Sales Container Handling

App Overview

Sales Container Handling is a shipment consolidation app for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. It gives sales and logistics teams a structured way to group sales order lines and transfer order lines into outbound containers, manage the container lifecycle from packing to dispatch, track weights and volumes, and allocate freight costs — all without leaving Business Central.

At the heart of the app is the Outbound Container: a record that represents a physical container or shipment unit and ties together all the order lines going out in the same load. From the Outbound Container Card, users can pull in lines from multiple sales orders and transfer orders, adjust quantities to ship, calculate total weights and values, and trigger posting of all shipments in a single action. Every container moves through a defined status flow — from Ordered through Packing Completed to Shipped and finally Completed — so the system always reflects the real-world state of the shipment.

Beyond the core container workflow, the app adds two supporting areas. Container Measurements and Weight Tracking lets users record and roll up net weight, gross weight, volume, and package count from individual lines to the container header, with a single calculate action keeping all totals in sync. Item Charge Assignment via Container automates the allocation of freight and landing costs by using the container code to find and assign all relevant shipment lines automatically — on both the sales and purchase side.

Feature Map

Use this table to find the right article for your task.

Common Infrastructure

Several concepts are shared across all three features. Understanding them once makes the feature articles easier to follow.

The Outbound Container Record

Every workflow in this app starts with an Outbound Container record. The container is the linking key that connects sales order lines, transfer order lines, sales shipment lines, item charge assignment lines, and item ledger entries. When a container code appears on any of these records, it can be traced back to the originating container and used for measurement rollups, charge assignments, and reporting.

Container Status Flow

Containers move through a defined set of statuses that reflect their physical state:

• (blank) — newly created, no shipment date set yet
• Ordered — shipment date has been confirmed; attached order lines have been updated
• Packing Completed — the Released in Harbour Date has been entered; the container is sealed
• Shipped — shipment posting has been run from the container
• Completed — the container is fully closed; the record is read-only

A completed container can be reopened to Shipped status if corrections are needed.

Number Series

Each container is assigned a unique code from the number series configured in Sales Container Setup. If no number series exists when the first container is created, the system offers to create a default series automatically. This is the only required setup step before the app can be used.

Container Code on Documents

The Container Code field appears on sales order lines, transfer order lines, warehouse shipment lines, sales shipment lines, transfer shipment lines, and item ledger entries. This field is the thread that connects all records belonging to the same physical shipment throughout the Business Central document flow.

Typical Workflows

Building and dispatching a container

1. Open the Outbound Container List and choose New to create a container.
2. Set the Shipment Date — this moves the container to Ordered and updates attached line dates.
3. Use Get Sales Order Lines (Ctrl+H) to pull open item lines from one or more sales orders into the container.
4. For transfer orders, open each Transfer Order and set the Outbound Container Code on the relevant lines.
5. Adjust Qty. to Ship on any lines where only a partial quantity is being dispatched.
6. Choose Calculate Content and Value to roll up weights, volumes, and order amounts to the container header.
7. When ready, choose Ship Lines (F9). All attached sales orders and transfer orders are posted in a single step.

Allocating freight costs from the carrier invoice

1. Receive the carrier's freight invoice and create a Purchase Invoice with a Charge (Item) line.
2. Enter the Outbound Container Code on the purchase item charge line.
3. Open Item Charge Assignment and choose Get lines with Sales Container ID.
4. The system finds all sales shipment lines tagged with that container code and inserts them as assignment lines automatically.
5. Post the purchase invoice to apply the landed cost to item ledger entries.

Recovering freight from the customer

1. Create a Sales Invoice with a Charge (Item) line for the freight recovery amount.
2. Open Item Charge Assignment and choose Get lines with Container ID.
3. The system uses the container code on the source sales line to locate all relevant sales shipment lines.
4. Post the invoice to apply the charge.

Integration with Other Abakion Apps

Setup

The only required setup step is assigning a number series for container codes. All other configuration is optional.