> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://help.tillit.cloud/tillit/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://help.tillit.cloud/tillit/knowledge-base/track-and-trace/before-you-begin.md).

# Before you begin

Before setting up the track and trace functionality in TilliT, it's important to ensure that you have the following prerequisites in place:

1. **Good understanding of TilliT**: Familiarize yourself with TilliT as a comprehensive MES and Digital Operations platform. Understand its features, modules, and capabilities, including its basic configuration and setup.
2. **End-to-end basic configuration complete**: Ensure that you have completed the basic configuration setup in TilliT, this includes setting up your production lines, workstations, and resources as assets, configuring materials or components that will be used in production, defining orders or jobs that represent the production tasks, and setting up activities or operations that need to be performed during production.
3. **BOM/Order components setup**: Make sure that you have properly configured the Bill of Materials (BOM) or Order components in TilliT. This includes defining the structure and hierarchy of your products, associating materials or components with their respective products, and setting up any dependencies that may be relevant for track and trace.

Having these prerequisites in place will ensure that you have a solid foundation for setting up and leveraging the track and trace functionality in TilliT effectively.

It will enable you to accurately capture, record, and trace the movement and location of materials or products throughout the production and supply chain process, and gain real-time visibility and traceability to optimize your operations and meet regulatory or customer requirements with confidence.

{% hint style="info" %}
TilliT supports both manual traceability (where operators scan/nominate exact batches using an Inventory Key) and automatic inventory rotation strategies (FIFO/LIFO). Setting up strategies allows automatic batch consumption based on oldest or newest stock, simplifying operator tasks on the line.
{% endhint %}