Item Backorders

When an item is entered on a sales or purchase order line, the program copies the original order quantity to a quantity to handle (the specific name of the field is either Quantity to Ship or Quantity to Receive, depending on the transaction) field and a quantity to invoice field. This gives you the ability to handle and invoice a transaction as two separate steps. When the item is shipped/received, the inventory quantity of that item is adjusted by the number in the quantity to handle field. When the item is invoiced, the inventory value is adjusted by the amount in the quantity to invoice field.

An order can not be completed until the full order quantity on every line has been handled and invoiced.

Short Quantities

It may be that the quantity of an item that is processed is less than the original order quantity. For example, a customer places an order for 100 cases of an item, but you only have 70 cases on hand. Rather than wait for the remainder of the item to be available, you may decide to ship the 70 cases now.

The way in which the remainder is handled depends on the circumstances of the order. If the customer requires the full amount of the item, then the additional 30 cases can be backordered and sent as a separate shipment. However, it may be that the customer does not backorder items, in which case the total order amount is reduced to 70 cases.

Backorder Options

You can change the value in a sales or purchase order's quantity to handle field to a lesser value than the original order quantity. When this happens, the program displays a message asking if you want to backorder the remaining quantity. Depending on how you answer this question, the program will update the document line in different ways:

• If you choose to backorder the remaining quantity, the order quantity remains the same. When you post the shipment/receipt, the program will update the quantity to handle field with the difference between the posted quantity and the order quantity.

Using our previous example, if we had a sales order quantity of 100, changed the quantity to ship to 70, backordered the remainder, and then posted the shipment, the sales line would show a quantity shipped of 70 and a quantity to ship of 30.

• If you choose to not backorder the remaining quantity, the program updates the order quantity to the same value as the quantity to handle. This is because an order can not be completed until the full order quantity has been handled.

Using our previous example, if we had a sales order quantity of 100, changed the quantity to ship to 70, and did not backorder the remainder, the program would update the order quantity to 70. When we post the shipment, the full order quantity will be posted.

The program will not allow you to post a backordered sales order line if the "shipping advice" value for the document is set to Complete.