Sales · Daily operations · 7 min read

Deliver an order

Promise delivery dates, get the delivery order out of Inventory, and follow partial deliveries and back orders.

Before you begin

• The order is confirmed. A draft delivery order was raised automatically.
• Warehouse staff validate deliveries in Inventory; Sales shows the result.
• Rules from Sales > Configuration > Settings apply: Shipping policy, Under-delivery tolerance % and Over-delivery tolerance %.

Steps

Promise delivery dates

1. Open the order and go to the Availability tab.
2. Read for each line what is available now, what is available to promise and the earliest date.
3. Enter a Promised date per line. It cannot be earlier than the order date.
4. Press Promise these dates.

You see "Delivery dates promised." and the delivery order's scheduled date follows the promise. If stock changed since you loaded the tab, the system refuses: 'Availability has changed since these dates were worked out. Check it again, then promise.'

Raise a missing delivery order

1. Press the Deliveries smart button on a confirmed order that has none (for example because it was confirmed before warehouses were set up).
2. In the dialog choose Ship from and press Raise the delivery order.

A second attempt is refused: 'This order already has a delivery order.' If the chosen warehouse holds nothing from the order: 'Nothing on this order can be picked from that warehouse: ...'.

Deliver from Inventory

1. The warehouse user opens Inventory > Deliveries, opens the draft delivery and validates the quantities.
2. The order's Delivery status changes to Partially delivered or Fully delivered, and stock and the cost-of-sales journal are posted by Inventory.

Deliver without a delivery order

If the company has no warehouses, press Deliver on the order. The order becomes Delivered and a delivery journal is posted. If stock is short: 'Insufficient stock for <CODE>: available n.'

Partial deliveries and back orders

Say an order has 10 units and the warehouse ships 6. The warehouse creates a back order for 4. Delivery status shows Partially delivered. When the back order is validated the status becomes Fully delivered.

Tolerances work like this. With over-delivery tolerance 10% and under-delivery tolerance 5% on an order of 10:

• Shipping 11.5 is refused: 'Only 11 may ship against 10 ordered - the over-delivery tolerance is 10%.'
• Shipping 9.6 closes the line without a back order.

If the shipping policy is When all products are ready, a partial delivery with a back order is refused: 'This company ships orders complete. Deliver everything, or cancel what will not ship.'

What happens next

• The Delivery & invoicing tab shows per line the Ordered, Delivered, Returned, Invoiced, Credited, To deliver and To invoice quantities.
• If the invoicing policy is delivered quantities, the delivered quantity is now available to invoice. See Invoice an order.
• Sales > Reporting > Delivery performance compares promised and delivered dates (on time, in full, OTIF).

Good to know

• Fulfilment can be From our stock, By each product's route or Drop-ship from a supplier. For a drop shipment, a supplier can be named on the order. If the company requires evidence, validation is refused until the supplier's shipment reference is entered: 'Enter the supplier's shipment reference (waybill or tracking number) to confirm the drop shipment.'
• Services never ship. A line with a Warehouse set on a service is refused.
• To drop what will never be delivered, use Cancel open balance on the Changes tab (Change a confirmed order).
• If a customer-credit re-check is switched on, a delivery can be refused with a credit message and the order put on hold. See Confirm an order and handle credit holds.