Sales Order Handling

Feature Overview

Sales Order Handling is a staging journal for shipment and delivery date changes on sales orders. Instead of writing a new date straight back to a sales order the moment it's calculated, proposed changes sit in this journal first — a planner can review them, batch-adjust them with a safety buffer or weekday rounding, and only then commit them back to the actual sales orders.

Lines can reach the journal in two ways: they can be imported directly from any open sales order using a filter (by document, item, or promised delivery date), or they arrive here as proposals coming out of Move Demand Dates. Once a line is in the journal, the planner can calculate the first date the item can realistically be shipped based on available inventory, mark the line as accepted or ignored, and apply either an individual or a batch date update before carrying the change out.

Carrying out the action message writes the new shipment date (and, if set, the new promised delivery date) directly to the sales order line — temporarily reopening a released order if needed — and then removes the handled line from the journal. Nothing changes on the sales order until this step is run.


Pages involved	Reverse Planning – Sales Order Handling
Entity types supported	Sales order lines (item type); the journal also carries a Transfer Order source type field, but only sales order lines are populated by the import and calculation logic as shipped
Key configuration fields	Shipment Date Buffer Days (on the Move Demand Dates availability setup used by the date calculation), safety date formula and weekday alignment (entered at the time of the batch update)
Integrates with	Move Demand Dates (a common source of lines landing in this journal); Graphical Inventory Profile (available as an action on each line, when that app is installed)

Getting Started

Open Reverse Planning – Sales Order Handling.
Run Import Sales Order Lines and filter by document number, item number, or promised delivery date to bring the relevant open sales order lines into the journal.
For any line without a proposed date yet, run Calculate First Possible Shipment Date to have the app suggest one based on current and forecasted inventory.
Review the proposed dates. Use Set Action Message to batch-mark lines as accepted or ignored.
Optionally, run Update New Shipment Date or Update New Promised Delivery Date to apply a common date (with a safety buffer and weekday alignment) across all accepted lines in one step.
Run Carry Out Action Message to write the accepted changes back to the sales orders.

Related Features

Lines proposing a shipment date change from Move Demand Dates are expected to land here for review before being written back — Sales Order Handling is the approval step in that flow rather than a source of demand calculations itself. Each line also offers a Graphical Inventory Profile action (from the app of the same name) to inspect the item's inventory curve before deciding whether to accept a proposed date.

User Stories

Importing open sales order lines into the journal

As a sales coordinator
I want to pull a filtered set of open sales order lines into the Sales Order Handling journal
So that I can review and batch-process date changes for exactly the orders I'm working on

Setup:

Open Reverse Planning – Sales Order Handling.
Run Import Sales Order Lines.
Filter by Document No., item No., and/or Promised Delivery Date as needed.

Note: If a line for the same sales order line already exists in the journal, the earlier line is deleted and replaced by the newly imported one — you won't end up with duplicates.

Calculating the first realistic shipment date for a line

As a logistics planner
I want to have the app suggest the earliest date an item can actually be shipped
So that I don't have to manually check inventory availability for every line

Setup:

Select one or more lines in the journal.
Run Calculate First Possible Shipment Date.

Note: The suggestion is based on the item's inventory profile at the line's location/variant, looking for the first date where enough inventory is available and stays available through the calculation's lookahead period. A configured Shipment Date Buffer adds extra lead time to the result. Lines are automatically marked as accepted once a date is found.

Reviewing and batch-accepting or ignoring proposed dates

As a sales coordinator
I want to mark a group of lines as accepted or ignored in one action
So that I can quickly triage a large batch of proposals without editing each line individually

Setup:

Filter or select the relevant lines in the journal.
Run Set Action Message and choose to accept or ignore action messages for the selection.

Applying one shipment date to every accepted line

As a logistics planner
I want to set the same new shipment date across all accepted lines in one step
So that I can align a batch of orders to a single delivery run without editing each line

Setup:

Ensure the lines you want to update have Accept Action Message checked.
Run Update New Shipment Date and enter the date to apply.

Applying a safety buffer and weekday alignment to promised delivery dates

As a sales coordinator
I want to shift the proposed promised delivery dates by a safety formula and round them to a specific weekday
So that customers are promised realistic, consistently-scheduled delivery dates rather than the raw calculated date

Setup:

Ensure the lines have Accept Action Message checked and an Action Message of Move Order Dates.
Run Update New Promised Delivery Date.
Enter a safety date formula (e.g. +3D) and, optionally, select a weekday to round forward to.
Optionally check Common Date (latest) to apply the same resulting date to every selected line instead of shifting each line individually.

Opening the source sales order from a journal line

As a sales coordinator
I want to jump directly to the sales order behind a journal line
So that I can check other details on the order before deciding on the date change

Setup:

Select a line in the journal.
Run Show Document.

Inspecting inventory before accepting a proposed date

As a logistics planner
I want to see a visual inventory profile for the item on a journal line
So that I can judge for myself whether the proposed date is realistic before accepting it

Setup:

Select a line in the journal.
Run Graphical Inventory Profile.

Note: This action is only visible if the Graphical Inventory Profile app is installed and enabled.

Carrying out accepted date changes to the sales order

As a sales coordinator
I want to write the accepted new shipment and promised delivery dates back to the actual sales orders
So that the sales order reflects the reviewed and approved plan

Setup:

Confirm the lines you want to apply have Accept Action Message checked.
Run Carry Out Action Message.
Confirm the prompt to proceed.

Note: If the sales order is Released or Pending Approval, its status is temporarily reopened to apply the date change and then restored. The journal line is deleted once carried out — there is no separate "processed" state to review afterwards.

Field Reference

Field name	Where to find it	What it does	Default value
Accept Action Message	Reverse Planning – Sales Order Handling	Marks the line to be included the next time a batch date update or Carry Out Action Message is run.	No
Action Message	Reverse Planning – Sales Order Handling	Shows what kind of change is proposed for the line (currently only "Move Order Dates" is used by this journal).	(blank)
New Due date	Reverse Planning – Sales Order Handling	The proposed new shipment date for the line, either calculated or entered manually.	(blank)
New Promised Delivery Date	Reverse Planning – Sales Order Handling	The proposed new promised delivery date for the line.	(blank)
Shipment Date Buffer Days	Move Demand Dates availability setup	Adds extra lead time (a date formula) on top of the calculated first possible shipment date.	(blank)