---
title: "Move Demand Dates"
slug: "move-demand-dates"
description: "Optimize demand order fulfillment with Move Demand Dates, identifying mismatches and suggesting rescheduling or new supply actions for efficient planning."
status: "update"
updated: 2026-09-03T09:15:04Z
published: 2026-09-03T09:38:37Z
canonical: "docs.abakion.com/move-demand-dates"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.abakion.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# 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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Open **Reverse Planning – Move Demand Dates** and run **Suggest Moving of Demand Dates**.
6. 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.
7. 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:**

1. Open **Reverse Planning – Move Demand Dates**.
2. Select or confirm a Planning Template scoped to your sales order population.
3. 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:**

1. Open the Planning Template used for this calculation.
2. 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:**

1. Open the Planning Template used for this calculation.
2. 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:**

1. Open **Reverse Planning Setup**.
2. 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:**

1. In the Move Demand Dates journal, review the **Action Message** for the line.
2. Set **Accept Action Message** to Yes for lines you agree with.
3. 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:**

1. Review the **Action Message** on lines proposing "Replenish Items" rather than a date move.
2. 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:**

1. Select the lines to change (or leave unselected to apply a filter-based rule).
2. 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:**

1. Select the line in question.
2. 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:**

1. Open the Move Demand Dates journal.
2. 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:**

1. Open **Reverse Planning Setup**.
2. Set **Autoalign Sales Dates** to Yes.
3. 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:**

1. Filter the journal to the lines you want aligned.
2. 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:**

1. Select the line.
2. 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:**

1. Select the line.
2. 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:**

1. Select a line with a dimension set.
2. 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:**

1. Select the line.
2. 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:**

1. On the Planning Template, link an **Item Filter Template** and/or **SKU Filter Template** that defines the scope.
2. 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:**

1. 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 |