The physical handling of items shipped from the company warehouses can be managed and recorded in different ways, depending on the level of warehouse management features in the installation. For example, the warehouse of small manufacturing companies may require simple functionality, while busy warehouses for wide product selections and complex business models may require that different levels of warehouse activities be performed in a directed workflow.
The simplest shipping process is one where the installation has no dedicated UI for warehouse activities, but the quantity to ship is entered and posted directly in the outbound order, such as a sale. A basic warehouse installation may include the Inventory Pick document where warehouse workers process one order at a time and automatically post the shipment transaction when posting the inventory pick. In advanced warehousing installations that are set up for directed put-away and pick, different warehouse roles perform separate picking and shipping tasks for multiple orders according to the implemented workflow.
To add flexibility to advanced warehousing installations, a bin code field for continuous registration of item stock levels can be made available on outbound source document lines.
The level of warehouse management in an installation is defined partly by the scope of the license and partly by the location setup.
The following table describes a sequence of tasks, with links to the topics that describe them. These tasks are listed in the order in which they are generally performed.
| To | See |
|---|---|
Read about the purpose and behavior of the Qty. to Ship field on outbound document lines in installations with and without warehouse management features. | |
Post a shipment in a sales order, or other inbound document, without integration to warehouse management features. | "Posting Sales Orders" in Processing Sales Orders |
Ship parts of an outbound order quantity. | |
Ship items with a warehouse shipment document handling the shipment of multiple orders (source documents). | |
Filter and retrieve source documents according to predefined codes before calculating which source documents to handle with the warehouse shipment. | |
Record which serial/lot numbers are being shipped to enable tracking of the items after they are sold. | How to: Assign Serial Numbers and Lot Numbers During Outbound Transactions |
Ship serial/lot numbers specified by the source sales order because, for example, the customer has requested a specific lot. | |
Reverse the quantity posted as shipped on a posted sales shipment, where the sale has not yet been invoiced. | |
Learn about transfer order functionality. | |
Transfer items from one location to another. | |
Ensure that serial/lot numbers on the transferred items remain unchanged during the transfer. | How to: Handle Serial Numbers and Lot Numbers on Transfer Orders |
Link to the shipping agent's online package tracking service. | |
Trace the origin or usage of shipped items. |