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Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Small and medium business | Business Central, N... / Best method for dealin...
Small and medium business | Business Central, N...
Suggested answer

Best method for dealing with unconfirmed or placeholder items

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Posted on by Droon

Hi all,

One of our sales channels involves the physical installation of items in customer premises. Often, the quote and subsequent sales order contain some items which frequently have to be changed as we get to the installation phase due to external factors outside of our control.

Our problem is that once the sales order is confirmed, the demand for those items is created and the purchasing department orders them in to our warehouse. When the frequent changes occur we are left with an ever increasing inventory and having to double purchase for a sales order.

Our sales team are usually able to predict which items are unconfirmed/placeholder, but we have not worked out the best way to enter this to BC so as not to create a demand for those items.

Has anyone come accross this scenario before and/or have any suggestions?



Many thanks

  • Pushparaj P Profile Picture
    Pushparaj P on at
    RE: Best method for dealing with unconfirmed or placeholder items

    Hi,

    It is not always mandatory to use the Planning Worksheet or demand forecast.

    Its Depend upon the Quantity Of Items You sell And Produce. 

  • Suggested answer
    Alfredo_Iorio Profile Picture
    Alfredo_Iorio on at
    RE: Best method for dealing with unconfirmed or placeholder items

    The only way to exclude sales lines from demand is to use sales quotes.

    You are probably confirming orders too soon if you need to change items in the sales order frequently.

    My recommendation is to review the business process and convert the quote into a sales order only when the final item is confirmed.

    Alternatively, you can use generic non-inventory items in the quote and the order. These items will not generate demand and will not impact the supply planning. The downside of using this method is that a user must change the non-inventory items in the order once the final items are confirmed.  

  • Droon Profile Picture
    Droon on at
    RE: Best method for dealing with unconfirmed or placeholder items

    Thanks for the responses.

    We do use sales quotes, but the problem items could only be 3-5 lines out of often 50+ on the sales order, many of which have long supplier lead-times. So it is necessary to process the sales order and even start shipping items prior to the installation phase.

    We also have several thousand items and a high volume of orders including many on-demand orders, so the requisition worksheet is an essential component of our workflow currently.

    I think the non-inventory placeholder item idea could work for us. While acknowledging that it requires manual intervention, our sales and project management teams already monitor the sales orders closely so that’s not a big stretch. Ultimately, it should achieve the aim of avoiding double-purchasing.

    We had looked at the idea of applying very far in the future dates to those lines, but I think non-inventory placeholders will be less complex to implement and maintain in our scenario.

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