial number to avoid re-entering identical specification data.
• Production Planner — seeds a run of sequentially numbered serial records from a template serial number.

Accessing the Page

The Master Data Copy Serial No dialog has no UsageCategory and is not searchable from the Business Central search menu. It opens exclusively via the Copy Serial No action, available on:

Source Page	Action Name
Serial No. Information Card	Copy Serial No (standard BC action, extended by the Master Data Information app)
Serial No. Information List	Copy Serial No (standard BC action, extended by the Master Data Information app)

When the action is triggered, the app creates or updates the user's copy-settings record in the database, then opens this dialog in modal mode. Clicking OK runs the copy report immediately; clicking Cancel discards all changes.

Page Components

All fields are presented within a single General group. Fields that apply only when Create New Serial No. is enabled are indicated below.

Fields

Source Identification

Field	Purpose	Example	Key Information
Item No.	Shows the item that the source serial number belongs to.	1000, BIKE-RED-L	Read-only — pre-filled from the serial number selected when the action was triggered. Cannot be changed in the dialog.
Serial No.	Shows the source serial number whose data will be copied.	SN-2024-00001	Read-only — pre-filled from the serial number selected when the action was triggered. Cannot be changed in the dialog.

New Serial No. Options

Field	Purpose	Example	Key Information
Create New Serial No.	When enabled, new Serial No. Information records are created as the copy destination.	Yes / No	Reset to No (disabled) each time the dialog opens — unlike the Lot No dialog, which always resets to Yes. The user must actively enable this before other destination fields become editable. Enabling activates Create new Quantity, New Serial No., New Description, and New Item No.
Create new Quantity	The number of new serial numbers to create in a single operation.	1, 5, 10	Reset to 1 each time the dialog opens. Only editable when Create New Serial No. is enabled. When set to more than 1, each serial number is generated by applying INCSTR to the previous one (e.g., SN-001 → SN-002 → SN-003). Unlike the Lot No dialog, there is no number series support — INCSTR is always used and is applied unconditionally after every iteration. If the New Serial No. does not end with a numeric character and Create new Quantity is greater than 1, the report raises an error and stops.
New Serial No.	The serial number for the first (or only) destination record.	SN-2024-00002	Reset to blank each time the dialog opens. Only editable when Create New Serial No. is enabled. No assist-edit or number series lookup is available — the number must be entered manually. Leave blank to assign a blank serial number to the new record (not recommended for multi-record creation).
New Description	An optional description to apply to the new serial number(s) instead of copying the source description.	Replacement Unit	Up to 50 characters. Reset to blank each time the dialog opens. Only editable when Create New Serial No. is enabled. If blank, the source serial number's description is carried over.
New Item No.	Optionally assigns the new serial number(s) to a different item than the source.	1001	Pre-filled with the source item number each time the dialog opens. Only editable when Create New Serial No. is enabled. When changed, the new Serial No. Information records are linked to this item instead.

Master Data Information

Field	Purpose	Example	Key Information
Copy Master Data Informations	Master switch for all master data copying. When enabled, Information Entry records (table 6504 – Serial No. Information entries) are copied from the source serial number to each new serial number.	Yes / No	Enabling activates all sub-options below. Disabling clears all sub-option checkboxes. Even when disabled, the copy report still consults the Copy Master Data Action rules — individual Information Codes marked as Always Insert in those rules are copied regardless of this setting.
Copy Information Values	When enabled, the Information Value option code is copied from each source Information Entry.	Yes / No	Only editable when Copy Master Data Informations is enabled. When disabled, Information Entry records are created on the new serial number with a blank Information Value, unless an Always Insert rule overrides this for specific codes. Also controls whether language record content is transferred when Copy Master Data Language is active — see below.
Copy Values	When enabled, the typed Value field content is copied from each source Information Entry.	Yes / No	Only editable when Copy Master Data Informations is enabled. Can be overridden per Information Code by Always Insert or Always Skip rules in Copy Master Data Action.
Copy Description	When enabled, the Description text field is copied from each source Information Entry.	Yes / No	Only editable when Copy Master Data Informations is enabled.
Copy File Placement	When enabled, the File Placement field content is copied from each source Information Entry.	Yes / No	Only editable when Copy Master Data Informations is enabled. Copies the file path or reference only — does not physically duplicate the file in external storage. Caption on the table field is Copy File Placement (not Copy Attachment as in the Lot No and other copy dialogs).
Copy Extended Text	Present on the page but not implemented in the current version of the copy report.	Yes / No	The field exists on the page and the underlying table, but the copy report contains no logic that reads this flag. Enabling it has no effect on the copy output.
Copy Master Data Language	Controls copying of Master Data Language records.	Yes / No	Only editable when Copy Master Data Informations is enabled. Important: In the current version of the copy report, the logic for this field is inverted — language records are copied when Copy Master Data Language is set to No, and are not copied when it is set to Yes. When language records are processed, the content transferred depends on Copy Information Values: if enabled, the full language record is transferred; if disabled, only the Table and Information Code are carried over.

Note on Copy Master Data Action rules: The serial number copy report applies a matching lookup against the Copy Master Data Action table (rules with Table = 6504) before deciding whether to copy each Information Entry. A matched rule can force an Information Code to always be inserted or always be skipped, override the Information Value and Value copy behaviour, and remap the destination Information Code and Information Value. See the Copy Master Data Action page documentation for full details.

Actions

This dialog has no custom actions. The standard StandardDialog OK and Cancel buttons control execution.

What the Copy Report Does

When OK is clicked, the SCB Master Data Copy Serial No report runs immediately. The copy iterates once for each unit of Create new Quantity:

1. Determines the next serial number. On the first iteration, NewSerialNo is set to the value of New Serial No. On subsequent iterations, INCSTR is applied unconditionally to the previous serial number to generate the next one. If the serial number does not end with a numeric character and quantity is greater than 1, the report raises an error and stops.
2. Creates the new Serial No. Information record (if Create New Serial No. is enabled) by transferring all fields from the source serial number, then applying the new serial number, new item number (if specified), and new description (if specified).
3. Copies Information Entry records (table 6504) linked to the source serial number, filtered by KeyField3 = source serial number. Each entry is evaluated against Copy Master Data Action override rules and the dialog's sub-option flags for Information Value, Value, Description, and File Placement.
4. Copies Master Data Language records — when Copy Master Data Language is set to No (see the inversion note above), language records for the source serial number are copied to the new serial number, respecting Copy Information Values for content.
5. After all iterations complete, shows the message "Serial Number Updated."

Note on disabled Create New Serial No.: If Create New Serial No. is unchecked, the report attempts to locate an existing Serial No. Information record using the source item and serial number — and raises an error only if it does find a match. This logic appears inverted compared to expected behaviour. Since Create New Serial No. must be enabled for any useful output, this path is rarely encountered in practice.

Default Setup & Templates

The dialog stores copy settings per user in the SCB Masterdata Copy Serial no table (keyed by User ID). Each time the dialog opens, the following fields are always reset:

Field	Reset Value
New Serial No.	Blank
New Description	Blank
Create New Serial No.	No (disabled)
Create new Quantity	1

All other options (Copy Master Data Informations and sub-options) retain their values from the user's last session.

No default copy-settings records are created by the extension's installation. The first time a user triggers Copy Serial No, a new settings record is created for their User ID with all Boolean options defaulting to No.

Related Pages

Copy Master Data Action

The Copy Master Data Action page (UsageCategory = Administration, accessible from Master Data Information Setup) defines per-Information-Code override rules that interact with the lot copy process. Rules set on this page can force specific Information Codes to always be inserted or always be skipped during the copy, independently of the Copy Master Data Informations dialog option. They can also remap an Information Code or Information Value to a different code on the destination lot. These rules apply to all copy operations against table 6505 (Lot No. Information), not only to this dialog.

Accessing the Page

The Copy Master Data Action page has UsageCategory = Administration and is directly searchable from the Business Central search bar. It is also accessible via the Copy Master Data action from:

Source Page	Action Name
Master Data Information Setup	Copy Master Data
Information Code List	Copy Master Data
Information Code Card	Copy Master Data

All access paths open the page unfiltered, showing rules for all tables and Information Codes.

How Rules Are Applied at Runtime

When a tracking number copy report processes an Information Entry, it calls ForceMasterDataCopy before deciding whether to copy each specification. The lookup uses a waterfall match — progressively relaxing filter criteria until a matching rule is found:

1. Exact match — filters on Table + Information Code + Information Value + Value.
2. Relax Value — if no exact match, removes the Value filter and searches again.
3. Relax Information Value — if still no match, also removes the Information Value filter and searches on Table + Information Code only.

The first matching rule found controls the behaviour. If no rule matches, the copy falls back to the user's dialog settings entirely.

When a rule is matched, two additional effects occur regardless of the action flags:

• The Description field is cleared on the copied entry.
• The File Placement field is cleared on the copied entry.

If New Information Code or New Information Value are filled on the matched rule, the destination entry is created with those remapped codes instead of the source codes.

Page Components

Fields

Each row defines one override rule. The primary key is Table + Information Code + Information Value + Value, meaning there can be at most one rule per exact combination.

Field	Purpose	Example	Key Information
Table	The BC table number that the rule applies to.	6505 (Lot No. Information), 6504 (Serial No. Information)	Plain integer — no lookup or validation. Enter the table number directly. Rules are only evaluated by copy reports that pass the matching table number to ForceMasterDataCopy. Supported values in the current version: 6505 (Lot No. Information), 6504 (Serial No. Information), and the table number for Package No. Information. Entering any other table number has no effect.
Information Code	The Information Code the rule applies to.	CERTIF-STATUS, QUALITY-GRADE	Validated against the SCB New Information Code table, restricted to codes with Subtype = Specification. Configuration-type and other subtypes cannot be used as rule targets.
Information Value	Optionally restricts the rule to entries where the Information Value matches this code. Leave blank to match all Information Values for the specified Information Code.	PENDING, PASSED	Validated against the SCB Information Value table filtered to the selected Information Code. When blank, the runtime relaxes the match to Information Code only (waterfall step 3).
Value	Optionally restricts the rule to entries where the typed Value field matches this code. Leave blank to match regardless of Value.	HIGH, CLASS-A	When blank, the runtime relaxes the match to exclude Value from the filter (waterfall step 2).
Information Code Action	Controls whether the Information Code itself is always copied or always skipped during the copy operation.	(defer to dialog), Always Insert, Always Skip	Always Insert — the Information Entry is copied regardless of whether Copy Master Data Informations is enabled in the copy dialog. Always Skip — the Information Entry is not copied regardless of whether Copy Master Data Informations is enabled. Blank — defer entirely to the copy dialog setting.
Information Value Action	Controls whether the Information Value is always copied or always skipped, independently of the Copy Information Values dialog option.	(defer to dialog), Always Insert, Always Skip	Only evaluated after the Information Code Action has been resolved as not-skip. Always Insert — the Information Value is copied even if Copy Information Values is unchecked in the dialog. Always Skip — the Information Value is not copied even if Copy Information Values is checked. Blank — defer to the Copy Information Values dialog setting.
Value Action	Controls whether the typed Value field is always copied or always skipped, independently of the Copy Values dialog option.	(defer to dialog), Always Insert, Always Skip	Only evaluated after the Information Code Action has been resolved as not-skip. Always Insert — the Value is copied even if Copy Values is unchecked in the dialog. Always Skip — the Value is not copied even if Copy Values is checked. Blank — defer to the Copy Values dialog setting.
New Information Code	If filled, the destination Information Entry is created with this code instead of the source Information Code.	CERTIF-STATUS-NEW	Validated against SCB New Information Code (Subtype = Specification). Leave blank to keep the source Information Code unchanged. Applied before the new entry is inserted.
New Information Value	If filled, the destination Information Entry is created with this Information Value instead of the source Information Value.	NOT-TESTED	Validated against SCB Information Value filtered to New Information Code (or the original Information Code if New Information Code is blank). Leave blank to keep the source Information Value unchanged, subject to the Information Value Action setting.

Actions

This page has no custom actions.

Default Setup & Templates

No default Copy Master Data Action records are created by the extension's installation. All rules must be configured manually based on business requirements.

Related Pages

Master Data Copy Lot No

The Master Data Copy Lot No dialog (Card page, opened from Lot No. Information Card and Lot No. Information List) is the primary consumer of these rules for lot number copying. Rules with Table = 6505 are evaluated during every lot copy operation.

Master Data Copy Serial No

The equivalent copy dialog for serial numbers. Rules with Table = 6504 are evaluated during every serial number copy operation.

Master Data Copy Package No

The equivalent copy dialog for package numbers. Rules with the Package No. Information table number are evaluated during every package number copy operation.