aACE can help you manage back orders when shipments are short due to low inventory. Once the system preference is enabled, aACE watches for inventory replenishments and automatically creates outgoing shipments to fill the waiting back orders.
Enable back order management
To enable back order management, activate the system preference in the Order Management screen.
- From the main menu: System Admin > Order Management.
- Check the box next to Enable back order management.
- Close the screen.
Configuring automation schedules
To configure back order automation schedules, navigate to System Admin > Automation Schedules > Schedule Setup. Check the On flags next to Primary Backorder Process, Incoming Shipments and Secondary Backorder Process, Available Inventory.
How it works
When an order's shipment is marked as shipped, aACE compares the expected number of inventoried items against the actual number of items in the shipment. When a shortage appears, aACE asks if the order should be marked with a back order flag. If so, aACE will watch for the replenishing inventory to come in. When it does, a new shipment record generates waits to be picked and shipped.
Example
In our example below, we have an order for 533 gadgets. So far, nothing has shipped.
Let's say that during the shipment process we find that we only have 500 gadgets in inventory. We decide to ship those to our customer and leave 33 back ordered.
When the shipment is saved, a dialog asks if you want to mark the items as back ordered. For our example, we click yes.
aACE marks the order with the back order flag and waits for more gadgets to arrive.
When the new inventory arrives and is processed, a new shipment is created automatically for the remaining 33 gadgets.
Here is a view of the pending shipment. Notice that it auto-fills with 33 gadgets, the amount remaining on back order.
Once the final shipment is processed, the back order flag is removed and the order shows completely filled.
