Sales order mass allocation

You can reserve some or all items at a stock site or clear all stock reserved at a site. Reserving stock as soon as the orders are placed is a good way of ensuring the items are available rather than reserving stock later on the sales shipments.

When a mass allocation or deallocation job is completed, whether it is scheduled or not, a notification displays in the Notification centre. From the notification you can go straight to the Allocation result page to check the results or the Batch task history page to track the technical history of the jobs.

User type

Manager

Employee
Permissions Full rights: Admin, Manager, Employee
Prerequisites

Sales order

Tip

When you perform a mass allocation or deallocation job, the Notification centre informs you when the results are ready. Access the Allocation result inquiry page from the notification to check the results.

Allocate or deallocate stock

You can only allocate stock to or clear stock from sales order lines when their status is Pending or In progress, and when their allocation status is Not allocated or Partially allocated. When stock is allocated to a line, you cannot close or delete the sales order. You need to clear the stock allocations first.

  1. Select the process to perform:

    1. To allocate stock to sales orders, select Allocation in the Action field.
    2. To clear stock allocations from sales orders, select Deallocation.
  2. Enter a description to help you identify the mass allocation or mass deallocation results set.
  3. You mass allocate or deallocate stock at a single site. You can either select the parent company then select a site that belongs to the parent company or you can select the site first. The parent company displays automatically if you select the site first.
  4. Enter the selection criteria to filter for the sales orders. You can select from a latest shipping date, items, customers, Incoterms® rule, delivery mode and from sales order references.
  5. Select Allocation or Deallocation. The action you need displays automatically.

    6. Go to the Allocation result inquiry page to view the mass allocation or deallocation results set.

    If the stock allocation failed and an error is displayed it could be that the posting failed to register the stock allocations. You can launch the automatic stock allocation again or manually allocate stock on the lines. If items are not stock allocated, it does not mean there’s an error but only that stock could not be allocated for reasons such as a shortage. The allocation is considered complete.

Schedule a generation task

You can also schedule mass sales order stock allocation or deallocation tasks. For large volumes, consider running the task overnight to improve progress and logging capabilities.

  1. Enter the selection criteria as described above to filter for the sales orders.
  2. Select Schedule.

  3. Select Run once to run the task once.

    Or select Recurring to run a recurring task.

  4. Select Next.
    1. Select a start date and time in the future. The time is in 24-hour format.

    2. Select Next.

      Job definition Mass auto allocation displays for information.

    3. Select Next.

      The settings related to the mass automatic allocation job are shown just for information. You do not need to edit anything.

    4. Select Finish.

      The task is scheduled and will start running according to your settings.

    1. Select Daily if you want the task to run once a day.

      Select Weekly if you want the task to run on a specific day or on specific days.

    2. At time is the time the job runs for each iteration. The time is in 24-hour format. For example, you can set the task to run each day at 23:00.

    3. Start date and Start time sets when the job can begin. For example, on 9 October at 08:00. You also have the option to set when you want the recurring job to stop, by entering a specific stop date and time. For example, 29 October at 22:00. It means this day at 22:00, the recurring job stops. It will have run on the selected days from 08:00 on 9 October to 22:00 on 29 October.

    4. Select Next.

      Job definition Mass auto allocation displays for information.

    5. Select Next.

      The settings related to the mass automatic allocation job are shown for information. You do not need to edit anything.

    6. Select Finish.

      The job is scheduled and starts running according to your settings.

You can track the technical history of allocation jobs on the Batch task history page.

Limitations

The sales order mass allocation functionality only updates sales orders and allocates the items from stock when you select Allocation. If stock was used for a different stock allocation transaction between entering your mass allocation selection criteria and selecting Allocation, the item stock allocation will fail due to shortages.

Working with mass sales order stock allocations

Refer to the list of questions in this section for guidance on how to use your Sage Distribution and Manufacturing Operations solution to carry out stock control tasks.

If I reserve stock on sales orders, can I change my mind and choose stock from different lots?

Yes. Mass sales order stock allocations are optional. On the Sales order page you can reallocate item stock to reserve it from different lots and locations. This can happen for example when stock passed inspection and quality control and is now available. You can also edit any allocated serial numbers.

To reallocate stock for an individual sales order line, select the More actions icon from the line then select Allocate stock. In the Detailed stock allocation window, edit the stock allocations. See Allocate stock and serial numbers on sales order lines for more information.

If you need to remove all the allocated stock for a sales order, from the More actions icon for the sales order select Deallocate stock. All your stock and serial number allocations for all order lines will be removed and you can select them again.

What method of stock control does the mass allocation or deallocation process use?

Stock is allocated to the selected sales orders from the first available lots using a FEFO or FIFO method which is determined by the expiry date management and lot management rules for each item.

If an item has an expiry date, the lots that are due to expire first are allocated first, according to FEFO rules. Stock is deallocated in the same order in which it was allocated.

If an item is lot or serial number managed without an expiry date, the oldest lots or highest serial numbers are allocated first, according to FIFO rules. Stock is deallocated in the same order in which it was allocated.