How To: Associate Stock for Future Orders
Table Of Contents
You can associate stock arriving on future Purchase Orders with Sales Orders that have future delivery dates. This allows existing stock to remain available for more urgent customer orders while ensuring that future orders receive stock from a specific incoming Purchase Order.
If existing stock has already been assigned to those future-dated Sales Orders, it must first be unassigned.
Important: While a Sales Order remains postponed, existing stock will not be allocated to it. Instead, stock will only be allocated from the associated Purchase Order when it is received.
Step 1: Unassign Existing Stock
Use the [ Back Orders (Stock Assignment) ] screen to remove existing stock allocations and prevent reassignment.
Remove Current Stock Allocations
- Open the [ Back Orders (Stock Assignment) ] screen.
- Green-select the lines you want to unassign.
- Click the Manual Unassignment button.
- When prompted, enter a quantity that is greater than the highest assigned quantity on any of the selected lines.
- Click OK.
Prevent Automatic Reassignment
- With the same lines still selected, click the Postpone Assignment button.
- The selected lines will turn yellow.This indicates that stock assignment has been postponed.
- Highlight the first postponed line.
- Use the context menu to open the associated Sales Order.
Step 2: Create a Purchase Order Association
Once the Sales Order is open, you can link the required stock items to a specific future Purchase Order.
Associate the Sales Order with a Future Purchase Order
- Locate the postponed stock item.Note: Postponed lines are highlighted in yellow.
- Right-click the stock item.
- Select:Stock Assignment → Back Orders → Create Associations
- In the association window, select the Purchase Order that will be supplying the stock.
- Confirm your selection.
- Repeat these steps for any additional lines or Sales Orders that need to be linked to future Purchase Orders.
What Happens Next?
Once an association has been created:
- Existing stock will not be allocated to the Sales Order.
- The Sales Order remains linked to the selected future Purchase Order.
- Other orders for the same stock item can continue to use existing stock while the associated Purchase Order remains outstanding.
- When the linked Purchase Order is received, the stock is allocated to the associated Sales Order.
As long as the Sales Order remains postponed, only stock from the associated Purchase Order will be considered for allocation.
Example Scenario
You have:
- 100 units currently in stock.
- A future-dated Sales Order requiring 50 units next month.
- An urgent Sales Order requiring 50 units this week.
- A Purchase Order due to arrive next month.
By postponing stock assignment and creating a Purchase Order association:
- The urgent order can use the stock currently available.
- The future order waits for the incoming Purchase Order.
- Stock is allocated according to business priorities rather than delivery date alone.
Additional Information
- Postponed lines are displayed in yellow for easy identification.
- Associations can be created for individual stock lines.
- Existing stock remains available for immediate demand.
- Purchase Order associations are particularly useful when managing seasonal stock, large customer orders or limited inventory.