When an item is entered on a sales or purchase order line, the program copies the original order quantity to a quantity-to-handle field (called either Quantity to Ship or Quantity to Receive depending on the transaction) and a Quantity to Invoice field. This gives you the ability to handle and invoice a transaction as two separate steps. When the item is shipped or received, the inventory quantity of that item is adjusted by the number in the quantity-to-handle field. When the item is invoiced, the inventory value is adjusted by the amount in the Quantity to Invoice field.
An order cannot be completed until the full order quantity on every line has been handled and invoiced.
Short quantities
The quantity of an item processed may be less than the original order quantity. For example, a customer places an order for 100 cases of an item, but only 70 cases are on hand. Rather than wait for the remainder of the item to be available, you may decide to ship the 70 cases now.
The way in which the remainder is handled depends on the circumstances of the order. If the customer requires the full amount of the item, the additional 30 cases can be backordered and sent as a separate shipment. However, if the customer does not backorder items, the total order amount is reduced to 70 cases.
Backorder options
You can change the value in a sales or purchase order's quantity-to-handle field to a lesser value than the original order quantity. When this happens, the program displays a message asking if you want to backorder the remaining quantity. Depending on how you answer, the program updates the document line in different ways:
If you choose to backorder the remaining quantity, the order quantity remains the same. When you post the shipment or receipt, the program updates the quantity-to-handle field with the difference between the posted quantity and the order quantity.
Using the previous example: if the sales order quantity is 100, you change the quantity to ship to 70, backorder the remainder, and then post the shipment, the sales line shows a quantity shipped of 70 and a quantity to ship of 30.If you choose not to backorder the remaining quantity, the program updates the order quantity to the same value as the quantity to handle. This is because an order cannot be completed until the full order quantity has been handled.
Using the previous example: if the sales order quantity is 100, you change the quantity to ship to 70, and do not backorder the remainder, the program updates the order quantity to 70. When you post the shipment, the full order quantity is posted.Note
The program does not allow you to post a backordered sales order line if the Shipping Advice value for the document is set to Complete.