Sage 100

v2017. The user enters a master sales order for 600 units of an item. A standard sales order is created from the master order for 125 units. When the order is picked, only 100 units are in stock. An invoice is created for the 100 units. The master order shows 475 remaining to ship, We expect to see 500 units remaining to ship on the master sales order. Is there something not configured correctly, or is the user not processing the orders and/or invoices correctly?

Is the Sales Order backordered for 25?

And if not, Is the item set to allow backorders?

The item is set to allow backorders. I have tested backordering and not backordering the item and it doesnt seem to make a difference. In this case the item is not backordered.

I know this issue can be worked around by changing the quantity ordered on the standard sales order to the quantity picked prior to creating the invoice...... but that is a ridiculous option.

The master order goes to 475 when the SO is created if I am correct. I could see Sage not being smart enough to put them back in the master order if you don't invoice the entire sales order. I have not experienced or testing. Just what I would expect before even testing.

If the backorder qty is still on the std order issued off the master, the back order is accounted for and the master correctly reflects the qty issued to std sales orders. If the std sales orders is not tracking the backorder, then yup, it's not working. Did someone clear the back order?

@MoiraGoggin They don't create back orders. Maybe they should. I have tested back ordering at the sales order and at the invoice data entry stages. It doesnt seem to make a difference. It seems that Sage 100 only used the quantity ordered from the sales order to reduce the quantity remaining on the master order. If anyone is getting different results I would love to learn your process.

@LarryBradford I believe what you are suggesting about Sage being smart enough to use the invoiced quantity to update the master order is correct. Not good! They are keeping track on an Excel spreadsheet of the MO quantities remaining to ship because they can't rely on the accuracy of the master order quantities remaining to ship.

@DougHiggs you mean the customer set the option for back orders off, or Sage isn't making a backordered sales order when there is a partial shipment of a standard order that is referenced to a master order? I just tested in v 5.30.5 worked fine for me, I have a back ordered standard order that was created with a master order. May be v 2017 issue?

Yes, I see that you can backorder when a sales order is entered. If the quantity available is accurate then the quantity picked and invoiced should be accurate and everything will work out fine. However, if the backorder during sales order entry and then pick and ship a different quantity then then master order reflects an incorrect quantity remaining. Then they really have a mess. I can't believe the master order doesn't get checked and corrected if necessary to reflect the quantity shipped

I see your point Doug and agree it would be great to have both, yet, they did title the Master Order field ""Ordered To Date"" so it's hard to say they were misleading. :)

You can set shipping options to disallow changing the qty on backorder so a shipper can't modify the qty that falls into backorder status because it wasn't shipped. I have a user who goes round and round with this as well when the shipper seemingly changes the backorder to - 0 - and frankly, it's procedural to the customer. We shut down the ability for the shipper to modify the backorder quantity then they ask for it to be turned back on for some other reason. I think you need to control this at the shipper level first then secondly at the customer service/order entry procedural level. What should Sage do if you release 125 - then only 100 is shipped and during shipping, the shipper has the ability to backorder 0. How does Sage determine whether the shipper should be authorized to modify the order and have the 25 flow back onto the master order or if the intent is to (cancel) those 25? I think different companies will handle it differently. That's what the backorder status allows for. In the current workflow, I think that Sage manages it properly and the issue is that the customer isn't using backorders. If someone releases 125 to a sales order I think it's a reasonable assumption that there is a current need to ship all 125. The ones that don't ship go to backorder where they can be tracked as still awaiting shipment. If the customer is releasing 125 and then finding they only have 100 perhaps they need to look at their inventory accuracy too (cycle count, etc) Most larger companies they don't want the shippers making any decisions other than how to ship quickly and accurately. If you turn off the ability for a shipper to modify the backorder qty then I think you would preserve the integrity though it won't still be on the master order because someone initially called for 125 of that order to ship. The difference falls through to backorder status.

Thank you Wayne for your input. I like the idea of tracking backorders too. This customer has lots of master orders, and their inventory is generally very accurate. This issue, where the quantity remaining to ship on the master order is incorrect, only occurs once in a while. It occurs enough that they are concerned, and want to know if either there is a bug in the software, or if they are doing something in the process incorrectly. This was an ROR change to me about three years ago. I upgraded them from 3.74 two years ago and they are currently on 2017. They don't use shipping data entry. Picking tickets are returned to the office for invoice data entry. The inaccuracy occurs when, occasionally, there is a difference in quantity available and what is picked. I have a telephone conference / remote access session with them tomorrow to review this issue. I am going to find out why they never backorder, and why they aren't using shipping data entry.

Follow up to my meeting today with the customer. They don't backorder and never have.... probably never will. The reason is if the customer requests 200 to be shipped and there are only 190 in stock, the customer doesn't want an LTL container showing up two weeks later with only the 10 backordered items on it. They would have to hold the 10 until the next big order came in and send the 10 with the new ""big"" order. They feel this would be too difficult to manage.