Introduction - Set up order promising
The Order Promising Setup page controls certain aspects of the Capable to Promise behavior. To access the setup page, select the search for page icon in the top-right corner of the page, enter Order Promising Setup, and then select the related link.
The Order Promising Template and Order Promising Worksheet fields specify the requisition worksheet template and the worksheet that you select for order promising.
The Offset (Time) field specifies the period from the current date that the program must wait before issuing a new purchase order, production order, or transfer order.
The Order Promising Nos. field specifies the code that identifies the number series that you select for order promising.
Purchase order promising definitions and calculations
Purchasing agents must know when the orders that they have placed with vendors will be received into inventory and will become available for picking.
When you create a purchase order, Business Central quickly calculates planned and expected receipt dates for the order by considering vendor lead time and other time variables. Alternatively, if you request a specific receipt date for the order, Business Central calculates the date on which you must place the order so that the vendor can fulfill your request.
Purchase order promising is based on calculations that involve several date and time fields.
Field definitions
The following list provides a brief description of the important fields on the Purchase Order Promising page:
Requested Receipt Date - The date when the company requests a vendor to deliver the order. You must manually enter this date to affect the date calculation.
Promised Receipt Date - The date when the vendor promises delivery of the order to the company. You must manually enter this date to affect the date calculation.
Planned Receipt Date - The date when the company plans to receive the order. This date calculates automatically.
Expected Receipt Date - The date when the company expects the put-away process to finish and when the items are available for picking. This date calculates automatically and affects item availability.
Order Date - The date when the item is ordered. If you are calculating backward from a planned receipt date, the order date is when the vendor must ship the items to meet the planned receipt date.
Inbound Whse. Handling Time - The time that is required to receive and put away the items of an order.
Lead Time Calculation - The time that is between when the items are ordered from the vendor and when the items are received by the company. This is also known or commonly referred to as the vendor lead time.
Safety Lead Time - The buffer period if delays occur in the purchase replenishment lead time. This affects the date when the items are available for sale.
Date calculation setup for purchase orders
To support date calculations for purchase order promising, set up the following parameters:
Inbound warehouse handling time - Specifies the time that it takes the warehouse to make an item part of available inventory after it has been received from suppliers. The program uses this time in combination with the safety lead time to calculate the expected receipt date from the planned receipt date.
Lead time calculation - Specifies the time that it takes to replenish the item between the order date and the planned receipt date. If the program calculates forward from the order date, it uses this time value to determine the planned receipt date. If the program calculates backward from the planned receipt date, it uses this value to calculate the order date.
Safety lead time - Specifies the time that is used as a buffer period if delays occur in the purchase replenishment lead time. The program uses this time in combination with the inbound warehouse handling time to calculate the expected receipt date from the planned receipt date.
To set up the inbound warehouse handling time, select the search for page icon in the top-right corner of the page, enter Locations, and then select the related link. Open the Location Card for the warehouse that you want to configure, and then expand the Warehouse FastTab. In the Inbound Whse. Handling Time field, enter a date formula and then select OK to close the location card.
You can set up the Lead Time Calculation in the following places:
The Item Vendor Catalog page (priority 1)
The Receiving FastTab of the Item Card or on the Replenishment FastTab of the Stockkeeping Unit Card, if the stockkeeping unit exists for the item (priority 2)
The Receiving FastTab of the Vendor Card (priority 3)
You can set up the Safety Lead Time in the following places:
The Planning FastTab of the Item Card.
The Planning FastTab of the Manufacturing Setup page, where the term default safety lead time is used.
The program uses the Default Safety Lead Time that is set up on the Manufacturing Setup page only if it isn't set up on the Item Card. Because this time is relevant to manufacturing companies, non-manufacturing companies should set this time to zero on item cards or remove it from the Manufacturing Setup page and the Item Card.
Calendars
The following section discusses how to set up calendars to calculate working or nonworking days.
Working days are designated as the days when a company is open for business, and nonworking days are designated as the days when a company is closed, such as weekends or holidays. The designation of a specific day can vary from one country or region to another.
Companies base their schedules on working and nonworking days and must acknowledge that business partners might operate according to different schedules.
Business Central has two types of calendars.
base calendars
customized calendars.
Base calendars define working and nonworking days, whereas customized calendars help you create variations of base calendars for specific business partners. For example, a base calendar might list Saturdays and Sundays as nonworking days, and a customized calendar might list these days as working days for vendors who are open seven days a week. Additionally, customized calendars are used to record seasonal variations in work patterns.
To set up a base calendar, select the search for page icon in the top-right corner of the page, enter Base calendars, select the related link, and then follow this procedure:
Select the New action.
Fill in the Code field. Select the Maintain Base Calendar Changes action.
On the Base Calendar Changes page, use the Recurring System field to select a date or day as a recurring nonworking day. You can select either the Annual Recurring or Weekly Recurring option and their usage is as follows:
If you select Annual Recurring, you must also enter the relevant date in the Date field.
If you select Weekly Recurring, you must also select the relevant day of the week in the Day field. If you leave the field empty, you must fill in the Date field. The Day field is filled in automatically.
When you make an entry, the Nonworking field is selected. You can clear the check mark to make it a working day.
When you return to the Base Calendar card, observe that the non-working day entries that you made have been updated.
To assign a base calendar to a company, follow these steps:
Select the search for page icon in the top-right corner of the page, enter Company information, and then select the related link.
Expand the Shipping FastTab and enter the relevant code in the Base Calendar Code field.
Any base calendar that is defined for the vendor or the location affects how the dates are calculated and rounded to working days. A base calendar specifies a date formula for the time that it takes to replenish the item. It's used to calculate the Planned Receipt Date field, if you are calculating forward, and the Order Date field, if you are calculating backward. Accordingly, the two date fields on purchase order lines are calculated under different conditions, as shown in the following table.
| Calculation Direction | Vendor Calendar Defined | Vendor Calendar not Defined |
|---|---|---|
| Forward | planned receipt date = order date + vendor lead time (according to the vendor calendar and rounded to the next working day in first the vendor calendar and then the location calendar) | planned receipt date = order date + vendor lead time (according to the location calendar) |
| Backward | order date = planned receipt date - vendor lead time (according to the vendor calendar and rounded to the previous working day in first the vendor calendar and then the location calendar) | order date = planned receipt date - vendor lead time (according to the location calendar) |
You can assign and customize base calendars in the following Business Central locations:
The Shipping FastTab on the Customer Card
The Receiving FastTab on the Vendor Card
The Warehouse FastTab on the Location Card
The Shipping Agent Services list page
The General FastTab on the Service Mgt. Setup page
If you don't assign a base calendar to a company or a business partner, Business Central treats all dates as working days.