Move Demand Dates

Feature Overview

Move Demand Dates answers a different question than Simple MRP. Instead of asking "what should we buy or produce?", it asks "which of our existing sales orders, production orders, transfer orders, and other demand can no longer be met on time — and what should we do about it?" It compares each demand line against the item's available supply and, where a timing mismatch is found, proposes either a new date for the demand or flags that new supply is needed to meet it as originally promised.

Running the calculation (Suggest Moving of Demand Dates) fills the journal with proposed action messages per line. A planner reviews each proposal, accepts the ones they agree with, and then runs Carry Out Action Message. What happens next depends on the type of demand: proposals to move a sales order's date are sent to the Sales Order Handling journal for a further review and approval step before anything is written back to the sales order, while proposals that require new supply are carried to the shared Planning Worksheet, the same downstream journal Simple MRP and Direct Replenishment feed into.

Two supporting mechanisms round out the feature. Supply Changes are hidden calculation lines that record downstream component/order effects of a date move — for example, moving a sales order date changes the timing of the production order that supplies it. These are kept out of the main grid by default but can always be reviewed via View Supply Changes. Align Shipment Dates is a related, more direct action: rather than proposing a change for review, it immediately aligns the shipment dates on a group of related sales orders (optionally grouped by Reverse Planning Group) to a common date — and can run automatically right after every calculation if configured to do so.


Pages involved	Reverse Planning – Move Demand Dates, Reverse Planning – Planning Templates, Reverse Planning – Planning Worksheet, Reverse Planning – Sales Order Handling
Entity types supported	Sales orders, production orders, production order components, transfer orders, assembly orders, assembly components, planning lines
Key configuration fields	Planning Template (per-calculation settings), Sales Order Date and Purchase Order Date (which date fields to evaluate), Move Demand Date Sort Order, Autoalign Sales Dates, Hide Supply Changes
Integrates with	Sales Order Handling (receives sales-order date-move proposals for approval); Planning Worksheet (receives new-supply proposals); Graphical Inventory Profile (visual inventory curve per line, if installed); Sales Configurator (adds hierarchy reference fields, if installed)

Getting Started

Open Reverse Planning – Worksheet Setup and confirm you have a personal Journal Batch Name — the Move Demand Dates journal uses the same named batch as the other journals.
Open Reverse Planning – Planning Templates, filtered to the Move Demand Dates feature, and create or accept a template. Set the date range (Default Start Date / Default End Date), and decide which demand/supply types to include.
On the template, set Sales Order Date to control whether Shipment Date or Promised Delivery Date drives the calculation for sales orders, and Purchase Order Date for the equivalent purchase-side date.
Optionally review Reverse Planning Setup and decide whether Autoalign Sales Dates should run automatically after every calculation, and whether Hide Supply Changes should keep downstream component effects out of the main grid.
Open Reverse Planning – Move Demand Dates and run Suggest Moving of Demand Dates.
Review the proposed Action Message per line, and use Accept Action Message (or the batch Change Action Message action) to mark which lines to process.
Run Carry Out Action Message — accepted sales-order proposals go to Sales Order Handling, and accepted new-supply proposals go to the Planning Worksheet.

Related Features

Move Demand Dates hands off directly to Sales Order Handling, which is the staging and approval step for any sales-order date changes proposed here — nothing is written back to a sales order until it's approved there. It also feeds the shared Planning Worksheet whenever a date move isn't enough and new supply is genuinely needed, the same worksheet used by Simple MRP and Direct Replenishment. Both Graphical Inventory Profile and Sales Configurator, if installed, add extra fields and an action to this journal.

User Stories

Identifying which sales orders can no longer be fulfilled on time

As a Sales Coordinator
I want to run a calculation that compares my open sales orders against current supply
So that I know in advance which orders are at risk before a customer calls asking why their order is late

Setup:

Open Reverse Planning – Move Demand Dates.
Select or confirm a Planning Template scoped to your sales order population.
Run Suggest Moving of Demand Dates.

Choosing which date field on a sales order the calculation should respect

As a Sales Coordinator
I want to control whether the calculation moves the Shipment Date or the Promised Delivery Date
So that the proposal matches how my team actually communicates dates to customers

Setup:

Open the Planning Template used for this calculation.
Set Sales Order Date to the option that matches your process (Shipment Date; Promised Delivery Date, falling back to Shipment Date if blank; or Promised Delivery Date only, falling back to the calculation's End Date if blank).

Choosing which date field on a purchase order the calculation should trust as incoming supply

As a Logistics Planner
I want to control whether the calculation uses the Expected Receipt Date or the Promised Receipt Date from purchase orders
So that the supply side of the comparison reflects dates I actually trust from vendors

Setup:

Open the Planning Template used for this calculation.
Set Purchase Order Date to the option that matches your data quality (Expected Receipt Date; Promised Receipt Date, excluding supply if blank; or Promised Receipt Date, falling back to the calculation's End Date if blank).

Deciding which demand order gets priority when supply is limited

As a Logistics Planner
I want to control the order in which competing demand lines are evaluated
So that the most important orders are protected first when supply can't cover everything

Setup:

Open Reverse Planning Setup.
Set Move Demand Date Sort Order to Shipment Date to protect the earliest-due orders first, or Document No. to protect the lowest document numbers first.

Accepting a proposed date move and sending it to Sales Order Handling

As a Sales Coordinator
I want to accept a proposal to move a sales order's date and carry it out
So that it lands in Sales Order Handling for review before the sales order itself is touched

Setup:

In the Move Demand Dates journal, review the Action Message for the line.
Set Accept Action Message to Yes for lines you agree with.
Run Carry Out Action Message.

Note: Nothing is written to the actual sales order at this point — the proposal only lands as a line in Sales Order Handling.

Accepting a proposal that instead requires new supply

As a Purchasing Planner
I want to have a date-move proposal that can't be met by rescheduling alone flow into the Planning Worksheet instead
So that a purchase, production, or transfer order can be created to genuinely cover the shortfall

Setup:

Review the Action Message on lines proposing "Replenish Items" rather than a date move.
Accept and carry them out — they are created as requisition lines in the Reverse Planning – Planning Worksheet.

Batch-accepting or rejecting multiple proposals at once

As a Logistics Planner
I want to change the Accept Action Message flag on many lines in one action rather than line by line
So that processing a large journal is fast

Setup:

Select the lines to change (or leave unselected to apply a filter-based rule).
Run Change Action Message.

Reviewing the downstream effect of a proposed date move before accepting it

As a Production Planner
I want to see which other orders (such as a supplying production order) would be affected if I accept a date move
So that I don't approve a change that creates a new problem elsewhere

Setup:

Select the line in question.
Run View Supply Changes to open the related supply change lines.

Note: Supply Changes are hidden calculation lines by default (Hide Supply Changes in Reverse Planning Setup) — this action is the way to see them regardless of that setting.

Seeing how many supply changes a calculation produced

As a Logistics Planner
I want to see a count of supply change lines for my current journal batch
So that I know at a glance whether accepting my proposals will ripple into other orders

Setup:

Open the Move Demand Dates journal.
Check the No. of Supply Changes field at the top of the page; click it to open the full list.

Automatically aligning related sales order dates after every calculation

As a Sales Coordinator
I want to have shipment dates on related sales orders realigned automatically right after Move Demand Dates runs
So that I don't have to remember a separate manual step every time

Setup:

Open Reverse Planning Setup.
Set Autoalign Sales Dates to Yes.
Run Suggest Moving of Demand Dates as normal — the alignment now runs automatically afterward.

Manually aligning shipment dates for a set of related sales orders

As a Sales Coordinator
I want to align the shipment dates of a group of related sales order lines on demand
So that orders due to ship together actually do, without waiting for a full recalculation

Setup:

Filter the journal to the lines you want aligned.
Run Align Shipment Dates.

Investigating the source document behind a proposal

As a Logistics Planner
I want to open the actual sales order, production order, or transfer order behind a journal line
So that I can check additional context before deciding whether to accept the proposal

Setup:

Select the line.
Run Show Document — the correct order type and status (Planned, Firm Planned, or Released for production orders) opens automatically.

Understanding how components and related orders influence a proposal

As a Production Planner
I want to see the full chain of supply and demand lines connected to an item
So that I understand why the calculation proposed what it did

Setup:

Select the line.
Run Show Hierarchy.

Reviewing proposals by dimension

As a Logistics Planner
I want to see all orders that share a dimension value with the selected line
So that I can review related demand grouped the way my business tracks it (project, department, etc.)

Setup:

Select a line with a dimension set.
Run Show Orders in Dimension.

Visualising the inventory impact of a proposal

As a Purchasing Planner
I want to see a visual inventory curve for the item on the selected line
So that I can judge the proposal's impact without reading raw quantity fields

Setup:

Select the line.
Run Graphical Inventory Profile.

Note: Requires the Graphical Inventory Profile app to be installed; the action is hidden otherwise.

Restricting a calculation to a specific set of items or locations

As a Logistics Planner
I want to scope a Move Demand Dates calculation to a subset of items, locations, or vendors
So that I can focus a review on the part of the business I'm responsible for

Setup:

On the Planning Template, link an Item Filter Template and/or SKU Filter Template that defines the scope.
Run the calculation using that template.

Jumping straight to the Planning Worksheet from the journal

As a Purchasing Planner
I want to open the Planning Worksheet directly from the Move Demand Dates journal
So that I can check what's already there before or after carrying out new lines

Setup:

Run Reverse Planning - Planning Worksheet from the Navigate action group.

Field Reference

Field name	Where to find it	What it does	Default value
Sales Order Date	Reverse Planning – Planning Templates	Chooses which date field on sales order lines (Shipment Date or Promised Delivery Date, with fallback rules) the calculation evaluates and proposes to move.	Use Shipment Date
Purchase Order Date	Reverse Planning – Planning Templates	Chooses which date field on purchase orders (Expected or Promised Receipt Date, with fallback rules) the calculation trusts as incoming supply.	Expected Receipt Date
Item Filter Template	Reverse Planning – Planning Templates	Restricts the calculation to a saved item filter.	None
Autoalign Sales Dates	Reverse Planning Setup	When enabled, automatically runs shipment-date alignment on related sales orders right after every Move Demand Dates calculation.	No
Hide Supply Changes	Reverse Planning Setup	Hides downstream supply-change lines from the main journal grid; they remain accessible via View Supply Changes.	No
Move Demand Date Sort Order	Reverse Planning Setup	Sets the priority order (Shipment Date or Document No.) used to decide which demand line is evaluated, and therefore protected, first.	Shipment Date