Back Order (Stock Assignment)

For the Other Action Menu options (press F9 or ) see Sales Invoice Other Actions Menu.

1 Overview
- 1.1 Example
- 1.2 Stock Assignment Hierarchy
2 Back Orders (Stock Assignments) Tab
3 See Also

Overview

The [ Sales Invoice | Detail | Back Orders (Stock Assignment) ] tab is designed to give the user the ability to use currently held stock to reach optimum stock fulfilment for customers orders:

Stock items that have been assigned to an order with a delivery date that is far in the future can be used to fulfil sales orders with shortages and that have more imminent delivery dates.
A large quantity of stock items that have been assigned to a single sale order can be used to fulfil a number of smaller sales orders with shortages.

Example

The following example shows how the user can manage the stock to maximise order fulfilment and customer satisfaction.

There are ten golf clubs in stock and eleven sales orders that contain the golf club. One order for ten golf clubs was placed first but is being paid for by cheque, so has a future delivery date of approximately a week. Ten other orders, each for one golf club, have been paid for by cash.

The functionality available on this tab allows the user to unassign the stock from the larger order, then assign it to the ten smaller orders so they can be shipped. The large order is being paid for by cheque and the user may be able to get a delivery of the golf clubs from a supplier before the delivery date of the sales order.

Stock Assignment Hierarchy

When stock is booked in on a Delivery Note, stock is assigned to back orders using the following hierarchy:

Items on a sales order that are associated with a Purchase Order.
The system will then allocate the stock to the sales orders with the oldest delivery date first.

Back Orders (Stock Assignments) Tab

The [ Sales Invoice | Detail | Back Orders (Stock Assignment) ] is the first reactive area to aid managing stock fulfilment before using the [ Sales Invoice | Detail | Back Orders (Purchase Ordering) ] screen to order the shortfall of stock.

Proactive stock management is managed from the [ Stock | Reordering | Reordering (Standard) ] tab utilising the Safe and Minimum stock levels held against stock items in their [ Stock | Detail | Properties ] tab.

The [ Sales Invoice | Detail | Back Orders (Stock Assignment) ] tab has four different areas. These are:

Filters

The following filters control the information displayed in the grid:

Customer ( / traffic light filter): filters the grid so only stock items that relate to a specific customer's orders are visible. To filter by a specific customer click the button to open a customer lookup dialog.
Sales Order Code ( / traffic light filter): filters the grid so only stock items that relate to a specific sales order are visible. To filter on a specific sales order, enter the sales order reference number and click the GO button.
Associated Ref : filters the grid so that only stock items that relate to a sales order with a specified associated reference will be visible.
Stock Code ( / traffic light filter): filters the grid so only a specific stock item is visible. To filter on a specific stock item click the button to open a stock lookup dialog.
Supplier ( / traffic light filter): filters the grid for items that can be purchased from a specific supplier. Click the button to open the supplier lookup dialog.
Note: all stock items that can be purchased from that supplier will be returned, regardless of whether they are the preferred supplier or not.
Stage ( / traffic light filter): filters the grid, limiting the results to those sales order that are currently within the selected stage within the Staged Processing screen of Sales Invoice Manager.
Classification ( / traffic light filter): displays stock items that have been ordered for customers associated with a specific company class.
Dates:
- Date Type: allows the user to determine whether the date range (below) uses the Order Date, Delivery Date or Required Date of the sales order.
- Date Range ( / traffic light filter): the date range to filter on.

Checkboxes

In Stock Items
- TICKED: the grid will only be populated by stock items that are in stock, even if they are fully assigned and no more are available for sale. It will not include stock items that are completely out of stock.
- UNTICKED: stock items that are completely out of stock will be included in the grid.
Unassigned Items
- TICKED: the grid will only be populated by back order items that are not fully assigned.
  Notes:
  1. If the figure in the Assign column is not equal to the figure in the Sold column then the stock item is not fully assigned to the corresponding order.
  2. Lines without a full stock assignment will be highlighted in red unless the back order item has been manually postponed, in which case it will be highlighted in yellow.
- UNTICKED: the system will display all stock items for all unissued or part-shipped sales orders regardless of whether they are fully assigned or not.
Hide Disabled Stages:
- TICKED: any back order items on sales orders that are held in disabled stages (for BO viewing) in [ Sales Invoice | Details | Staged Processing ] will not be displayed. Stages are enabled and disabled for BO viewing using the 'Show BO checkbox' in [ Sales Invoice | Other Action Menu | Edit Process Path ].
- UNTICKED: any back order items on sales orders that are held in disabled stages will be displayed.
  Note: if the Show BO is ticked then the stage is enabled for Back Order viewing and if it is unticked then the stage is disabled for back order viewing.
Hide Postpone Assigned
- TICKED: the grid will only be populated with items that have not been postponed and can be managed.
- UNTICKED: the grid will include all back order items including those that have been postponed.
Hide Stock Items With Undelivered BOPO
- TICKED: the grid will only return items that do not have any undelivered back-to-back back order / purchase orders outstanding.
- UNTICKED: the grid will include all items with undelivered back-to-back back order / purchase orders.

Status Panel

This Status Panel displays the overall stock levels for the sales order associated with the line currently focused on in the grid, detailing the following for the entire order:

SO Code: the Sales Order Code for the sales order that the user is currently focused on in the grid. The status of the order is denoted by either:
- : the sales order is fully assigned.
- : the sales order has items on back order.
Items: the total number of individual stock items that have been ordered on the sales order.
Assigned: the total number of stock items that have been assigned to this sales order.
Unassigned: the total number of stock items that are on back order for this sales order.

Potential to Build

This displays the potential to build for the currently selected item in the grid. It will display the following:

N/A if the stock item is not a build parent.
0 if the stock item is a build parent, but there is no potential to build according to the availability of child items.
The potential number there is to build based on the availability of child items.
Note: This field needs to be enabled in [ System Operations | Edit System Values | Sales | Backorders ].

Grid

The data for each sales order detail line that has been filtered will be displayed on the grid. The background colours for the lines are:

not fully assigned.
stock assignment postponed.
fully assigned.

Information regarding each back ordered stock item is displayed in the following columns:

!: the Invoice Priority associated with the sales order.
Inv Stage: the current stage in the [ Sales Invoice Manager | Staged Processing ] where the sales order is currently located.
Stock:
- Code: the stock item's stock code.
- Description: the stock item's description.
- Availability: the text from the 'Availability' field from the stock item's [ Stock | Details | Properties ] tab.
Stock Levels:
- Order: the quantity currently on outstanding purchase orders for the stock item.
- Sold: the quantity of stock that has been ordered or the remaining quantity on a part shipment.
- Assign: the amount of stock that is currently assigned to this order. If this is less than the Sold field then the line will appear highlighted in red (see colour legend).
- BO: the amount of stock that is currently on back order for this sales order. This is calculated as Sold - Assign = BO.
- Sent: the quantity of the stock item that has already been shipped to the customer on the corresponding sales order.
- Avail: the amount of stock that is available for assignment to sales orders.
- Outstanding: the quantity not yet sent.
  Note: if a stock adjustment has taken place (for example the warehouse has performed a stock take) the system will not automatically assign stock to sales orders with back order requirements (assuming that the stock adjustment increased the level or stock. The user would need to use this tab, and particularly this column, to review the stock position and assign stock to the sales orders as required.
Sales Order:
- Code: the code of the sales order code that the stock item is on.
- Customer PO: the customer's Purchase order reference number as entered on the [ Sales Orders | Detail | Main ] or [ Sales Order | Details | Payments ] tabs.
- Order Date: this is, by default the date the sales orders was created [ Sales Orders | Details | Main ] tab.
  Note: it is possible for a user to edit this field.
- Required By: set by the user within the [ Sales Orders | Details | Additional ] tab.
- Delivery Date: as entered on the [ Sales Orders | Detail | Main ] tab of the sales order.
  Note: this date can be calculated by the system or manually set by the user.
Customer:
- URN: the companies or customer's Unique Reference Number.
- Name: the companies or customer's name.

Grid Configuration

The following columns can be added into the grid using Grid Configuration. They are hidden by default. Please see Grid Configuration for more details:

Stock Levels:
- Unassociated: The Unassociated quantity is the quantity of items that will be added to the stock level after delivery and that will then be available for general sale. It is worked out as;
  On Order + Available - Associated
  Associated is the total unallocated qty from sales order items lines that are associated with purchase order item lines.
Sales Order:
- User: Will display the user that created the Sales Order for that item line.

The user must have permission to be able to configure grids in [ System Data | Users | User Permissions ].

Context Menu

Goto Stock Item: opens the [ Stock | Details | Properties ] tab for the stock item that the user is currently focused on.
Goto Customer: opens the [ Customer | Detail | General ] tab for the customer that user is currently focused on.
Goto Sales Invoice: moves the user to the [ Sales Invoice | Detail | Staged Processing ] tab for the line the user is currently focused on and inserts the sales order's code in the 'SO' find box and filters the grid.
Goto Sales Order: opens the [ Sales Orders | Details | Main ] tab for the sales order that the user is currently focused on.
Show Expected Supplier Deliveries Ctrl+ Shift+Q: opens the On Order List Dialog detailing expected supplier deliveries for the item the user is currently focused on.
View Stock Associations: opens the Back Order Associations dialog listing all the purchase orders linked to back orders for the stock item currently focused on. The user can break the association for an item between a purchase order and sales order, see How To: Break the Association between a Sales Order and Back Order/Purchase Order.
Print Outstanding (All): the general Outstanding Items report that can be printed and sent to customers to advise them of their back ordered items. This option prints the report for all items.
Print Outstanding (Selected Customer): customer specific Outstanding Items report that can be printed for individual customers. The report will be printed for the customer that is relevant to the item that the user right-clicks on.
Exclude from Back Order: this function has effectively been superseded by the Lost Demand - One Item and Cancel Remaining Quantity functionality; it should be used only rarely in a live system, if at all. Excluding a sales order line from the Back Order report is a permanent action that cannot be undone.
Note: 'Exclude from Back Order' stops the selected sales order line from being included on the back order report until such time as:
1. The sales order line is removed (using either the Lost Demand - One Item or Lost Demand - Whole Order function);
2. The sales order has any outstanding items cancelled (using the 'Cancel Remaining Quantity' function) or;
3. The sales order has stock assigned to it.
Filter by Current Stock Item: filters the grid exclusively on the stock items that the user is currently focused on.
Filter by Current Sales Order: filters the grid exclusively on the sales order that the user is currently focused on.
Filter by Current Customer: filters the grid exclusively on the customer that the user is currently focused on.
Colour Legend: displays pop-up that explains colours used in the grid.
Clear Selection: deselects the currently selected line(s).

Action Panel

Assign from Other Site: the user can assign stock from alternative sites to fulfil focused on or green-selected lines within the grid. You can setup passwords so that the user has to enter a password when assigning stock from different sites, see How To: Assign Stock from a Different Site. This option also gives the user the ability to partially assign stock from other sites.
Assign Stock Item: automatically assigns available stock to the item(s) currently focused on or green-selected line(s) in the grid.
Manual Unassignment: un-assigns a user-defined number of stock items from the item(s) currently focused on or green-selected line(s) in the grid.
Manual Assignment: assigns a user-defined number of stock items to the item(s) currently focused on or green-selected line(s) in the grid. Manually assigned stock will be taken from the site that the user is currently logged into.
Postpone Assignment: flags the item(s) currently focused on or green-selected line(s) in the grid as being postponed. No further stock can be assigned to the order, either manually, or by Khaos Control whilst it is flagged as postponed. Clicking this option when a postponed item is selected will remove the postponement.
Show Sites: opens an additional grid on the right-hand side of the screen showing stock levels at all sites (for multi-site users).

Hints & Tips

Optimising the grid for analysis

This simple query and sort as described below will help to show the user possible stock reassignments en-masse.

Untick the 'Unassigned Stock', 'In Stock Items', 'Hide Postpone Assigned' checkbox.
Tick the 'Hide Disabled Stages' checkbox.
Click the 'Go' button.
Click on the 'Description' column to sort in an ascending manner (1-3,A-Z sort) or focus in the column and press Ctrl+D.
Hold Shift and click on the 'Delivery Date' column to sort in an ascending manner (1-3,A-Z sort).
Hold Shift and click on the 'Sold' column to sort in an ascending manner (1-3,A-Z sort).
Hold Shift and click on the 'Assign' column to sort in an ascending manner (1-3,A-Z sort).
Review.
Note: The Ctrl+D to sort a column only work with a single sort and will not work with multiple sorts.