Placing a new order

This page walks you through the order form, field by field, so you can ask the warehouse to ship your goods. It also explains how to choose the lot of a product. It is for client users whose warehouse has turned on the Place outbound orders switch.

Who can use this

You need the Place outbound orders switch, in the Administer box of your Portal access. Without it there is no New order button, and if you reach the form some other way you see You don't have access to this section. Ask your warehouse to turn it on.

How to start an order

• Go to Sales > Sales orders and click New order at the top right of the page. The button is not on Closed Sales orders.
• Or, on the Dashboard, click New order in the header.

The form opens with the small heading Sales Order and the title New order. Under the title, one line counts what you have entered so far, for example "3 lines · 25 units · 3 SKUs": the lines that have a product, their total quantity and the number of different Products. The form has three tabs: Details, Addresses and Lines.

The New order form, Details tab.

The Details tab

Order header

Choosing the customer

Click the Customer box. It lists your own Customers by name, with the customer code next to it. Type part of a name or a code to search: the search covers all your Customers, however many you have. Click a customer to choose it. The clear button in the box empties it. Leave it empty if the order has no customer; you can still place the order.

Shipping

Your warehouse's shipping rules work from your customer and the ship-to postal code (and the Ship via, when you pick one). When Shipping method is on Automatic and Carrier and Service are empty, the rule fills them in, and it also sets whether the delivery needs a signature or a count. Anything you choose or enter yourself takes priority.

There is no field for the ship date. The warehouse records it when the order ships, and you see it on the order's page.

The Addresses tab

The Addresses tab.

Ship to

This is where the goods go. All boxes are optional.

• If the customer you chose has saved addresses, a list called Ship to appears at the top. It starts on -- enter manually --. Choose a saved address by its name and the portal copies it into the boxes below. You can still edit the boxes after it fills them.
• The saved-address list appears only if you can also see Customers (the View Customers switch). If it does not appear, type the address by hand.
• If you change the Customer after you filled in the address, the list goes back to -- enter manually -- but the boxes keep what they had. Check them.

Bill To

Optional. Use it only if the invoice for the goods goes to a different party. The portal does not fill it in for you.

You can place an order without a customer and without an address, but the warehouse needs to know where to ship it, so fill in the ship-to address or tell the warehouse another way.

The Lines tab

The lines are the Products and quantities you want. A new order starts with one empty line.

The Lines tab with one line filled in.

• Click Add line to add another line. If you remove every line, the table says No lines yet. Add a product to get started.
• Nothing is saved until you place the order. Adding and removing lines only changes the form.
• Lines with no product, or with a quantity of 0 or empty, are left out when you place the order, without a warning. Check that every line you want is filled in.

Choosing the lot

Some Products are kept in lots, for example by production batch or expiry date. For these Products you never type a lot number: you choose from the lots the warehouse really holds for your company in the order's warehouse. You do not have to choose at all.

• Any lot is where every line starts, and it is the right choice most of the time. The hint under it says what happens: The warehouse picks, oldest expiry first.
• To ask for a specific lot, click Any lot in the Lot column. The picker opens and lists each lot with its expiry date and what is available, for example "Expires Jan 05, 2027 · 120 available", or just "960 available" for a lot with no expiry date.
• Tick a lot. Its quantity box starts at everything the lot has available. Type the quantity you want from that lot. The box never goes above what the lot has available and never below 0: if you type more, the box shows the most you can have.
• You can tick several lots on the same line, each with its own quantity. The line's Quantity becomes their total, and the closed picker shows the lot and its quantity, or for example "2 lots · 130 units".
• To go back to letting the warehouse choose, tick Any lot again (every lot is unticked) or untick each lot. You can then type the line's quantity again.

The lot picker with two lots chosen. The second lot was asked for more than it holds, so the box shows its 120 available units.

Good to know:

• Choose the Warehouse first. The lots belong to a warehouse, so the picker appears only once the order has one. On a new order, choosing a different warehouse clears the lots you picked, because the other warehouse holds other lots.
• Choosing a different product on a line clears its lots too.
• When you place the order, each lot you picked becomes its own order line. A line with three lots becomes three lines on the order's page.
• An expired lot is never listed. Neither is a lot that expires sooner than the product, your customer or your warehouse allows before shipping, which is the same rule the warehouse follows when it reserves stock.
• Because a customer can require a longer shelf life, choosing or changing the Customer reads the lots again. Lots you already picked stay picked; if one no longer qualifies, the portal tells you when you place the order.
• Availability can change while you work: another order may use the stock first. If a lot no longer has enough when you place the order, the portal tells you and nothing is saved (see the messages below).

Place the order

1. Choose the Warehouse.
2. Fill in the other fields you need on the Details and Addresses tabs.
3. On the Lines tab, add each product and its quantity, and choose lots if you need specific ones.
4. Click Place order at the top right.

While the order is saving, the header shows that it is working. If everything is correct, the message Order placed. appears and the new order's page opens.

To leave without placing the order, click Cancel. It takes you back to the orders list without asking you to confirm, and nothing you typed is kept. The back arrow next to the title (Back to orders) does the same.

What happens next

• The system gives the order its number. You see it in the heading of the order's page and in the Order number column of the list.
• The order starts in the state Draft, and the page says The warehouse will release it to the floor. A draft is not yet released to the warehouse floor: the warehouse reviews it and releases it, and then the state changes. Until that happens, nothing is picked.
• While it is Draft or Unallocated, you can still change it. See Changing an order.

If an order is urgent, tell your warehouse so they can release it promptly.

Messages you may see

Reasons you may see after Could not save the order:

• "Lot [L24065] is not available for [CHI-0004] in [1001].": the lot you picked has no stock left for you in that warehouse. Open the picker again and choose another lot, or Any lot.
• "Lot [L24065] of [CHI-0004] has only [80] available in [1001]. Pick another lot for the rest.": the lot has less than you asked for. Lower its quantity and tick another lot for the rest.
• "Product [ABC-100]. Quantity [0.5] is not valid, it must be at least [1]": the product is sold in whole units. Use a quantity of 1 or more, with no fraction.
• "Product [ABC-100]. Quantity [0] is not valid, it must be greater than [0]": the product is handled by weight or length. Type a quantity above 0.
• "Product [id] does not exist": the product is not one of your company's Products. Remove the line and choose the product again.

Related pages

• Changing an order
• Order statuses
• Viewing your sales orders