My client runs a cattle farm and generates a unique code for each animal. He raises each bull for 3 months and sells it at the end of that period. Is it possible to automatically mark an inventory item as inactive after its sale?
No, Manager does not have any such automation.
In Manager inventory consists of identical items not a one of a kind item.
A single bull is not an inventory item.
You may need to supplement your accounting system with a stud management system.
Why would that be? In any case it would be simple to create a single inventory item called “Bulls” and when buying and selling them put a number in the item description and if no autonumbers are used in the reference fields of payments and receipts.
Running a stud is all about how the animal differ not how they are the same. It involves lots of data on individuals and their genetic relatives. That is not what accounting software does and it is not what what inventory in Manager was designed for.
I agree that Manager is not replacement for farm management software. However, as they surely represent assets you can list them for accounting purpose as I explained. Those having dairy cows should list these cows as fixed assets and not inventory items but bulls for slaughter or other purposes that are only kept for 3 months can better be recorded as inventory item.
Normally steers for slaughter, bulls for breeding in a stud. But you are correct I’m making an assumption.
I already tried to cover that caveat. You are right that we both made assumptions and that in for example the USA and many countries in Europe young bulls get castrated and become steers for meat.
Although all male calves are born and named as bulls in some places they castrate them before puberty to become more docile and grow faster and loose the typical scents and tastes associated with bull meat. However, in many countries and for example religions bulls are kept for meat too, because castration may be forbidden or undesirable for local tastes.