QR code inventory for donations

By Antony Delgado · Updated Oct 8, 2026

A QR code on every box turns a pile of packages into an inventory you can check with a phone: what it is, what it contains and what state it is in. This guide explains how it works, what the label must carry, and when a spreadsheet and a QR generator are enough.

What a QR code actually stores

It almost never stores the inventory: it stores a link with a unique code. Scanning it opens that box's record on the phone, and the detail lives there. That is why the QR does not go stale when the box changes state, and why what matters is not the QR but that the code is unique and that a record sits behind it.

In Araguaney each box's QR points to its record, and the codes cannot be enumerated: nobody can walk through the inventory by trying numbers.

How to set up a QR code inventory

1. 1. Give every box a unique code

   One box, one code. Reusing a code on two boxes is worse than having no label, because the record will say they are the same package.

2. 2. One box, one product, one batch, one expiry

   A QR only helps if the box is homogeneous: if it mixes products, the record cannot describe it. Split the donation by product, batch and expiry before labeling.

3. 3. Generate the QR and the label

   The label carries the QR, the written code (in case the QR gets damaged), the product, the quantity, the batch and the expiry. Araguaney generates it when the box is sealed, as a letter-size PDF with 10 labels per sheet.

4. 4. Stick the label on at sealing, not later

   In a rushed center nobody reopens a closed box to label it: it leaves with its label or without it. Print and stick it at the moment of sealing.

5. 5. Label the pallet too

   The pallet carries its own QR, visible and flat: if it ends up wrinkled under the wrap or facing the wall, someone will have to take the load apart to read it. The pallet label includes the humanitarian-donation, no-commercial-value legend.

6. 6. Scan to look up, not to type

   Each scan opens the box or pallet record: product, quantity, batch, expiry, state and history. Once the shipment is received at destination, the public record shows it as delivered.

When a spreadsheet with QR codes is enough

If there are only a few boxes and one person does the entry, a sheet with a code column and a QR generator works. It falls short when several people enter data at once, when expiry dates need watching, or when you need a packing list for customs: there, the record and the labels have to come from the same place. If you are starting with the sheet, this template already follows the one-row-per-box standard.

What the QR does not solve

Reading the record needs a connection, because the detail lives on the server. What can be captured without a signal is the receipt of donations. And a QR does not fix a bad entry: if the batch or expiry was captured wrong, the label will repeat it with full confidence.