Override Backorder Reserves
On occasion it may be necessary to carry an inventory quantity in Backorder reserves (i.e. Qty Reserved BO) for some orders while also having the need to fill subsequent orders for the same part number.
By default, the system reserves the inventory on a FIFO basis, which is represented in the Qty Reserved BO "bucket". This means the orders that are entered first in sequence will have priority to any existing or new inventory.
The method illustrated below will allow you bypass the backorder reserves and to fulfill orders using reserved inventory while maintaining the overall correct quantity for backordered items.
One common scenario is illustrated here.
- Customer A places an order for 100 units of PN-ABC123.
- Customers B and C each place an order for 5 units of PN-ABC123.
- You only have 50 units of PN-ABC123 on the shelf.
At this point you have a decision to make:
- You could fill half of Customer A's order (fulfill 50 units, leaving 50 backordered) and leave Customers B and C waiting (5 units backordered for each).
- You could fill Customer B and C's orders in-full (fulfill 5 units each) and partially fill Customer A's order (fulfill 40 units, leaving 60 backordered).
In both cases above, you will need 60 more units of inventory to fill all 3 orders so at least one customer is not going to get their full order yet.
For the purposes of this article, we are addressing case B. All three customers will receive some inventory. Two of the three will receive their full order.
Setup
This setting can be enabled at either a global level or a per-user level.
System Configuration (global setting)
- Navigate to Administration > System Configuration.
- Select Sales Document from the drop-down menu.
- Find the setting for Allow Qty Reserve BO Override and double-click to set it to TRUE.
This setting will allow ALL users to override backorder reserves.
User Access Levels (per-user setting)
- Navigate to Administration > User Access Levels.
- Open the User record and go to the System Access tab.
- Find the setting for Allow Qty Reserve BO Override and double-click to set it to TRUE.
This setting will allow only selected users to override backorder reserves.
Sales Order Entry
With one of the above settings enabled, you will now be able to fulfill orders using inventory from Backorder reserves. When entering a Sales Order line item that can not be fully filled using Available inventory, you will see the message below.
- Avail + BO: This option allows you to fulfill the order using inventory from Qty Available (if any exists) and Qty Reserved BO.
- None: Selecting this option would mean the order will not be fulfilled. It will be backordered.
- Avail. Only: This option allows you to fulfill the order using inventory from Qty Available (if any exists) only.
In the scenario mentioned at the beginning of this article, it would work best to fill the smallest orders first since we want to leave Customer A's order only partially filled anyway.
We know we only have 50 units in stock and Customer A's order for 100 units is already on the books. During data entry for Customer B's order for 5 units you will see a message like the one below. We will select the first option (Avail + BO) so we can fill the smallest orders in-full. (Repeat for Customer C's order.)
