Using the Serialize Transaction

Using the Serialize Transaction

This transaction should be used by an FFL who has serialized a firearm to record the first Acquisition of that firearm. NOTE: The Serialize transaction was specifically designed to serialize a single Manufacturer, Model, Type, Caliber firearm at a time, as that is how more manufacturing environments work. As such, the Serialize transaction will only process groups of the same Manufacturer, Model, Caliber, Type combination at one time.

Serialize & Acquire Firearms

Manual Entry

  1. Under the Standard Transactions heading, select Serialize, or, from any other screen click on Standard Transactions, and select Serialize from the dropdown menu.
  2. Prior to entering any information, verify the correct A&D Book is displayed in the Acquire to FFL/A&D field
  3. Select the date of serialization in the Physical Date field.  You may manually type in the date, or click the calendar icon and select the date.  This is the date that will write to the A&D Book for the date of Acquisition.  This date must equal the date the firearms were physically serialized, not the date which the User is performing the transaction
  4. Enter the quantity of firearms to be serialized in the Pre Count field.  If the quantity does not match the quantity of Serial Numbers added to the Transaction List, the transaction will not proceed.  The Pre Count field may be modified at any time while in the transaction
  5. Enter the firearm item details Note: These details can also be filled in using Part Master Data if desired:
    1. Item No. Required, may be any string of letters and/or numbers. Item numbers must be unique; duplicates are not permitted
    2. Manufacturer Required, name of firearm manufacturer. A drop down of common firearm manufacturers will appear; entries may be selected from this drop down or manually entered
    3. Country of Mfg Country of manufacture (i.e. US)
    4. Type Required, select from drop down menu of ATF recognized firearm types
    5. Model Entries may be selected from a drop down of common firearms models or manually entered
    6. Caliber/Gauge Required, entries may be selected from a drop down of common firearm calibers/gauges or manually entered. For any item without a caliber, "None" or a similar entry is acceptable
    7. 3310.12 Reportable Select to indicate if a rifle is subject to 3310.12 reporting. This form is used by licensees in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas to report all transactions in which an unlicensed person acquired, at one time during five consecutive business days, two or more semi-automatic rifles larger than .22 caliber (including .223/5.56 caliber) with the ability to accept a detachable magazine.
  6. Enter the Serial Number of the firearms to be serialized.  This may be done one at a time, or in a batch operation
    1. To input serial numbers individually, enter the serial number into the Serial Number field, then enter the serial number into the Confirm Serial Number field. The original Serial number field will be hidden.
    2. To input serial numbers in sequential batches, click the Batch Serial Number Processing switch to toggle batch processing on.  Input the Serial Number Prefix (if not applicable, leave blank), Starting Number for the serial number batch, Serial Number Suffix (if not applicable, leave blank), and the Quantity of firearms/serial numbers to be serialized. You may also toggle on the Batch Import feature, which will allow for typing, scanning, or copying and pasting serial numbers from a list. These serial numbers do not need to be sequential. PLEASE NOTE: Serial numbers input using this feature will all have the same Item Details as input in the previous steps, please verify all serial numbers entered match the Make, Model, and Type before adding the firearms to your list.
    3. Click Add Firearm.  This will add the Serial Number to the Transaction List to the right.
  7. Review the Serial Numbers in your Transaction List, the Firearm Details, and Physical Date prior to posting to the A&D book to ensure the accuracy of data.
  8. Once all information has been validated, click Save. This will process the Serial Number Acquisition and post the Acquisitions to the A&D Book.

Serializing Using Upload Transactions

The following instructions will show the steps for using the Upload Transactions Transaction to perform Serializations in bulk.  You will first need to click Upload Transactions under the Standard Transactions heading, select which eBound Book to upload the transactions to, then select Serialize to bring up the link to the Acquire or Dispose Template.  Download the template, then follow the instructions below.

Note: This transaction requires the Acquire or Dispose Template

Using the Acquire or Dispose Template, fill in the following data fields:

  1. Item No./SKU - Required
  2. Importer (if applicable)
  3. Manufacturer - Required
  4. Country of Manufacture (only required if Importer was indicated)
  5. Model - Required
  6. Caliber/Gauge - Required
  7. Type - Required (Must be selected from available options)
  8. Serial Number - Required
  9. Acquisition Date - Required MM/DD/YYYY format
  10. Acquisition Name
  11. Acquired From FFL Complete 15 character FFL, no dashes or spaces
  12. Acquired From Address Must match premises address as indicated on ATF issued License
  13. Acquired From City Must match premises address as indicated on ATF issued License
  14. Acquired From State Must match premises address as indicated on ATF issued License
  15. Acquired From Zip Must match premises address as indicated on ATF issued License
  16. Acquired from Country Must match premises address as indicated on ATF issued License
THE FOLLOWING FIELDS MUST BE LEFT BLANK:
  1. Disposition Name
  2. Disposed To FFL
  3. Disposed To 4473 Number
  4. Disposed To Address
  5. Disposed To City
  6. Disposed To State
  7. Disposed To Zip
  8. Disposed To Country
The Notes field is available for any notes related to the serialized items.

Once the template has been filled out with the above information, the file can be uploaded using the steps below.

Uploading Serialize Transactions

  1. Under the Standard Transactions heading click Upload Transactions, or from any other screen click on Standard Transactions, and select Upload Transactions from the dropdown menu.
  2. Under the heading Select Bound Book to Upload Transactions, select the eBound Book to which you would like to post the transactions.
  3. Under the heading Select Transaction Type to Upload, select Serialize.
  4. Select the Choose File button, the select the file that was filled out using the transaction data above.
  5. Click Upload to execute the data upload. Do not refresh the page. Once data upload is complete, the page will refresh and repopulate Serialize Upload History area.
The Upload History area contains the following information regarding data upload(s):
  1. Date/Time: Date and time of processing of data upload
  2. File Name: Name of file processed for data upload.
  3. Acquisitions: Count of rows of data successfully posted as acquisitions to the selected eBound book
  4. Dispositions: Count of rows of data successfully posted as dispositions to the selected eBound book 
  5. Errors: Count of rows of data not processed via the upload due to errors
  6. Results: Click to view exact results for data upload by row

Export Results of Serialize Transaction Uploads

  1. Select Upload Transactions under the Standard Transactions heading, or, from any other screen click on Standard Transactions, and select Upload Transactions from the dropdown menu.
  2. Under the heading Select Bound Book to Upload Transactions, select the eBound Book that your recent transactions were uploaded to.
  3. Under the heading Select Transaction Type to Upload, select Serialize.
  4. The Upload Transaction screen will update and display the results for historic data uploads. Click the Results button next to the specific upload you wish to view the results of.
  5. Upload results will download as CSV export file.

If any data fields (e.g. Serial Number, Zip Code) in the report contain leading zeroes (e.g., 001, 00900ADE, etc.), simply double clicking the file to open in most spreadsheet programs will drop those leading zeroes. This is a function of data in the spreadsheet program, not Orchid eBound Book. To avoid losing the leading 0's in Microsoft® Excel®, follow the steps below:
  1. Open Microsoft® Excel®. 
  2. Open the Text Import Wizard. 
  3. When the dialog box opens prompting the User to select the file to import, select the .csv file of the eBound Book export. 
  4. Select the Delimited radio button. Click Next. 
  5. In the Delimiters list, deselect the default delimiter (if applicable), and select Comma. Click Next. 
  6. In the screen which prompts the User to select the data format of each column, select the Serial Number column and click the Text radio button to format Serial Numbers as text. 
  7. Click Finish.
Other spreadsheet programs will require different steps, please research these steps BEFORE opening the file in your program.

The Serialize Results file will contain the Import information as provided in the data upload document, as well as a Results column to indicate the results of the upload.  If the data was rejected, the specific reason will be listed in the Results column.

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