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Small and medium business | Business Central, N...
Suggested Answer

Purchase Orders and Expected Receipt Date.

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Posted on by 54
For the 5 years that I have been using Business Central, the order planning, planning worksheet, and the lead time calculations have never worked.  Worse, Planning Worksheets suggest an order date in the past.  I have asked a few partners, paying them money, a few outside consultants, paying them money, and yet no one seems to have an answer.  Does anyone else have the same problem?  I have used sandboxes, and removed almost every extension.  I now plan to build and implement a custom extension.  Does anyone else have the same need?
 
Expected receipt date of items affects many aspects of planning, especially regarding manufacturing.  This also affects the near useless "No Shortage Report" which can actually claim you have no shortage simply because an item is "expected" to be here already, which is absurd.
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  • Suggested answer
    Mansi Soni Profile Picture
    10,224 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at
    Hello,

    I understand your concern, and this is something that can happen in standard Business Central if planning parameters are not fully aligned. In standard practice, the system calculates planning dates based on multiple factors such as lead times (vendor, manufacturing, and safety), order modifiers, and especially the expected receipt date. If any of these are misconfigured or not maintained consistently, it can result in suggestions with past dates or misleading availability (as seen in the No Shortage Report).

    As a workaround within standard functionality, it is important to ensure that all lead time fields (vendor lead time, safety lead time, routing times, and order handling times) are properly maintained. Additionally, review the Planning Starting Date in the Planning Worksheet and consider using a firm starting point (e.g., WORKDATE) to avoid backward scheduling into the past. Regularly updating or rescheduling existing supply orders is also key, as the system assumes that overdue supply is still valid unless adjusted.

    Another recommended approach is to use dampener periods and rescheduling parameters to control how the system reacts to outdated supply. For more accurate shortage visibility, many users rely on the Projected Available Balance rather than the No Shortage Report alone.

    While customizations can help, in many cases these issues can be minimized by tightening master data discipline and planning parameter setup within standard Business Central functionality.

    Hope this answer helps you!

    Regards,
    Mansi Soni
  • Suggested answer
    OussamaSabbouh Profile Picture
    18,383 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at
    Hello,
    Yes, I’ve seen similar frustrations, but I would be careful before replacing the full planning logic with a custom extension because BC planning is very setup-sensitive: lead time, safety lead time, inbound warehouse handling time, calendars, reorder policy, planning parameters, existing supply/demand dates, and overdue supply can all push suggested order dates into the past. The “expected receipt date” issue is especially important because BC treats expected receipts as available supply based on their dates, so if old/unrealistic purchase or production dates are not maintained, planning and shortage-type checks can look misleading. My first step would be to isolate one item in a clean sandbox, verify the item/SKU planning setup, vendor lead time, calendars, and open supply dates, then compare the Planning Worksheet result with Microsoft’s date formulas; if the formula is followed but the business result is not acceptable, then a custom extension for “realistic availability / shortage control” may make sense, but I would not try to rebuild MRP entirely.
    Regards,
    Oussama Sabbouh
  • Suggested answer
    Capt Jon Profile Picture
    54 on at
    Thank you both for your replies.  I have studied the manuals, the link between dates, and the formulas.  Simply put, it does NOT work.  It does NOT calculate the Planned Receipt date based on the Item Card.  All vendors have a backup date and calendar.  Safety Lead only affects the Expected Receipt date as a buffer to the Lead Time.  I have adjusted every single date you both have mentioned.  It does NOT work.  I can put 2M buffer date and it will still create a New/Cancel or Reschedule Planning Worksheet.  I have adjusted Planning Worksheet start dates.  The ONLY way to change Planning Receipt dates quickly is on the Purchase Header, and then it changes every line item to that date +2-3D based on Warehouse handling time and the calendar.
     
    I was able to fix it by creating my own Planning Worksheet and invoking a call to the Item Card for Lead Time.
     
    This is Microsoft's job to fix, not mine.
     
    Enclosed is the code.
  • Suggested answer
    Khushbu Rajvi. Profile Picture
    23,132 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

    I have not personally worked on this exact workaround, but I understand your point. If you have already tested the standard, then it may be better to raise this with Microsoft Support. Please share your reproducible scenario, expected result vs actual result, setup screenshots, and your custom workaround with Microsoft. That will help them confirm whether this is standard behavior, a limitation, or something that needs to be fixed in the product.

  • Suggested answer
    YUN ZHU Profile Picture
    102,476 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at
    Hi, hope the following helps.
    Planning
    Production Planning & MRP in Dynamics 365 Business Central: A Practical Guide for Manufacturers
     
    Thanks
    ZHU
  • Suggested answer
    Grigorios Mavrogeorgis Profile Picture
    2,801 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at
    Hi,
    the past date is not really a bug, it is how backward scheduling works. BC takes the demand due date and counts back lead time plus any safety lead time, and if the demand is already near or the lead time is long, the math lands the order date before the work date. It then throws the order in the past as an attention warning instead of moving it forward. Annoying, but it is the design, not your setup being broken.
    Before you build an extension, I would check three things on the items that misbehave, the Lead Time Calculation on the item and the SKU, the Safety Lead Time, and the planning starting date you run the worksheet with, because everything before that date is a frozen zone and gets treated as already in stock. That frozen zone is also why No Shortage Report acts like stock is here, it assumes past supply arrived.

    Five years of partners not cracking this makes me think it is parameter level, not code. What reordering policy are these items on, lot-for-lot or reorder point?
     
    Glad to help - follow up if anything is unclear.  
    ►  If this solved it, marking it verified helps others too.      
    Regards,
    Grigorios Mavrogeorgis
    Business Central Consultant & AL Developer

    Work: Gmsoft Limited
    Blog:  insidebusinesscentral
    LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/gregorymavrogeorgis

     
  • Capt Jon Profile Picture
    54 on at
    While I appreciate the responses, you are not reading my context, and you keep regurgitating the same reply to follow what Business Central has set up.  All my item cards are set up correctly.  If I use a planning worksheet or add an Item manually to a Purchase Order, it should set the expected receipt date to the Lead Time.  It does not.  Unless you have a time machine, there is no way to go back in time and order, so their system is useless.  

    My extension fixes both Sales Quote/Order and Purchase Orders to be realistic.  On the Sales side, it now sets the expected receipt date to be the Lead Time, unless there is available inventory in stock, then it adjusts the Ship Date so that customers have an expectation as to when their order will be ready.
     
    It also does the same thing for Purchase Orders.  Along with this, I created Purchase KPI tiles that show when I need to order to meet these deadlines.  Since we use Insight Works Product Configurator, I had them make us an extension to their app that combs thru all the items in a BOM and set the Lead Time for created BOM items, plus a variable amount of time in a setup.
     
    Maybe BC works fine for companies with hundreds of employees that have generic production of widgets.  But we are a small company where almost every BOM build is unique and personalized items for people's home.  We must have forward looking information at time of order so we can set reasonable expectations for our customers.
  • Gerardo Rentería García Profile Picture
    27,507 Most Valuable Professional on at

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OussamaSabbouh 702 Super User 2026 Season 1

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YUN ZHU Profile Picture

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