Standing Order Creation
Table Of Contents
Standing Orders allow Khaos Control to automatically generate sales orders for individual customers based on a predefined schedule.
Before using this functionality, we strongly recommend reviewing the behaviour of Standing Orders against your intended business process. Standing Orders provide basic automated order generation and may not cater for every operational requirement.
Standing Orders are configured against individual customer records and then generated using the Standing Order generation process.
For setup instructions, see:
Warning: Always test any Standing Order configuration before using it in a live environment to ensure orders are generated as expected.
Key Features and Limitations
Understanding the following rules will help ensure Standing Orders behave as expected.
Delivery Days
Saturday Deliveries
To generate Standing Orders for Saturday deliveries, the following System Value must be enabled:
Sunday Deliveries
Sunday deliveries are not supported.
If a Standing Order falls on a Sunday, Khaos Control automatically moves the delivery date to the next available working day, typically Monday, unless Monday has been configured as a Non-Working Day.
Non-Working Days
Standing Orders do not ignore Non-Working Days.
After generation, Khaos Control adjusts delivery dates according to any configured Non-Working Days.
As a result:
- Multiple orders may end up with the same delivery date.
- Orders are not automatically merged when this happens.
- Delivery dates may be later than originally configured.
Order Combining Rules
Orders That Are Combined
Items are combined into a single sales order when they originate from the same Standing Order configuration day or date.
Orders That Are Not Combined
Orders will remain separate when:
- They originate from different Standing Order schedules.
- One order is based on a day of the week and another is based on a day of the month.
- Different Standing Orders result in the same delivery date because of weekends or Non-Working Days.
For example:
- A Monday Standing Order will not be combined with a Standing Order scheduled for the 1st of the month even if both produce the same delivery date.
Delivery and Order Dates
Delivery Date
The delivery date is normally set to the target day configured on the Standing Order.
If that date falls on a Non-Working Day, Khaos Control adjusts it to the next available delivery day.
Order Date
The Order Date is automatically calculated from the Delivery Date.
The Order Date is typically set to the day before the scheduled delivery date, regardless of when the Standing Order was actually generated.
The actual generation date can be viewed in the Tracking tab of the generated Sales Order.
No Automatic Forecasting
Khaos Control does not automatically increase quantities or combine deliveries to compensate for:
- Weekends
- Bank Holidays
- Non-Working Days
All Standing Orders are still generated individually and then assigned the next available delivery date if required.
Daily Processing Requirement
Important: The Standing Order generation process should be run every day.
If the process is not run on a scheduled day:
- Any missed Standing Orders will not be created retrospectively.
- Running the process later will not generate previously missed orders.
Required Sales Order Fields
If any mandatory fields have been configured within:
Standing Orders cannot be created automatically and an error message will be displayed.
Day of Week Processing
Standing Orders configured by day of the week follow specific generation rules.
Thursday Processing
Running the generation process on Thursday creates Standing Orders due for Friday delivery.
Friday Processing
Running the process on Friday creates Standing Orders due for:
- Saturday
- Sunday*
- Monday
- Tuesday
This allows for weekend and bank holiday processing.
*Sunday deliveries are not supported and will be moved to the next available working day.
Monday Processing
Running the process on Monday normally creates no day-of-week Standing Orders.
The exception is where Friday's process was not run, in which case Tuesday's orders may be generated.
Day of Month Processing
Day-of-month Standing Orders behave differently from day-of-week Standing Orders.
Example 1
If the process is run on 7 April, Standing Orders scheduled for delivery on the 8th of the month will be generated.
The generated order will:
- Have a delivery date of 8 April.
- Have an order date one day earlier.
Example 2 - Saturday Delivery Disabled
If Allow Saturday Delivery Dates is not enabled and a Standing Order is due on a Saturday:
- The order is generated.
- The delivery date is moved to the following working day.
Example 3 - Saturday Delivery Enabled
If Allow Saturday Delivery Dates is enabled:
- The order retains its Saturday delivery date.
Important Limitation of Day-of-Month Orders
The system checks the last Standing Order it generated when determining whether a new order should be created.
This can occasionally prevent expected orders from being generated.
Example
- A Standing Order exists for the 6th of each month.
- The schedule is changed to the 2nd of each month.
- The system finds an existing Standing Order generated on the 6th during the previous month.
- Khaos Control assumes a Standing Order has already been generated for the current period.
- No new Standing Order is created for that month.
- Generation resumes normally the following month.
When changing day-of-month schedules, always test the behaviour to ensure it meets your expectations.
Pausing Standing Orders
Standing Orders can be temporarily suspended without deleting them.
For instructions, see:
Special Processing for Fridays
Additional processing takes place when the Standing Order generation process is run on a Friday.
This is intended to provide basic handling for:
- Weekends
- Bank Holidays
However, this logic only applies on Fridays.
Example
If your business is closed on a Wednesday and Wednesday has been configured as a Non-Working Day:
- Thursday's Standing Orders will not be generated automatically on Tuesday.
- The Standing Order process must still be run on Wednesday for those orders to be created.
Stock Assignment to Standing Orders
Default Behaviour
By default, stock is automatically assigned when a Standing Order is generated.
This means generated orders can progress through the workflow immediately.
Optional Behaviour
Automatic stock assignment can be disabled.
When disabled:
- Generated orders automatically move into the future stages of the Sales Invoice Manager.
- Stock must be allocated manually using the [ Sales Invoice | Back Orders (Stock Assignment) ] screen.
If you want to change the default stock assignment behaviour, contact Khaos Control Support.
Best Practice
To avoid unexpected results:
- Run the Standing Order generation process every day.
- Review Non-Working Day settings regularly.
- Test all new Standing Order configurations before using them in production.
- Pay particular attention when using day-of-month schedules.
- Verify delivery dates around weekends and bank holidays.
- Review generated orders regularly to ensure they align with your operational requirements.