The difference between GTIN code, Item Reference and GS1-128 barcode

So first of all, we’ll look in Business Central for an example, if I open my item number 5000, the item number is a field in Business Central that I can determine by myself, I can call him whatever I would like to up to I think it’s 30 characters or 20 characters.

That’s the normal item number, the GTIN number, the Global Trade Item Number has to be a 14 digit number that you define for your item.

And typically, the prefix will be a number series, which is locked to your organization, and then the remaining is your item number.

So this number is unique per item that’s the Global Trade Item Number. If you enter the item reference table that was used to call the cross reference table, you can define reference numbers in here and they don’t have to be 14 characters.

So for instance, you could for yourself, just enter a barcode with whatever numbers you want.

And it can be letters and numbers and everything. And you can say that your customer has whatever item numbers, etc, and a different unit of measures.

So there’s what we call item references, and there’s no rules about the length of those numbers.

And the last thing the GS128 barcode. It’s a barcode that contains several information. So one barcode does not display as a barcode, but just numbers. Of course, you will see it as a barcode on a pallet label or whatever.

And this contains information on both item numbers, batch number, serial numbers, etc, depending on what you put into it.

And there’s many definitions you can create Gs128 barcode out of all different kinds of information.