Distribution for Navision Attain

Distribution for Navision 

Attain ® 3.10

Distribution for Navision 

Attain® 3.10

NOTICE 

This material is for informational purposes only. Navision a/s disclaims all 

warranties and conditions with regard to use of the material for other 

purposes. Navision a/s shall not, at any time, be liable for any special, 

direct, indirect or consequential damages, whether in an action of contract, 

negligence or other action arising out of or in connection with the use or 

performance of the material. This material is subject to change without 

notice. 

According to Danish copyright legislation it is against the law to reproduce 

any part of this material in any form or by any means without the 

permission of Navision a/s. 

The software described is supplied under license and must be used and 

copied in accordance with the enclosed license terms and conditions. 

COPYRIGHT NOTICE 

Copyright © 2002 Navision a/s, Frydenlunds Allé 6, 2950 Vedbaek, 

Denmark. All rights reserved. 

TRADEMARKS 

The trademarks referenced herein and marked with either TM or ® are 

either trademarks or registered trademarks of Navision a/s or Navision 

Development a/s. However, the trademarks Microsoft, Windows, Windows 

NT, SQL Server and BackOffice are either registered trademarks or 

trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other 

countries. 

Any rights not expressly granted herein are reserved. 

The trademarks of Navision a/s and Navision Development a/s are listed on 

this Web site: http://trademarks.navision.com 

The Arial font was used. 

Published by Navision a/s. 

Published in Denmark 2002. 

DocID: AT-310-ILT-007-v01.00-W1W1

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER 1. 

INTRODUCTION 

1.1 About the Distribution Training Material 1-2 

1.2 Installing Navision Attain 1-5 

CHAPTER 2. 

MULTIPLE LOCATIONS 

2.1 Overview 2-2 

2.2 Setting Up a Company with Multiple 

Locations 2-3 

2.3 Selling and Purchasing in a Company with 

Multiple Locations 2-20 

2.4 Controlling Inventory at Multiple Locations 2- 

36 

CHAPTER 3. 

ORDER PROMISING 


3.2 Promising Orders to Customers 3-4 

3.3 Estimating Purchase Order Receipt 3-28 

3.4 Estimating Transfer Order Receipt 3-43 

3.5 Calendars 3-44


CHAPTER 4. 

LOCATION TRANSFERS 


4.2 Setting Up Transfers 4-4 

4.3 Transferring Items between Locations 4-8 

4.4 Viewing Items in Transit 4-29 

CHAPTER 5. 

ITEM TRACKING 


5.2 Setting up Item Tracking 5-3 

5.3 Handling Items with Serial and Lot Numbers 

5-10 

5.4 Tracking Items with Serial and Lot Numbers 

5-26 

5.5 Handling and Tracking Items with Warranty 

and Expiration 5-30 

5.6 Transferring Items with Serial and Lot 

Numbers 5-31 

CHAPTER 6. 

WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT 


6.2 Setting up Warehouse Management 6-4 

6.3 Receiving Orders 6-8

6.4 Cross-Docking 6-19 

6.5 Shipping Orders 6-22 

CHAPTER 7. 

CUSTOMER SERVICE FEATURES 


7.2 Item Substitution 7-4 

7.3 Item Cross Reference 7-9 

7.4 Nonstock Items 7-14 

CHAPTER 8. 

RETURNS MANAGEMENT 


8.2 Setting up Returns Management 8-5 

8.3 Managing Returns from Customers 8-9 

8.4 Managing Returns to Vendors 8-26 

8.5 Appendix 8-1 Activity Diagram for Returns 

Management 8-35 

Appendix A. 

DAILY SCHEDULE II 

Appendix B. 

NAVISION DISTRIBUTION TERMINOLOGY LIST II 

Appendix C.


DISTRIBUTION GRANULES IN NAVISION ATTAIN II 

Appendix D. 

CLASS PROJECTS II

PREFACE 

Navision Attain is a collaborative business management solution for 

medium-sized companies. It is an integrated product that includes 

functionality to support financial and relationship management, distribution 

and manufacturing. 

Navision Attain for distribution is aimed at companies that buy, sell and 

handle physical products. It provides distributors with tools that will help 

them manage their day to day operations and to increase the level of 

customer service, reduce the investment in inventory, and manage the 

physical handling of inventory. 

This course is a part of the Navision Product Specialist Training, Supply 

Chain curriculum, and is designed for students who have passed the 

Navision Product Specialist – Navision Financials test (when available, the 

Navision Attain Consultant in Financial Management) or have equivalent 

experience with the Navision Financials (Navision Attain) application and 

want to learn more about Navision Attain for distribution. Students who 

want to take the Distribution exam can use this course as preparation.

1 

Chapter 1. 

Introduction 

This chapter contains two sections: 

1.1 About the Distribution Training Material 

1.2 Installing Navision Attain

1-2 Distribution for Navision Attain® 3.10 

1.1 ABOUT THE DISTRIBUTION TRAINING MATERIAL 

Target Audience 

Training Objectives 

Training Prerequisites 

Material Overview 

This distribution training material provides a conceptual and operational 

description of the standard distribution functionality of Navision Attain. The 

material can be used both in the context of an instructor-led training course 

and as reference material for self-teaching. 

This training material is intended for Navision Solution Center employees 

selling and implementing Navision Attain. 

Whether used in a course setting or for self-teaching, the material is 

designed to build the product knowledge required for NSC employees who 

work as sales/implementation consultants on Navision Attain for 

distribution. 

To successfully participate in the Distribution course or complete the 

training in the self-teaching manner, participants must have passed the 

Navision Product Specialist – Navision Financials test (when available, the 

Navision Attain Consultant in Financial Management) or have equivalent 

experience with the Navision Financials (Navision Attain) application. 

Before beginning the course (self-teaching), you must install Navision 

Attain on your computer. The next section of this chapter tells you how to 

do this. 

The material consists of the following chapters: 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

Chapter 2 Multiple Locations 

Chapter 3 Order Promising 

Chapter 4 Location Transfers 

Chapter 5 Item Tracking 

Chapter 6 Warehouse Management

Introduction 1-3 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

Chapter 7 Service Features, including three granules: 

Item Substitution 

Item Cross Reference 

Nonstock Items 

Chapter 8 Customer Returns Management 

Every chapter includes an overview of the granule(s)/feature, explains the 

setup procedure and describes how the granule(s)/feature supports the 

associated operating processes involved in managing a distribution 

business. 

In this material, the chapters are organized in a logical way that reflects the 

relationships between different granules of the program. It is therefore 

recommended that the course (when build on this material) or self-teaching 

activity follow the suggested teaching path. If preferred, however, the users 

of the material can choose alternative paths. 

The chapters in this training material typically contain the following 

elements: 

concepts 

scenarios 

exercises 

Concepts explain the business processes that can be managed using the 

distribution functionality of the program. 

Scenarios represent the typical business situations where the application is 

used. Scenarios provide a basis for examples that give practical step-bystep 

descriptions of how to use the application. 

Exercises allow the course participants (material readers) to practice using 

the program. 

The material includes the following typographic conventions: 

Name is used for names of fields, tabs and windows. 

Input Text is used for text that the users of the material must enter.


Dates 

Demonstration Data 

License Information 

Suggested Course Duration 

Further Information 

The dates in the course material are in the American format. In order to 

avoid confusion when reading the material and following the exercises, if 

necessary, it is a good idea to change the date format in Windows before 

starting the training session. 

The working date is set to be 01/25/01 (January 25, 2001). It is important 

that this date is used when following the examples and doing the exercises 

included in the material. 

All examples and exercises in this material are based on a fictitious 

company, Cronus International Ltd. 

Where possible, examples and exercises in each individual chapter are 

designed independently of each other. However, because of the limited 

scope of the Cronus demo database, the same data is sometimes used in 

examples illustrating different functionality. Therefore, to be able to follow 

the examples suggested in this material, it is recommended that you use 

the clean database every time you start on Chapters 3, 4 and 6. 

To make sure that you always have a clean demo database, make a copy 

of the database on your hard disk before starting the course. 

To run the examples and exercises included in this training material, you 

need a standard Cronus license which is provided on your product CD. 

When this training material is used to build upon a course, it is 

recommended that the course is taught over a period of three days. You 

can find a suggested schedule in Appendix A. 

You can learn more about Navision Attain in the Navision Attain Essentials 

and Financial Management Courses. 

You can learn more about the topics of distribution and supply chain 

management from the APICS homepage: http://www.apics.org. APICS is a 

nonprofit, educational society for resource management.

Introduction 1-5 

1.2 INSTALLING NAVISION ATTAIN 

Before starting the course, you must install Navision Attain on your 

computer. 

The installation procedure is described below. The browser will 

automatically load the install file when you insert the CD. If the browser 

does not load the install file, you can open it manually: 

1 From the Start menu, click Run. 

2 In the Run window, in the Open: field enter x:\startcd.exe (replace x 

with the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive) and click OK. 

This is the installation procedure: 

1 Insert the CD-ROM. At the top of your screen, the browser now 

displays the different options that you have. 

2 Click Client. 

3 Click Navision Attain Client for Windows ® 98, Windows NT 4.0 

(Intel) and Windows 2000. The installation now begins. 

4 In the File Download window, select the Run this program from its 

current location field and click OK. A security warning appears. 

5 Click Yes. 

The Navision Attain W1 Installation Wizard window welcomes you to the 

setup wizard. 

6 Click Next>. 

7 In the User Name: and Organization: fields enter your customer 

information, then click Next>. 

8 Select either the All users or Only for me fields and then click Next>. 

9 Select the Complete field as the setup type and then click Next>. 

10 Click Install to indicate that you are ready to install the program. 

The installation process begins. 

11 Click Finish to complete the installation of Navision Attain.


Note 

To install the program in a different location than the standard one, you 

must select Custom field as the setup type.

2 

Chapter 2. 

Multiple Locations 

This chapter contains the following sections: 

2.1 Overview 

2.2 Setting Up a Company with Multiple Locations 

2.3 Selling and Purchasing in a Company with 


2.4 Controlling Inventory at Multiple Locations


2.1 OVERVIEW 

Many modern companies are characterized by having their organization 

and operations distributed over large geographic areas, with each unit 

being managed independently. Such an approach to organizing their 

business helps companies to gain competitive advantage through 

achieving operational flexibility and customer responsiveness. At the same 

time, multilocational companies face the challenge of retaining control over 

their decentralized operations and optimizing the inventory flows. To meet 

this challenge, such companies must ensure that the real-time information 

generated at the location level is available to the rest of the organization. 

The Multiple Locations and Responsibility Centers granules in Navision 

Attain provide multi-site companies with the possibility to manage their 

business operations in the most flexible, yet optimal way. 

With the Multiple Locations granule, companies can manage their inventory 

in multiple locations using one database. Two concepts – location and 

stockkeeping unit – are the cornerstone of this granule. A location is 

defined as a place which handles physical placement and quantities of 

items. The concept is broad enough to include locations such as plants or 

production facilities as well as distribution centers, warehouses, 

showrooms and service vehicles. A stockkeeping unit is defined as an item 

at a specific location and/or as a variant. With the stockkeeping units, 

companies with multiple locations are able to add replenishment 

information, addresses, and some financial posting information on the 

location level. As a result, they have the possibility to replenish variants of 

the same item for each location as well as to order items for each location 

on the basis of location-specific replenishment information. 

The Responsibility Centers granule extends the multiple locations 

functionality by providing the possibility to handle administrative centers. A 

responsibility center can be a cost center, a profit center or an investment 

center. Examples of responsibility centers are a sales office, a purchasing 

department for several locations, and a plant planning office. With this 

granule, companies can set up user-specific views to help showing only 

sales and purchase documents related to a particular responsibility center. 

In addition, companies can sell items based on prices specific to a 

responsibility center. 

It is important to emphasize that the Multiple Locations and the 

Responsibility Centers granules can be implemented independently.


2.2 SETTING UP A COMPANY WITH MULTIPLE LOCATIONS 

Setting Up Locations 

In this section, you will learn how to use the Multiple Locations and 

Responsibility Centers granules to set up your multilocational company to 

reflect its current and future administrative and geographic configuration. 

Implications that the alternative setups have on the company’s business 

processes in respect of making sales and purchase orders are explained in 

the next section. 

Business operations of Cronus International Ltd. on the United Kingdom 

market will be used as an example to demonstrate the possibilities of the 

granules. First, we will turn your attention to the Multiple Locations granule 

and then proceed to the Responsibility Centers granule. To demonstrate 

the flexibility of the program, we will present you with a number of different 

scenarios. 

The following is the example of a company’s structure represented by a 

head office which administers all purchases and sales and a number of 

warehouses where inventory is handled and stored. The company follows a 

centralized purchase policy. 

Scenario 1 

To run its business in the United Kingdom, Cronus International Ltd. has 

five physical premises: the headquarters, located in London, and four 

warehouses located in other cities around the country. The warehouse in 

Birmingham functions as a central warehouse to which most of the 

company’s vendors ship their items. The central warehouse then transfers 

inventory to all other warehouses, which operate as distribution centers 

from which sales orders are shipped to the customers. 

Let’s have a look at how Cronus reflected their organizational configuration 

in the Navision Attain setup. 

The general company information is recorded on the company information 

card: 

1 From the main menu, click General Ledger, Setup, Company 

Information. The Company Information window appears. 

Fields on the General tab contain the address details of the Cronus 

company headquarters:


2 Click the Shipping tab: 

The various ship-to fields on the Shipping tab are filled in by default with 

the address details of the company’s headquarters. However, if the 

company’s warehouse is located at a different address than the 

headquarters, the user can overwrite information in the ship-to fields with 

the location’s address. The information in these fields will then be printed 

on purchase orders, for example, so that vendors will ship items to the 

correct location. 

In the Location Code field, the user can select the location code that 

corresponds to the company's ship-to address. If the field contains a code, 

whenever the purchasers order items to be shipped to the company, the 

program will automatically use the warehouse location represented by the 

code. 

The location codes are set up on the location cards: 

3 From the main menu, click Inventory, Setup, Locations. The locations 

card appears. 

Generally, the location card is used to record information about the 

company’s locations. In Navision Attain, location is defined as a physical 

place where items are produced, handled and stored before being sold.


Location could be, for example, a production plant, warehouse or a 

distribution center. The purpose of setting up locations in Navision Attain is 

to make a distinction between different locations. The address information 

held on the location card will be printed on the purchase documents to 

notify vendors which locations they should ship the ordered items to. 

Companies must set up a location card and a location code for each of 

their locations. 

Note 

In Navision Attain, it is recommended that companies set up at least one 

location. 

Cronus has set up six locations: four represent warehouses and two (OUT. 

LOG. and OWN LOG.) are the in-transit locations (the concept of in-transit 

location is explained in Chapter 4 “Location Transfers”). 

4 On the location card, Press F5 to view the location list: 

By selecting a location on the list and clicking Location, Card, you can see 

the address details for each location. 

The distribution center in Birmingham, represented by location code Blue, 

is the location that Cronus wants its vendors to ship ordered items to. To 

set up this process in the program, follow this procedure: 

5 On the Shipping tab of the Company Information window, in the 

Location Code field, select Blue.


Linking Customers and Vendors to Locations 

For a number of reasons, for example, to ensure fast deliveries to their 

customers or to optimize purchase processes with some vendors, 

companies may choose to pursue a decentralized distribution strategy. 

Such a strategy suggests that instead of one central warehouse, vendors 

ship purchase orders to different locations, which then ship the sales orders 

to the customers. To reflect these procedures in the program, the company 

can decide to link certain customers and vendors to specific locations. 

The following is an example of a situation where a company that 

implemented a decentralized distribution policy chose to link some of their 

customers and vendors to specific locations. As in the previous example, 

the company has a head office and a number of warehouses located at 

different geographical locations. 

Scenario 2 

Cronus customer 40000, Deerfield Graphics Company, is located in 

Gloucester. Due to the customer’s proximity to the Yellow warehouse, the 

company has established a procedure by which they always ship items to 

this customer from this specific warehouse, instead of the central 

warehouse represented by the default Blue location. 

Similarly, Cronus has decided that one of its vendors, vendor 40000, will 

always ship orders to its Green warehouse located in Liverpool. 

To reflect these procedures in the program, the company linked customer 

40000 to the Yellow location and linked vendor 40000 to the Green 

warehouse. 

To link a customer to a location, the user must select a default location 

code on the customer card: 

1 From the main menu, click Sales & Receivables, Customers. The 

customer card appears. 

2 Select customer 40000 and click the Shipping tab:


Notice that the Location Code field contains Yellow. The program will use 

this code as a default location code every time Cronus makes a sales order 

for this customer. 

To link a vendor to a location, the user must select a default location code 

on the vendor card: 

3 From the main menu, click Purchases & Payables, Vendors. Browse 

to the vendor card for vendor 40000 and click the Receiving tab: 

Notice that the Location Code field contains Green. The program will use 

this code as a default location code every time when Cronus makes a 

purchase order for this vendor. 

Later in this chapter, you will learn what implications this setup has on 

where addresses on different documents come from. You will also see how 

the company can make use of the functionality of the Multiple Locations 

granule to distinguish between different locations and manage inventory at 

each specific location.


Setting Up Responsibility Centers 

In Navision Attain, companies can set up responsibility centers to help 

administer their business. For example, a responsibility center can 

administer sales and purchases for one or more warehouses or distribution 

centers, where goods are handled and stored prior to being sold. With the 

functionality of the Responsibility Centers granule, companies have the 

possibility to set up user-specific views to show only sales and purchase 

documents related to a particular responsibility center. 

The following is an example of a situation where a company chose to set 

up two responsibility centers. 

Scenario 3 

To optimize their business operations on the United Kingdom market and to 

be closer to their customers, Cronus International Ltd. divides their 

activities into two main geographical areas: the Central area and the 

Southern area. Each of these areas is administered through a responsibility 

center. The London responsibility center administers the southern area, 

while the Birmingham responsibility center is responsible for the central 

area. 

Remember that the company also has four warehouses located in these 

two areas. In the Central area, the Blue warehouse operates as a central 

warehouse, to which most of the vendors in the area ship their purchase 

orders, while in the Southern area, vendors ship the orders to different 

warehouses. 

Let’s have a look at how Cronus reflected their organizational configuration 

in the Navision Attain setup. 

First, view the responsibility center cards: 


Information. 

2 Click Company, Responsibility Centers. The responsibility center card 

appears. 

3 Browse to the card for the Birmingham responsibility center:


Fields on the General tab on the responsibility center card specify the code 

and the name for the responsibility center as well as address details. 

Each responsibility center has a name (for example, the address of the 

regional office) as well as a code representing the name. This code can be 

used in the responsibility center code fields elsewhere in the program. For 

example, when the user enters a responsibility center code on purchase 

and sales documents it affects the address, dimensions, and prices on the 

documents. You will learn about this later in this chapter. 

The Location Code field contains the code of a default warehouse, called 

Blue. This is the location where physical transactions administered by the 

Birmingham responsibility center take place. Entering a code here will 

make the location that the code refers to the automatic default location on 

all sales and purchase documents with this responsibility center. 

The communication information for the Birmingham responsibility center is 

specified on the Communication tab: 

Another responsibility center for Cronus is located in London:


Notice that the London responsibility center does not have any default 

location code. 

Linking Responsibility Centers to Other Objects in the Program 

Linking Users 

Having multiple locations can create problems in terms of who can access 

what. In Navision Attain, it is possible to assign permission for different 

users to perform activities in relation to the different responsibility centers. 

In this way, the company can ensure that a specific user only gets access 

to the data that is relevant for that user’s particular responsibility center. 

Once a user is defined and assigned to a responsibility center, the program 

will automatically select the responsibility center linked to this specific user, 

every time the user logs on with their own user ID. Specifically, it implies 

that the user can make sales and purchases from the responsibility center 

indicated in their sets of permissions. Also, the responsibility center name 

will appear in the sales and purchase orders as well as in other places in 

the program where the responsibility center field is present. 

The following is an example of a situation where a company wants to set 

up their users so that they can create and view sales and purchase 

documents only related to the responsibility center from which they 

operate. 

Scenario 4 

For the time being, Cronus has two responsibility centers, one in London 

and another one in Birmingham. The company has decided to set up three 

main users according to the following considerations: 

A user with the user ID ALL will have all the permissions. 

A user with the user ID BR-USER will have permission to operate only from


the Birmingham responsibility center. 

A user with the user ID LD-USER will have permission to operate only from 

the London responsibility center. 

To reflect these procedures in the program, the company must link users to 

the corresponding responsibility center. The following is the procedure for 

how to do that. 

First, create these users and assign them roles: 

1 On the menu bar, click Tools, Security, Database Logins. 

2 Create three users with the user IDs: ALL, BR-USER and LD-USER: 

3 Leave the Password and Expiration Date fields blank. 

4 Select user ID ALL and click Roles to open the Roles window. 

5 In the Role ID field, select SUPER. 

6 Repeat steps 4 and 5 for the user IDs BR-USER and LD-USER. 

Now, new users must be assigned to specific responsibility centers so that 

data used when creating sales orders, purchase orders and so on can be 

filtered accordingly. 

Permissions for users are set up in the User Setup window: 

7 From the main menu, click General Ledger, Setup, Users, User Setup. 

The User Setup window appears. 

8 Create three lines for each of the newly created users by selecting the 

corresponding user IDs in the User ID field.


9 In the Sales Resp. Ctr. Filter, Purchase Resp. Ctr. Filter and 

Service Resp. Ctr. Filter fields, select Birmingham for the user with 

BR-User as user ID. This implies that this user is linked to the 

Birmingham responsibility center and that he/she has permission to 

make sales, purchase and service orders from this center. 

10 Similarly, link the user with the user ID LD-USER to the London 

Note 

responsibility center: 

One user has to be configured as ALL, so they have all the permissions. 

Linking Customers and Vendors 

Companies often have established processes whereby certain customers 

are always administered from a specific sales responsibility center. A 

similar process may exist for vendors. To reflect these business practices, 

companies may want to use the program’s functionality to link their 

customers and vendors to certain responsibility centers. 

As an example of this feature, a salesperson creates a sales order for a 

customer that is linked to a specific responsibility center, the corresponding 

responsibility center code will default on the sales order header as well as 

on the printout of the sales order. In addition, the company will be able to 

track their performance toward customers, per specific responsibility 

center. 

The following is an example of a situation when a company chose to link 

some of their customers and vendors to a specific responsibility center. 

Scenario 5 

As a part of their strategy to increase customer responsiveness and 

improve customer care, Cronus has placed the responsibility for key


customers with each individual responsibility center. Similarly, each 

responsibility center is responsible for improving their relationship with key 

vendors. To help the responsibility centers to fulfill their new role, Cronus 

has chosen to link its customers 10000 and 50000 to the Birmingham and 

London responsibility centers, respectively. Similarly, two of its vendors, 

10000 and 20000, are both linked to the London responsibility center. 

Let’s have a look at how Cronus reflected this business pattern in the 

Navision Attain setup. 

To link a customer to a responsibility center, the user must select a 

responsibility center code on the customer card: 

1 From the main menu, click Sales & Receivables, Customers. Browse 

to the customer card for customer 10000: 

Notice that the Responsibility Center field on the General tab contains 

Birmingham. 

2 Open the customer card for customer 50000 to see the default 

responsibility center set up for it. 

Similarly, to link a vendor to a responsibility center, the user must select a 

responsibility center code on the vendor card: 

3 From the main menu, click Purchases & Payables, Vendors. Browse 

to the vendor card for vendor 10000:


Linking Prices 

It is a widespread practice among companies to differentiate customers by 

offering alternative prices for items. In Navision Attain, companies set up 

these alternative prices in the Item Price table. Here, they specify the 

conditions that must be met before a customer can be offered an 

alternative unit price for a specific item when quotes, orders, invoices and 

credit memos are set up. 

Usually, these conditions relate to a price group that each alternative price 

applies to, as well as to unit of measure, currency and starting date. 

Note 

You can learn more about alternative prices and their setup procedures in 

the Navision Financial Management courses. You can also read about how 

to set up alternative prices in the topic called “Item Price Table” in the 

online Help. 

However, companies with multiple locations may also want to have an 

additional condition under which customers are offered different sales 

prices for items, depending on which responsibility center sells them. When 

an item, which has an alternative unit price when sold from a specific 

responsibility center, is entered on a sales order, the program enters the 

alternative unit price in the Unit Price field on the sales lines. 

Companies will often have more than one condition under which the 

alternative unit price applies. For example, the conditions can require that 

the item is sold from a particular responsibility center and that the customer 

is linked to a particular price group. A company can set up several 

alternative unit prices for each item, but each must have a different set of 

conditions. 

If the conditions are not met, the program will use the basic unit price from


the item card. 

The following is an example of a situation where a company chose to offer 

different prices to their customers depending on which responsibility center 

they place their sales orders with. 

Scenario 6 

After having evaluated the performance of their two responsibility centers, 

Cronus found that total overhead costs at the Birmingham center were 

lower than at the London responsibility center. Consequently, the company 

decided that some items, when sold from the Birmingham responsibility 

center, will be priced 5% lower than when they are sold from another 


Among the items that this condition applies to is item 19oo-s. 

Let’s set up this condition in the program: 

1 From the main menu, click Inventory, Items. 

2 Browse to the item card for item 1900-s. Click Sales, Prices. The Item 

Prices window appears: 

3 In the Responsibility Center field, select Birmingham. 

4 In the Unit of Measure Code field, select PCS. 

5 In the Unit Price field, enter 118.80.


Now, every time a salesperson creates a sales order for this item from the 

Birmingham responsibility center, the program will enter LCY 118.80 in the 

Unit Price field on the sales line instead of LCY 125.10. 

If the user leaves the Responsibility Center field in the Item Prices table 

blank and enters information in other fields in this table, the alternative unit 

price will be valid for all responsibility centers. 

General Guidelines for Setting Up a Company with Multiple Locations 

As illustrated in the previous sections, with the two new granules in 

Navision Attain, Multiple Locations and Responsibility Centers, multi-site 

companies can exercise a high degree of flexibility when setting up their 

organizations in the program. 

However, it is recommended that companies choose one of the two 

following generic approaches to the setup: 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

The user-focused approach 

The account (customer/vendor)-focused approach. 

The companies where the user perspective is of a higher priority than that 

of the account may want to choose the user-focused approach. In this 

case, they can follow the general guidelines for setup as follows: 

Link responsibility centers to the users. 

Select a default location code for each responsibility center. 

Do not select default location codes for the accounts. 

Where the account perspective is of a higher priority than that of the user, 

companies may want to choose the account-focused approach. In this


case, they can follow the general guidelines for setup, as follows: 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

Note 

Select default responsibility centers and location codes for the 

accounts. 

Do not link responsibility centers to the users. 

Do not select default location codes for the responsibility centers. 

The demo database for Cronus does not reflect the above-mentioned 

approaches. 

Exercise 1 Create and Set Up a New Location 

Scenario 7 

Cronus International Ltd. extends its operations in England and purchases 

a new warehouse in Brighton. 

Cronus management decides that vendors 10000 and 50000 will use this 

new warehouse as a ship-to location. 

Your tasks are as follows: 

1 Set up this new location in the program. To do so, you must create a 

new location card. The new location is called Orange Warehouse and 

it has the location code Orange. 

2 Set the Orange location as the default location for vendors 10000 and 

50000. 

Exercise 2 Create and Set Up a New Responsibility Center


Scenario 8 

As Cronus business in Northern England increases, the company decides 

to open a new office in Manchester, which will act as a profit center 

administrating sales and purchases in the area. A warehouse located in 

Liverpool and represented by the location code Green is chosen as a 

default location for this responsibility center. 

Employees responsible for sales and purchases at the Manchester 

responsibility center will have their own user IDs, which allow them to 

perform the respective processes only from this responsibility center. 

Among other things, management also decides to administrate all deals 

with customer 30000 from the Manchester responsibility center. 


1 Set up this new administrative office in the program. To do so, you 

have to create a new responsibility center card. The new responsibility 

center will have the responsibility center code Manchester. 

2 Set location Green as a default location for this responsibility center. 

3 Set up at least one user at the Manchester responsibility center with 

the permission to make both sales and purchase orders from this 

center. First, create this user in the program with the MNC-USER user 

ID. Then set up permissions for this user. 

4 Set the Manchester responsibility center as a default for customer 

30000. 

Exercise 3 Setting up a Multi-site Company 

Take the example of a multi-site company that you may have knowledge of 

and suggest a setup for this company in Navision Attain. Discuss your 

considerations and findings in a class and/or with an instructor.


Overview of Cronus Organizational Setup 

The overview of the Cronus organizational setup, including the one 

presented in scenarios 2-5 of this section and the one performed in 

exercises 1 and 2, is summarized in the following tables: 

Responsibility 

Center 

Default Location 

Code 

Comments 

Birmingham Blue As set up in the demodata 

London no default location As set up in the demodata 

Manchester Green Setup performed during 

Customer 

No. 


Center (RC) 

Default 

Location 

Code 

exercises 1 and 2 

Comments 

10000 Birmingham Blue As set up in the demodata 

20000 no default RC no default 

location 

30000 Manchester no default 

location 

As set up in the demodata 

Setup performed during 


40000 no default RC Yellow As set up in the demodata 

50000 London no default 

Vendor 

No. 


Center (RC) 

location 

Default 

Location 

Code 


Comments 

10000 London Orange Setup performed during 


20000 London Yellow As set up in the demodata 

30000 no default RC no default 

location 


40000 no default RC Green As set up in the demodata 

50000 no default RC Orange Setup performed during 

exercises 1 and 2


2.3 SELLING AND PURCHASING IN A COMPANY WITH MULTIPLE 

LOCATIONS 

Priorities 

In the previous section you have learned about the different possibilities in 

Navision Attain for setting up a company with multiple locations. You have 

also learned that it can be useful to link users, customers and vendors, as 

well as prices, to responsibility centers. Alternatively, if you do not have 

responsibility centers, you can simply link customers and vendors to 

different locations. 

In this section, you will see what implications the alternative setups have on 

the company’s business processes in respect of making sales and 

purchase orders. To illustrate these implications, we will refer to different 

setup scenarios described in the previous section. Before doing so, 

however, we will draw your attention to the priority in which location codes 

and responsibility centers appear on the sales and purchase documents. 

In Navision Attain there is a pattern according to which the program applies 

the responsibility centers and locations codes to the sales and purchase 

documents. This pattern is based on a priority issue. 

The priority which determines which responsibility center appears on the 

sales and purchase documents are illustrated in the following table: 

The User Setup 

Card 

Priority 1 � 

The Company 

Information Card 

Priority 2 no default RC � 

The Customer/ 

Vendor Card 

Priority 3 no default RC no default RC � 

You read the table as follows: 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

If you selected a responsibility center as the default on the user setup 

card, the program will always apply this responsibility center to the 

sales and purchase documents. 

If you did not select any default responsibility center on the user setup 

card, the program will apply the responsibility center that you selected 

as the default on the company information card to the sales and 

purchase documents. 

If you did not select a default responsibility center on the user setup


card, and did not select any default responsibility center on the 

company information card, the program will apply the responsibility 

center that you selected as the default on the customer or vendor 

cards to the sales and purchase documents respectively. 

The priority which determines which location appears on the sales and 

purchase documents are illustrated in the following table: 

The Customer/ 

Vendor Card 


Priority 2 

Priority 3 

no default 

location 

no default 

location 

You read the table as follows: 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

The 


Center Card 

� 

no default 

location 

The Company 

Information 

Card 

If you selected a location code as the default on the customer or 

vendor cards, the program will apply this location code to the sales and 

purchase documents respectively. 

If you did not select any default location code on the customer and 

vendor cards, the program will apply the location code that you 

selected as the default on the responsibility center card to the sales 

and purchase documents. The program applies a responsibility center 

according to the priorities described on the previous page. 

If you did not select a default location code on the customer or vendor 

card, and you did not select any default location code on the 

responsibility center card or you have not set up responsibility centers 

in the program, the program will apply the location code that you 

selected as the default on the company information card to the sales 

and purchase documents. 

The following section describes specific situations in which the program 

applies a responsibility center and/or a location code to sales and purchase 

documents, depending on the way that the multi-site company has been 

set up. 

These situations are described in the form of scenarios that represent 

different setups. However, instead of going through all the scenarios you 

may just choose to have a closer look at the selected few that are of 

interest to you. 

�


Making Sales and Purchase Orders 

Consider the following scenario and its implications for the purchase 

document. 

Scenario 9 

The setup (see scenario 1): A head office with a default ship-to location. 

Cronus has one head office set up on the company information card and a 

number of locations represented by warehouses, with the Blue location 

being a central warehouse. The location code Blue is set up as a default 

ship-to location on the company information card. 

A purchaser in Cronus creates a purchase order for vendor 30000 for 10 

units of item 70000. 

Create the purchase order for vendor 30000. 

1 Fill in the Buy-from Vendor No., Type, No. and Quantity fields in the 

Purchase Order window with the corresponding information: 

Notice that the program has automatically filled in the Location Code field 

on the Shipping tab and on the purchase line with BLUE. 

Now, have a look at the printout of the purchase order document that 

Cronus will send to their vendor: 

2 In the Purchase Order window, click Print. Click Preview. The Print 

Preview window appears:


CoolWood Technologies 

Mr. Rick Wind 

33 Hitech Drive 

Portsmouth, GB-PO7 2HI 

Great Britain 

Buy-from Vendor No. 

30000 

VAT Registration No. 697528465 

Purchaser Richard Quist 

No. Description Quantity 

Unit of 

Measu 

Order 

Page 1 

CRONUS International Ltd. 

5 The Ring 

Westminster 

GB-W2 8HG London 

Phone No. 0666-666-6666 

Fax No. 0666-666-6660 

VAT Reg. No. GB777777777 

Giro No. 888-9999 

Bank World Wide Bank 

Account No. 99-99-888 

January 25, 2001 

Order No. 106024 

Prices Including VAT No 

Direct Unit 

All VAT 

Cost Disc. % In Identifi Amount 

70000 Side Panel 10 Piece 17.30 Ye VAT25 

173.00 

VAT Amount Specification 

VAT Identifier 

Total GBP Excl. VAT 173.00 

25% VAT 43.25 

Total GBP Incl. VAT 

216.25 

Inv. Disc. Base 

Invoice 

Discount 

VAT % Line Amount Amount Amount VAT Base VAT Amount 

VAT25 25 173.00 173.00 0.00 

173.00 43.25 

Total 173.00 173.00 0.00 

173.00 43.25 

Payment Terms Current month 

Shipment Method Cost Insurance and Freight 

Ship-to Address 

Blue Warehouse 

John Brown 

South East Street, 3 

Birmingham, GB-B27 4KT 

Great Britain 

As you can see, the vendor’s address is in the top-left corner of the 

document. The address in the top-right corner is the company’s 

headquarters address which the company set up in the Company 

Information window. In the bottom-left corner you can see the ship-to 

address to which the vendor will ship the ordered items. This address is for 

the Blue warehouse. 


document.


Scenario 10 

The setup (see scenario 2): A head office with a default ship-to location; 

one warehouse is a default location for a vendor. 

Cronus has one head office set up on the company information card and a 

number of locations represented by warehouses, with the Blue location 

being a central warehouse. The location code Blue is set up as the default 

ship-to location on the company information card. The location code Green 

is set as a default for vendor 40000 on the vendor card. 

A purchaser in Cronus creates a purchase order for vendor 40000 for 25 


Create the purchase order for vendor 40000. 


Purchase Order window with the corresponding information: 


on the Shipping tab and the purchase line with GREEN.


Consider the following scenario and its implications for the sales document. 

Scenario 11 

The setup (see scenarios 3 and 4): A head office with a default ship-to 

location; one warehouse is a default location for a responsibility center; a 

user is linked to the responsibility center. 

Cronus has one head office set up on the company information card, a 

number of locations represented by warehouses, and three responsibility 

centers. The location code Blue is set up as a default for the Birmingham 

responsibility center. A user with user ID BR-USER is linked to the 

Birmingham responsibility center. Customer 20000 does not have any 

default location code set up. 

A salesperson at the Birmingham responsibility center makes a sales order 

for customer 20000 and 10 units of item 70000. 

Create the sales order for customer 20000 from the Birmingham 


First, log on as BR-USER: 

1 In the Login window, in the User ID field, enter BR-USER. 

2 Click OK. 

Now, create a new sales order: 

3 From the main menu, click Sales and Receivables, Orders:


Notice that the Responsibility Center field on the General tab is 

automatically filled in with BIRMINGHAM. The Location Code field on the 

Shipping tab contains BLUE, because this is the default location for the 

Birmingham responsibility center. 

4 Fill in the Sell-to Customer No., Type, No. and Quantity fields in the 

Sales Order window with the corresponding information: 


on the sales lines with BLUE. This code is copied from the Shipping tab. 

Now you can see how these different addresses appear on the printout of 

the sales order to be send to the customer for confirmation:


5 In the Sales Order window, click Print, Preview. The print preview of 

the order confirmation appears: 

Order Confirmation 

Page 1 

James Dailey Ltd. CRONUS, Birmingham RC. 

Mr. James Dailey Mark Twain 

153 Thomas Drive Main Street, 14 

Coventry, GB-CV6 1GY GB-B27 4KT Birmingham 

Great Britain 

Phone No. +44-161 818192 

Fax No. +44-161 818100 


Giro No. 888-9999 



Bill-to Customer No. 20000 January 25, 2001 

VAT Registration No. 254687456 Shipment Date 01/25/01 

Salesperson Peter Schmidt Order No. 1002 


Unit of 

All VAT 

No. Description Quantity Measu Unit Price Disc. % In Identifi Amount 

70000 Side Panel 10 Piece 30.70 15 Ye VAT25 

260.95 



Total GBP Excl. VAT 

25% VAT 


260.95 

65.24 

326.19 


Invoice 

Discount 


VAT25 25 260.95 260.95 0.00 

260.95 65.24 

Total 260.95 260.95 0.00 

260.95 65.24 

Payment Terms Net 14 days 

Shipment Method Ex Warehouse 

As you can see, the customer’s sell-to address is in the top-left corner of 

the document. The top-right corner of the document contains the address 

of the responsibility center that the sales order has been made for. In this 

case it is the Birmingham responsibility center. 


document. 

Scenario 12


The setup (see scenarios 1, 3 and 4): A head office with a default ship-to 

location; a user is linked to a responsibility center with no default location. 



centers. The location code Blue is set up as a default ship-to location on 

the company information card. A user with user ID LD-USER is linked to 

the London responsibility center. The London responsibility center does not 

have a default location code. 

A purchaser in the London responsibility center creates a purchase order 

for vendor 30000, for 10 units of item 70200. 

Create the purchase order for vendor 30000 from the London responsibility 

center. 

1 Make sure that you are logged on as LD-USER. 

2 From the main menu, click Purchases and Payables, Orders. 

Notice that the Responsibility Center field on the General tab is 

automatically filled in with LONDON. The Location Code field on the 

Shipping tab is filled in with BLUE. This is a default location that has been 

set up for the entire company on the Shipping tab of the company 

information card. 


Purchase Order window with the corresponding information:



on the sales lines with BLUE. This code is copied from the Shipping tab. 

Now you can see how these different addresses appear on the printout of 

the purchase order that is to be sent to the vendor: 

CoolWood Technologies 

Mr. Rick Wind 

33 Hitech Drive 

Portsmouth, GB-PO7 2HI 

Great Britain 

Buy-from Vendor No. 

30000 

VAT Registration No. 697528465 

Purchaser Richard Quist 

No. Description Quantity 

Unit of 

Measu 

Order 

Page 1 

CRONUS, London RC. 

John Smith 

Kensington Street, 22 

GB-N12 5XY London 

Phone No. +44-999 154642 

Fax No. +44-999 154625 


Giro No. 888-9999 



January 25, 2001 

Order No. 106026 


Direct Unit 

All VAT 

Cost Disc. % In Identifi Amount 

70200 Hinge 10 Piece 0.80 Ye VAT25 

8.00 



Total GBP Excl. VAT 8.00 

25% VAT 2.00 


10.00 


Invoice 

Discount 


VAT25 25 8.00 8.00 0.00 

8.00 2.00 

Total 8.00 8.00 0.00 

8.00 2.00 

Payment Terms Current month 

Shipment Method Cost Insurance and Freight 

Ship-to Address 

Blue Warehouse 

John Brown 

South East Street, 3 

Birmingham, GB-B27 4KT 

Great Britain 

As you can see, the vendor’s address is in the top-left corner of the 

document. The top-right corner of the document contains the address of 

the responsibility center that the purchase order has been made for. In this 

case it is the London responsibility center. The bottom-left address is the 

recipient’s address, at the Blue warehouse.


If Cronus did not have a default location set up on the company information 

card, the ship-to address would be the company’s general address. 

The last two scenarios illustrated how the program uses the address 

information in situations when a user is linked to a specific responsibility 

center. Now, consider scenarios when customers and vendors are linked to 

a responsibility center and/or location which is different from the one linked 

to the user. 

Scenario 13 

The setup (see scenario 5): A head office with a default ship-to location; a 

customer is linked to a responsibility center with no default location; the 

customer does not have a default location. 



centers. The location code Blue is set up as a default ship-to location on 

the company information card. The London responsibility center is the 

default for customer 50000. There is no default location set up for this 

customer. The London responsibility center does not have any default 

location code. 

A salesperson in Cronus creates a sales order for customer 50000, for 5 


Create the sales order for customer 50000: 

1 Make sure that you are logged on as ALL. 

2 From the main menu, click Sales and Receivables, Orders. 

Notice that the Responsibility Center field on the sales header contains 

LONDON which is a default code for this customer. Meanwhile, the 

Location Code field on the Shipping tab is filled in with BLUE. This is a 

default location that has been set up for the entire company. 


Sales Order window with the corresponding information:


The program copies the location code on the sales line from the Shipping 

tab. 


Scenario 14 


location; a user is linked to a responsibility center with a default location; a 

customer is linked to another responsibility center. 



centers. A user with user ID BR-USER is linked to the Birmingham 

responsibility center. The location code Blue is set up as the default for the 

Birmingham responsibility center. The London responsibility center is the 

default for customer 50000. 

A salesperson at the Birmingham responsibility center creates a sales 

order for customer 50000, for 15 units of item 70010. 


responsibility center: 

1 Make sure that you are logged on as BR-USER. 

2 In the Sell-to Customer No. field in the Sales Order window, select 

customer 50000. 

You will then receive the following warning message:


3 Click OK. 

You have accepted that the program will process the sales order from the 

Birmingham responsibility center, which is a default responsibility center for 

the salesperson making the orders, rather than from responsibility center 

London, which is the default responsibility center for the customer. 


document. 

Scenario 15 



customer has a default location. 




responsibility center. The location code Blue is set up as the default for the 

Birmingham responsibility center. The customer 40000 is not linked to any 

responsibility center, but has the location code Yellow as default. 


order for customer 40000, who has placed an order for 10 units of item 

1896-S. 




2 From the main menu, click Sales and Receivables, Orders. 

Notice that the Responsibility Center field on the sales order header is 

automatically filled in with BIRMINGHAM, while the Location Code field on 

the Shipping tab contains BLUE. 

3 Fill in the Sell-to Customer No. Notice that the Location Code field 

on the Shipping tab now contains YELLOW.


4 Fill in the Type, No. and Quantity fields in the Sales Order window 

with the corresponding information: 

The program copies the location code on the sales line from the Shipping 

tab. 


Scenario 16 



customer has no default location and is not linked to any responsibility 

center; an item is applied a discount when sold from the responsibility 

center. 




responsibility center. Customer 20000 is not linked to any responsibility 

center, nor do they have any default location code set up for them. Item 

1900-S belongs to the category of items, which, if sold from the 

Birmingham responsibility center, are applied a 5% price discount. 


order for customer 20000, who has placed an order for 20 units of item 

1900-S. 

Create the sales order for customer 20000 from the Birmingham





Sales Order window with the corresponding information: 

Notice that the price in the Unit Price field is LCY 118.80 instead of the 

usual LCY 125.10. This is because the condition under which this lower 

price is applied (that the item is sold from the Birmingham responsibility 

center) has been met. 

If the sales order for this item was created and administered by a 

responsibility center other than Birmingham, the usual unit price or other 

alternative prices (if set up) would be applied. 

Exercise 4 Create Purchase Orders in a Company with Multiple Locations 

Scenario 17 

A purchaser at Cronus needs to buy 70 units of item 70000 from vendor 

20000 and 30 units of item 70200 from vendor 40000. 

Your tasks are as follows:


1 Create the two purchase orders. 

2 Make printouts of the two purchase documents that will be sent to the 

vendors. (Instead of printing, you can view the print previews of the 

documents.) 

3 Explain where the addresses on the purchase documents come from. 

Tip: Make sure that you are logged on as ALL. 

Exercise 5 Create a Sales Order in a Company with Multiple Locations 

Scenario 18 

At Cronus, a salesperson at the Manchester responsibility center needs to 

make a sales order for the customer 40000, who has placed an order for 25 

units of item 1896-S. 


1 Create the sales order. 

2 Print out the sales document that will be sent to the customer for 

confirmation. (Instead of printing, you may just view the print preview of 

the document.) 

3 Explain where the addresses on the sales document come from. 

Tip: Make sure that you are logged on as MNC-USER.


2.4 CONTROLLING INVENTORY AT MULTIPLE LOCATIONS 

The Stockkeeping Unit Concept 

Setting Up an SKU 

Companies with many warehouse locations want to have a certain degree 

of flexibility in managing these locations. They need to be able to make 

individual replenishment plans based on the supply-demand pattern at a 

specific location and/or a variant of the item. 

Navision Attain provides multilocational companies with functionality that 

allows them to handle and control inventory in such a flexible manner. This 

is done by means of creating stockkeeping units. Information recorded on 

the stockkeeping unit card specifies individual parameters used by the 

program to calculate replenishment schedules at the location and/or variant 

level. 

The Stockkeeping Unit (SKU) is an item with a particular variant and/or at a 

particular geographic location. For example, a product stocked at both a 

main location and six different distribution centers would represent seven 

SKUs. Information held on the SKU card may include cost prices, 

replenishment and manufacturing information. 

Whenever there is an SKU, the program uses the information on the SKU 

card instead of referring to the item card. This implies that SKUs have 

priority over the item card but do not replace it. 

Consider the following scenario: 

Scenario 19 

Based on different supply-demand patterns for a number of certain items at 

specific warehouses, Cronus has realized the need to reflect this difference 

in the program. For this purpose, an inventory manager has created and 

set up the corresponding number of stockkeeping units for the selected 

items. 

Item 70001 is among these items. 

Have a look at the SKUs that have been created for item 70001.


Note 

The user can create a stockkeeping unit by clicking Inventory, 

Stockkeeping Units, pressing F3 and then entering the appropriate 

information on the SKU card. To create several stockkeeping units for an 

item, the user can use the Create Stockkeeping Unit batch job by clicking 

Functions on the item card. 

The user can access the stockkeeping unit card from both the item card (by 

clicking Item, Stockkeeping Units) and the Inventory menu (by clicking 

Stockkeeping Units): 

1 From the main menu, click Inventory, Items and browse to the item 

card for item 70001: 

Pay attention to the Stockkeeping Unit Exists field on the General tab of 

the Item Card window. If this field contains a check mark then one or more 

stockkeeping units for this item have already been created. 

2 On the item card, click Item, Stockkeeping Units. A list of SKUs for the 

item appears:


3 Select an SKU for the Blue location and click SKU, Card. 

Notice that many fields on the General tab of the SKU card are the same 

as on the item card for the corresponding item. 

4 Click the Ordering tab: 

The fields on the Ordering tab specify details of the replenishment process 

that the inventory manager has established for this item at the Blue 

location.


The Requisition System field specifies the type of order the program 

suggests when it creates orders as the result of the replenishment 

planning. 

At Cronus, where location Blue is the company’s main distribution center, 

most of the items stored at this location are replenished through purchase. 

Therefore, purchase is selected in the Requisition System field for this 

stockkeeping unit. 

The Requisition Method Code field specifies the method that the program 

uses to determine the material requirements when it calculates the 

scheduled need in the requisition/planning worksheet. The user selects the 

appropriate methods from the requisition methods table. 

In addition to the requisition system, the user can also differentiate between 

items at different locations by their maximum inventory, reorder point, 

reorder quantity and so on. To learn about other fields on the Ordering tab, 

click the respective field and press F1. 

You can now view details for an SKU card for the same item at the Yellow 

location: 

5 From the stockkeeping units list, select the SKU for location Yellow and 

click SKU, Card. Click the Ordering tab: 

According to the company’s established procedures, most of the items 

stored at the Yellow location are replenished by means of transfer from the 

Blue location. This practice is reflected in the program through the selection 

of Transfer as a requisition system and the selection of BLUE as a transferfrom 

code. 

When the user selects a code in the Transfer-from Code field, the 

program verifies whether the combination of the transfer-to and the 

selected transfer-from locations is a valid transfer route.


Note 

Using SKU Information 

You can learn more about setting up transfer routes in chapter 4, Location 

Transfers, section 4.2. 

If the transfer route is invalid, the program will give a warning message: 

6 In the Transfer-from Code field, select Red. The following warning 

message appears: 

As you have seen, Cronus has set up stockkeeping units for item 70001 at 

the Blue and Yellow locations. When this item is handled from other 

locations, the program will simply use the information held on the item card. 

To view a list of all stockkeeping units: 

1 From the main menu, click Stockkeeping Units. 

2 Press F5 or click SKU, List: 

The program uses information recorded on the stockkeeping unit card 

when producing different reports. In this way, companies can handle and 

control inventory stored at different locations, without losing the overview of 

the entire inventory. 

Let’s make an inventory availability report:


1 From the main menu, click Items Report. In the Items Report – Print 

window, select Inventory Availability report and click Print. 

2 In the Inventory Availability window, click the Options tab. 

3 Place a check mark in the Use Stockkeeping Unit field. 

4 Click Preview. The report lists the availability of items by stockkeeping 

unit: 

Inventory Availability February 27, 2001 

CRONUS 16-02-01 Page 1 

No. Description BO 

Base Location 

Unit o Code 

Variant 

Code 

Gross Schedul Planned Quantity Projecte Reorder 

Require Receipt Order Re on Back Availabl Point Re 

70001 Base No PCS BLUE 

30 0 0 0 2,280 250 Yes 

YELLOW 0 30 0 0 45 250 Yes 

70002 Top Panel No PCS BLUE 

19 0 0 0 2,489 250 Yes 

YELLOW 0 19 0 0 22 250 Yes 

70003 Rear Panel No PCS BLUE 

0 0 0 0 2,094 250 Yes 

YELLOW 0 0 0 0 31 250 Yes 

1928-S AMSTERDAM Lamp No PCS YELLOW 

25 0 0 0 72 45 Yes 

1972-S MUNICH Swivel Chair, yellow No PCS YELLOW 

19 0 0 0 71 50 Yes 

To print the Inventory Cost and Price, Inventory Reorders and other 

reports, follow the same procedure as described in steps 1-4. 

ALL


Exercise 6 Create and Set Up Stockkeeping Units 

Scenario 20 

Due to the different conditions under which the various warehouses within 

Cronus operate, the company decides to establish a set of parameters with 

regard to certain items, which will distinguish the way that these items are 

handled and managed at different locations. 

Among these items is item 70100. General practice is that this item is 

purchased from a limited number of vendors, who are located in close 

proximity to the Blue warehouse. These vendors therefore ship their orders 

directly to this warehouse. The Red and Yellow warehouses will not 

purchase this item from the vendors but will transfer it from the Blue 

warehouse. 


1 Create stockkeeping units for item 70100 at the Blue, Red and Yellow 

locations. 

2 Set up the stockkeeping units according to the following parameters: 

At the Blue 

warehouse 

At the Red 

warehouse 

At the Yellow 

warehouse 

Requisition system purchase transfer Transfer 

Requisition Method 

Code 

PURCHASE TRANSFER TRANSFER 

Transfer-from Code - Blue Blue 

Reorder Point 150 100 100 

3 Print an inventory availability report per stockkeeping unit.

3 

Chapter 3. 

Order Promising 


3.1 Overview 

3.2 Promising Orders to Customers 

3.3 Estimating Transfer Order Receipt


3.1 OVERVIEW 

As e-technology increases the number and speed of transactions, many 

companies find themselves having to manage many small orders and deal 

with demanding and selective customers. Under these circumstances, the 

ability to provide customers with accurate information about order delivery 

and to estimate the receipt of orders shipped by the vendors becomes very 

important. 

In Navision Attain, the date calculation functionality and the Order 

Promising feature are the cornerstone of managing the sales orders. The 

program calculates the delivery and shipment dates that meet the dates 

requested by customers based on availability dates. 

The program operates with two concepts: 

∙ 

∙ 

available to promise (ATP), and 

capable to promise (CTP). 

ATP is used in connection with the date calculation functionality and is 

based on the inventory reservation system. When the ATP function is used 

the program performs the availability check of the uncommitted 

(unreserved) portion of a company's inventory in terms of planned 

production, purchase, transfers and sales return. Based on the availability 

date of the items, the delivery date at the customer is calculated. 

CTP is used to perform “what if” scenarios. If no items are available in 

inventory and there are no inbound orders scheduled, the program can 

calculate the earliest date that items can be available if they are produced, 

bought or transferred from another location. From the availability date of 

the items, the program calculates the delivery date at the customer, creates 

order lines for this date and reserves the inventory. The CTP function 

includes capacity constraint issues in the calculation and it may be 

integrated to production scheduling, manufacturing, transfer and purchase 

planning. The level of CTP greatly depends on the model selected in the 

capacity-scheduling engine. 

With the date calculation functionality, companies can also make estimates 

concerning the expected dates for order receipts from their vendors. 

The possibilities of the program to support companies in promising orders 

to customers and estimating purchase and transfer order receipts are 

explained and illustrated in the following sections.

Order Promising 3-3 

To follow the suggested scenarios, remember to install the clean database.


3.2 PROMISING ORDERS TO CUSTOMERS 

Definitions 

In this section, you will learn how Navision Attain can help sales personnel 

provide customers with accurate information about sales order delivery. As 

described in the previous section, to perform this task sales people can use 

the date calculation functionality which relates to the available-to promise 

situation. They can also supplement it with the Order Promising feature 

which relates to the capable-to-promise situation. 

The date calculation functionality builds on series of calculations which are 

based on a number of dates and times. To better understand this 

functionality, we suggest that first you familiarize yourself with the terms 

and definitions of the key dates and times used and calculated by the 

program. Then you can learn about a set of calculations, which are based 

on the interrelations between those dates and times. 

With this understanding in place, you can proceed to learn about: 

∙ 

∙ 

how to set up the program to be able to use the date calculation 

functionality and the Order Promising feature. 

how the program supports sale personnel in managing their sales 

order promising process, depending on customer requirements and 

item availability. 

Requested Delivery Date: The date that the customer has asked for the 

order to be delivered at their address. This date must be entered manually 

in order to affect the date calculation. 

Promised Delivery Date: The date that the company has promised the 

order to be delivered at the customer’s address. This date must be entered 

manually in order to affect the date calculation. 

Planned Delivery Date: The date that the company has planned for the 

order to be delivered at the customer’s address. This date is calculated by 

the program. If a requested delivery date exists, the planned delivery date 

will be the same. 

Planned Shipment Date: The date on which the picking process is finished 

and the items are shipped out of the warehouse. This date is calculated by 

the program. 

Shipment Date: The date on which an item must be available in inventory.


Calculations 

The picking process can start on this date. This date is calculated by the 

program. 

Outbound Warehouse Handling Time: The time that it takes to pick, pack 

and label the items of an order. 

Shipping Time: The time between the items being shipped from the 

warehouse to being delivered at the customer's address. 

With the date calculations functionality, a salesperson can provide a 

customer with an accurate date for when their orders will be delivered at 

their address. The program supports a salesperson in two ways: 

∙ 

∙ 

It calculates the earliest possible delivery date when the customer has 

not requested a delivery date, taking into account item availability. 

It verifies whether the delivery date requested by the 

customer/promised by the salesperson is realistic, taking into account 

item availability. 

To carry out these two actions, the program performs a set of calculations 

which are based on the dates entered by the salesperson and information 

set up in the program. The relationship between the dates and times used 

in calculations is illustrated in the following scheme: 

Shipment Date Planned Shipment Date Planned Delivery Date 

Out. Whse Handling 

Time 

Shipping Time 

To calculate the earliest delivery date for the orders for which a customer 

has not requested a delivery date, the program sets the shipment date 

equal to the current working date and bases the availability date on that. If 

items are available on that date, the program makes a forward calculation 

to determine the date when the order can be delivered to the customer’s 

address. These calculations can be represented by the following formulas: 

and 

Shipment Date + Outbound Warehouse Handling Time = Planned 

Shipment Date


Planned Shipment Date + Shipping Time = Planned Delivery Date 

To verify whether the delivery date requested by the customer/promised by 

the salesperson can be met, the program sets a planned delivery date 

equal to the requested/promised delivery date and makes a backward 

calculation to determine the date when the items must be available to meet 

the customer’s request/salesperson’s promise. These calculations can be 

represented by the following formulas: 

and 

Planned Delivery Date - Shipping Time = Planned Shipment Date 

Planned Shipment Date - Outbound Warehouse Handling Time = 

Shipment Date 

The program uses the shipment date, which is the calculated availability 

date, to make the availability check. If items are available on this date, the 

program confirms that the requested/promised delivery date can be met by 

setting the planned delivery date equal to the requested/promised delivery 

date. In this way, the interface between the time functionality and the 

availability check lies at the shipment date. 

If the program determines that items are not available on the current 

working date (when there is no requested/promised delivery date) or on the 

calculated availability date (when there is a requested/promised delivery 

date), then a salesperson can choose to use the CTP functionality of the 

Order Promising feature. Based on the new dates, the program 

recalculates all other related dates according to the formulas defined 

above. 

The program also recalculates all the related dates if a salesperson 

chooses to manually change any of the dates involved in date calculations. 

There is an order of priority for how the program uses the dates entered on 

the sales header when calculating all the related dates on the lines. These 

priorities are illustrated in the following table: 

Promised 

Delivery Date 


Requested 

Delivery Date 

Priority 2 is not entered � 

Shipment Date


Priority 3 is not entered is not entered � 

The program takes the date with the highest priority as a starting point for 

the calculation. 

Setting up Date Calculation for Sales Orders 

The setup for date calculations on the sales side consists of the following 

three elements: 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

the Outbound Warehouse Handling Time setup: This is the time it 

takes to pick, pack and label the items of an order before shipping. The 

program uses the outbound warehouse handling time in calculating the 

planned delivery date or shipment date. 

the Shipping Time setup: This setup can include definitions of the types 

of services the company’s shipping agent can offer and the 

corresponding shipping times. 

the Availability Test Interval setup: This is the period within which the 

program will make the availability calculation. 

Setting up Outbound Warehouse Handling Time 

Companies can set up the outbound warehouse handling time: 

on the inventory setup card, or 

on the location card. If a company has more than one location, they 

must set up the handling time for each location. This setup has priority 

over the setup on the inventory setup card. 

Now set up the outbound warehouse handling time for the Blue warehouse: 

1 From the main menu, click Inventory, Setup, Locations. 

2 Browse to the location card for the Blue warehouse and click the 

Warehouse tab. 

3 In the Outbound Whse. Handling Time field, enter 1D.


This specifies that it takes one day for the warehouse personnel at the Blue 

location to handle the picking, packing and labelling procedures. 

Setting up Shipping Time 

Because the shipping time can depend on the type of shipping services 

companies’ shipping agents offer, they can choose to set up the shipping 

time per shipping agent service. With the shipping agent services and 

shipping times set up, they can link them to the customers. Then, every 

time a salesperson makes a sales order for a specific customer, the 

program will use the shipping time associated with the shipping agent 

service set up for this customer to calculate the planned delivery date for 

this order. 

Companies can also choose to set up a shipping time for each individual 

customer, independently of the specific shipping agent service. They do so 

by entering the information in the Shipping Time field on the Shipping tab 

of the customer card. In this case, they overwrite the shipping time 

associated with a specific shipping agent service. 

To make the program use the shipping time depending on what shipping 

agent and services they choose, companies must first set up shipping 

agents and define their services. 

At Cronus, there are three shipping agents set up in the program: 

1 From the main menu, click Sales & Receivables, Setup, Shipping 

Agents:


For each of the shipping agents, the company set up a number of services 

which differ in terms of shipping time. 

2 Select DHL shipping agent and click Shipping Agents, Shipping Agent 

Services. The Shipping Agent Services window appears: 

The following is the procedure for how to link a shipping agent service to a 

specific customer. 

Set up the FEDEX shipping agent and the Next Day shipping service for 

customer 20000: 

1 From the main menu, click Sales & Receivables, Customers. Browse 

to the customer card for customer 20000 and click the Shipping tab. 

2 In the Shipping Agent Code field, select FEDEX and press ENTER. 

3 In the Shipping Agent Service Code field, select NEXT DAY and 

press ENTER. 

The program fills in the Shipping Time field with 1D:


The next time a salesperson makes a sales order for this customer, the 

program will copy the information about the shipping agent services and 

shipping time from the customer card to the corresponding fields on the 

Shipping tab of the sales order. 

Setting up an Availability Test Interval 

An availability test interval must be set up on the company information 

card. 


Information. Click the Shipping tab: 

Notice that the Check-Avail. Period Calc. field contains 90D and the 

Check-Avail. Time Bucket field contains Week. This means that when a 

salesperson runs the ATP function, the program checks item availability for 

a period of 90 days starting from the current day, checking one week at a 

time. The check-availability period typically reflects an agreement between 

a company and its customers, indicating the maximum time customers are


Setting Up Order Promising Feature 

willing to wait before their order requests can be met. 

To set up the Order Promising feature, a company must specify certain 

parameters that the program must use in order promising calculations. 

These specify the time parameters that the program must use to calculate 

item availability and which worksheet the program must use to store the 

information in. 

Promising Sales Order Delivery 

You set up the Order Promising feature in the Order Promising Setup 

window. 

You can read about how to set up parameters in the Order Promising 

Setup window in the topic called “Setting Up Order Promising” in online 

Help. 

At Cronus, the order promising setup includes the following parameters: 

1 From the main menu, click Inventory, Setup, Order Promising Setup to 

open the Order Promising Setup window: 

Notice that the Order Promising Template field contains PLANNING. This 

means that by default the program creates replenishment proposals in the 

planning worksheet. 

To illustrate the date calculation functionality and the functionality of the 

Order Promising granule, here are a number of different scenarios based 

on the example of Cronus. In these examples, the current day is assumed 

to be the 25 th January 2001 (01/25/01).


The screenshots illustrating the scenarios in this section do not represent 

the standard layout of the sales lines. The date related fields – the Planned 

Delivery Date, the Planned Shipment Date and the Shipment Date fields 

– are moved to the left and inserted next to the Quantity field. 

Promising Sales Order Delivery with no Delivery Date Requested 

The following two scenarios describe a situation where customers place 

orders with no delivery date requested. The two scenarios are as follows: 

∙ 

∙ 

Items are available for shipping on the day that the customer placed 

their order. 

Items are not available. 

Consider the first scenario. 

Scenario 1 

Cronus customer 10000 places an order for 100 units of item 70002. 

The customer doesn’t request any specific date for delivery. 

A salesperson at Cronus creates a sales order and tells the customer when 

they can expect their order to be delivered. 

Create a sales order for 100 units of item 70002 for customer 10000: 

1 From the main menu, click Sales & Receivables, Orders. Press F3. 

2 In the Sell-to Customer No. field, select customer 10000. 

3 Leave the Requested Delivery Date field blank. 

4 In the No. field, select item 70002, and in the Quantity field, enter 

100. 

Pay attention to the Planned Delivery Date, the Planned Shipment Date 

and the Shipment Date fields on the sales lines:


The program fills in these fields with dates from the forward calculation, 

when the shipment date is set equal to the order date, that is 01/25/01. 

First, the program makes availability check for the required quantity of item 

70002 at the Blue warehouse on the current date. When the availability 

check shows that items are available on the current date, the program 

performs forward calculation, taking this date as a starting point for 

calculations. Based on the information that the outbound warehouse 

handling time is one day for this location, and the shipping time is one day 

for this customer, the program correspondingly calculates the planned 

shipment date and the planned delivery date. 

Based on these calculations, the salesperson can now inform the customer 

that the order will be delivered at their address in two days. 

Now consider the scenario where items are not available for shipping at the 

current date. 

Scenario 2 

Cronus customer 20000 places an order for 30 units of item 1968-S. 

The customer doesn’t request any specific date for delivery. The order will 

be shipped from the Green warehouse. 

A salesperson at Cronus creates a sales order and tells the customer when 

they can expect their order to be delivered.


Create a sales order for 30 units of item 1968-S for customer 20000: 



3 Leave the Requested Delivery Date field blank. In the Location 

Code field of the Shipping tab, select GREEN. 

4 In the No. field, select item 1968-S, and in the Quantity field, enter 

30. 

The program gives the following stockout warning message: 

Note that the Earliest Availability Date field on the warning card contains 

the date 01/27/01. This means that a purchase (transfer, production or 

sales return) order has been created for item 1968-S and the expected 

receipt date for this order is 01/27/01. The salesperson can use this 

information to recalculate the date when the sales order can be delivered to 

the customer: 

5 Click Yes on the warning card. In the Shipment Date field on the 

sales line, enter 01/27/01 and press ENTER. 

Now the program correspondingly recalculates the planned shipment date 

and the planned delivery date:


Based on these calculations, the salesperson can promise the customer 

that the order will be delivered at their address on 01/29/01. 

Note 

Other than using the earliest availability date suggested by the program, 

the salesperson can run the CTP function. An example of how to do this is 

described in connection with scenario 4. 

If for some reason, the salesperson decides to change the shipment date 

suggested by the program to a later date, the program will correspondingly 

recalculate all the related dates. 

Note 

If the user changes the shipment date on the header and the availability 

check for existing sales lines shows that items are unavailable on the new 

shipment date, the program does not give a stockout message. The 

warning appears only when the shipment date is changed on the individual 

line. 

In the sales order that you have created for customer 20000 for 30 units of 

item 1968-S, change the shipment date from 01/27/01 to 01/30/01: 

6 In the Shipment Date field on the sales line, change the date to 

01/30/01.


The program makes the forward calculations to determine the new planned 

shipment and planned delivery dates and fills in the corresponding fields on 

the sales lines: 

Similarly, if the salesperson decides to change the planned delivery date, 

the program will make a backward calculation to determine on which date 

items must be available (that is the shipment date). Based on this new date 

and depending on item availability, the program will perform forward 

calculations as described in connection with scenarios 1 and 2. 

Promising Sales Order with a Requested Delivery Date 

The following three scenarios describe situations where customers place 

orders and request a specific delivery date. The three scenarios are as 

follows: 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

The requested delivery date can be met. 

The requested delivery date cannot be met. 

To meet a requested delivery date, shipment date must be before the 

current date. 

Consider the first scenario.


Scenario 3 

Cronus customer 50000 places an order for 25 units of item 70010. The 

customer requests that the order be delivered on 01/29/01. A salesperson 

at Cronus creates a sales order and checks whether the requested order 

delivery date can be met. 




3 In the Requested Delivery Date field, enter 01/29/01. 

4 On the Shipping tab, in the Location Code field, select Blue and 

press ENTER. 

5 In the No. field, select item 70010, and in the Quantity field, enter 25. 

Pay attention to the Planned Delivery Date, the Planned Shipment Date 

and the Shipment Date fields on the sales lines: 

The program fills in these fields with dates from the backward calculation, 

when the planned delivery date is set equal to the requested delivery date. 

The program verifies that items are available for shipping on the calculated 

shipping date (01/26/01) and leaves the planned delivery date unchanged.


Based on these calculations, the salesperson can now confirm to the 

customer that their order will be delivered at their address on the requested 

delivery date of 01/29/01. 

If for some reason, the salesperson decides to change the shipping time 

and/or the outbound warehouse handling time the program will 

correspondingly recalculate all the related dates. 


item 70010, change the outbound warehouse handling time from one day 

to two days: 

6 On the Shipping tab, in the Outbound Warehouse Handling Time 

field, overwrite 1D with 2D. Press ENTER. 

The following message now appears: 

7 Click Yes. 

The program now recalculates the shipment date and verifies that items are 

available for shipping on this date. The requested delivery date remains 

unchanged:


Now consider the scenario where the requested delivery date cannot be 

met. 

Scenario 4 


The customer requests that the order be delivered on 01/28/01. 

A salesperson at Cronus creates a sales order and checks whether the 

requested order delivery date can be met. 

The sales order will be shipped from the Green warehouse. 





4 On the Shipping tab, in the Location Code field, select Green and 

press ENTER. 

5 In the No. field, select item 70200 and in the Quantity field, enter 30. 

The program gives the following stockout warning message:


The reason for this message is because the program checks whether the 

needed quantity of the item is available for shipping on 01/26/01, which is 

the day when the order must be shipped to meet the requested delivery 

date of 01/28/01. The availability check shows that items are unavailable 

on that date. 

Note 

If the user changes the requested delivery date on the header and the 

availability check for existing sales lines shows that items are unavailable 

on the calculated shipment date, the program does not give a stockout 

warning. The warning appears only when the requested delivery date is 

changed on the individual line. 

Note that the Earliest Availability Date field on the warning window 

doesn’t contain a date. This means that there are no purchase (transfer, 

production or sales return) orders created for item 70200. 

6 Click Yes on the warning card. 

The salesperson can now choose to use the Capable-to Promise 

functionality of the Order Promising granule to calculate when the 

requested quantity can be available. The following is the procedure for how 

to use this functionality. 

1 In the Sales Order window, click Functions, Order Promising. The 

Order Promising Lines window appears:


The program copies information to the Requested Delivery Date field and 

the Original Shipment Date field from the sales order header and line, 

respectively. 

2 Click Calculate, Capable-to-Promise. 

The program now checks when the required item quantity can be available 

if they need to be produced, transferred or purchased. It then fills in the 

Earliest Shipment Date field and, based on this date, recalculates the new 

planned delivery date: 

3 Click Accept. 

The program now copies the dates from the fields on the Order Promising 

Lines window to the corresponding fields on the sales lines:


Based on these calculations, the salesperson can now inform the customer 

that their requested delivery date cannot be met. At the same time, they 

can also inform the customer that Cronus is capable of delivering the order 

three days later than initially requested, that is on 01/31/01. 

Note 

After the user runs the CTP function, the program reserves the required 

quantity for a specific sales order and creates a requisition proposal line. If 

the user changes the requested delivery date after they have run the CTP 

function, the lines in the planning (requisition) worksheet will not be 

updated. 

If now, with the customer’s agreement, the salesperson decides to move 

the requested delivery date to another date, the program will 

correspondingly recalculate all the related dates. 


item 70200, change the requested delivery date from 01/28/01 to 02/01/01: 

1 In the Requested Delivery Date field, change 01/28/01 to 02/01/01. 

The program gives the following message:


2 Click Yes. 

The program now recalculates all the other dates in the manner described 

in respect of scenarios 3 and 4 and fills in the corresponding fields on the 

sales lines: 

Similarly, if the salesperson decides to change the planned shipment date, 

the program will recalculate all associated dates. It will do so by making a 

backward calculation to determine the new shipment date and a forward 

calculation to determine a new planned delivery date. 

Finally, consider a situation where in order to meet a customer’s requested 

delivery date, a company has to ship the order before the current date. 

Scenario 5 

Cronus’ customer 50000 places an order for 20 units of item 1988-S. 

The customer requests that the order be delivered on 01/27/01. The sales 

order will be shipped from the Yellow warehouse. 

A salesperson at Cronus creates a sales order and checks whether the



Create a sales order for 20 units of item 1988-S for customer 50000: 




4 On the Shipping tab, in the Location Code field, select YELLOW. 

5 In the No. field, select item 1988-S, and in the Quantity field, enter 

20. 

The program now performs calculations and gives a message that a 

shipment date is before work date. By clicking OK you accept the 

suggested shipment date of 01/24/01: 

Notice that the Late Order Shipping field on the Shipping tab contains a 

check mark. This indicates to the salesperson that the suggested shipment 

date is actually earlier than the current date. The program doesn’t give a 

direct warning. 

In this situation, the salesperson can choose: 

∙ to accept the planned delivery date, and thus the requested delivery


date, and find an internal solution to comply with it, or 

∙ to set the shipment date equal to the current date, and make the 

program recalculate all the associated dates and suggest a new 

planned delivery date. 

Promising Sales Order Delivery in Other Situations 

When creating sales orders (with or without requested delivery dates), the 

sales people may encounter situations where for one reason or another 

they would prefer to ship the orders on a different date than that calculated 

by the program. The practice of shipping orders on certain week days to a 

specific customer (and thus having a fixed routing schedule) could be one 

example of such a situation. Another example is when the shipping of 

various sales lines with different planned delivery dates on the same date is 

an optimal option for both a salesperson and the customer. 

In these and similar situations, the sales people must first confirm the new 

delivery date with the customer and then, with the customer’s agreement, 

regard this date as a promised delivery date. After this date is entered in 

the Promised Delivery Date field, the program sets the planned delivery 

date equal to the promised delivery date and calculates all the associated 

dates in the same way as in the case of the requested delivery date. 


Scenario 6 

Cronus’ customer 50000 places an order for 10 units of item 1908-S, 15 

units of item 1964-S and 80 units of item 1906-S. 


order will be shipped from the Green warehouse. 

A salesperson at Cronus creates a sales order and checks whether the 


Create the sales order for customer 50000. 

When creating a sales line for item 1906-S, change the shipment date of 

01/25/01 to 01/28/01 (the earliest availability date for this item as 

suggested by the program in the stockout message). 

The order now contains three sales lines with different shipment dates:


In order to ship all three items on the same date, the salesperson obtains 

the customer’s acceptance to deliver the order on 01/31/01. 

1 In the Promised Delivery Date field, enter 01/31/01. 

The program now recalculates all the other dates in the same way as in the 

case of the requested delivery date and fills in the corresponding fields on 

the sales lines:


Exercise 7 Promise Order Delivery to a Customer 

Scenario 7 



order will be shipped from the Yellow warehouse. 

You tasks are as follows: 

1 Create the sales order and check whether the requested order 

delivery date can be met. 

2 If the requested delivery date cannot be met, find out when you are 

capable of delivering the order. To do that, you may choose to run the 

CTP function. 

3 Suppose that the customer is not satisfied with the new delivery date. 

You, however, promise the customer to deliver the order one day 

earlier and will find a solution for how you can fulfill the promise.


3.3 ESTIMATING PURCHASE ORDER RECEIPT 

Definitions 

In this section, you will learn how to use the Order Promising feature when 

estimating purchase order receipt. 

To better understand the functionality of the Order Promising feature, we 

suggest that first you familiarize yourself with the terms and definitions of 

the key dates and times used and calculated by the program. Then you can 

learn about a set of calculations, which are based on the interrelations 

between those dates and times. 

With this understanding in place, you can proceed to learn about: 

∙ 

∙ 

how to set up the program to be able to use the date calculation 

functionality 

how the program supports purchase personnel in managing their 

purchase order receipt process. 

Requested Receipt Date: The date on which the company requests a 

vendor to deliver the order at the company’s address. This date must be 

entered manually in order to affect the date calculation. 

Promised Receipt Date: The date on which the vendor promises that the 

order will be delivered to the company’s address. This date must be 

entered manually in order to affect the date calculation. 

Planned Receipt Date: The date on which the company plans to receive the 

order. This date is calculated by the program. 

Expected Receipt Date: The date on which the company expects the putaway 

process to be finished and the items available for picking. This date is 

calculated by the program and affects item availability. 

Order Date: The date on which the vendor must ship the items in order to 

meet the planned receipt date. 

Inbound Warehouse Handling Time: The time that it takes to receive and 

put away the items of an order. 

Lead Time Calculation: The time interval between the items being ordered 

at the vendor and the items being received at the company.


Calculations 

Safety Lead Time: The buffer period in case of delays in the production 

process. This affects the date on which the items become available for 

sale. 

The date calculation functionality allows a purchaser to estimate the date 

when the orders will be received at the company. The program supports a 

purchaser in two ways: 

∙ 

∙ 

It calculates the expected receipt date for the orders for which a 

purchaser has not requested a receipt date, taking into account 

vendor’s lead time. 

It calculates the date when the purchaser must make a purchase order 

in order to receive it on the requested date. 

To perform these two actions, the program makes a set of calculations 

which are based on the dates entered by the purchaser and information set 

up in the program. The relationship between the dates and times used in 

calculations is illustrated in the following scheme: 

Order Date Planned Receipt Date Expected Receipt 

Date 

Lead Time 

Calculation 

In. Whse. Handling Time 

(+Safety Lead Time) 

To calculate the expected receipt date for the orders for which a purchaser 

has not requested a receipt date, the program sets the order date equal to 

the current working date and then makes a forward calculation from this 

date to determine the date when the order will be delivered to the company. 

These forward calculations can be represented by the following formulas: 

and 

Order date + Lead Time Calculation = Planned Receipt date 

Planned Receipt date + Inbound Warehouse Handling time + 

Safety Lead Time = Expected Receipt date 

To calculate an order date for an order that shall be received on the 

requested date, the program sets the planned receipt date equal to the


requested receipt date and makes a backward calculation to determine the 

date when the items must be ordered (the order date). 

To calculate the expected receipt date for an order with the requested 

receipt date, the program sets the planned receipt date equal to the 

requested receipt date and makes a forward calculation. These calculations 

can be represented by the following formulas: 

and 

Planned Receipt date - Lead Time Calculation = Order date 

Planned Receipt date + Inbound Warehouse Handling time 

(+Safety Lead time) = Expected Receipt date 

The program also recalculates all the related dates if a purchaser chooses 

to manually change any of the dates involved in date calculations. 

There is an order of priority for how the program uses the dates entered on 

the purchase header when calculating all the related dates on the lines. 

These priorities are illustrated in the following table: 

Promised 

Receipt Date 


Requested 

Receipt Date 

Priority 2 is not entered � 

Expected 

Receipt Date 

Priority 3 is not entered is not entered � 

Order 

Date 

Priority 4 is not entered is not entered is not entered � 

The program takes the date with the highest priority as a starting point for 

the calculation. 

Setting up Date Calculations for Purchase Orders 

The order promising setup on the purchase side consists of the two 

following elements: 

∙ The Inbound Warehouse Handling Time setup: When the user sets up 

the inbound warehouse handling time, they define the time it takes to 

receive and put away items. The program uses this time to calculate 

the planned receipt date or expected receipt date.


∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

The Lead Time Calculation setup: When the user sets up the lead time 

calculation, they define a date formula for the time it takes for the item 

to be delivered to the company. Alternatively, the user can define a 

date formula for the time it takes a vendor to deliver orders - from when 

the orders are placed to when they are received at the company. The 

program uses the formula to calculate the date on which the 

items/orders are planned to be received (when there is no requested 

receipt date) or the order date (when there is a requested receipt date). 

The Safety Lead Time setup: In the planning process, this time affects 

the date the items produced appear to be available for sale. The safety 

lead time can be considered a buffer period in case of delays in the 

production process. 

Setting up Inbound Warehouse Handling Time 

Companies can set up the inbound warehouse handling time: 

on the inventory setup card, or 

on the location card. If a company has more than one location, they 

must set up the handling time for each location. This setup has priority 

over the setup on the inventory setup card. 

Set up the inbound warehouse handling time for the Blue warehouse: 

1 From the main menu, click Inventory, Setup, Locations. Browse to the 

location card for the Blue warehouse and click the Warehouse tab. 

2 In the Inbound Whse. Handling Time field, enter 1D. 

This specifies that it takes one day for the warehouse personnel at the Blue 

location to handle the receiving and putting away procedures before items 

are available in the warehouse for picking.


Setting up Lead Time Calculation and Safety Lead Time 

Companies can set up the lead time calculation: 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

In the Item Vendor Catalog window. 

On the item card (if the stockkeeping unit exists for the item, then on 

the SKU card). 

On the vendor card. 

The program uses the lead time calculation setup in the same order of 

priority as shown in the above list. 

Companies can set up the safety lead time on either the item card or the 

Planning tab of the Manufacturing Setup window (here the term “default 

safety lead time” is used). The program uses the default safety lead time 

set up on the Manufacturing Setup window only if it isn’t set up on the 

item card. Because this time is of relevance to manufacturing companies, it 

is recommended that non-manufacturing companies set up this time to zero 

on item cards or remove it from both the Manufacturing Setup window 

and the item card. 

Scenario 8 

Based on the purchasing practices and long-term relationships with the 

vendors, Cronus purchasers have a good idea of how long it takes a 

certain vendor to deliver each specific item. Similarly, they know the typical 

time that it takes vendors to deliver a specific item and for a specific vendor 

to deliver orders. 

For example, it takes one week for item 70010 to be delivered to Cronus if 

shipped by vendor 30000 and it typically takes three days for vendor 40000 

to deliver orders (regardless of the items) to the company. In addition, it 

takes any vendor two days to ship items 70011 and 1928-W. 

The safety lead time is not relevant for Cronus business operations. 

Therefore all items on the company’s inventory must have zero safety lead 

time. 

First, have a look at how Cronus has set up the lead time calculation for 

item 70010 and vendor 40000. Then, set up the lead time calculation for 

items 70011 and 1928-W and the safety lead time for items 70010, 70011, 

70040 and 1928-W in the program. 

In the situation where several vendors ship the same items, companies can


set up the vendors for each item. They must do it in the Item Vendor 

Catalog window: 

1 From the main menu, click Inventory, Items. Browse to item 70010 

and click Purchases, Vendors: 

Notice that the Vendor No. field contains 30000 and the Lead Time 

Calculation field contains 1W. This means that when item 70010 is 

purchased from vendor 30000, the program uses one week as a default 

lead time in date calculation for purchase order. 

The lead time for a specific vendor is set up on the vendor card: 

2 From the main menu, click Purchases and Payables, Vendors. 

Browse to vendor 40000 and click the Receiving tab. 

Notice that the Lead Time Calculation field contains 3D. 

Now, set up the lead time calculation and safety lead time for items 70011 

and 1928-W: 

1 From the main menu, click Inventory, Items. Browse to item 70011


and click the Ordering tab. 

2 In the Lead Time Calculation field, enter 2D, and in the Safety Lead 

Time field, enter 0D. 

Estimating Purchase Order Receipt 

Repeat the steps 1 to 2 for item 1928-W. Set up zero safety lead time for 

items 70010 and 70040. 

To illustrate the date calculation functionality, here are a number of different 

scenarios based on the example of Cronus. In these examples, the current 

day is assumed to be the 25 th January 2001 (01/25/01). 

The screenshots illustrating the scenarios in this section do not represent 

the standard layout of the purchase lines. The date related fields – the 

Planned Receipt Date, the Expected Receipt Date and the Order Date 

fields – are moved to the left and inserted next to the Quantity field. 

Estimating Purchase Order Receipt with no Receipt Date Requested 


Scenario 9 

A purchaser at Cronus places an order for 25 units of item 70011 with 

vendor 10000 and doesn’t request a specific receipt date. 

The purchaser creates a purchase order and would like to estimate when 

the order will arrive at the Blue warehouse.


Create a purchase order for 25 units of item 70011 for vendor 10000: 

1 From the main menu, click Purchases and Payables, Orders. Press 

F3. In the Buy-from Vendor No. field, select vendor 10000. 

2 Leave the Requested Receipt Date field blank. 

3 Click the Shipping tab. In the Location Code field, select BLUE. 

4 In the Item field, select item 70011 and in the Quantity field, enter 25: 

The program calculates when the vendor can deliver the items to the 

warehouse and when they will be available for picking. Pay attention to the 


fields on the purchase lines. 

Based on the lead time ( + safety lead time) set up for item 70011 and the 

inbound warehouse handling time set up for the Blue warehouse, the 

program calculates planned and expected receipt dates respectively. 

Based on these calculations, the purchaser can expect the ordered items to 

be available for picking in the Blue warehouse on 01/28/01. 

If the purchaser now decides to change the order date, the program will 

recalculate all related dates accordingly. 

In the purchase order that you have created for vendor 10000 for 25 units 

of item 70011, change the order date on the purchase line from 01/25/01 to


01/30/01: 

5 In the Order Date field, change the date to 01/30/01. 

The program makes a forward calculation to determine the new planned 

receipt date and expected receipt date and fills in the corresponding fields 

on the purchase line: 

If the purchaser changes the expected receipt date, the program makes a 

backward calculation from this date to first determine the new planned 

receipt date and then a new order date. 

Estimating a Purchase Order Receipt with a Receipt Date Requested 


Scenario 10 


vendor 30000 and requests that the order be delivered at the Blue 

warehouse on 02/02/01. 

The purchaser creates a purchase order and would like to estimate the 

latest order date for it to arrive at the Blue warehouse on the requested 

date and when the items will be available for picking. 

Create a purchase order for 30 units of item 70010 for vendor 30000:


1 From the main menu, click Purchases and Payables, Orders. Press 

F3. In the Buy-from Vendor No. field, select vendor 30000. 

2 Click the Shipping tab. In the Location Code field, select BLUE. 

3 In the Requested Receipt Date field enter 02/02/01. 

4 In the Item field, select item 70010 and in the Quantity field, enter 30. 

The program now calculates when the vendor can deliver the items to the 

warehouse and when they will be available for picking. Pay attention to the 


fields on the purchase lines: 

The program sets the planned receipt date equal to the requested receipt 

date from which it subtracts the lead time (set up for this item to one week if 

purchased from vendor 30000) to calculate the order date. The program 

calculates the expected receipt date by adding inbound warehouse 

handling time (+ safety lead time) to the planned receipt date. 

Based on these calculations, the purchaser can estimate that to receive the 

items on 02/02/01, the order must be placed on 01/26/01. If the purchaser 

now decides to change the requested receipt date, the program will 

recalculate all related dates accordingly. 

In the purchase order that you have created for vendor 30000 for 30 units 

of item 70010, change the requested receipt date from 02/02/01 to


02/01/01: 

5 In the Requested Receipt Date field on the purchase header, change 

the date to 02/01/01. Press ENTER. 

You receive the following message: 

6 Click Yes. 

Based on the new requested receipt date, the program first makes a 

backward calculation from this date to determine the new order date, and 

then a forward calculation to determine a new expected receipt date: 

Now, consider a situation where in order to receive a purchase order on the 

requested receipt date, the order must have been placed before the current 

date. 

Scenario 11 


vendor 40000 and requests that the order be delivered at the Green 

warehouse on 01/27/01.


The purchaser creates a purchase order and would like to estimate the 

latest order date whereby the order will arrive at the warehouse on the 

requested date. 

Create a purchase order for 40 units of item 70040 for vendor 40000 with 

the requested receipt date on 01/27/01. 

When you have selected the item number in the No. field, the program 

gives the following warning: 

1 Click OK. 

The program does not change the calculated order date that is before the 

work date: 

In this situation, the purchaser can choose: 

∙ to discuss with the vendor the possibility of receiving the items on the 

initially requested receipt date (thus leaving the dates on the line 

unchanged), or


∙ to set the order date equal to the current date and make the program 

recalculate all the associated dates. 

Note 

If the user changes the requested receipt date on the header and the date 

calculation for existing purchase lines results in the order date being before 

the work date, the program does not give a warning. The warning appears 

only when the requested receipt date is changed on the individual line. 

Estimating a Purchase Order Receipt in Other Situations 

When using the program to estimate the receipt of purchase orders, the 

purchasers accept the assumption that the delivery process adheres to 

time periods that are set up for this process in the program. However, the 

likely situation is that purchasers would like to confirm the delivery dates 

calculated by the program with their vendors. If a vendor indicates another 

date, the purchaser can regard it as a promised receipt date. After this date 

is entered in the Promised Receipt Date field, the program sets the 

planned receipt date equal to the promised receipt date and makes a 

forward calculation to suggest a new expected receipt date. The initially 

calculated order date remains unchanged. 


Scenario 12 

A purchaser at Cronus places an order for 20 units of item 1928-W with 

vendor 40000 and requests that the order be delivered to the Green 


The purchaser creates a purchase order and uses the program to estimate 

the latest order date whereby the order will arrive at the warehouse on the 

requested date. 

The purchaser then confirms the calculated receipt date with the vendor. 

Create a purchase order for 20 units of item 1928-W for vendor 40000 with 

the requested receipt date of 01/28/01.


Notice that to calculate the order date the program uses the lead time set 

up for the item (that is two days for item 1928-W) rather than the lead time 

set up for the vendor (that is three days for vendor 40000). 

The vendor, however, cannot deliver the order on the requested date and 

promises instead to deliver two days later, on 01/30/01. 

1 In the Promised Receipt Date field, enter 01/30/01:


Exercise 8 

The program sets the planned receipt date equal to the promised receipt 

date and calculates forward to suggest a new expected receipt date. The 

initially calculated order date of 01/26/01 remains unchanged. 

Scenario 13 


vendor 30000 and requests that the order be delivered at the Green 



1 Create the purchase order and estimate the latest order date whereby 

the order will arrive at the warehouse on the requested date. 

2 Suppose that after talking to the vendor, they ensured you that they 

could deliver the order three days earlier than you initially requested. 

Record this information in the purchase order.


3.4 ESTIMATING TRANSFER ORDER RECEIPT 

With the date calculation functionality, companies can estimate a date 

when transfer orders will be received at the transfer-to location. The 

program calculates the receipt date according to the following formula: 

Shipment date + Outbound Warehouse Handling Time + Shipping 

time + Inbound Warehouse Handling Time = Receipt date 

The shipping time can be either: 

∙ 

∙ 

the time that is associated with the shipping agent service set up for a 

specific transfer route, or 

entered manually on the transfer header. 

You can learn more about estimating transfer order receipt in Chapter 4 

“Location Transfers”.


3.5 CALENDARS 

Setting up and Assigning Calendars 

In our previous description of date calculations, we used the program 

without considering non-working days. In this section, we will explain how 

to set up the program to calculate days by using the Calendars feature. 

Non-working days are when the company is closed for business, such as 

weekends or holidays. Working days can vary from one country to another 

and between companies. Companies base their scheduling on working and 

non-working days and acknowledge that their business partners may work 

with different calendars. 

The feature offered in the Calendars granule enables companies to set up 

the program to calculate working days based on specific calendars. In the 

calendar, companies can set up the specific days they want to be 

considered as working and non-working days. Calendars are then assigned 

to the company and to its different business partners. 

When this has been done, the program will calculate all order lines 

according to the relevant calendar. 

The program defines two different types of calendars: 

∙ 

∙ 

Base Calendar 

Customized Calendar 

The Base Calendar is the calendar companies use to define the working 

and non-working days and is the basis for the customized calendars. 

The Customized Calendar is a copy of a specific base calendar with added 

individual settings for the specific business partner it is assigned to. 

The Base Calendar is created and maintained from the General Ledger 

Setup menu. Base calendars are by default created to consider all days as 

working days. Non-working days can be set up under functions. 

You will find this procedure described in the online Help under Base 

Calendar.


The Base Calendar can be assigned and customized to specific business 

partners, and it can be assigned to the following areas: 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

Note 

Shipping tab on the Customer Card. 

Receiving tab on the Vendor Card. 

Warehouse tab on the Location Card. 

Shipping Agent Services list. 

Service Management Setup. 

If you do not assign a base calendar to a company or business partner, the 

program will calculate all dates as working days.


If you enter a blank location on an order line, the program will calculate all 

dates as working days.

4 

Chapter 4. 

Location Transfers 


4.1 Overview 

4.2 Setting Up Transfers 

4.3 Transferring Items Between Locations 

4.4 Viewing Items in Transit


4.1 OVERVIEW 

Many large wholesale distributors and manufacturers have a number of 

branch warehouse locations, each servicing a specific area or region. To 

minimize their total inventory level, these companies often follow the 

strategy of having safety stock in one main warehouse, while maintaining 

minimum inventory in regional warehouses. This practice requires the 

transfer of inventory from the main warehouse to the regional ones. 

Companies also move inventory from one location to another to satisfy 

unexpected demand. 

If the company is large enough, a significant amount of inventory can be in 

transit at any given time. This creates problems from both a financial and a 

logistical perspective. Financially, it is difficult to determine the value of the 

inventory, because it is in transit. Logistically, it is not possible to accurately 

estimate total availability of the inventory. 

With the Location Transfers granule, companies use a transfer order to 

accurately track the movement of inventory from one location to another. 

To transfer items, they create a transfer order containing a line for each 

inventory item that is being transferred. When the inventory is shipped from 

the source location, it is considered to be in transit until it is received at its 

destination. 

In this chapter you will learn how to: 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

set up transfer procedures 

transfer items between locations 

view items in transit 

To illustrate the functionality of the Location Transfers granule, the example 

of Cronus International Ltd is used in the chapter. To follow the suggested 

scenarios, remember to install the clean database. 

Cronus is a company with many warehouses located all over the UK, with 

one central warehouse and a number of regional warehouses, each with its 

own manager. To ensure a high level of customer service in terms of 

delivery time, the company strives to achieve maximum operational 

flexibility through decentralized management of its warehouses. Chapter 2, 

Multiple Locations, described how Cronus has established a number of 

business processes to achieve this flexibility. According to these 

procedures, some customers are always supplied from specific 

warehouse(s) and/or some vendors deliver to certain warehouses. With

Location Transfers 4-3 

such an organizational configuration, Cronus sometimes needs to transfer 

inventory from one location, for example a central warehouse, to another, 

for example a regional warehouse.


4.2 SETTING UP TRANSFERS 

Setting Up In-Transit Location 

To use location transfers, a company needs to have the Multiple Locations 

granule. You can learn more about this granule and the setup procedures 

in Chapter 2, Multiple Locations. 

The location transfer setup consists of two elements: 

∙ 

∙ 

In-Transit Location Setup: To use the transfer functionality, a company 

must define an in- transit location, which is a temporary location 

created for transferring items only. When the order is shipped from the 

transfer-from location, the program assigns the items to the in-transit 

location. When the order is received at the transfer-to location, the 

program moves the items from the in-transit location to the transfer-to 

location. 

Transfer Routes Setup: A company can choose to set up transfer 

routes between locations. This enables the company to assign a 

default in-transit location code, shipping agent and shipping agent 

service code to each route. With the shipping time defined, the 

program uses the information to calculate the receipt date for transfer 

orders at the target location. 

With the in-transit location, companies can track the quantity and value of 

items in transit at any given time after they were shipped from the source 

location, called a transfer-from location, up until they are received at the 

target location, called a transfer-to location. They can set up as many or as 

few in-transit locations as they like. 

The following is a situation where a company chose to set up two in-transit 

locations. 

Scenario 1 

Due to its organizational and geographical configuration on the UK market, 

Cronus needs to make inventory transfers from one warehouse to another. 

To do so in Navision Attain, they have to set up a temporary location where 

the items will be placed while in transit. 

Typically, the in-transit location is a truck or a van transporting the inventory 

from one location to another. Because the distance between different 

warehouses within Cronus distribution network varies, the company uses 

either its own logistics facilities or external ones to transport inventory


between its different locations. 

To reflect this practice in the program, Cronus has set up two in-transit 

locations: 

1 From the main menu, click Inventory, Setup, Locations. 

2 Click Location, List, to see the list of all locations in Cronus: 

Note that there are two locations called Outsourced Logistics and Own 

Logistics. These two locations are the in-transit locations with OUT. LOG. 

and OWN LOG. in-transit codes respectively. 

3 Select location code OWN LOG. from the list and click Location, Card 

to open the location card: 

At a minimum, the Code and Name fields on the General tab must be filled 

in. The Use As In-Transit field must contain a check mark. This indicates 

that this location is used as an in-transit location. 

You can read about how to set up in-transit locations in the topic called 

“Setting up In-Transit Codes” in online Help.


Setting up Transfer Routes 

Typically, an authorized person, such as the company’s administrator, is in 

charge of setting up the transfer routes. A transfer route is the combination 

of a transfer-from location and a transfer-to location. It is used to validate 

location information when making transfer orders or entering lines in the 

requisition worksheet. 

Each transfer route can be assigned a default in-transit code, shipping 

agent code and shipping agent service code. The program will use the 

shipping time of the shipping agent service to calculate the receipt date at 

the transfer-to location. 

You can read about how to set up shipping agents and shipping agent 

services in the topics called “Setting up Shipping Agents” and “Setting Up 

Shipping Agent Services” in online Help. 

At Cronus, transfer routes have been set up to reflect the current business 

processes: 

1 From the main menu, click Inventory, Setup, Transfer Routes: 

You can see that Cronus has set up five transfer routes. On the transfer 

routes from the Blue to the Red and Yellow locations and from the Red to 

the Blue location, the company uses an external carrier represented by the 

OUT. LOG code. On the transfer routes from the Green to the Red and 

Yellow locations, the company uses its own logistics facilities represented 

by the OWN LOG code. 

In the Show field, the user can select the transfer route specification that 

they want to have shown in the fields in the right pane.


To display the names of the transfer-to locations as headings in the right 

pane, the user must place a check mark in the Show Transfer-to Name 

field. If the field is blank, the program displays the location codes. 

You can read about how to set up transfer routes in the topic called “Setting 

up Transfer Routes” in online Help. 

Exercise 9 Setting Up a Transfer Route 

Set up a transfer route between Red and Green locations, with Red being a 

transfer-from code. Assign OWN LOG. as an in-transit code.


4.3 TRANSFERRING ITEMS BETWEEN LOCATIONS 

Making a Manual Transfer 

The transfer order is the key object of the transfer functionality. With the 

transfer order, a company can create a transfer, post the shipment of the 

items and post the receipt of the items. The transfer order contains 

information regarding how much has been shipped and received in the 

same manner as the purchase and sales documents, using quantity 

shipped, quantity received and so on. 

With the location transfers functionality companies can make transfers both 

manually and automatically. The need for a manual transfer occurs when 

there is lack of inventory at a certain location and this inventory is needed 

to fulfill a sales order. In this case, an initiator, for example a salesperson, 

decides to move items from a location where the required inventory is 

available to the location in question. 

Automatic transfer order creation is an outcome of the replenishment 

planning activity. To make automatic transfers, dedicated persons, typically 

purchasers, use the requisition (planning) worksheet. 

Let’s first take a look at how to make a transfer order manually. 

The following is a situation where a company chose to create a manual 

transfer between locations. 

Scenario 2 

Cronus customer 40000 is expected to place an order for 50 units of item 

70002 to be delivered within one week. According to the company’s 

established procedure, this customer normally gets the orders shipped from 

the Yellow warehouse. 

When creating a sales order for this customer, a salesperson finds out that 

the quantity of item 70002 on stock in warehouse Yellow is not sufficient to 

fulfill this order. To ensure order fulfillment, the salesperson decides to 

make a transfer from the Blue warehouse, where the needed items are 

available, to the Yellow warehouse, from which the order will be shipped to 

the customer. This customer wants to ship complete and from one 

warehouse, and they have only agreed to pay any transportation costs that 

occur when the final complete order is shipped from the Yellow warehouse. 

The first thing that the salesperson has to do is to create a transfer order.


Creating a Transfer Order 

The following steps illustrate the process for creating a transfer: 

1 From the main menu, click Inventory, Transfer Orders. The Transfer 

Order window appears. 

2 To create a new transfer document, press F3: 

3 In the Transfer-from Code field, select Blue. 

4 In the Transfer-to Code field, select Yellow. 

Note that the In-Transit Code field is filled in automatically with the intransit 

code OUT. LOG. This code is a default in-transit code that has been 

set up for this transfer route.


The program also automatically fills in the name and address information 

for the Blue and Yellow locations in the corresponding fields on the 

Transfer-from and Transfer-to tabs respectively. 

5 Click the Transfer-from tab: 

On the right side of the transfer order header, there are six fields specifying 

shipping details for this transfer. The Shipping Agent Code, the Shipping 

Agent Service Code and the Shipping Time fields are filled in 

automatically by the program from information defined for this transfer 

route. 

6 Click the Transfer-to tab:


The Receipt Date field indicates when the items are to be received at the 

Yellow location. This calculation is based on the outbound warehouse 

handling time at the Blue location (o days), the shipping time set up for this 

transfer route, which is two days, and inbound warehouse handling time at 

the Yellow location (1 day). 

If the user enters Green as the location code in the Transfer-to Code field, 

the program does not suggest any default in-transit location. This is 

because the transfer route that permits transfers from Blue to Green is not 

a valid route in the program. 

In this case, the user must manually enter an in-transit code in the In- 

Transit Code field. Because there are no shipping agent and shipping 

agent service set up for this transfer route, the program will not be able to 

calculate the receipt date for this transfer order. To estimate the receipt 

date for this transfer order, the user must select a specific shipping agent 

and shipping agent service or enter a shipping time in the corresponding 

fields on the Transfer-from tab. 

Complete the transfer order from the Blue to Yellow location by filling in the 

transfer order lines with the item number and quantity to be transferred: 

7 In the Transfer Order window, in the Item No. field, enter 70002. 

8 In the Quantity field, enter 50: 

On completion of the transfer header and lines, release the order. Some 

companies may have an authorized person responsible for releasing 

transfer orders.


To release a transfer order: 

9 In the Transfer Order window, click Functions, Release. 

The Status field on the header has changed from Open to Released. 

To release all the transfer orders from a given location, the user must open 

a Transfer Order List window. 

1 In the Transfer Order window, click Order, List. 

In this window, the user can filter the transfer orders that they want to 

release according to different parameters by using a table filter. 

Employees responsible for releasing transfer orders from a specific location 

will typically want to filter the transfer orders according to the transfer-from 

and/or transfer-to codes. 

To release all the transfer orders at once: 

2 In the Transfer Order List window, select all the active lines and then 

click Functions, Release. 

Shipping a Transfer Order 

After the transfer order has been released, an authorized person at the 

transfer-from location can ship the requested items. A warehouse 

administrator is typically responsible for shipping the transfer orders from 

the respective location. The warehouse administrator can only post one 

transfer order shipment at a time. 

Let’s illustrate this process by using the example of the transfer that you 

have just created between the Blue and Yellow locations.


To perform the posting process in an efficient manner, the administrator in 

the Blue warehouse may want to view only those transfer orders that are to 

be shipped from this location. To do so, they must set up a table filter to 

filter all the transfer orders according to the transfer-from code Blue. 

To post a transfer shipment, follow these steps: 

1 From the main menu, click Inventory, Transfer Orders. Browse to the 

transfer order for 50 units of item 70002, and fill in the Quantity to 

Receive. 

2 Click Posting, Post. Select Ship: 

3 Click OK. 

Now, the transfer order has been shipped out of the Blue location and 50 

units of item 70002 are currently in-transit. 

To view the posted transfer shipment document for this specific transfer, 

open the Posted Transfer Shipments window: 

1 In the Transfer Order window, click Order, Shipments: 

From this window, the user can navigate to gain more detailed information 

about this transaction. 

The user can also access the posted transfer shipment card from the


Inventory menu: 

2 From the main menu, click Inventory, Posted Transfer Shipments. 

Browse to the posted transfer shipment for the transfer order you have 

just shipped: 

Receiving a Transfer Order 

Receiving the transfer order at the target location is the final step in the 

transfer process. 

Let’s illustrate this process by using the example of the transfer that you 

have just shipped from the Blue warehouse to the Yellow warehouse. 

Two days after the Blue warehouse shipped the transfer order, 50 units of 

item 70002 arrive at the Yellow warehouse, which is the target location for 

this transfer. A warehouse person at the Yellow warehouse must open a 

transfer order which corresponds to the arrived items and post the transfer 

receipt. 

As in the case of posting the transfer shipment, a warehouse person can 

use a table filter to filter the transfer orders according to certain parameters, 

for example, the transfer-to code. 

To post a transfer receipt: 

1 From the main menu, click Transfer Orders. Browse to the transfer 

order for 50 units of item 70002. 

2 Click Posting, Post. Select Receive:


3 Click OK. 

Note 

If you ship the transfer order from a location which requires picking or 

receive it at a location which requires receiving, the program will require 

you to process the shipping through the warehouse (by giving the message 

“There is nothing to post). You can skip this process by entering the 

corresponding amounts in the Qty. To Ship/Qty to Receive fields on the 

transfer lines and then accept the warning messages given by the program. 

The receiving/shipping processes of the Warehouse Management 

functionality are described in detail in chapter 6 “Warehouse Management”, 

sections 6.3 and 6.5. 

The following message box appears: 

4 Click OK. The program deletes the corresponding transfer order. 

The received transfer order record has now been transferred to the posted 

receipt transfer card: 

5 From the main menu, click Inventory, Posted Receipt Transfer. 

Browse to the transfer order that you have just posted:


Adjusting Transfer Quantities and Values 

The procedure described above for posting the transfer receipt is based on 

the assumption that the quantity of the items received at the transfer-to 

location is the same as the quantity of the items shipped from the transferfrom 

location. However, this assumption is not always valid. Occasionally, 

items may be lost while in transit or the quantity received at the target 

location is greater than the one shipped from the source location. 

To handle these situations in Navision Attain, companies must do two 

things. 

Firstly, receive the actual transfer order quantity. This is performed by the 

warehouse worker at the transfer-to location. The program, however, does 

not delete a transfer order and consequently does not record the 

transaction in the posted transfer receipts before the entire transfer order 

quantity is received. 

Secondly, a dedicated person in the company needs periodically to screen 

all the open transfer orders, post the receipt of the outstanding quantities 

and then adjust the inventory and value at the transfer-to location for those 

quantities. In Navision Attain, they can do this in the Item Journals. 

The following is a situation where a company needs to make adjustments 

to their inventory as a result of inventory loss during transfer. 

Scenario 3 

At Cronus, a transfer order for 100 units of item 70100 was released and 

shipped from the Blue to the Yellow warehouse. When the items arrive at


the Yellow warehouse, a warehouse person discovers that there are only 

87 units of the item instead of 100. A quick enquiry showed that the missing 

13 items were lost in transit. 

Now, the warehouse person records the receipt of the actual quantity of 87 

units of item 70100. Later, a dedicated person needs to make adjustments 

for this loss in the program. 

First, create, release and post the shipment of the transfer order for 100 

units of item 70100 from the Blue to the Yellow warehouse. Then, post the 

transfer receipt for 87 units and thereafter post the receipt for the remaining 

13 units. 

To adjust the inventory for the lost 13 units of item 70100, follow this 

procedure: 

1 From the main menu, click Inventory, Item Journals. 

2 In the Item Journal window, in the Entry Type field, select Negative 

Adjmt. 

3 Fill in the Document No., Item No., Location Code and Quantity 

fields on the journal line with the corresponding data: 

4 In the Applies-to Entry field, click the AssistButton to open the Item 

Ledger Entries window:


5 Select the item ledger entry for the transfer receipt of 13 units and 

click OK. 

Now, post the item journal: 

6 In the Item Journal window, click Posting, Post. Click Yes to the 

message. 

7 Click OK in the message box. 

You have now adjusted inventory at the location code Yellow to account for 

13 items lost in transit. 

Remember, however, that inventory accounts in the general ledger are not 

updated when posted from an item journal. To update them, the user must 

use the Post Inventory Cost to G/L batch job. Before that, they may want to 

run the Adjust Cost - Item Entries batch job. 

Note 

You can learn more about Post Inventory Cost to G/L batch job and Adjust 

Cost - Item Entries batch job in online Help. In addition, you can also refer 

to the Finance Management course, Chapter 7 “Inventory”. 

First, run the Adjust Cost - Item Entries batch job: 

1 From the main menu, click Inventory, Periodic Activities, Adjust Cost - 

Item Entries. Click OK. 

Now, run the Post Inventory Cost to G/L batch job: 

2 From the main menu, click Inventory, Periodic Activities, Post 

Inventory Cost to G/L.


3 On the Item Ledger Entry tab, set the filter for item 70100. Click 

Preview. 

You have now posted the quantity and value adjustments to the 

corresponding G/L accounts. 

To view those records in the item ledger entries and value entries: 

4 From the main menu, click Inventory, Items. Browse to item 70100. 

5 Click Item, Entries, Ledger Entries: 

Notice that the last line in the Item Ledger Entries window is the posted 

adjustment you have made for the 13 units lost in transit. Use the navigate 

functionality to view the detailed information for this posting. 

Creating Transfer Orders Automatically 

The previous section described the rationale and procedure for creating 

transfer orders manually. This section explains how companies can use 

Navision Attain to create transfer orders automatically. Automatic transfer 

order creation is a logical and efficient way for companies to regularly plan 

for items that are replenished by means of transfer. To plan for items that 

are transferred from another location, you use the requisition worksheets. 

Like purchase and production, a transfer is a means of replenishment. 

Often, regional warehouses or distribution centers within multi-site 

companies replenish their inventory through transferring items from the 

main warehouse. As described in section 2.4 of Chapter 2 “Multiple 

Locations”, companies implement these procedures in the program by 

selecting transfer as the requisition system on the stockkeeping unit cards. 

During planning calculation, the program refers to the planning and 

inventory parameters specified on the stockkeeping unit cards. Based on


those parameters, it determines whether the quantity on inventory of any 

individual items is so low that more should be ordered. If so, it then creates 

a requisition proposal for the items that need to be ordered in the 

requisition worksheet. When a requisition system on the stockkeeping unit 

card is set to Transfer, the program creates transfer order proposals. 

Note 

If there is no stockkeeping unit created for an item, the program refers to 

the planning and inventory parameters specified on the item card. Based 

on those parameters, the program creates a temporary stockkeeping unit 

card for a specified location. There is no user interface to the temporary 

stockkeeping unit cards and upon completion of the planning process in the 

requisition worksheet, the program deletes them. 

The program will also create a requisition proposal if there is an additional 

demand for a specific item(s) generated by a sales order for which there is 

not enough inventory at a specific location. 

Scenarios included in this section illustrate how the program handles these 

two situations. 

The automatic transfer order creation process is completed when a person 

responsible for replenishment approves a requisition line for transfer and 

converts the line to a transfer order line. 

Now, consider a situation where a company uses planning functionality in 

the program to calculate a requisition plan for items at a specific location. 

Scenario 4 

Cronus customer 50000 has placed an order for 60 units of item 70001 and 

80 units of item 70002. The order will be shipped from the Yellow 

warehouse. A salesperson creates and releases a sales order for the 

requested items. 

As a regular activity, a purchaser at the Yellow warehouse makes a 

requisition plan for the next two weeks. The purchaser uses the planning 

functionality of the program. After the plan is approved, the requisition lines 

must be converted into orders. 

Create the sales order for 60 units of item 70001 and 80 units of item 

70002. The program gives a stockout message. The availability check 

undertaken by the salesperson (open the Item Availability by Periods table 

for a specific item and select the appropriate location code) shows that


some quantities of the items are expected on 01/28/01. Change the 

shipment date for both lines from the current work date, 01/25/01, to this 

date and release the sales order. 

Open the requisition worksheet: 

1 From the main menu, click Purchases and Payables, Requisition 

Worksheets: 

2 In the Req. Worksheet window, click Functions, Calculate Plan. 

In the Calculate Plan – Req. Wksh. window, the user can define what 

shall be included in the batch job by setting filters. 

3 On the Item tab, select Yellow as a location filter: 

4 Click the Options tab. In the Order Date field, enter the current work 

date, 01/25/01, and in the Ending Date field, enter 02/10/01. 

5 Click OK.


The program now creates requisition lines and fills in the fields: 

The program created two requisition lines. Notice that the Requisition 

System field contains Transfer. This is because the program uses 

information set up on the stockkeeping units at the Yellow location. 

Amounts in the Quantity field are calculated according to the parameters 

set up in the requisition method selected for these items on the 

stockkeeping units at the Yellow location. The Due Date field contains 

01/28/01. This is the date when the items are needed to fulfill the demand 

on the sales order. 

In the Action Message field, the program proposes an action for the 

purchaser to take in order to rebalance the current demand-supply 

situation. In our example, the program suggests to create new transfer 

orders for all the requisition lines. 

Notice that the program automatically places a check mark in the Accept 

Action Message field as a default. By removing or placing the check mark 

in this field the user declines or accepts the action message that the 

program is proposing for the line. In this way, the user can select those 

order proposals that will be included in the Carry Out Action Message batch 

job. 

6 Do not remove check marks in the Accept Action Message fields. 

7 Click Functions, Carry Out Action Message:


8 Leave the Print Orders field blank and click OK. 

The program now creates transfer orders for each requisition line in the 

requisition worksheet and then you receive the following message. 

9 Click OK. 

The program deleted the lines from the requisition worksheet. 

The user can now verify whether the program created the transfer orders 

by opening the Transfer Order window. From there they can proceed to 

usual handling of transfer orders as described earlier in the chapter. 

10 Ship and receive the transfer orders that the program has created. 

Now, consider a situation where the program creates replenishment 

proposals based on the demand generated by a sales order. 

Scenario 5 

Cronus customer 40000 has placed an order for 60 units of item 70002. 

The customer requests the order delivery on 01/28/01. A salesperson 

creates a sales order for the requested items. The program gives a warning 

that there is not enough inventory at the Yellow warehouse (from which 

orders to customer 40000 are usually shipped) to fulfill the order. The 

salesperson runs the Capable-to Promise functionality to estimate when 

the order can be delivered to the customer. 

As a regular activity, a purchaser at the Yellow warehouse makes a


requisition plan for the next two weeks. The purchaser uses the planning 

functionality of the program. After the plan is approved, the requisition lines 

must be converted into orders. 

Note 

When you run the Capable-to-Promise functionality, the program reserves 

the required quantity of item(s) and creates replenishment lines in either 

requisition or planning worksheet. You can choose in which worksheet you 

want the program to create replenishment lines by selecting either 

requisition worksheet or the planning worksheet as the default order 

promising template in the Order Promising Setup window. 

First, create a sales order of 60 units of item 70002 with the requested date 

on 01/28/01. Suppose that the shipping time is 2 days. Run the Capable-to- 

Promise functionality to calculate when the items can be available for 

shipment and when the order can be delivered at the customer’s address. 

(Remember to set requisition worksheet as a default order promising 

template in the Order Promising Setup window). 

Note 

To recall the procedures associated with promising sales order, read 

section 3.2 “Promising Orders to Customers” in Chapter 3 “Order 

Promising”. 

The program filled in the corresponding fields on the sales lines with the 

calculated dates:


Notice that the program filled in the Reserved Quantity field with the 

amount that is to be made available to fulfill the order and reserved them 

for this sales order: 

1 Click the AssistButton to the right of the Reserved Quantity field to 

see the reservation entries that make up the quantity:


Information in the fields in the Reservation Entries window specify the 

reservation details. The Reserved From field indicates which line or entry 

the items are reserved from. As you can see, the program created the 

requisition line for our sales order from the requisition worksheet. 

When you now open the requisition worksheet, you can see the requisition 

lines that the program has just created in relation to our sales order: 

2 On the main menu, click Purchases & Payables, Requisition 

Worksheets: 

Now, a purchaser at the Yellow warehouse can proceed to usual handling 

of requisition proposals for transfer orders in the requisition worksheet as 

described earlier in the chapter.


Note 

You can learn about the procedures associated with working with planning 

worksheets in the Training Course “Manufacturing” in Chapter 10 

“Planning”. 

Exercise 10 Transfer Items between Locations 

Scenario 6 

Cronus customer 50000 has placed an order for: 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

1000 units (packs) of item 80100 

30 units of item 1908-S 

10 units of item 1964-W. 

The order is for delivery in five days. 

Due to certain considerations, the order will be shipped to this customer 

from the Red warehouse. The availability check undertaken by the 

salesperson shows that there are not enough items in stock at the Red 

warehouse to fill the order and no receipt of new stock is scheduled or 

planned within the next five days. At the same time, there is enough stock 

available at the Green warehouse to fulfill this sales order. The salesperson 

decides to transfer the required quantity of the above items from the Green 

to the Red warehouse. 


1 Create three separate transfer orders for the required quantity of items 

80100, 1908-S and 1964-W. 

Tip: Note that item 801o0’s base unit of measure is BOX, while its sales 

unit of measure is PACK. One box contains five packs. 

2 Release and ship all the created transfer orders from the Green 

warehouse.


3 Receive the transfer order for item 80100 at the Red warehouse. 

4 For the transfer order of item 1908-S, only 28 units arrive at the Red 

warehouse. Two units are lost. Receive the order and adjust the 

inventory at this warehouse to account for the lost items. 

5 Do not receive the transfer order for item 1964-W at the Red 

warehouse. 

Note: The outcome of this exercise will be used in the following section as 

well as the next exercise.


4.4 VIEWING ITEMS IN TRANSIT 

Viewing Quantities 

Constant movement of inventory between different locations creates a 

need in companies with multiple locations to determine the status of a 

specific item(s). With the location transfers functionality in Navision Attain, 

a multi-site company is able to track quantity and value of inventory 

currently in transit at any time. 

Companies can view items in transit per in-transit location code and per 

item. Furthermore, all the reports that relate to item availability include 

quantities in transit. Let’s have a closer look at these options using Cronus. 

To view items in-transit per in-transit code: 

1 From the main menu, click Inventory, Items. 

2 Click Item, Items by Location. The Items by Location window 

appears: 

By default, this window shows item availability per normal physical 

locations. To view item quantities per in-transit location code: 

3 In the Show Items In Transit field, insert a check mark.


The total quantity of an item that is in-transit on a specific date per transferto 

location (regardless of the in-transit location code) is indicated in the 

Qty. in Transit field in the corresponding Item Availability by Location 

window. (This field is not shown in the standard layout of the window. To 

insert the field, use the Show Column function.) 

View the quantity in-transit for item 1896-S on 01/27/01: 

4 Open the item card for item 1896-S. Click Item, Item Availability by, 

Location. 

5 In the Date Filter field of Item Availability by Location window, enter 

01/27/01 and press ENTER: 

As indicated by the contents of the Qty. in Transit field, the total of 25 units 

of item 1896-S is on the way to the Blue warehouse as of 01/27/01. 

Quantities in transit are also included in all the reports that specify


inventory availability. The report called Inventory - Inbound Transfer shows 

items in transit that are to be received at the transfer-to location: 

6 From the main menu, click Inventory, Item Reports. From the item 

reports list, select Inventory - Inbound Transfer report and click Print. 

In the Inventory - Inbound Transfer window, the user can define what to 

include in the document by setting filters. 

Assume that an inventory manager at the Yellow warehouse wants to know 

which items and how many of them are on the way to the warehouse. 

7 In the Inventory - Inbound Transfer window, in the Filter field for the 

Transfer-to Code line, select Yellow: 

8 Click Preview:


Viewing Values 

Inventory - Inbound Transfer July 1, 2001 

CRONUS International Ltd. 

Transfer-to 

1906-S 

1964-S 

70001 Base 

YELLOW 

70002 Top Panel 

70003 Rear Panel 

ATHENS Mobile Pedestal 

TOKYO Guest Chair, blue 

Receipt 

Date 

Qty. in Transit 

Outstanding Document 

Quantity No. 

Transfer-fro 

Code 

Page 

In-Transit 

Code 

Yellow Warehouse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

01/28/01 0 30 1002 BLUE OUT. LOG. 

01/28/01 0 19 1002 BLUE OUT. LOG. 

01/28/01 0 0 1002 BLUE OUT. LOG. 

01/28/01 40 0 1004 GREEN OWN LOG. 

01/28/01 25 0 1004 GREEN OWN LOG. 

This report provides additional information on, for example, when 

warehouse Yellow can expect items to arrive, from which location they 

were transferred from and so on. 

To view value of items in transit, companies can use the report called 

Inventory Valuation. 

1 From the main menu, click Inventory, Item Reports. 

1


2 From the item reports list, select Inventory Valuation report and click 

Print. 

3 In the Inventory Valuation window, set OWN LOG. as a location filter: 

4 Click Preview. 

Inventory Valuation March 2, 2001 

CRONUS International Ltd. Page 1 

Item: Location Filter: OWN LOG. 

Item No. Description 

Inventory Posting Group: FINISHED 

Bill 

of M 

Base 

Unit o 

As of Increases (LCY) Decreases (LCY) 

As of 01/25/01 

................ ................ ................ ................ 

Quantity Value Quantity Value Quantity 

Value 

Quantity 

Value 

Cost Posted to 

G/L 

1964-W INNSBRUCK Storage Unit/G.Door Yes PCS 0 0.00 -10 -1,694.88 10 1,694.88 0.00 

Inventory Posting Group Total: FINISHED 0.00 0.00 -1,694.88 1,694.88 0.00 

Inventory Posting Group: RESALE 

80100 Printing Paper No BOX 0 0.00 -1,300 -3,900.00 1,300 3,900.00 0.00 

1906-S ATHENS Mobile Pedestal No PCS 0 0.00 -40 -8,341.00 40 8,341.00 0.00 

1908-S LONDON Swivel Chair, blue No PCS 0 0.00 0 

0.00 0.00 

1936-S BERLIN Guest Chair, yellow No PCS 0 0.00 0 

0.00 0.00 

1964-S TOKYO Guest Chair, blue No PCS 0 0.00 -25 -2,315.63 25 2,315.63 0.00 

Inventory Posting Group Total: RESALE 0.00 0.00 -14,556.63 14,556.63 0.00 

Total 0.00 

-16,251.51 

16,251.51 

0.00 

The Invt. Valuation - Cost Spec. and the Item Age Composition – Value 

reports are the other two reports that show the value of items in transit.


Exercise 11 View Items in Transit 


1 Create an Inventory - Inbound Transfer report for the Red warehouse. 

2 Create an Inventory Valuation report for the Blue warehouse.

5 

Chapter 5. 

Item Tracking 


5.1 Overview 

5.2 Setting up Item Tracking 

5.3 Handling Items with Serial and Lot Numbers 

5.4 Tracking Items with Serial and Lot Numbers 

5.5 Handling and Tracking Items with Warranty 

and Expiration 

5.6 Transferring Items with Serial and Lot 

Numbers


5.1 OVERVIEW 

As the flow of goods in the modern supply chain becomes more and more 

complex, the ability to keep track of items also increases in its importance 

to the companies in the supply chain. While monitoring an item’s 

transaction flow can be obligatory in certain businesses ( for instance, 

those dealing with hazardous products), other businesses may find it 

advantageous to monitor products that are associated with warranties or 

have expiration dates. 

The Item Tracking granule in Navision Attain provides a company with an 

easy-to-use tracking system, which can take into account each unique 

piece of merchandise: when it was received, to what it cost, which 

customer bought it and when, etc. It also provides a foundation on which 

companies can develop functionality to control warranty and expiration 

dates. 

The functionality is based on using serial and lot numbers and allows the 

user to receive and ship multiple quantities with serial and lot numbers from 

a single order line entry. Item tracking entries (representing the transaction 

history of each individual item with serial and/or lot numbers) are the 

records used to track an item along its movement through the supply chain. 

The functionality of the Item Tracking granule is flexible enough to allow 

companies to handle all aspects of their item tracking system in a way that 

reflects their specific practices. For instance, some companies register and 

use serial and lot numbers on items from their vendors, while others set up 

and use their own system of serial and lot numbers. 

In this chapter you will learn how to: 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

set up item tracking. 

handle and track items with serial and lot numbers as well as with 

warranties and expirations. 

handle the transfer of items with serial and lot numbers. 

The principles and flexibility of the item tracking functionality is 

demonstrated through a number of scenarios based on the case of Cronus.

Item Tracking 5-3 

5.2 SETTING UP ITEM TRACKING 

Setting up Item Tracking Codes 

This chapter explains how to set up item tracking. 

The item tracking setup consists of three elements: 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

Item Tracking Codes Setup: An item tracking code defines which item 

parameters (serial number, lot number, or both) the program will use to 

track the items and in which operational areas. 

Serial and Lot Number Setup: When a company wants to assign serial 

and lot numbers to items automatically, it needs to set up number 

series that the program will use. The process of setting up these 

number series is similar to that of other number series and is part of 

the General Ledger Setup. 

Item Setup: To be able to track a specific item, a company must first 

set it up for item tracking by applying a particular item tracking code. 

The setup may also include a serial/lot number series and expiration 

formula. 

The item tracking codes reflect the different considerations that a company 

has in respect of the item tracking parameters and areas where the 

tracking will be applied. 

Based on careful planning, Cronus has set up a number of item tracking 

codes that will be applied to certain items. 

Let’s see the item tracking codes set up at Cronus. 

1 From the main menu, click Inventory, Setup, Item Tracking Codes.


The Item Tracking Codes window contains a list of six item tracking codes 

created at Cronus. The details of each tracking code are specified on the 

item tracking code card. 

2 Select the LOTALL code, click Item Tracking Code, Card. 

The fields on the General tab specify the code name and the description 

for the item tracking code. As the contents of these fields indicate, items to 

which this code is applied will be tracked by a lot number. 

3 Click the Serial No. tab. 

As this tracking code is applied only to items with lot numbers, the Serial 

No. tab is not set up for this code. 

4 Click the Lot No. tab:


The fields on the Lot No. tab specify the details of the item tracking by lot 

number as well as the operational area where the tracking will be applied. 

The check mark in the Lot Specific Tracking field indicates that a specific 

physical inventory application method will be used for this lot number 

tracking. For further details related to this field, read online Help. 

Note: 

The user is not allowed to remove a check mark from this field if the 

program detects that item tracking entries exist for items to which this 

tracking code is applied. 

The values in the Lot Application Method field specify how items from a 

given lot will be taken out of the inventory. Cronus has selected the FIFO 

(First In, First Out) method for this code. 

In the next six lines, the user can define in which operational area(s) and 

on what stage of the item flow (inbound, outbound, or both) the program 

must apply lot tracking. This is done by placing check marks in the 

corresponding field(s). 

For instance, for the item tracking code in question, Cronus has decided to 

require lot tracking on inbound and outbound documents in all areas except 

warehousing. This means that lot number will be required on the item 

tracking line before any purchase, sales, positive and/or negative 

adjustment entries for items with this item tracking code setting can be 

posted. This decision is reflected in the setup, where the corresponding 

fields contain check marks. 

A check mark in the Lot No. Info. Must Exist field (inbound and/or 

outbound) indicates that documents with any positive entry for items that 

require lot numbers cannot be posted before lot number information is 

created. 

The check mark in the Lot Transfer Tracking field indicates that a lot 

number will be required on the item tracking line before item transfer lines 

can be posted. The check mark in this field cannot be deleted once a check 

mark is placed in the Lot Specific Tracking field. 

5 Click the Misc. tab:


The fields on this tab define two additional parameters related to a specific 

item tracking code: warranty date and expiration date. 

In the Warranty Date Formula field, the user can enter a formula that the 

program will use to calculate the warranty date on the item tracking line 

entries for items that require a serial and/or lot number. 

A check mark in the Man. Warranty Date Entry Reqd. field indicates that a 

warranty date on the item tracking line for items with serial and/or lot 

numbers must be entered manually before a document with entries for 

these items can be posted. 

A check mark in the Man. Expir. Date Entry Reqd. field indicates that an 

expiration date on the item tracking line for items with lot numbers must be 

entered manually before a document with entries for these items can be 

posted. 

A check mark in the Strict Expiration Posting field indicates that there is a 

strict expiration date on the item. This option is mostly used for items that 

cannot be used after they expire. This field relates to the Expiration 

Calculation field on the Item Tracking tab of an item card. The program 

does not allow posting of a document with entries for the items when it 

detects that the posting takes place after the expiration date. 

Because warranties and expiration dates are irrelevant to the items to 

which the LOTALL item tracking code is applied, the fields on the Misc. tab 

are not activated. 

You have now looked at the setup of one of the item tracking codes - 

LOTALL. We recommend that you now have a look at the setup of the other 

item tracking codes created at Cronus, because these codes have been


applied to some existing items which are used in examples presented in 

the following sections. 

Setting up Number Series for Serial and Lot Numbers 

Companies set up the number series for serial and lot numbers when they 

need to assign serial and lot numbers to the items. The practice of 

assigning serial and lot numbers is typically used where: 

∙ 

∙ 

Items are supplied by vendors without serial/lot numbers but will be 

sold with serial/lot numbers. 

The company manufactures and sells items that must have serial/lot 

numbers. 

The procedure for setting up the number series for serial/lot numbers is 

similar to that for setting up any other number series in Navision Attain. To 

recall the procedure, read the corresponding topic in online Help. 

Cronus has created three number series related to item serial/lot numbers 

with the corresponding codes SN1, SN2 and LOT: 

1 From the main menu, click General Ledger, Setup, No. Series. 

In the No. Series window, you can browse to one of the codes, for example 

SN1, and have a look at the setup details. Notice that the Manual Nos. 

fields for all the codes contain a check mark. This indicates that the 

program permits the entry of numbers manually instead of using the 

specified number series. 

The following section explains how the item tracking codes and number 

series for serial/lot numbers can be applied to items in order to use the item 

tracking functionality.


Setting up Items for Item Tracking 

Item tracking code, serial/lot numbers and expiration calculation are item 

properties that are a part of every posting record for that item. Therefore, 

these properties must be set up before the item has been involved in any 

transaction. In other words, a company must set up item tracking 

information when they add items to their inventory file (that is, while 

creating item cards). 

If a company wants to start tracking an item for which posting records 

already exist, they must create a new item card and on that new card set 

up the relevant item tracking information. 

Consider the following scenario. 

Scenario 1 

Cronus has a number of items on their inventory file that are set up for item 

tracking. Depending on the type of each specific item, the company has 

chosen to apply different tracking methods. For example, some items are to 

be tracked only by serial numbers, others only by lot numbers and still 

others by both numbers. Similarly, for some items serial/lot numbers are 

required at each stage of their handling throughout the company, while for 

others only at the point of sale. 

Among the items that have been set up for item tracking are items 80102-T 

and 80218-T. 

Take a close look at the setup details for the above items. 

1 From the main menu, click Inventory, Items. Browse to item 80102-T. 

2 Click the Item Tracking tab:


Notice that the SNALL item tracking code is selected for this item. This 

implies that the program requires the user to apply serial numbers to this 

item at all stages of item handling, except warehousing, before posting of 

the corresponding entries is allowed. (Open the item tracking code card for 

the SNALL code to see the setup details). The number series for the serial 

numbers when assigned to this item is SN1. The item will not be tracked by 

the lot number. 

3 Browse to item 80218-T and click the Item Tracking tab: 

The selection of LOTSNSALES in the Item Tracking Code field indicates 

that serial numbers are required for this item when posting the sales entries 

and that lot numbers are required when posting all entries (except 

warehouse documents). (Open the item tracking code card for the 

LOTSNSALES code to see the setup details.) The number series for the lot 

numbers when assigned to this item is LOT. There is no number series for 

serial numbers that the program will use when the user decides to assign 

serial numbers to this item.


5.3 HANDLING ITEMS WITH SERIAL AND LOT NUMBERS 

This section explains how the item tracking functionality of Navision Attain 

can support companies in managing the task of handling items throughout 

inbound and outbound handling processes. 

Depending on the business relationships with vendors and customers as 

well as types of items handled, companies may have established different 

internal processes for tracking items. For instance, some companies may 

want to start the tracking process from the moment that items arrive at the 

company’s warehouse. In that case, depending on whether or not items 

already have serial/lot numbers assigned, they can choose to: 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

manually record the vendor’s original item serial/lot numbers. 

manually enter or automatically assign new serial/lot numbers. 

define and automatically assign serial numbers that reflect the vendor’s 

original numbers or are based on the company’s own number series 

system. 

The following table summarizes the alternatives provided in Navision Attain 

for how to handle the receipt of items that require item tracking at the point 

of purchase. The alternatives depend on whether or not the purchased 

items already have the vendor’s serial/lot numbers. 

Enter numbers manually: 

Items with 

vendors’ 

SN 

Items with 

vendors’ 

vendors’ numbers � � 

LN 

Items with 

no SN/LN 

new numbers � � � 

Enter numbers 

automatically: 

assign new numbers � � � 

define and assign 

customized numbers 

� �


Other companies may want item tracking applied to items only when they 

are sold to the customers, rather than from the moment they arrive at a 

warehouse. Still others may choose to be able to track items from the 

moment they are purchased up to the moment when they are sold. The 

way of handling the shipment of items with item tracking required at the 

point of sale will depend on a company’s decision concerning item tracking 

on the purchase side. 

The following table summarizes the alternatives provided in Navision Attain 

for how to handle the shipment of items that require item tracking at the 

point of sale. The alternatives depend on whether or not the items have 

already been assigned serial/lot numbers. 

Enter numbers 

automatically: 

Items with 

assigned 

SN 

Items with 

assigned 

LN 

Items with 

no SN/LN 

assign own numbers � 

create and assign 

customized numbers 

run Find Entries 

Automatically 

function 

select from already 

existing numbers 

Enter numbers manually: 

enter numbers 

manually 

� � 

� � 

In the following, some of the most common processes are explained 

through the use of scenarios. 

Assigning Serial/Lot Numbers on Purchase Orders 


� 

�


Scenario 2 

A purchaser at Cronus places an order with vendor 50000 for 25 units of 

item 80103-T, 10 units of item 80218-T and 20 units of item 80208-T. The 

vendor usually ships item 80103-T with serial numbers, item 80218-T with 

lot number(s) and item 80208-T without serial/lot numbers. The order is 

shipped to the Blue location. 

The person receiving the items must enter the serial/lot numbers for the 

arrived items in the program. 

Create a purchase order for 25 units of item 80103-T, 10 units of item 

80218-T and 20 units of item 80208-T for vendor 50000: 

Because of the item tracking codes that are applied to the first two items, 

SNALL, and LOTSNSALES, the program requires the entry of serial 

numbers on the item tracking lines for the first item and the entry of lot 

numbers for the second item before the receipt can be posted. If a 

purchaser attempts to post the receipt without entering the serial numbers, 

the program gives the following message:


Note 

You can not use negative quantities in sales and purchase when you are 

using Item Tracking. 

To enter serial numbers for item 80103-T: 

1 In the Purchase Order window, select the first line, click Line, Item 

Tracking Lines: 

The Item Tracking Lines Ship/Rec. window is used to record detailed 

information for an item concerning serial/lot numbers. The top panel of this 

window contains a summary of the information on the lines, including the 

status of the serial/lot number assigning activity and the name and 

description of the item tracking code applied to a particular item. 

The user can enter serial numbers for the item in the following ways: 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

Automatically, by running Assign Serial No. function, so that the 

program assigns serial numbers to the items based on the number 

series specified for a specific item. 

Automatically, by running Create Customized SN function, so that the 

program assigns serial numbers to the items based on the parameters 

defined by the user specifically for the arrived items. 

Manually, by recording serial number of each item unit as assigned by


the vendor. 

∙ Manually, by entering a specific serial number for each item unit. 

Suppose that to handle the receipt of the purchase order described in 

scenario 2 in an efficient way, a warehouse person chooses to run the 

Create Customized SN function. 

2 Click Functions, Create Customized SN: 

In the Enter Customized SN window, the user can specify the parameters 

that define a certain pattern in the serial numbers of the arrived items. 

3 In the Customized SN field, enter S/N-85C31 . This is the starting 

number in the number series assigned by vendor 50000 to the items. 

By entering a number in the Increment field, the user defines the increase 

between values of two sequential numbers in the number series. 

4 In the Increment field, enter 1. This number reflects the fact that the 

serial numbers assigned by vendor 50000 to 25 units of item 80103-T 

increase by one. 

The Quantity to Create field contains the quantity on the line by default. 

The user can modify it, if necessary. 

5 Click OK. 

The program creates 25 individual serial numbers starting from S/N-85C31 

and ending at S/N-85C55 and creates corresponding item tracking lines:


Notice that the Status fields on the top panel contain OK. This is because 

all individual items on the purchase line have been assigned an item 

tracking line. If the user created either less or more item tracking lines than 

the quantity in the Qty. to Receive field on the purchase line, then the 

status would be respectively lower or higher, and the purchase order would 

not be posted. 

6 Close the Item Tracking Lines Ship/Rec. window. 

Now, enter the lot number of item 80218-T: 

7 In the Purchase Order window, select the second line, click Line, Item 

Tracking Lines. 

8 In the Lot No. field, enter LOT-TD5. This is the lot number assigned to 

the items by the vendor. 

Suppose that all 10 units of item 80218-T are part of the same lot: 

9 In the Quantity field, enter 10:


10 Close the Item Tracking Lines Ship/Rec. window and post the 

Note 

purchase order. 

For purchase orders with more than one line, if item tracking lines have not 

been created for at least one line, the purchase order will not be posted. To 

post the order, the quantity in the Quantity to Receive field for the line(s) 

with missing item tracking lines must be zero. 

The program posts the information about serial/lot numbers that was 

recorded for the items in the posted purchase order to the item tracking 

entries table. 

Assigning Serial/Lot Numbers on Sales Orders 

Companies assign serial/lot numbers to the items they sell to customers so 

that they can track down individual items for returns and service contracts. 

Depending on the established internal policies and business relationships 

with customers, companies may have different processes for tracking sold 

items. Examples of these processes are: 

∙ 

∙ 

Buying items from vendors without serial/lot numbers and then 

assigning the company’s own numbers when selling the items. 

Buying items from vendors with the serial/lot numbers already 

assigned and using the same numbers when selling the items.


In the situation where a company chooses to assign their own serial and lot 

numbers, it is important to emphasize that the more consistently a 

company sets up their number series for serial and lot numbers, the more 

efficient the process will be. 


Scenario 3 

Cronus customer 20000 places an order for 15 units of item 80208-T and 

eight units of item 80218-T. The order should be shipped from the Blue 

warehouse. 

The salesperson must create a sales order and make sure that the 

serial/lot numbers are recorded in the program according to the rules set up 

for those items in the item tracking codes. 

Create the sales order for 15 units of item 80208-T and eight units of item 

80218-T for customer 20000: 

Because of the item tracking code applied to the items, SNSALES and 

LOTSNSALES, the program requires the entry of serial numbers on the 

item tracking lines for item 80208-T and the entry of serial/lot numbers for 

item 80218-T before the order can be posted. 

1 Select the sales line for item 80208-T and click Line, Item Tracking 

Lines.


This item is usually purchased without serial/lot numbers but it is required 

(by the item tracking code applied to this item) to be sold with serial 

numbers. The person shipping the order must therefore enter the serial 

numbers for this item. Because there is a number series for serial numbers 

set up for this item, entry of the serial numbers can be done automatically: 

2 Click Functions, Assign Serial No. The Enter Quantity to Create 

window appears: 

By default the Quantity to Create field contains the quantity copied from 

the sales line. If necessary, the user can modify the quantity. 

3 Click OK. 

The program automatically assigns serial numbers to each individual unit of 

the item:


4 Close the Item Tracking Lines Ship/Rec. window. 

The person shipping the order must now enter the serial and lot numbers 

for eight units of item 80218-T. 

5 Select the sales line for item 80218-T and click Line, Item Tracking 

Lines. 

Handling the receipt of this item (performed in scenario 2) defines its 

current status concerning serial/lot numbers: there is an item tracking entry 

specifying that there are 10 units that belong to the same lot. No serial 

numbers are assigned to this item. The user can verify this information by 

clicking the AssistButton in the Serial No. and Lot No. fields of the Item 

Tracking Lines Ship/Rec. window. 

When both serial and lot numbers are required to be entered at the point of 

sale, it is recommended to start by entering the lot number and then 

proceed to serial numbers. 

To enter the lot (serial) number(s) for items that already have item tracking 

entries, the user can choose to either: 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

Note 

run the Find Entries Automatically function, so that the program selects 

the lot number from the item tracking entries list according to the lot 

application method specified on the corresponding item tracking code, 

or 

enter the lot number automatically by opening the item tracking entries 

table and selecting the appropriate lot number from the available 

records, or 

enter the lot number manually. 

It is not possible to run the Assign Lot (Serial) No. function to enter the lot 

(serial) numbers if all the items on inventory already have item tracking 

entries. 

Suppose that the person shipping the sales order in scenario 3 chooses to 

select the lot number from the available item tracking entries: 

6 Click the AssistButton in the Lot No. field. The Item Tracking Entries 

window appears:


The only entry in the item tracking entries table specifies that at the 

moment there are 10 units of item 80218-T all belonging to the lot no. LOT- 

TD5. 

7 Click OK. 

In the Item Tracking Lines Ship/Rec. window, the program fills in the Lot 

No. field with the selected number and fills in the corresponding quantity 

fields on the lines with the quantity copied from the sales order: 

Serial numbers must now be assigned to the eight units of the item within 

the specified lot number. Because this item does not have serial numbers 

entered for it at the point of purchase, to enter the serial numbers the user 

can choose to either: 

∙ run the Assign Serial Numbers function, so that the program assigns 

serial numbers automatically based on the number series specified for


∙ 

∙ 

this item, or 

run the Create Customized SN function, so that the program assigns 

serial numbers to the items based on the parameters defined by the 

user specifically for the items, or 

enter the serial numbers manually. 

Suppose that the person shipping the sales order in scenario 3 chooses to 

create customized serial numbers: 

8 Click Functions, Create Customized SN. 

9 In the Enter Customized SN window, in the Customized SN field, 

enter S/N-66CA1 and in the Increment field, enter 1. Click OK. 

The program assigned eight individual serial numbers to item 80218-T with 

the same lot number. 

10 Close the Item Tracking Lines Ship/Rec. window and post the sales 

Note 

order. 

Remember that the sales order with items that required item tracking from 

the point of purchase cannot be posted if the items’ quantity on the sales 

lines exceeds available quantity on hand in inventory.


Correcting Serial and Lot Numbers Entries 

When a company chooses to have item tracking on items from the point of 

purchase, the serial/lot numbers become the item’s property and must be 

used every time the items are handled as they move along different stages 

in the company’s operations (ending with sales). Situations where 

information about serial/lot numbers (as recorded in the program) is 

different from the actual serial/lot numbers on the items in inventory may 

cause difficulties. 

To correct serial/lot numbers on items, companies must use an item 

reclassification journal. 


Scenario 4 

Warehouse personnel at Cronus have found out that the two available units 

of item 80218-T belong to two different lots. 

The employee responsible for resolving problems such as this must correct 

the corresponding records in the program. 

1 From the main menu, click Inventory, Item Reclass. Journals. 

2 In the Item No. field, enter 80218-T and in the Location Code field, 

Note 

select Blue. 

The Location Code field is not shown in the standard layout. To insert the 

field, use the Show Column function. 

3 In the Quantity field, enter 1. 

4 In the Applies-to Entry field, click the AssistButton and select the item 

ledger entry for the purchase order for which the incorrect lot number 

record was made.


Now the lot number of the selected unit of item 80218-T must be entered: 

5 In the Item Reclass. Journal window, click Line, Item Tracking Lines. 

6 In the Item Tracking Lines window, click the Assist Button in the Lot 

No. field and select the corresponding lot number: 

7 Close the Item Tracking Lines window. 

Now correct the lot number to the actual one – LOT-TT5: 

8 In the Item Reclass. Journal window, click Line, New Item Tracking 

Lines. 

9 In the Lot No. field, enter LOT-TT5. Close the Item Tracking Lines 

window.


10 Post the journal. 

To verify the corrections introduced for the item: 

11 Open the item card for item 80218-T. Click Item, Entries, Item Tracking 

Entries. 

12 Sort the records by the Entry No. field: 

The changes are recorded in the last two lines. 

Exercise 12 Handling Items with Serial and Lot Numbers 


Scenario 5 

A purchaser at Cronus places an order with vendor 10000 for 20 units of 

item 80216-T. The vendor usually ships this item with lot numbers. This 

time they shipped the order with two lots – 8 units in lot L/N-HW301 and 12 

units in lot L/N-HW320. The order must be shipped to the Blue location. 

Cronus customer 10000 places an order for 15 units of item 80216-T. The 

order should be shipped from the Blue warehouse. 


1 Create a purchase order for 20 units of item 80216-T for vendor 10000.


2 Handle the purchase order according to the rules set up for the item in 

the item tracking code. (Register the vendor’s lot numbers for the 

arrived items.) 

3 Receive and invoice the order. 

4 Create a sales order for 15 units of item 80216-T for customer 10000. 

5 Handle the sales order according to the rules set up for the item in the 

item tracking code. (Enter the lot numbers by running the Find Entries 

Automatically function.) 

6 Ship and invoice the order.


5.4 TRACKING ITEMS WITH SERIAL AND LOT NUMBERS 

Tracking Items per Transaction 

In the previous section, a number 0f situations were demonstrated where 

the company wanted to apply item tracking. It was shown that individual 

item handling depended on the company’s general item tracking policy 

(reflected in the item tracking code applied to a specific item). 

This section illustrates how a company applying an item tracking policy can 

actually use the functionality in Navision Attain to track items by using their 

serial and lot numbers. 

Whenever a document is posted which registers a transaction of items for 

which item tracking lines have been created, the program creates 

corresponding records in the item tracking entries table. These records are 

linked to the entries in the item ledger table. By using these records, 

companies can track each individual item being purchased and sold. 

Check the transaction history for item 80218-T. 

1 From the main menu, click Inventory, Items. Browse to the item card 

for item 80218-T. 

2 Click Item, Entries, Item Tracking Entries. 

The lines in the Item Tracking Entries window specify the transaction 

details, including serial and lot numbers, of the item in question. The Item 

Ledger Entry No. field contains the associated item ledger entry number 

for the same transaction. By selecting a line with an item tracking entry and 

clicking the AssistButton in the Item Ledger Entry No. field, the user can 

access the associated entry in the item ledger entries table.


Tracking of items with serial and lot numbers can also be undertaken in the 

reverse order, that is from the item ledger entries table. 

1 From the item card for item 80218-T, click Item, Entries, Ledger 

Entries. 

By selecting a line with an item entry and clicking Entry, Item Tracking 

Entries, the user can view the associated records in the item tracking 

entries table (provided that the item tracking lines have been created). 

2 In the Item Ledger Entries window, select the second line and click 

Entry, Item Tracking Entries: 

Tracking Items per Customer/Vendor 

The lines in the Item Tracking Entries window specify that the sale of 

eight units of item 80218-T included items with serial numbers from S/N- 

66CA1 to S/N-66CA8 all belonging to the lot LOT-TD5. 

The ability to track items sold to a particular customer or purchased from a 

particular vendor becomes critical in a number of situations. Examples of 

such situations may be where:


∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

an entire lot turned out to be defective and the items from this lot 

should be recalled. 

there is a need to determine the vendor of a particular (for instance, 

defective) item (in case the same items were purchased from different 

vendors). 

a company follows a policy of only accepting returned items sold by 

that company. 

a company follows a policy of only servicing items that are covered by 

a service contract with specific customers. 

In Navision Attain, item tracking entries associated with a specific 

customer/vendor can be accessed from the corresponding 

customer/vendor card. 

1 From the main menu, click Sales and Receivables, Customers. Browse 

to the customer card for customer 20000. 

2 Click Sales, Item Tracking Entries. 

The lines in the Item Tracking Entries window specify serial and lot 

numbers of the items sold to customer 20000.


Exercise 13 Tracking the Items 

Check the transaction history (including the item tracking entries) for item 

80216-T. 

Note 

Fulfillment of tasks in exercise 1 is a precondition for this exercise.


5.5 HANDLING AND TRACKING ITEMS WITH WARRANTY AND EXPIRATION 

For companies operating in certain industries and trading certain types of 

items, warranties and expiration dates may represent relevant item tracking 

parameters - in addition to serial and lot numbers. In Navision Attain, 

companies also have the possibility to expand the use of the item tracking 

functionality to include these two parameters. 

When companies sell items with warranties, they may want to ensure that 

only the items for which the warranty has not expired are allowed to be 

returned (for replacement or repair). To implement this policy in the 

program, the user must (in addition to entering serial and/or lot number) 

also enter the warranty expiration date on the item tracking lines. The setup 

specified on the Misc. tab of the item tracking code card determines 

whether the warranty date is generated automatically (by the program) or 

must be entered manually (by the user). 

In handling perishable goods, supplementing item lot number information 

with the expiration dates may be particularly relevant. In this case, a 

company is able to manage items with expiration dates in an efficient way. 

Besides, the rule (if chosen) of not being able to post an order for expired 

items may significantly improve the quality of a company’s operations. 

The expiration date must be entered (in addition to lot numbers) on the item 

tracking lines. The setup specified on the Misc. tab of the item tracking 

code card and on the Item Tracking tab of the item card determines 

whether the expiration date is generated automatically (by the program) or 

must be entered manually (by the user).


5.6 TRANSFERRING ITEMS WITH SERIAL AND LOT NUMBERS 

Procedures for handling and tracking items with serial and lot numbers that 

are being transferred between different locations are similar to those 

applied when items are purchased and sold (as described in the previous 

sections). 

However, certain principles of handling transfer orders that distinguish 

transfer functionality from other application areas mean that tracking items 

in transfer has some distinct features. One of those principles defines that 

shipment and receipt is done from one and the same transfer line. Because 

shipment and receipt are two separate activities, item tracking lines must 

also be entered separately. 

Note 

The detailed procedures for how to transfer items between locations are 

described in Chapter 4 “Location Transfers”. 

The procedure for transferring items with serial and lot numbers are 

explained in the following. 


Scenario 6 

A Cronus employee creates a transfer order for 20 units of item 80103-T 

from the Blue to the Red warehouse. The item tracking code applied to this 

item specifies that the item must be transferred with serial numbers. 

Although shipped complete from the Blue warehouse, the order arrived at 

the Red warehouse in two shipments (15 and five units). 

Warehouse persons shipping the order from the Blue location and receiving 

it at the Red location must ensure that the information concerning serial 

numbers is recorded correctly. 

Create a transfer order for 20 units of item 80103-T for the Blue to the Red 

locations:


Now, before shipping the order, the warehouse person must enter the 

serial numbers of the individual items to be shipped: 

1 Click Line, Item Tracking Lines, Shipment. 

To enter serial numbers, the warehouse person can follow one of the 

procedures applicable when handling the shipment of items with serial 

numbers assigned (see table on page 5-12). 

2 In the Item Trkg. Transfer Shipment window, click Functions, Find 

Entries Automatically. 

3 Close the Item Trkg. Transfer Shipment window and post the 

shipment of the transfer order. 

20 units of item 80103-T are currently in transit. Suppose now that the first


15 units arrive at the Red location. When receiving the items, the 

warehouse person must enter the serial numbers of the arrived items: 

4 In the Qty. to Receive field, enter 15. 

5 Click Line, Item Tracking Lines, Receipt. 

Fields in the top panel of the Item Trkg. Transfer Receipt window specify 

order quantity and quantity to receive on both the transfer order and the 

associated item tracking lines. The lines specify individual serial numbers 

and quantities entered when the order was shipped. 

The warehouse person can handle the task of entering the serial numbers 

of the arrived items by changing the quantities in the Qty. to Receive field 

to zero for those item serial numbers that have not yet arrived and ensuring 

that the serial numbers on the lines correspond to the serial numbers of the 

arrived items. 

Suppose that items with serial numbers from S/N-85C46 to S/N-85C50 are 

not among the 15 units that arrived at the Red warehouse. 

6 In the Qty. to Receive field for lines with serial numbers from S/N- 

85C46 to S/N-85C50, enter 0. 

7 Close the Item Trkg. Transfer Receipt window and post the receipt of 

the transfer order. 

As in the case of sales and purchase orders, the posting of transfer orders 

results in the program posting records about serial/lot numbers to the item 

tracking entries table.


8 Open the item card for item 80103-T and click Item, Entries, Item 

Tracking Entries. 

The records in the item tracking entries table reflect the transaction history 

of each individual unit of the item. 

Notice that five items with serial numbers from S/N-85C46 to S/N-85C50 

are still in transit, as indicated by the corresponding quantities in the 

Remaining Quantity field at the in-transit location OUT. LOG.: 

9 Return to the transfer order. 

Suppose that the remaining five units of item 80103-T arrive at the Red 

warehouse. The warehouse person must enter the serial numbers of the 

arrived items. 

10 In the Item Trkg. Transfer Receipt window, in the Qty. to Receive 

field for lines with serial numbers from S/N-85C46 to S/N-85C50, enter 

1.


If the user tries to change the quantity in the Qty. to Receive field for lines 

with serial numbers which have already been received, the program gives 

the warning message: 

11 Close the Item Trkg. Transfer Receipt window and post receipt of the 

transfer order. 

Tracking of the transferred items is performed in the same manner as for 

sold and purchased items. 

Exercise 14 Transferring Items with Lot Numbers 


A Cronus employee creates a transfer order for 4 units of item 80216-T 

from the Blue to the Red warehouse. 

Although shipped complete from the Blue warehouse, the order arrived at 

the Red warehouse in two shipments (three and one units). 

Your task is to make the transfer and to ensure that the information 

concerning lot numbers is recorded correctly. 

Note 

Fulfillment of tasks in exercise 1 is a precondition for this exercise.

6 

Chapter 6. 

Warehouse Management 


6.1 Overview 

6.2 Setting up Warehouse Management 

6.3 Receiving Orders 

6.4 Cross Docking 

6.5 Shipping Orders


6.1 OVERVIEW 

Managing the physical handling of goods is an extensive and costly 

operation. Reducing costs and improving delivery times and accuracy is 

therefore essential in responding to competitive pressures and customer 

demand. 

The flow of inventory through the warehouse can be divided into two basic 

processes: 

∙ 

∙ 

Receiving items at the warehouse and making them available. 

Shipping items to customers. 

Each process can consist of a series of warehouse handling activities. 

Receiving items involves the physical receiving of items when they arrive at 

a warehouse and then putting them away (from the receiving area into the 

stocking area). 

Shipping items involves picking items from inventory and handing them to 

the shipping agent who delivers them to customers. 

In order to have an efficient operation, warehouse managers must know 

which items have to be shipped and which are expected to arrive. In this 

way, they can estimate the expected workload and allocate warehouse 

resources accordingly. Moreover, if items have to be shipped the same day 

they arrive, cross docking is the optimum way of handling those items. The 

warehouse managers have to be notified when a cross-docking opportunity 

arises. 

Employees in sales and purchase departments need to be able to see what 

stage in the warehouse handling process a particular order has reached. 

The Warehouse Management granule in Navision Attain helps companies 

to manage all these activities in the most efficient way. 

The granule provides companies with the necessary functionality to 

organize the receiving and shipping processes and to assist warehouse 

employees in recording the receipt of inventory, picking items for shipping 

and making shipments. 

The granule is used for communication between the sales, purchase, 

production, and warehousing functions. A release function ensures that it is 

only released sales, purchase, transfer and production orders that can be

Warehouse Management 6-3 

viewed and processed by the warehouse employees. 

This chapter first describes how to set up Warehouse Management. It then 

explains how the program manages warehouse handling activities involved 

in the receiving and shipping processes. 

To demonstrate the value of the warehouse management features in 

improving the efficiency of warehouse operations, comprehensive 

scenarios and examples are used throughout the chapter. To follow the 

suggested scenarios, remember to install the clean database. 

For a quick overview of typical procedures associated with specific 

warehouse handling activities, it is recommended that you read respective 

topic in online Help.


6.2 SETTING UP WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT 

This section explains how to set up warehouse management. 

To set up warehouse management, companies must specify details about 

how the program must manage certain aspects of their warehouse(s). They 

do that in the Warehouse Mgt. Setup window: 

1 From the main menu, click Warehouse Management, Setup, 

Warehouse Setup: 

The fields on the General tab specify warehouse activities that may 

constitute the warehouse handling processes of receiving, shipping and 

cross-docking items. For example, in some companies the process of 

receiving inbound orders may consist of two activities: first, items must be 

received at the warehouse receiving dock, and second, items must be 

moved from the receiving dock into the stocking area. By inserting check 

marks in the Require Receive and the Require Put-away fields, these 

companies set up the program to manage these activities. 

Check marks in the Require Receive, the Require Put-away and the 

Require Pick fields mean that a company requires receiving and shipping 

processes be handled at and posted from a warehouse document, rather 

than from a corresponding order document. If these fields do not contain 

check marks, then the receipt of inbound orders and the shipment of 

outbound orders can be posted directly from the corresponding order 

document (sales order, sales return order, purchase order, purchase return 

order, inbound and outbound transfer orders, and production consumption 

journal). 

Options in the Receipt Posting Mode and Shipment Posting Mode fields 

define whether or not the warehouse personnel, when posting warehouse 

receipt or ship lines, are able to see the errors that the program may detect


during posting of the source documents. 

If a company only has one warehouse, which in the program is set up as a 

blank location, they must set up warehouse management on the General 

tab of the Warehouse Mgt. Setup window. 

If a company has more than one location and uses the Multiple Locations 

functionality, they must set up warehouse management for each location 

that requires warehouse handling. The procedure for doing that is 

described later in this section. 

On the Numbering tab of the Warehouse Mgt. Setup window the user 

specifies the number series that will be used for various warehouse 

documents (for example, pick documents and put-away documents): 

On the Consumption tab, the user can specify which consumption journal 

to use. 

Note 

Learn more about production consumption journals in the Manufacturing 

course, Chapter 6 “Production Order Processing”, section 6.1 

“Consumption”. 

As mentioned earlier, a multi-site company (provided that they use the 

Multiple Locations functionality of the program) must set up warehouse 

management for each location. They do that on the Warehouse tab of the 

location card. 

2 From the main menu, click Warehouse Management, Setup, Locations. 

On the location card, click Warehouse tab:


Note 

Remember that you can also access location cards from the Inventory 

application area by clicking Setup, Locations. 

Note that the fields related to warehouse management on the Warehouse 

tab of the location card are the same as on the General tab of the 

Warehouse Mgt. Setup window. Two additional fields on the Warehouse 

tab, the Outbound Whse. Handling Time and the Inbound Whse. 

Handling Time, relate to the date calculation and order promising 

functionality. 

At Cronus, two locations – the Green and the Yellow warehouses – are set 

up for receiving (including receipt and put-away) and shipping (picking) 

processes to be managed by the program. 

3 Browse to the Green location card and click the Warehouse tab: 

By placing a check mark in the Use Cross-Dock field, the user at Cronus 

specifies that they want the program to indicate whether cross-dock 

opportunities are available for the item on the put-away line. The program 

then automatically places a check mark in the Cross-Dock Available field,


if a cross-dock opportunity exists within the period specified in the Cross- 

Dock Due Date Calc. 

Note that the Cross-Dock Due Date Calc. field contains 3D. This indicates 

that the program will look up to three days ahead from the receipt date for 

cross-docking opportunities at this location. 

Based on the warehouse management setup specified on the tabs of the 

Warehouse Mgt. Setup window and, in the case of multi-site companies, 

on the Warehouse tab of the location cards, the program handles the 

receiving and shipping and cross-docking processes. These are explained 

and illustrated in the following three sections.


6.3 RECEIVING ORDERS 

This section explains how the warehouse management functionality in 

Navision Attain helps companies to manage the receipt of inbound orders 

in an efficient way. The inbound orders are purchase orders, inbound 

transfer orders, sales return orders and production output. 

The process of receiving inbound orders consists of two major activities: 

∙ 

∙ 

Note 

Receiving items at the warehouse receiving dock. 

Putting away items to the stocking area. 

For the time being, the program does not support receipt and put-away of 

the production output. 

Both of these activities consist of a number of sequential tasks performed 

by different groups of warehouse employees. In the program, warehouse 

employees manage these tasks by using appropriate warehouse 

documents. 

Because a released inbound order is a document with which a vendor 

(another warehouse, customer) ships items to the designated warehouse, 

the order is also an indication to the warehouse logistics managers that 

items can be expected. By creating warehouse receipt documents based 

on the released orders, companies get an accurate picture of the expected 

work load, and can manage the receiving process in the most efficient way. 

When items arrive at the warehouse, a warehouse person must handle 

them and register the received quantities in the appropriate warehouse 

receipt document. Upon completion of this task, the logistics manager must 

post the warehouse receipt. When they do that, the program registers items 

as part of the company’s inventory and creates a put-away document(s) (if 

a location has been set up to require put-away). 

A put-away document is an instruction to the warehouse personnel to move 

the received items from the receiving dock into the stocking area. They also 

use this document to register the handled quantities. When items have 

been put away, a warehouse manager must post the put-away. The items 

are then available to be assigned and picked. 

When the warehouse completes handling the receiving process, the source 

document (purchase order or sales return order) can be invoiced. If the


source document is an inbound transfer order, the program deletes it and 

creates a posted transfer receipt. 

In the following, the processes of receiving and putting away are described 

and illustrated using Cronus as an example. The example is based on 

scenario 1 as well as on the existing data in the demo database. For 

simplicity, only a purchase order is used as an inbound source document. 

Scenario 1 

A purchaser at Cronus creates a purchase order for 30 units of item 70010 

for vendor 40000. The expected receipt date for this order is 01/28/01. 

The Green warehouse is the default ship-to location used by the vendor. 

This warehouse is set up to require receipt and put-away. 

When the items arrive at the warehouse, the warehouse personnel must 

perform a series of activities to make items available for sale and for 

picking. 

First, create the purchase order for 30 units of item 70010 for vendor 

40000. Enter the expected receipt date on the purchase header (Ignore the 

message “Order date 22/01/01 is earlier than the workdate”): 

Now, release the order. The items must at some point arrive at the Green 

warehouse.


Receiving Items into the Warehouse 

Receiving items is the first stage in the flow of items into the warehouse. 

A released purchase order represents a request to the warehouse to 

expect arrival of the items. Managers use a list of all the released inbound 

orders to create receipt documents by setting certain parameters. 

In the program, the receipt of the purchase orders can be created from two 

functional areas: 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

The warehouse: A logistics manager at the warehouse where the order 

is to arrive can create a receipt document with all (filtered) or manually 

selected released purchase orders. 

The purchase office: A purchaser responsible for the specific order 

may choose to send a purchase line directly to the warehouse receipt 

document. They do this by clicking Functions, Warehouse, Create 

Receipt. 

Suppose that, as a part of their regular daily activity, a logistics manager at 

the Green warehouse creates a warehouse receipt. 

To create a warehouse receipt: 

1 From the main menu, click Warehouse Management, Receive. The 

Warehouse Receipt window appears. 

2 In the No. field, press F3 to create a new document and then press 

ENTER to assign a number to this document. 

3 In the Location Code field, select GREEN. 

The logistics manager must now select the released source documents (in 

our example, purchase orders) with lines for which quantities have not yet 

been received. To do that, the manager has two options: 

By clicking Functions, Get Selected Source Documents, the manager 

can view a list of all released orders with lines to be received at the 

selected warehouse. They can then select the orders that they want to 

retrieve and the program copies the information from the source 

documents into the receipt lines. 

By clicking Functions, Get Source Documents, the manager can use 

filters to select the source documents that they want to retrieve lines 

from.


The procedure for using the warehouse source filter card to create a 

warehouse receipt document is as follows: 

1 In the Warehouse Receipt window, click Functions, Get Source 

Documents. The Whse. Source Filter Selection – Inbound window 

appears: 

This window contains a list of filter codes that represent filter combinations 

according to which the program retrieves lines only from source documents 

that meet the filter criteria. Filter combinations can be saved and reused 

with the code reference. 

If the Show Filter Request field contains a check mark, the Get Source 

Document function shows the filter request form before the program 

retrieves the lines. (Read more about the filter request in the topic called 

“Get Source Documents Batch Job” in online Help.) 

Note 

The Whse. Source Filter Selection – Inbound window appears empty 

only if the warehouse has not yet set up filters. (In this case, when the user 

clicks Run, the program retrieves all the released source documents.) Once 

the filters are set up, the window will contain a list of corresponding filter 

codes. 

Suppose that the warehouse manager at the Green warehouse decides to 

set up two filter cards to define two way of sorting inbound source 

documents:


∙ 

∙ 

The first filter card specifies that the program must retrieve all the 

released purchase orders. 

The second filter card specifies that the program must retrieve the 

released purchase orders from vendor 40000. 

When setting up a filter for the first time, the user must enter a code name 

on the Whse. Source Filter Selection – Inbound card and then open the 

filter card to specify other parameters. 

To set up the first filter card: 

2 In the Whse. Source Filter Selection – Inbound window, in the Code 

field, enter PO ALL and click Modify. 

3 In the Whse. Source Filter Card – Inbound window, in the 

Description field, enter Get all purchase orders. 

By inserting and removing check marks in the fields representing the types 

of source documents, the manager can define the source document(s) for a 

specific filter. Note that it is only fields representing the inbound source 

documents (sales return orders, purchase orders and inbound transfers) 

that are editable and by default contain check marks. 

4 In the Sales Return Orders and the Inbound Transfers fields, 

remove check marks. 

To set up the second filter card:


5 Press F3 to open a new filter card. In the Code field, enter PO 

VENDOR, and in the Description field, enter Get all p.o. for vendor 

40000. 

6 In the Sales Return Orders and the Inbound Transfers fields, 

remove check marks. 

7 Click the Purchase tab and in the Buy-from Vendor No. Filter field, 

select vendor 40000. 

8 Close the Whse. Source Filter Card – Inbound window. 

The logistics manager has now created two filter cards. Every time the 

manager chooses to create a receipt document by using the Get Source 

Documents function, the program opens the Whse. Source Filter 

Selection – Inbound window, where the manager can select and run the 

appropriate filter. 

9 In the Warehouse Receipt window, click Functions, Get Source 

Documents: 

From this window, by selecting a filter code and clicking Modify, the 

manager can open the corresponding filter card, which can be modified, if 

necessary. 

Suppose that now the manager wants to retrieve all the released purchase 

orders with the expected receipt date of 01/28/01. 

10 In the Whse. Source Filter Selection – Inbound window, select the 

code PO ALL, and click Modify.


11 On the Purchase tab, in the Expected Receipt Date field, enter 

01/28/01. 

12 Click Run. 

The program retrieves the source documents and fills in the fields in the 

Warehouse Receipt window: 

As it appears in the window, on this working date there are two purchase 

orders that meet the parameters specified in the source document filter 

card. Note that the last receipt line contains information retrieved from the 

purchase order created according to scenario 1. 

Suppose that all items now arrive at the warehouse. A warehouse person 

must now handle the arrived items and record their receipt in the program. 

While the quantities of all other items that arrived correspond to the 

quantities on the purchase orders, only 25 units out of 30 of item 70010 

arrived. 

13 In the Warehouse Receipt window, in the Qty. to Handle field, enter 

the arrived quantities on the respective lines:


14 Post the receipt document. Click Yes to confirm that you want to post 

the warehouse receipt. 

The program gives the following message: 

15 Click OK. 

The program has now: 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

updated the relevant quantity fields on the lines of the source 

documents (in our example, purchase orders) and run the Post, 

Receive function for the orders. 

created a put-away document which is used to perform the next task in 

the receiving process – putting items away. (The handling of this task 

is described in the following section.) 

updated the Qty. Handled field for the receipt lines and calculated the 

outstanding quantities (as a difference between the quantity on the 

source document and quantity handled). Lines with no outstanding 

quantities are removed from the receipt document and those with the 

outstanding quantities remain:


Putting Items Away 

The handling and posting tasks must be repeated for the remaining receipt 

line(s) when the items arrive at the warehouse. 

Upon posting the warehouse receipt document, the program creates an 

item ledger entry for the received items and items become available for 

sale. However, the items, although received, are not available for picking 

until they have been put away. The program calculates the received items 

as available to pick only when the put-away has been created, completed 

and posted. In this way, the put-away task can be used as a quality control 

point, where items are inspected to prevent making defective or damaged 

items available for picking. 

When the warehouse receipt is posted, the program creates a put-away 

document. A put-away document is an instruction to the warehouse 

personnel to move received items from the receiving dock into the stocking 

area. 

The procedure for putting away items is as follows: 

1 From the main menu, click Warehouse Management, Put Away. 

2 Browse to the put-away document that you have just created (No. 

PU000003):


The Warehouse Put-away window contains the line copied from the 

posted warehouse receipt document. A warehouse person assigned to 

perform the put-away activity must now handle and register the quantities. 

The Qty. to Handle field is filled in according to what was posted on the 

receipt activity. A warehouse person must therefore make sure that these 

quantities are the same as those that are actually being put away. 

Suppose that all items except 1968-S and 1996-S are now in the receiving 

area and can be put away: 

3 In the Warehouse Put-away window, in the Qty. to Handle field, enter 

0 on the lines for items 1968-S and 1996-S. 

Before posting the put-away document, a logistics manager may want to 

check whether a cross dock opportunity exists for the put-away lines. The 

program indicates such an opportunity by placing a check mark in the 

Cross-Dock Available field. Note that cross-docking is available for all the 

lines (except the last one) in the warehouse put-away document that you 

have just created. Handling of the cross-docking activity is described in 

detail in the following section. 

4 Post the document. Click Yes to the message box. 

The program deletes the warehouse put-away lines with no outstanding 

quantities and records all the information in the posted put-aways. The put 

away items now become available for picking. 

This completes the receiving process.


Exercise 15 Receive and Put away Items 


Scenario 2 

A purchaser at Cronus creates a purchase order for 20 units of item 70040 

and 15 units of item 70060 for vendor 20000. The expected receipt date for 

this order is 01/28/01. 

The Yellow warehouse is the default ship-to location used by the vendor. 

This warehouse is set up to require receipt and put-away. 

Your task is to carry out all the required warehouse activities to make items 

available for sale and picking.


6.4 CROSS-DOCKING 

Cross-docking is the process of moving items from the receiving dock 

directly to the shipping dock. A cross-dock opportunity arises when items 

that have been received into a warehouse are at the same time needed to 

fill a sales order (outbound transfer order, purchase return order or 

production consumption). By using the cross-docking opportunity, a 

warehouse can avoid unnecessary physical movement of the inventory. 

In Navision Attain, the program allows warehouse personnel to perform 

cross-docking by detecting outbound requests that require the arrived items 

at the put-away step in the process . How far into the future the program 

will look for cross-docking opportunities is set up on the Warehouse tab on 

the location card or on the General tab in the Warehouse Mgt. Setup 

window. 

When an outbound request for the received item(s) exists, the program 

places a check mark on the corresponding put-away line. After that, it is up 

to the warehouse/logistics manager to decide whether to use the crossdocking 

opportunity or not. The main consequence of cross-docking is that 

the quantity of items that have to be put away to the stocking area is 

reduced. 

Items that have been cross-docked are part of available inventory, and 

when they are shipped, they become part of a posted shipment. 

In the following, the process of cross-docking is described and illustrated 

using Cronus as an example. The example is based on the outcome of 

activities performed in the previous section “Putting Items Away”. 

To cross-dock items, follow this procedure: 

1 From the main menu, click Warehouse Management, Put Away and 

browse to the warehouse put-away document that you created in the 

previous section (according to scenario 1):


Note that the Cross-Dock Available field for both lines contains check 

marks (scroll to the right to see the field). 

Suppose that the logistics manager decides to use the available cross-dock 

opportunity for the items on these lines. First, however, they have to handle 

the quantities in the receipt document: 

2 Click Functions, Autofill Qty. to Handle. 

3 Select the line for item 1968-S and click Line, Show Cross-Dock. The 

Cross-Dock Opportunities window appears: 

This window contains the details about the outbound order for which the 

received items are needed. In our example, the program detected a sales 

order for quantity of 5 for this item. Suppose that the manager decides to


cross-dock the quantity needed to fill the sales order: 

4 In the Qty. to Cross-Dock field, enter 5. Close the Cross-Dock 

Opportunities window. 

5 Repeat steps 3 to 4 to cross-dock 5 units of item 1996-S. 

6 Post the warehouse put-away. 

The cross-docked quantities will not be put-away to the stocking area.


6.5 SHIPPING ORDERS 

This section explains how the warehouse management functionality in 

Navision Attain helps companies to manage the shipment of outbound 

orders in an efficient way. The outbound orders are sales orders, outbound 

transfer orders, purchase return orders and consumption lines on 

production orders. 

The process of shipping outbound orders consists of the three following 

major activities: 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

Assigning items to pick 

Picking items 

Shipping items to customers 

Each of these activities consists of a number of sequential tasks performed 

by different groups of warehouse employees. In the program, warehouse 

employees manage these tasks by using appropriate warehouse 

documents. 

A released outbound order represents a request to the warehouse to ship 

items to customers (another warehouse or production). By creating 

warehouse assignment documents based on the released orders, 

companies get an accurate picture of the expected work load and thus can 

manage the shipping process in the most efficient way. 

Based on the assignment document, logistics managers create a 

warehouse pick document. This document is an instruction to the 

warehouse personnel to remove items from the shelves and move them to 

the packing and shipping area. They also use this document to register the 

handled quantities. 

When items have been picked, a warehouse manager must post the pick 

document. When they do that, the program moves the lines to the posted 

picks and creates warehouse ship lines. When a pick document with 

production consumption as a source document is posted, the program 

posts the source document without creating ship lines. 

Note 

Learn more about warehouse handling of production consumptions in the 

Manufacturing course, Chapter 6 “Production Order Processing”, section 

6.2 “Warehouse Picking”.


A document with ship lines is an instruction to the warehouse personnel to 

pass the picked items to the shipping agent. They also use this document 

to register the handled quantities. The ship lines must be posted after the 

items have left the warehouse. 

When the warehouse completes handling the shipping process, the source 

document (sales order or purchase return order) can be invoiced. If the 

source document is an outbound transfer order, the program creates a 

posted transfer shipment. 

In the following example, the processes of assigning items to pick, picking 

the items and shipping them to customers are described and illustrated 

using Cronus. The example is based on scenario 3 as well as on the 

existing data in the demo database. For simplicity, only a sales order is 

used as an outbound source document. 

Scenario 3 

A salesperson at Cronus creates a sales order of 30 units of item 1900-S 

and 76 units of item 1908-S for customer 30000. The requested delivery 

date for this order is 01/28/01. 

The order must be shipped from the Green warehouse. The shipping agent 

for this order is DHL and the shipping agent service is Standard. 

The warehouse personnel must perform a series of activities to ship items 

to the customer. 

Create and release the sales order (remember to enter the shipping agent 

and the shipping agent service in the appropriate fields on the Shipping 

tab):


Assigning Items for Picking 

Assigning items is the first stage in the flow of items out of the warehouse. 

At this stage a logistics manager assigns quantities of items from available 

inventory to outbound source document lines. 

Based on the list of all released outbound orders, managers create 

assignment documents, that is, make specific lists of items to be picked for 

shipment. To make the picking process more efficient, they can sort the 

lines in various ways by setting certain parameters, such as who should do 

the picking and what sorting method to apply. As in case of receiving, an 

assign line can also be sent to the warehouse assignment document 

directly from a source document by clicking Functions, Warehouse, Create 

Assignment. 

If available inventory cannot satisfy all the source document lines, a 

manager can choose to assign quantities of available inventory to various 

lines according to requests from the sales department. 

The procedure for assigning items for picking is as follows: 

1 From the main menu, click Warehouse Management, Assign. The 

Warehouse Assignment window appears. 

2 Press F3 to create a new warehouse assignment. In the No. field, 

press ENTER to assign the document a number. 

3 In the Location Code field, select GREEN.


Note 

If a location code is not selected for a specific warehouse assignment, then 

the program retrieves source document lines at all locations. 

The manager must now fill in the assignment document with lines of the 

released outbound source documents (in our example, sales orders), for 

which quantities have not yet been assigned. To do that, a manager has 

two options: 

∙ 

∙ 

By clicking Functions, Get Selected Source Documents, they can view 

a list of all released orders with lines to be assigned at the selected 

warehouse. They can then select the order that they want to retrieve 

and the program copies the information from the source document(s) 

into the assign lines. 

By clicking Functions, Get Source Documents, they have the possibility 

to use filters to select the source documents that they want to retrieve 

lines from according to specified criteria. 

Principles behind using the warehouse source filter card to create a 

warehouse assignment document are the same as those when creating a 

warehouse receipt document (see the procedure described earlier in the 

chapter under the heading “Receiving Items into the Warehouse”). 

Suppose that the manager chooses to use the warehouse source filter card 

to create a warehouse assign document and decides to set up a filter card 

specifying that the program must retrieve all the released sales orders. 

To set up the filter card: 

4 In the Warehouse Assignment window, click Functions, Get Source 

Documents. 

5 In the Whse. Source Filter Selection – Outbound window, in the 

Code field, enter SO ALL and click Modify. 

6 In the Description field, enter Get all sales orders. 

7 In the Purchase Cr. Memos, the Outbound Transfers and the 

Production Consumption fields, remove check marks. 

The logistics manager has now created a filter card. Every time the 

manager chooses to create an assignment document by using Get Source 

Documents function, the program opens the Whse. Source Filter


Selection – Outbound window, where they can select and run the 

appropriate filter. 

8 In the Warehouse Assignment window, click Functions, Get Source 

Documents: 

Now suppose that the manager wants to retrieve all the sales orders that 

have a planned delivery date of 01/28/01 and that are to be shipped from 

the Green warehouse. 

9 In the Whse. Source Filter Selection – Outbound window, select the 

code SO ALL, and click Modify. 

10 In the Whse. Source Filter Card – Outbound window, click the Sales 

tab. In the Planned Delivery Date field, enter 01/28/01. 

11 Click Run. 

The program retrieves the source documents and creates the lines in the 

Warehouse Assignment window:


Note that there are two outbound source documents that meet the criteria 

specified in the selected filter code, that is the source documents are sales 

orders with planned delivery date of 01/28/01. 

The manager must now assign the corresponding quantities for each line in 

the assignment document. To get a better overview of the line list, the 

manager can choose to sort the lines by item, document, shelf/bin, due 

date or ship-to. 

12 In the Sorting Method field, select Item. 

13 Click Functions, Autofill Qty. to Handle to fill in all the Qty. to Handle 

fields. Alternatively, manually fill in this field individually for each line. 

The program gives the following message if there is at least one assign line 

for which the quantity available to pick is not enough to fulfill the needed 

quantity: 

14 Click OK. 

The program fills in the Qty. to Handle field with the amounts 

corresponding to the available to pick quantities even though they are less 

than the needed (outstanding) quantities.


Note 

The program does not permit the entry of quantity in the Qty. to Handle 

field that is greater than the quantity in the Available To Pick field. 

The program reduces the amounts in the Available To Pick fields by the 

corresponding amounts in the Qty. to Handle field. 

Note 

Once a quantity is assigned to a line in the Warehouse Assignment 

window, the quantity is no longer part of available to pick inventory. 

Consider the two assignment lines for item 1908-S. This item is required for 

two sales orders, with respective quantities of 76 and 5 units. The quantity 

available to pick is 80 units. After running the Autofill Qty. to Handle 

function, the program assigned 76 units to the first sales order and the 

remaining 4 units to the second sales order: 

This means that the first sales order can be fulfilled, while the second order 

still has 1 outstanding unit. The logistics manager may now decide 

(according to, for example, a request from the salesperson) to reassign the 

available quantity first to fulfill the second order and then to assign the 

remaining available quantity to the first order. To do that: 

15 In the Qty. to Handle fields for the corresponding lines, delete the 

current amounts. 

16 In the Qty. to Handle field for the second sales order, enter 5 and click 

Functions, Autofill Qty. to Handle to fill in this field for the first sales


order: 

Pay attention to the dates in the Due Date field on the assign line. The 

program copies these dates from the Planned Shipment Date fields on the 

source sales documents. 

Note that the Qty. Cross-Docked field for the last two assign lines contains 

the amounts that have been cross-docked for the specified sales orders 

when receiving the inbound orders. These amounts are a part of a total 

available to pick quantity. 

Note 

You can learn more about the date calculation functionality in Navision 

Attain in Chapter 3 “Order Promising”. 

Throughout the warehouse handling process, a salesperson can monitor 

how many of the order lines are being handled in the warehouse and on 

what stage of the process they are at each specific moment. They can 

access this information directly from the sales order: 

1 Open the sales order that you created according to scenario 3. 

2 Click Functions, Warehouse, Activity List:


The line in the Warehouse Activity List window indicates that the order is 

in the process of being assigned to pick. 

After the logistics manager has assigned items for picking, to instruct 

warehouse personnel to move items from the inventory, they must create a 

pick document(s). 

1 In the Warehouse Assignment window, click Functions, Create Pick. 

The Create Pick window appears: 

By filling in the fields in this window, the logistics manager can split up the 

pick documents in different ways to optimize the picking process. 

Note 

If more than one field defining the method of creating pick documents 

contain a check mark, then the program creates pick documents in such a 

way that each document does not have different records related to the


Picking the Items 

same filtering parameter. For example, if both the Per Cust./Vend./Loc. 

and the Per Item fields contain check marks, two different customers and 

two different item numbers will not be included in the same pick document. 

2 In the Per Due Date field, insert a check mark. Click OK. 

The program deletes the assignment lines for the source document with no 

outstanding quantities and creates pick activities: 

3 Click OK to the message that appears and close the Warehouse 

Assignment window. 

After the logistics manager creates the pick document, the next stage in the 

warehouse handling process is the actual item picking. The picking task is 

carried out by the warehouse personnel, for example pickers. 

A picker uses a warehouse pick document as an instruction for what items 

and quantities to pick. Upon completion of the picking task, a picker uses 

the same document to record the handled quantities. 

The procedure for picking items is as follows: 

1 From the main menu, click Warehouse Management, Pick. The 

Warehouse Pick window appears. 

2 Browse to the first pick activity that you have created: 

The Qty. to Handle fields are filled in with the quantities assigned in the 

assignment document. If a picker needs to change these quantities, they 

can do so. This may be necessary when there is not enough available


inventory to cover the quantity for a specific pick activity. The program does 

not permit the entry of a greater quantity than the one specified in the 

Outstanding Quantity field. 

A picker completes the picking task by verifying or entering the actual 

quantity picked in the Qty. to Handle fields. 

After the warehouse person completes the picking task, they must post the 

pick document. 

3 Click Posting, Post Pick. The following dialog box appears: 

The dialog box has two options: 

∙ 

∙ 

The Post Pick function sends the warehouse pick lines to the 

Warehouse Ship Lines window (or posts a production consumption if 

the source document is a released production order). 

The Post Pick and Ship function posts the pick and posts the lines to 

the source document as shipped. Ship lines do not appear in the 

Warehouse Ship Lines window. They are listed as posted shipments. 

4 In the dialog box, select Post Pick and click OK. 

5 Click OK to the message box. 

The program deletes the pick lines for which all quantities to handle have 

been picked from the Warehouse Pick window. The warehouse pick 

document with lines that have outstanding quantities to handle will not be 

deleted until the remaining quantities are picked or until a logistics manager 

deletes the remaining lines. 

6 Browse to the second pick activity that you created from the 

assignment document and post it. 

The items are now ready to be shipped to the customers.


Shipping Items 

Shipping is the last task in the warehouse handling process before handing 

items to the shipping agent. 

Shipping lines appear in the Warehouse Ship Lines window after the 

warehouse person posted a pick activity. 

The following is the procedure for shipping the items: 

1 From the main menu, click Warehouse Management, Ship. The 

Warehouse Ship Lines window appears: 

This window contains the lines from source documents for which quantities 

have not yet been shipped. 

In this window, the warehouse person assigned the shipping task can sort 

the lines by using different filters to optimize the shipping process. 

2 In the Shipping Agent Filter field, select DHL. 

The program now filters all the lines that are to be shipped by DHL. 

The Qty. to Handle field is filled in according to what was posted on the 

pick document. When shipping, a warehouse person must make sure that 

this is the quantity that they are actually shipping. 

Note that a shipping advice on the ship lines is copied from a source 

document and cannot be changed. This means that the orders cannot be 

shipped partially if a shipping advice for the source document is specified


as complete. 

After the shipping is completed (the items are passed to a shipping agent) 

a warehouse person must post the shipment: 

3 Click Posting, Post Ship. Click Yes to the message that appears. 

4 Click OK to the message. 

This completes the warehouse handling process. The program updates the 

contents of the Quantity Shipped field on the outbound source documents 

(in our example, sales order) lines and creates posted shipment documents 

and item ledger entries. 

To invoice the customer, the salesperson must post the invoice from the 

sales order (purchase return order). 

If the customer whose order is in the process of being handled in the 

warehouse cancels or wants to change their order, the salesperson 

responsible for the order must do the following: 

∙ 

∙ 

Check the status of the order warehouse handling by opening the 

warehouse activity list. 

If any warehouse document has already been created for the source 

document line, the salesperson cannot delete/change the order. 

Instead, they must contact the warehouse personnel and ask them to 

stop the handling and delete the corresponding assign, pick or ship 

lines. 

Upon deleting pick or ship lines, the program deletes the related assign 

lines (those with outstanding quantity), and a salesperson can now reopen 

and delete/change the sales order. The changed order must be released 

and new warehouse assign lines must be created.


Exercise 16 Assign, Pick and Ship Items To a Customer 


Scenario 4 

A salesperson at Cronus creates a sales order of 12 units of item 70040 

and 5 units of item 70060 for customer 40000. The requested delivery date 

for this order is 01/28/01. 

The customer is usually shipped from the Yellow warehouse. This 

warehouse is set up to require pick. 

During picking activity only 3 units of item 70060 were found on the shelf. 

Your task is to carry out all the required warehouse activities to ship the 

items to the customer.

7 

Chapter 7. 

Customer Service Features 


7.1 Overview 

7.2 Item Substitution 

7.3 Item Cross Reference 

7.4 Nonstock Items


7.1 OVERVIEW 


In Navision Attain, the following three granules make up the customer 

service features: 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 


Nonstock Item 




With the Item Substitution granule, companies can link items with the same 

or similar characteristics. This allows companies to offer substitute items to 

customers in situations: 

of stock shortages, thus avoiding losing sales, or 

where lower-priced alternatives are requested, thus providing an extra 

service to the customer. 

When the number of an item, with substitute(s), is entered on a sales line, 

the program notifies the user that a substitute(s) exists. If a substitute is 

chosen, the sales line fields will be automatically updated with the 

substitute-related information. 

With the Item Cross Reference granule, companies can identify the items 

that a customer is ordering on the basis of item numbers other than their 

own. When an external item number (used by, for example, the customer 

or vendor) is entered, the program retrieves a company’s own internal item 

number and fills in the relevant fields on a document line with the 

corresponding information. Customer specific cross-reference description is 

then printed on all external sales documents (order confirmation, delivery 

note and invoice). 

With the Nonstock Item granule, companies can handle the sale of items 

that are not maintained as part of their inventory. 

The nonstock item functionality allows the user to enter an item on sales 

lines by selecting it from an existing list of nonstock items (the list can be

Customer Service Features 7-3 

created manually or imported into the program by using a dataport for a 

vendor catalog). When a nonstock item is entered on a sales line for the 

first time, the program automatically creates an inventory item with a 

unique item number and will process it just like any regular item on the 

company’s inventory list. 

The sale of a nonstock item is usually handled in one of two ways: 

∙ 

∙ 

Drop Shipment: The items are shipped from the vendor directly to the 

customer. In this way, items are bought and sold but are not handled, 

stocked or delivered by the company. 

Special Order: The company purchases a nonstock item from the 

vendor especially for a customer. The special order is then received at 

the company’s warehouse and shipped to the customer, either by itself 

or in combination with other items on the sales order. 

This chapter describes the functionality of each of these three granules.


7.2 ITEM SUBSTITUTION 

Setting up Item Substitution 

Companies frequently offer products of similar quality and function as 

substitutes for one another. The purpose of this is twofold: 

∙ 

∙ 

Firstly, a company can offer a variety of styles, brands, and prices of 

goods. This allows their customers to select the goods which will best 

suit their individual needs and budgets. 

Secondly, by allowing customers to purchase inventory items of 

comparable quality, function and price, companies can maintain 

customer satisfaction in the face of a stock shortage. 

The Item Substitution feature allows a company to link items that have the 

same or similar properties to one another. The substitution can be either 

one-way (from item x to item y, but not from y to x), or two-way. If the 

substitution is two-way, the items are considered to be interchangeable. If 

one item is interchangeable with another, the program automatically 

creates a "reverse substitution" entry for the other item during the setup of 

the substitution information. 

Once substitution information is set up, every time the number of the item 

with a substitute(s) is entered on the sales line, the program will notify the 

user that a substitution exists by placing a check mark in the Substitution 

Available field. In addition, when the quantity of items requested on the 

sales line exceeds the quantity available from inventory, the program 

displays a checkmark in the Substitutes Exist field in the stockout 

message box. 

If a substitute is chosen, the program updates the relevant fields on the 

sales line. 

To use the item substitution functionality, a company must create and set 

up corresponding item substitution entries. 

At Cronus, a number of item substitution entries have already been set up. 

Take a look at the entry made for item 1968-W: 


for item 1968-W. 

2 In the Item Card window, click Item, Substitutions.


The fields in the Item Substitution Entry window specify information about 

the substitute item(s). For item 1968-W, item 1972-W has been selected as 

a substitute. 

An item can be substituted by either another item on the company’s 

inventory list or by a nonstock item. The type of the item that will be used 

as a substitute is selected in the Substitute Type field. The substitute item 

1972-W is a Cronus regular stock item. Interchangeability of these items is 

defined by the check mark in the Interchangeable field. 

To enter comments about the conditions required to make substitutions for 

an item, the user must click Condition to open the Condition window. If a 

condition has been entered, the program automatically inserts a check 

mark in the Condition field of the Item Substitution Entry window. 

Once a substitution entry is created for an item, the program will indicate 

this by inserting a check mark in the Substitution Available field on the 

sales line for this item. 

Creating a Sales Order with Substitutions 


Scenario 1 

Cronus customer 10000 orders three units of item 1968-W. 

A salesperson creates an order for the customer and finds out that the 

quantity of the requested item is not available. However, item 1968-W can 

be substituted by another item. With the customer’s agreement, the 

salesperson decides to ship a substitute item. 

Create a sales order of item 1968-W for customer 10000 (do not enter the


quantity at this point). 

Note 

By default, the Substitution Available field on the sales lines is not visible. 

To make it visible, right-click on the field names pane above the lines, 

select Show Column and insert a check mark next to Substitution Available. 

Notice that the Substitution Available field contains a check mark. 

3 In the Quantity field, enter 3 and press ENTER. The following stockout 

message appears:


In the message box, the Substitutes Exist field contains a check mark. 

4 Click Yes. 

To see the substitute item(s) for the item on the sales line: 

5 Click Line, Select Item Substitution. 

The Customer Item Substitutions window specifies the relevant logistical 

information about the substitute item(s). The header information is copied 

from the related sales line. The Inventory and the Quantity Avail. on 

Shpt. Date fields specify the respective quantities of the substitute item. 

6 Select the line for item 1972-W and click OK. 

On the sales line, the program replaces the originally entered item 1968-W 

with the 1972-W:


7 Post the sales order. 

Exercise 17 Handle Items with Substitutes 


Scenario 2 

Cronus customer 40000 places an order for seven units of item 198o-S. 

This customer’s shipments are usually made from the Yellow warehouse. 


1 Create a sales order for the customer. 

2 Find out whether the requested item 198o-S can be substituted by 

another item. 

3 Ship the requested quantity of a substitute item. 

Note: Because the Yellow location requires picking, the program will 

require you to process the shipping through the warehouse. You can skip 

this process by entering the corresponding amounts in the Qty. To Ship 

field on the sales lines and then accept the warning messages given by the 

program.


7.3 ITEM CROSS REFERENCE 

With item cross reference, a company can use another company's item 

number (used, for example, by the customer or vendor) and the program 

will refer this number to the company’s own internal item number. When the 

external item number in the Cross Reference No. field is entered, the 

program automatically fills in the internal item number and corresponding 

information on the sales order. 

Item cross reference allows the following types of item numbers to be set 

up for cross reference: 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

Blank 

Customer 

Vendor 

Bar Code 

Setting Up Item Cross Reference 

The following section explains how to set up item cross reference and 

illustrates how items with cross references are handled in the program. 

To use item cross reference, a company must make corresponding item 

cross reference entries. 


Scenario 3 

The Cronus employee responsible for managing customer relationships 

must set up cross references for a number of selected items. 

Item 1896-S is among those items. The condition is that when sold to 

customer 40000, the customer’s item reference (instead of the item number 

used at Cronus) is used on the sales documents. 


for item 1896-S. 

2 Click Item, Cross References.


In the Item Cross Reference Entries window, the user can specify crossreference 

details for the item. Options in the Cross-Reference Type field 

define for whom (customer or vendor) or for what (bar code) the cross 

reference is used. It is possible that one item has different reference 

number for the customer, vendor, and bar code. Option Blank means that 

any cross-reference number (for example, an internal reference used for 

informational purposes) can be entered and used to identify the item. 

Depending on the selection made in the Cross-Reference Type field, the 

user can enter either a customer or vendor number or a bar code name in 

the Cross Reference Type Number field. A cross-reference number of up 

to 20 characters can be entered in the Cross-Reference No. field. The 

Description field allows entries of up to 30 characters. 

The user can use the Discontinue Barcode field for informational 

purposes when the Cross-Reference Type field is set to Bar Code and 

that particular barcode is no longer valid. 

3 In the Cross-Reference Type field, select Customer, and in the Cross 

Reference Type No. field, select 40000. 

4 In the Cross-Reference No. field, enter ED6DR3660, in the Unit of 

Measure field, select PCS, and in the Description field, enter 

Executive Desk, 6 Dr; 36x60.


5 Close the Item Cross Reference Entries window. 

You have now created an item cross reference entry for item 1896-S. 

Creating a Sales Order with a Cross Reference 


Scenario 4 

Cronus customer 40000 places a sales order for 10 units of item 1896-S. 

The customer gives the salesperson their own item number - ED6DR3660. 

The salesperson must create a sales order that reflects the item number 

used by the customer. 

Create the sales order for customer 40000 (do not enter the item number at 

this point). 

Note 

By default, the Cross-Reference No. field on the sales lines is not visible. 

To make it visible, right-click on the field names pane above the lines, 

select Show Column and insert a check mark next to the Cross-Reference 

No. 

1 In the Cross-Reference No. field, click the AssistButton to open the 

Cross Reference List window:


2 Select the cross-reference number ED6DR3660 and click OK. 

Notice that the cross-reference number and description now appear on the 

sales line: 

3 Click Print to see a preview of the order. The document shows item No. 

1896-S and the description of the cross-reference number. 

4 Complete and post the sales order. 

The principles behind the procedures for setting up and using cross 

references when purchasing items from vendors are the same as described 

above.


Exercise 18 Handle Items with Cross Reference 


Scenario 5 

Cronus customer 10000 places a sales order for 8 units of item 1900-S. 

The customer gives the salesperson their own item number – 22-786. 


1 Set up an item number used by customer 10000 as a reference for 

item 1900-S (the item description is “Chair, lounge, black”). 

2 Create a sales order that reflects the item number used by the 

customer. Post the order.


7.4 NONSTOCK ITEMS 

Setting Up Nonstock Items 

Nonstock processing allows companies to order, ship, and invoice items 

that are not normally part of their inventory. 

Nonstock processing includes many areas of operation, but the primary 

users of this functionality are purchasing/inventory management personnel 

and sales representatives. 

Nonstock item processing allows the user to enter an item on a quote, 

sales order, and/or invoice. The item can be selected from an existing list of 

item numbers received from one or more vendors and imported into the 

program. Once the relevant vendor item has been selected, the program 

automatically creates an inventory item with a unique item number. The 

inventory item will then be processed just like a normal "stocked" inventory 

item. 

Reports are provided to help companies to decide whether or not certain 

nonstock items should be carried as stocked items. 

The following section explains how to set up nonstock items and illustrates 

how the sale of nonstock items can be handled in the program. 

The program allows the user to set up the numbering sequence and format 

for nonstock items. The following is the procedure for how to prepare the 

program to process nonstock items: 

1 From the main menu, click Inventory, Setup, Nonstock Item Setup. The 

Nonstock Item Setup window appears: 

The two fields in this window specify the format of the nonstock item


Creating Nonstock Items 

number that appears on the item card. The number is generated by the 

program when the user enters a nonstock item on a document line for the 

first time. 

The No. Format field contains three options for how the program will 

format the nonstock items (Press F1 to read the definitions of each option.) 

The program can format item numbers of nonstock items using vendor item 

number and/or the manufacturer code. 

The No. Format Separator field contains the character that serves as a 

separator between the elements of a nonstock item number format when a 

format using both a code and a number is chosen in the No. Format field. 

To use nonstock processing, a company must first create items that the 

program recognizes as nonstock goods. The program provides two 

methods for creating nonstock items: 

∙ 

∙ 

Manually: Creating the nonstock item from the nonstock item card. 

Importing a vendor catalog: Bringing in a volume of nonstock items 

using a dataport. 

In the following, each of these methods is described. 

Creating a Nonstock Item Manually 

To create a nonstock item manually, the user must enter the item-related 

information in the appropriate fields on the nonstock item card. This is 

similar to creating a regular item card. 

Cronus has set up a number of nonstock items. Take a look at the setup 

details for one of them. 

1 From the main menu, click Inventory, Nonstock Items. The Nonstock 

Item Card window appears:


Item information of a general nature can be entered on the General tab. To 

read the definitions of each field, click the field and press F1. 

The fields on the Invoicing tab specify cost and posting details about the 

nonstock item: 

To be able to handle the nonstock items in the program, the user must at 

least fill in the Vendor No., the Vendor Item No. and the Item Category 

Code fields. The item category code is critical, since this determines the 

posting groups and costing methods which will be used when the nonstock 

item is used in a transaction. 

The first time a sales order for a nonstock item is created and posted, the 

program will automatically add the item record to the company’s inventory 

list by creating an item card. To create an item card for a nonstock item 

before using it in a transaction, the user must run the Create Item function 

accessible from the nonstock item card. 

Create an item card for nonstock item with entry No. NS00000001: 

2 In the Nonstock Item Card window, click Function, Create Item.


The program creates the corresponding item card, adds a record in the 

item vendor catalog and provides confirmation: 

Notice that the program assigns the newly created item the number with 

the format (Item No.) specified in the Nonstock Item Setup window. 

Open the new item card: 


for item 2100: 

Notice that the Created from Nonstock Item field contains a check mark, 

which indicates that this was a nonstock item that was converted to a 

stocked item. 

Importing Vendor Catalogs as Nonstock Items 

Vendors often make their catalogs available via an electronic file. The 

program provides a dataport (object number 5700, import nonstock items) 

designed to import the following comma-delimited format. To open the 

dataport: 

1 On the menu bar, click Tools, Object Designer. Click Dataport:


2 Select the object number 5700 and click Run. The Import Nonstock 

Items window appears: 

On the Nonstock Item tab of this window the user can set up filters for the 

information they want to receive from the catalogs. The path to the file 

containing the vendor’s catalog must be entered in the File Name field on 

the Options tab. 

Note: 

Typically the file with the vendor catalogue does not contain company 

specific information, such as, for example, item category code. For the 

program to handle the nonstock items, however, a nonstock item card must 

contain an item category code. The easiest way to enter this information is 

by using the Find and Replace function under the Edit menu button. 

Companies can create additional dataports tailored to address formats that 

are unique to a specific vendor. 

Note: 

When using a dataport, the user needs to make sure that the manufacturer 

code, vendor number, unit of measure code, item category code and


Handling Nonstock Items 

product group code specified in the dataport have already been set up in 

the program. This can be checked by opening a nonstock item card and 

making sure that the records in the tables related to the corresponding 

fields already exist. 

For example, if in a dataport, the manufacturer code is specified as ACME, 

then there must be a code ACME set up in the manufacturer code list. 

Nonstock items will normally be sold to customers as drop shipments or 

special orders. Drop shipments are sent directly from the vendor to the 

customer, while special orders are sent to the company's warehouse 

before they are sent on to the customer. 

By choosing drop shipment, companies buy and sell the item but avoid 

their handling, stocking and/or delivering. When companies want to make a 

shipment to a customer that contains both regular and nonstock items, or 

want to maintain a uniform interface with customers, they might choose to 

handle the sales order as a special order. 

In this section, handling the sale of nonstock items is illustrated using the 

example of drop shipment. The principles behind the procedures for 

handling sales orders marked as special orders are similar to the ones for 

handling drop shipments. 


Scenario 6 

Cronus’ customer 10000 places an order for 10 units of item 3100. 

Because item 3100 is a nonstock item, a salesperson decides to deliver the 

order by using drop shipment. The item must therefore be purchased from 

a vendor (vendor 30000) who will ship the order directly to the Cronus 

customer. 

First, create a sales order for a nonstock item. 

Note 

Creating sales orders for nonstock items requires entries in the 

Purchasing Code field. In addition, the Nonstock field is an information 

field indicating when an item is a nonstock. These fields are, however, not 

shown in the standard layout. To insert these fields, use the Show Column


function. 

1 Fill in the fields on the sales header. 

To enter the nonstock item number, the salesperson can choose either: 

∙ 

∙ 

to select the item from the nonstock items list, or 

to select the item from the regular item list (provided that the nonstock 

item has been added to the inventory list). 

2 Click Functions, Nonstock Items: 

3 Select item 3100 and click OK. 

4 In the Purchasing Code field, select DROP SHIP and in the Quantity 

field, enter 10.


5 Release the order. 

The purchaser must now create a purchase order for the nonstock items 

that Cronus will sell to customer 10000. 

Purchase orders for drop shipments can be created in two ways: 

∙ 

∙ 

Indirectly: as a part of regular planning activity by using the requisition 

worksheet. 

Directly: from the purchase order. 

To learn about the procedures related to each of the above methods, read 

the topics called “Create Purchase Orders for Drop Shipments Indirectly” 

and “Create Purchase Orders for Drop Shipments Directly” in online Help. 

Now suppose that the purchaser creates a purchase order for drop 

shipments directly. 

Create a new purchase order for vendor 30000: 

6 Fill in the fields on the purchase header. 

7 Click the Shipping tab. In the Sell-to Customer No. field, select 

10000. 

8 Click Functions, Drop Shipment, Get Sales Order. The Order – Sales


List window appears: 

The lines in this window specify the sales orders created for a customer 

selected in the Sell-to Customer No. field. 

9 Select the line with the sales order created in scenario 6 and click OK. 

The program fills in the fields on the purchase line with the information 

copied from the selected sales order: 

The program has also created a link between the sales order which will be 

drop shipped and the associated purchase order. With this link, the 

program allows the user to view the associated sales order directly from the 

purchase order and vice versa:


10 In the Purchase Order window, click Functions, Drop Shipment, Sales 

Order. 

The associated sales order appears. To view the purchase order from the 

sales order, the user must use the Drop Shipment, Purchase Order 

function. 

11 Release the purchase order. 

To complete the drop shipment, process the related purchase and sales 

orders according to the rules defined for drop shipment: 

12 Post (ship and invoice) the sales order. 

The program automatically runs the Receive function on the linked 

purchase order and updates the Quantity Received field. 

13 Post (invoice) the purchase order. 

Note 

You cannot post the sales order with lines marked for drop shipment until it 

has been linked to a purchase order. 

Exercise 19 Handling the Sale of a Nonstock Item by Means of Special Order 

Scenario 7 

Cronus’ customer 10000 places an order for three units of item 4100. 

Item 4100 is a nonstock item, which must be purchased from vendor 

40000. 


1 Create a sales order for customer 10000 and mark it as a special 

order. 

2 Create the purchase order for this nonstock item. 

3 Receive and invoice the purchase order. 

Ship and invoice the sales order.

8 

Chapter 8. 

Returns Management 


8.1 Overview 

8.2 Setting up Returns Management 

8.3 Managing Returns from Customers 

8.4 Managing Returns to Vendors 

Appendix 8-1 Activity Diagram for Returns 

Management


8.1 OVERVIEW 

Superior customer service is a key strategic objective of companies that 

strive for a high level of customer loyalty. For many wholesalers and 

distributors, sales returns are a standard element of their customer service 

policy, which directly influences the customer’s perception of the service 

level. Timely crediting for returned items, repairing/replacing a damaged 

item, and replacing a wrong item are among those aspects of handling 

returns that a customer associates with good service. The more seamless 

and efficient these return procedures appear to the customer, the more 

likely it is that the company will retain that customer. 

From the company’s perspective, the internal handling of return-related 

processes can appear rather extensive. In most cases, companies need to 

adjust customer (and vendor) balances, account for additional costs, 

update inventory quantities and values. Additionally, they may also need to 

inspect the returned items, send the returned items to the vendor for repair 

and so on. The scope of these processes will depend on a wide range of 

factors, such as the customer’s request, reason for return, item type and 

value, causes of damage and practices common in a specific line of 

business. 

The handling of these processes involves different tasks that are performed 

by various groups of employees: sales people, warehouse personnel, 

bookkeepers, purchasers and inspectors. Although logically related, those 

different tasks are not necessarily operationally dependent. For example, 

the replacement for a damaged item can be shipped to a customer before 

the damaged item has been returned. Similarly, a customer can be credited 

for a returned item before the company has inspected and approved the 

return. In such a multi-process environment, the challenge is to ensure that 

all return-associated processes are completed in a timely manner and 

possible errors can be easily recovered. 

Due to the complexity and scope of the return-related processes, a 

company’s costs involved in handling these processes can be substantial. 

To control costs, companies need to optimize their return management 

processes. 

The Sales Return Order Management and the Purchase Return Order 

Management granules offer an optimal solution to companies that strive to 

achieve responsive customer service by implementing cost-efficient 

customer and vendor return policies. Specifically, the application provides a 

functionality that is characterized by the following key features:

Returns Management 8-3 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

Rapid response to customers’ requests 

Flexibility 

Traceability and overview 

Automation of the return to vendor process 

Personnel responsible for the customer interface are now able to register 

the details of their agreement with the customer regarding the return as 

well as information relevant to further handling of the return using just one 

entry point. 

The application is flexible enough to allow for several return-related tasks to 

be performed simultaneously, which allows for priority to be given to the 

handling of customer-oriented processes over internal processes. (Activity 

diagram giving an overview of the processes and their relationship is 

presented in Appendix 8-1.) The program’s flexibility is also represented in 

its ability to handle sales return processes found in different business 

environments. 

Furthermore, the program provides full document traceability for an 

overview of the sales return history. This becomes important for customer 

inquiries and internal follow-up purposes. 

Finally, in situations where companies handle items with warranties 

provided by vendors (where there is need to couple a sales return with the 

return to vendor process), the program offers functionality that automates 

the creation of all relevant documents. 

This chapter demonstrates the key features of the return functionality of 

Navision Attain. As the returns functionality is based on the distinction 

between customer-oriented and vendor-oriented processes, the chapter is 

divided into two major sections: 

Managing returns from customers 

Managing returns to vendors 

The chapter starts from a section describing the setup of the two return 

granules. 

To explain how the program supports companies in managing the tasks 

involved in return-related processes, comprehensive scenarios and 

examples are used throughout the chapter. For an overview of typical


procedures associated with handling specific return-related tasks, it is 

recommended that you read the respective topic in online Help. To learn 

more about fundamental costing functionality in Navision Attain, it is 

recommended that you read the “Costing White Paper for Navision Attain 

3.01” .


8.2 SETTING UP RETURNS MANAGEMENT 

The setup of returns management consists of two elements: 

∙ 

∙ 

Setting up the Returns Management Granules 

General granule setup. The setup of the Sales Return Order 

Management and the Purchase Return Order Management granules is 

part of and defined by a number of relevant fields on, respectively, the 

Sales & Receivables Setup and Purchases & Payables Setup. 

Return Reasons setup. A company can set up codes that specify the 

reasons for returning items. These apply to both customer and vendor 

returns. The user can select a return reason code when registering 

their agreement regarding a sales/purchase return in most of the 

sales/purchase documents. 

The setup of the Sales Return Order Management granule is a part of the 

general Sales & Receivables setup: 

1 From the Sales & Receivables menu, click Setup, Sales & Receivables 

Setup: 

The following four fields on the General tab define the sales return 

management setup: the Return Receipt on Credit Memo, Copy Cmts 

Ret. Ord. to Cr. Memo, Copy Cmts Ret. Ord. to Ret. Rcpt, and Exact 

Cost Reversing Mandatory fields. 

A check mark in the Return Receipt on Credit Memo field indicates that 

the program automatically creates return receipt documents when a sales 

credit memo is posted. This field must not contain a check mark if a 

company has not purchased the Sales Return Order Management granule


and only uses the credit memo functionality. 

The Exact Cost Reversing Mandatory field defines whether a company 

wants to apply an exact cost reversing policy when processing inventory 

increases represented by the sales returns. (Companies generally 

implement the exact cost reversing policy by requiring that the sales return 

is valued at exactly the same cost as the original sale when being put back 

on inventory. If an additional cost is later added to the original sale, the 

program updates the value of the sales return respectively.) A check mark 

in this field indicates that the program will not allow a return transaction to 

be posted unless the Appl.-from Item Entry field on a corresponding order 

line contains an entry. 

The setup of the Purchase Return Order Management granule is part of the 

general Purchases & Payables setup: 

2 From the Purchases & Payables menu, click Setup, Purchases & 

Payables Setup: 

Setting up the Returns Granules 

The following four fields on the General tab define the purchase return 

management setup: the Return Shipment on Credit Memo, Copy Cmts 

Ret. Ord. to Cr. Memo, Copy Cmts Ret. Ord. to Ret. Shpt, and Exact 

Cost Reversing Mandatory fields. 

Their description corresponds to the one applied to the equivalent fields on 

the Sales & Receivables setup and therefore will not be explained in detail 

here. 

Companies set up return reason codes to distinguish return situations that 

they typically encounter when dealing with their customers and vendors. As


a return reason is copied to the item ledger entries, companies may choose 

to use it for statistical purposes when evaluating their performance toward 

a specific customer or assessing their relationship with a specific vendor. 

Cronus has set up six return reason codes: 

1 From the Sales & Receivables menu, click Setup, Return Reasons: 

In addition to setting up the return reasons code and its description, 

companies can also link a default location code to it. This is done to ensure 

that the items returned due to a specific reason are, by default, always 

received at and shipped from this location. For example, companies may 

often want to store items that are meant for repair in a specially dedicated 

place in a warehouse. This place can be set up as a location in the 

program, to which all items to be repaired will be received and from which 

they should not be sold. Similarly, special locations can be set up for 

damaged/defective items. 

Cronus has decided to create a new location called Repair and set it up as 

the default in relation to S-REPAIR return reason code: 

2 Create a new location card (location code REPAIR) and select as a 

default location for S-REPAIR code. 

A check mark in the Inventory Value Zero field indicates that the program 

automatically values inventory increases, such as sales return orders or 

purchase orders, at zero cost. This is relevant for customer item repairs. 

Since the item is the customer's property, it must not be included in the 

inventory value. It is therefore practical to associate the option of valuing 

inventory at zero when handling returns for repair with the repair return 

reason.


Note 

If an item’s costing method is set up as Standard (that is, the inventory 

increase is valued at a budgeted (standard) cost rather than at an 

acquisition cost), the program ignores the setting of the Inventory Value 

Zero field.


8.3 MANAGING RETURNS FROM CUSTOMERS 

Compensating a customer who is dissatisfied with an item that a company 

has sold them is a necessary and important transaction between a 

company and its customer. The faster and more accurately a company 

carries out the activities involved in a return process, the more likely the 

company is to enhance the customer’s perception of good customer 

service. 

Typically, the salesperson responsible for the interface with certain 

customers would also be the contact person to receive complaints from 

those customers about the items sold. In other cases, a company may 

have a dedicated person(s) specifically dealing with returns; for example, 

employees in the customer service department. 

Managing returns from customers includes carrying out a series of tasks. 

The number and scope of these tasks depends on a company’s general 

return policy and the business practices characteristic for different 

industries. Irrespective of that, the typical customer-oriented return handling 

process may include the following tasks: 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

registering a compensation agreement with the customer 

shipping a replacement item(s) to the customer (if replacement is part 

of the compensation agreement) 

crediting the customer (either by means of a credit for physically 

returned items or a sales allowance where the customer is not required 

to physically return the items). 

shipping a repaired item(s) to the customer (if repair is a part of a 

compensation agreement) 

follow-up on the return status (in case of customer inquiries) 

Related to the customer-orientated process, there are a number of internal 

handling tasks: 

receiving returned items and inspecting them (if relevant) 

applying restock charges 

shipping returned items to the vendor for repair 

ensuring the accurate inventory value of the returned items


∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

combining several return receipts from the same customer into one 

credit memo document 

The Sales Return Order Management granule in Navision Attain allows 

companies to manage all these tasks in an efficient and accurate manner. 

This section explains and illustrates handling of the above processes in 

Navision Attain, using Cronus as an example. 

Registering a compensation agreement with the customer 

There are various ways to compensate a customer who is dissatisfied with 

the order delivery. The terms of a compensation agreement reached 

between the company and the customer will often depend on the stated 

reason for return and the company-customer relationship. For instance, the 

parties may agree that in case of a wrongly ordered item, the customer 

returns the item to the company against a credit, receives a replacement 

item and accepts that the company charges a certain restock fee. In other 

situations, for example, where an item arrives at the customer slightly 

damaged, the customer may agree to receive a price deduction against the 

original sales order price. Meanwhile, where the sold item has a warranty, 

the company may offer the customer to take the malfunctioned/broken item 

in for repair. 

In Navision Attain, the sales return order is the central document that 

allows the user to register a compensation agreement settled with a 

customer. From here, the user can access other sales-related documents, 

and enter and maintain the return-related information concerning the 

customer, the method of compensation and the items in question. 

To register different aspects of a compensation agreement in the same 

return order, the user can create return lines of different types. Principally, 

in return situations: 

Item type line represents a transaction where the item is to be 

physically returned to the company before the customer can be given a 

credit. 

Charge (Item) and Account (G/L) type lines represent a financial 

transaction where a customer receives a credit (in the form of a sales 

allowance) for the item(s) that they are not satisfied with, without 

physically returning it to the company. The same type lines can be 

used for registering any charges and fees that may be associated with 

a specific return.


Note 

Apart from the sales return order, to register details about a compensation 

agreement the user can use other standard documents (or combinations of 

them) in Navision Attain. These documents are: sales credit memos, sales 

orders and sales invoices. 

In the return order/credit memo, a return transaction is expressed as a line 

with a positive quantity, while in the sales order/invoice, a return is 

represented by a line with negative quantity. See the example illustrating 

this principle in the topic called “Sales Return Order” in online Help. 

When deciding on which document to use as a preferred entry point for a 

compensation agreement, the user must be aware that in contrast to a 

credit memo/invoice (where posting updates both quantity and value at the 

same time), the return/sales order offers the possibility of separating the 

quantity and value parts of the transaction. Therefore, companies where 

this flexibility is essential may prefer using a return order rather than a 

credit memo. 

In the sales return order, the user also has the possibility to create other 

return-related documents. These include a replacement sales order and, 

where return to vendor is required, a purchase return order and a 

replacement purchase order. 

Two scenarios included in this section illustrate the handling of: 1) a 

situation involving a sales return and a sales allowance, and 2) a situation 

where an item must be repaired at the vendor. 


Scenario 1 

A representative from customer 10000 calls a salesperson at Cronus and 

says that they received 5 units of item 70011 instead of item 70010 and 

that 2 units of item 1964-W were delivered damaged. The customer 

explains that the wrong delivery of item 7001o was their own fault, while 

item 1964-W appeared to have been damaged during shipment. 

The salesperson and the customer agree that item 70011 must be returned 

to Cronus and a replacement of the same quantity of item 70010 will be 

shipped to the customer. Regarding this replacement, Cronus will charge 

the customer a restock fee of 5% of the original order amount. 

Meanwhile, item 1964-W should not be returned and the parties agree to


settle the case by Cronus providing the customer with a sale allowance of 

15% off the price of the item. 

The salesperson must register the compensation agreement that has been 

reached with the customer and process the return. 

In addition, the sales person must ensure that the returned items, when put 

back on stock, are valued at the same unit cost as originally sold 

(according to Cronus internal policy concerning the inventory valuation). 

The salesperson must first register the compensation agreement settled 

with customer 10000 regarding the return of a wrongly ordered item. 

Create a sales return order for 5 units of item 70011 from customer 10000: 

1 From the Sales & Receivables menu, click Return Order. Press F3 to 

create a new order and enter the customer information in the return 

header. 

2 Enter the item information and quantity on the line. 

As mentioned in the previous section, for each return line, the user can 

specify the reason for returning the item(s). They can do this by filling in the 

Return Reason field: 

3 In the Return Reason field, click the AssistButton. The Return 

Reasons window appears: 

4 Select WRONG as the return reason code and click OK. 

5 In the External Document No. field, enter SR024. This is the number 

that the customer has given the salesperson as a reference to their 

own return document.


Entering external number is important where a company wants to have an 

overview of the return status. External number can be used to navigate to 

the sales documents that have been created in relation to a specific 

customer return. 

The completed sales return order for the return of wrongly ordered item 

70011 now look like this: 

Note 

To fill in the return lines, the user can use the Copy Document function, 

which allows them to copy all the relevant information about the customer 

and the item from other documents. In case of a sales return, the relevant 

documents can be either posted shipment or posted invoice documents. 

If the Exact Cost Reversing field on the sales & receivables setup 

contains a check mark, then when the user copies information from a 

posted shipment, the program automatically fills in the Appl.-from Item 

Entry field on the return line with the corresponding entry. 

When entering a sales return line, the salesperson must ensure that upon 

invoicing the order the returned item is revalued at the unit cost of the 

original sales (rather than at the unit cost suggested by the program as 

based on either average or standard unit cost). To do this, the salesperson 

must assign exact cost reversing to this return line: 

6 In the Appl.-from Item Entry field, click the AssistButton. The Item 

Ledger Entries window appears:


The window contains a list of records of all the negative entries made for 

the item in question. 

7 In the Item Ledger Entries window, select the first line. This is the 

entry representing the sales order that customer 10000 refers to as the 

one with the wrongly ordered items. Click OK. 

This completes registration of the first part of the compensation agreement 

regarding the return of a wrongly ordered item. 

According to scenario 1, the customer also requested a replacement of 

item 70011 with item 70010. A salesperson can register this requirement in 

the sales return order by entering a line for the replacement item with a 

negative quantity: 

The advantage of doing this in the sales return order window is that the 

salesperson can register the customer’s requests to receive a replacement 

in one and the same window, rather than opening a new sales order


window. 

Note 

To avoid confusion, remember that the sales return lines (of the item type) 

with positive quantity represent items that are being returned, while lines 

with negative quantity represent items that are to be replaced. 

Next, according to the compensation agreement, the salesperson would 

apply a 5% restock fee to cover the physical handling of returning the item. 

The salesperson can do this in the same sales return order by creating a 

charge (item) line for sales restock charge: 

8 In the Type field, select Charge (Item) and in the No. field, select S- 

RESTOCK. 

9 In the Quantity field, enter 5. In the Unit Price Excl. VAT field, enter - 

3.615. This is 5% of 72.30 LCY, which is the original unit price. (You 

can also enter a formula 72.30*5/100 to calculate the amount.) The 

program calculates the total restock fee amount equal to 18.08 LCY 

(5*3.615): 

Now, to ensure accurate sales statistics, the salesperson must assign the 

restock charge to the return entry: 

10 Select the sales restock line and click Line, Item Charge Assignment. 

Assign the restock charge in question to the return entry (represented by 

the line in the current return order):


11 In the Item Charge Assignment (Sales) window, on the first line in the 

Qty. to Assign field, enter 5. 

12 Close the window. 

Note 

Alternatively to creating a charge (item) line, the salesperson can create an 

account (G/L) line for the amount of the restock fee and post the entry 

directly to the G/L account. However, the advantage of using item charge is 

that item statistics are updated correctly. 

This completes registration of the compensation agreement to receive and 

replace the wrongly ordered item from customer 10000. 

Finally, the salesperson must register the agreement with the customer 

regarding the provision of a sales allowance of 15% for 2 units of the 

damaged item 1964-W. Again, the sales return order can be used as an 

entry point for the details of this agreement. (An alternative entry point for a 

sales allowance is a sales credit memo.) To do this, the salesperson must 

create a charge (item) line and assign the corresponding charge amount to 

the original sale of item 1964-W: 

1 Create a charge (item) line. Select sales allowance as the item charge 

number. (You can add extra information about this allowance in the 

description field.) 

2 In the Quantity field, enter 2. This is the number of items that arrived 

damaged at the customer and for which the salesperson provides an 

allowance.


3 Click Line, Item Charge Assignment. 

Now, select the original sales entry (represented by the posted shipment 

documents) to which you want to apply the allowance: 

4 In the Item Charge Assignment (Sales) window, click Functions, Get 

Shipment Lines. 

The program lists all posted shipment lines related to the customer in 

question: 

5 Select the shipment line for item 1964-W and click OK. 

6 In the Item Charge Assignment window, in the Qty. to Assign field, 

enter 2. Close the window. 

7 In the Sales Return Order window, in the Unit Price Excl. VAT field, 

enter 43.80. This is 15% of 292.00 LCY, which was the original unit 

price at which the item was sold to the customer. (You can also enter a 

formula 292*15/100 to calculate the amount.):


Processing the sales return 

At this point, the salesperson completes registration of the compensation 

agreement settled with the customer due to their dissatisfaction with the 

ordered items, and can proceed to the actual processing of the return. 

After the salesperson has registered the details of the compensation 

agreement in the program (in our example, in the sales return order), the 

next task is to actually carry out the agreement. In the situation presented 

in scenario 1, this means that Cronus must ship the customer a 

replacement item, credit the customer for the returned items upon their 

receipt at the company (with deduction for the restock charge), and provide 

a sales allowance for the items that the customer is not required to return to 

Cronus. 

Unless the total order amount is negative, all these procedures can be 

carried out at one and the same time, when the user posts the sales return 

order. However, if for example the replacement order should be shipped 

right away without waiting until the returned items are received, then the 

replacement line(s) (lines with negative quantities) can be moved to a 

regular sales order. 

Note 

The program does not generally permit posting of any orders with negative 

total amount. 

Suppose that in scenario 1 the salesperson decides to move the negative 

line (representing a demand for a replacement) to a separate sales order.


The Move Negative Lines function allows you to do that in a convenient 

way: 

1 In the Sales Return Order window, click Functions, Move Negative 

Lines. The following window appears: 

In the To Document Type field, the user can select which document type 

they want to move the negatives lines to. To learn about different options, 

read the topic “Move Negative Sales Lines Batch Job” in online Help. 

2 In the To Document Type field select Order and click OK. 

The program deletes the return line with the negative quantity and creates 

a new sales order. The following message appears: 

3 Click Yes to view the document:


Now, the order can be processed in the usual manner. 

4 Post the sales order. 

Upon receipt of the returned item, the salesperson can post the sales 

return order, thus crediting the customer’s account for: a) the value of 

returned item 70011 (with a deduction of the restock charge) and b) the 

amount of the sales allowance provided for two damaged units of item 

1964-W. 

5 Post the sales return order. 

The program creates a posted return receipt and a posted credit memo. 

This completes the customer-oriented return process according to scenario 

1. 

To have an overview of the status of a specific sales return, the 

salesperson can use the navigate function to find and access the sales 

documents that have been created in relation to the return in question. The 

external document number (usually provided by the customer as a 

reference to their own return document) can be used as a search 

parameter for this purpose. 

View the status of the sales return initiated in scenario 1: 

6 From the Sales & Receivables menu, click Navigate. Click External 

tab.


7 In the Business Contact Type field, select Customer and in the 

Business Contact No. field, select 10000. In the Document No. field, 

enter SR024. Click Find: 

The program lists all the sales documents – posted sales shipment and 

invoice for the replacement sales order, and posted return receipt and 

credit memo for the sales return order – that have been created to process 

the sales return initiated by customer 10000. 

The next scenario illustrates a situation where the customer returns an item 

to Cronus that is to be repaired at the company’s vendor. 


Scenario 2 

A representative from customer 20000 calls a salesperson at Cronus 

stating that they wish to return 2 units of item 80102-T that they ordered 

some time ago. The customer claims that item 80102-T seems to have a 

manufacturing defect and requests that the item be repaired. 

The salesperson and the customer agree that the items must be returned 

to Cronus, from where they will be send to the manufacturer for repair. 

The salesperson must register the compensation agreement that has been 

reached with the customer and process the return. 

To perform this scenario, you must first create a purchase order of 40 units 

of item 80102-T from vendor 50000 and then create a sales order of 8 units


for customer 20000. At Cronus, this item is set up to be tracked by serial 

numbers. Serial numbers provided by the manufacturer are used. (S/N- 

852CA1 .. S/N-852CA40 when purchased, S/N-852CA10 .. S/N-852CA17 

when sold). The detailed procedures for how to handle items with serial 

numbers are described in Chapter 5 “Item Tracking”. 

Create a sales return order for 2 units of item 80102-T for customer 20000: 

1 Fill in the sales return header and lines with the customer and item 

information respectively. 

As the item is meant for repair at the vendor (manufacturer), the customer 

retains the ownership of the item during the repair process. In this case, 

Cronus must exclude the item value from its own inventory value. To do 

this, all the transactions with this item (receiving it at the company, shipping 

it to the manufacturer, receiving it back and shipping it back to the 

customer) must be performed with zero unit cost and unit price. 

Alternatively to entering a zero amount in the Unit Cost (LCY) and Unit 

Price Excl. VAT fields manually on the sales return lines, the salesperson 

may decide to use the functionality available in the program to automate 

the process. 

As described in the previous section, at Cronus the option of valuating 

inventory at zero when handling returns for repair is linked to the return 

reason S-REPAIR. By selecting this return reason, the salesperson accepts 

the option. 

2 In the Return Reason field, select the S-REPAIR code. 

The program automatically fills in the Location Code field with REPAIR, 

which is a default location for this return reason code. 

3 In the External Document No. field, enter R0015. 

The completed sales return order for return of item 80102T for repair now 

looks like this:


Notice that the Unit Price Excl. VAT field does not contain any amount. 

To continue with this return, a number of documents related to returning 

this item to the manufacturer and shipping it back to the customer upon 

repair must be created. These documents are: a purchase return order, a 

purchase order and a sales order. 

Schematically, the handling of the sales return for repair in terms of 

associated documents looks as follows: 

The function Create Return-Related Documents allows the salesperson to 

create all these documents automatically: 

4 In the Sales Return Order window, click Functions, Create Return- 

Related Documents. The following window appears:


In this window, the user can select which documents they want the 

program to create in order to further handle the return in question. The user 

has the option of creating a purchase return order and a purchase order if 

the items should be respectively returned to and received from vendor, and 

a replacement sales order. To create vendor-related documents, the user 

must specify the vendor number. 

5 In the Vendor No. field, select vendor 50000. Click OK. 

The program creates the specified documents and lists them in the Return- 

Related Documents window: 

Purchase return orders and purchase orders with status Open are the 

indication for the purchaser to initiate the return to vendor/purchase 

replacement process. 

Handling of purchase return will be explained in the next section. 

In the meantime, the items arrive at Cronus, and a salesperson/warehouse 

person must enter the serial numbers (S/N-852CA15 and S/N852CA16). 

6 Register the serial numbers for the arrived items in the Item Tracking 

Lines window and post the receipt of the return order.


Exercise 20 Processing the Customer Return 


Scenario 3 

A representative from customer 10000 calls a salesperson at Cronus and 

says that the entire delivery of 50 units (boxes) of item 80010 that they 

have ordered some days ago appear to be defective. 

The salesperson and the customer agree that the entire quantity of item 

80100 must be returned to Cronus and a replacement of the same quantity 

of the same item will be shipped to the customer right away. The customer 

gives the salesperson a reference number to their own return document, 

which is R-0112. 

To perform this scenario, first create and post a sales order of 50 units 

(boxes) of item 80100 to customer 10000 (use location code Green). 


1 register the compensation agreement that has been reached with the 

customer (use a sales order as an entry point), and 

2 process the return, in terms of: 

• receiving (possibly, use a specially dedicated location for defective 

items) and crediting the customer for the returned items; 

• ensuring that the returned items, when received from the customer, are 

valued at the same unit cost as originally sold (rather than at the 

average cost suggested by the program); 

• shipping the replacement sales order to the customer; 

• creating a return-related document (a purchase return order) to 

indicate to the purchaser that a return to vendor process must be 

initiated.


8.4 MANAGING RETURNS TO VENDORS 

Receiving compensation from your vendor for a purchased item that you 

are dissatisfied with is important for reasons of recovering costs and 

measuring satisfactory vendor relationships. Streamlining the return to 

vendor process by carrying out the activities involved in the return process 

faster and more accurately can help companies to substantially reduce the 

costs usually associated with returns. 

Typically, a purchaser responsible for the interface with certain vendors 

would also be the one to make contact with those vendors in case of 

dissatisfaction with the purchased items. 

Managing returns to vendors includes carrying out a series of tasks. The 

number and scope of those tasks generally depend on who initiates the 

return: the company itself (when, for example, dissatisfied with the quality 

of purchased items or in case of wrong delivery) or a company’s own 

customer. Irrespective of that, typical vendor-orientated return process may 

include the following tasks: 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

registering the compensation agreement with the vendor 

debiting the vendor, either by means of receiving a credit for physically 

returned items, or of a purchase allowance (in a case where the 

company is nor required to physically return the items) 

creating a replacement purchase order(s) (if replacement is part of a 

compensation agreement) 

Related to the vendor-orientated process, there are a number of internal 

handling tasks: 

shipping items to the vendor (if purchase return, including repair, is part 

of a compensation agreement) 

receiving replaced/repaired items 

ensuring the accurate inventory value of the items to be returned to the 

vendor 

combining several return shipments to the same vendor into one credit 

memo document 

The Purchase Return Order Management granule in Navision Attain allows 

companies to manage all these tasks in an efficient and accurate manner.


This section explains and illustrates the handling of the above processes in 

Navision Attain, using Cronus as an example. 

Registering compensation agreement with the vendor 

There are various ways that a company can expect their vendors to 

compensate them in case they are dissatisfied with the received order or 

on behalf of their own customers. The terms of a compensation agreement 

reached between the company and the vendor will often depend on the 

reason for the return and the company-vendor relationship. For instance, 

the parties may agree that in case of wrongly ordered/delivered item(s) the 

company returns the item to the vendor against receiving a credit and 

receives a replacement item instead. In other situations, for example, 

where an item arrives at the company damaged, the company may require 

a price deduction against the original purchase order price. The same may 

be applied when a company provided a sales allowance for their own 

customers and now wants to recover costs by requesting a purchase 

allowance from their vendor. Meanwhile, where the purchased item has a 

warranty, the company may ask the vendor to repair the 

malfunctioned/broken item. 

In Navision Attain, the purchase return order is the central document that 

allows the user to register a compensation agreement settled with the 

vendor. From here, the user can access other purchase-related 

documents, and enter and maintain the return-related information 

concerning the vendor, the method of compensation and the items in 

question. 

Note 

In Navision Attain, apart from the purchase return order, to register details 

about a compensation agreement with the vendor, the user can use other 

standard documents (or combinations of them). These documents are: 

purchase credit memos, purchase orders and purchase invoices. 

The concepts of creating different return line types and representing return 

transactions with lines of positive/negative quantities to register a 

compensation agreement with a vendor are the same as in the sales 

returns situations (as explained in the previous section). 

The principles for creating (and the arguments for using) one or another 

type of purchase documents to register a compensation agreement are 

explained in detail in the topics “Purchase Return Order” and “Posting a 

Purchase Return Order” in online Help.


Two scenarios included in this section illustrate the handling of: 1) a 

situation where an item must be returned to vendor for repair, and 2) a 

situation involving a purchase allowance. Both return situations have been 

initiated by the customer and are thus the logical continuation of the 

scenarios presented in the previous section. As the same purchase return 

handling procedures apply, irrespective of whether a company initiates a 

return itself, or it has been initiated by the customer, the first case is not 

given a separate explanation in this section. 

First, consider a situation where a company needs to send an item returned 

from a customer to be repaired at the vendor: 

Scenario 4 (continuation of scenario 2) 

In connection with the return of 2 units of item 80102-T initiated by 

customer 20000, Cronus now needs to ship it back to the vendor for repair. 

At the time of registering a compensation agreement with this customer, 

the salesperson ran the Create Return-Related Documents function and, 

as a result, the program created the following documents: a purchase 

return order, a purchase order and a sales order. 

The purchaser contacts the vendor’s representative (vendor 50000) and 

the parties agreed on Cronus sending the item for repair. The purchaser 

must now handle the return process. 

To perform this scenario, first create and post a purchase order of 5 units of 

item 80100 from vendor 50000 and then create a purchase return order of 

1 unit of the same item for the same vendor (use location code Blue). Post 

the purchase return order as shipped. 

First, process the purchase return order for 2 units of item 80102-T for 

vendor 50000: 

1 From the Purchases and Payables menu, click Return Orders. Browse 

to the return order that the program created for vendor 50000:


Notice that the Direct Unit Cost Excl. VAT field does not contain any 

amount. 

Note 

To ensure the accurate inventory value (that is, at zero unit cost) of repair 

items that do not have serial numbers, the salesperson must apply a 

purchase return entry in question to the sales return entry that initiated it. 

Complete filling in the purchase return order: 

2 In the Vendor Authorization No. field, enter RO155. This is the 

number that the purchaser receives from the vendor authorizing the 

return. 

3 In the Expected Receipt Date field on the Shipping tab, enter 

01/27/01. This is the shipment date for the return order. 

4 Enter the serial numbers (S/N-852CA15 and S/N852CA16) in the Item 

Tracking Lines Ship/Rec. window for the two items to be shipped to 

the vendor. 

5 Post the purchase return order as shipped. 

The program now updates the available inventory and creates a posted 

return shipment. 

Companies often establish a practice whereby it is more cost-efficient to


combine several return orders in one shipment, rather than shipping them 

individually. By posting a purchase return order as shipped, the user takes 

out the items to be returned to the vendor from the available inventory but 

does not actually ship (transport) the order. When there are several orders 

(to be returned to the same vendor or be bundled in the same shipment, for 

example), the user can combine them in one shipment and transport it to 

the vendor. The combined shipment can then be jointly invoiced as one 

purchase credit memo. 

Note 

Individual posted return shipment documents, when send to the vendor, 

can be used as an indication for the vendor to instantly send a replacement 

item(s) instead of the one to be returned at some later point. 

Now suppose that there are more items to be returned to the same vendor 

– apart from 2 units of item 80102-T that are to be sent for repair. The two 

return orders will at some point be actually shipped in the same shipment. 

Upon receiving an invoice from the vendor for this combined shipment, the 

two individual shipments that made it up can be paid (invoiced): 

6 Create a new purchase credit memo for vendor 50000. Click 

Functions, Get Return Shipment Lines: 

The Get Return Shipment Lines window contains a list of all the not yet 

invoiced shipment lines. 

7 Select the two lines from the list and click OK. 

The program copies the lines to the purchase credit memo:


8 In the Vendor Cr. Memo No. field, enter CM1305 and invoice the 

credit memo. 

When the vendor has repaired the items and delivered them to Cronus, the 

purchaser posts the corresponding purchase order (created as a result of 

running the Create Return-Related Documents function at the point of 

registering the sales return from the customer). A sales order for the same 

items (created in the same manner) can then be shipped back to the 

customer. 

Situations may occur where there is a need to trace the purchase return to 

the sales return that originated it (for example, when a vendor that is to 

repair a returned item needs additional information from the customer 

about item exploitation). In such cases, the user can simply view the 

specific item’s transaction history recorded in the item tracking entries, from 

where they can navigate to the relevant document(s). 

Open the item tracking entries for item 80102-T: 

9 Open the item card for item 80102-T. Click Item, Entries, Item Tracking 

Entries:


The last two lines specify the inventory increase (the Positive field contains 

a check mark) by 2 units of item 80102-T with serial numbers S/N- 

852CA15 and S/N-852CA16. From those lines, the user can navigate to the 

associated document (represented by a sales return order) and entries. 

Note 

To ensure the full traceability of an item with a serial number, the user must 

remember to apply this item an item tracking code that requires the entry of 

serial numbers at the point of inbound sale (sales return) and outbound 

purchase (purchase return). Read more about setting up item tracking 

codes in Chapter 5 “Item Tracking”, section 5.2 “Setting up Item Tracking”. 

Now, consider a situation where a company wants to receive a 

compensation from their vendor (carrier) because of items being damaged 

during shipment: 


The salesperson was told by customer 10000 that 2 units of item 1964-W 

were damaged in shipment. Instead of returning the items, the customer 

was given a 15% sales allowance. 

As it is a carrier who is responsible for the damage, Cronus would like to 

recover the costs associated with this damage. The logistics person 

contacts the carrier’s representative (the carrier (vendor) number is 

49989898) and the parties agreed on Cronus making a freight claim toward 

the carrier. The amount of the claim is equal to the amount of the sales 

allowance offered to the customer (87.60 LCY). 

Suppose that the logistics person decides to issue a freight claim toward 

vendor 49989898 from a purchase credit memo (alternatively, the purchase 

return order could be used):


1 Create a new purchase credit memo and fill in the header with the 

vendor information. 

2 In the Vendor Authorization No. field, enter R123. This is the number 

that the logistics person receives from the carrier (vendor) authorizing 

the claim (return). 

Now, create a credit line. 

3 In the Type field, select Account G/L and in the No. field, select 

account 6810. 

4 In the Quantity field, enter 1 and in the Direct Unit Cost Excl. VAT 

field, enter 87.60: 

5 Post the purchase credit memo. 

This completes the vendor-oriented return process according to scenario 5.


Exercise 21 



In connection with the return of 50 units (boxes) of item 80100 initiated by 

customer 10000, Cronus now would like to return the defective items to the 

vendor from which they were originally bought and receive a replacement 

of the same quantity of the same item. 

At the time of registering a compensation agreement with this customer, 

the salesperson created a purchase return order, which now serves as an 

indication to the purchaser that the items must be returned to the vendor. 

The purchaser contacts the vendor’s representative (vendor 45858585) 

and the parties agreed on Cronus sending the item back for replacement. 

The vendor gives the purchaser a return authorization number, which is 

PR0558. 

To perform this scenario, first browse to the existing purchase order No. 

6001 and post it as invoiced. 

Your task is to handle the return to vendor process, in terms of: 

∙ 

∙ 

∙ 

shipping the defective items to the vendor and receiving the credit for 

them. 

ensuring that the items to be returned to the vendor are valued at the 

same unit cost as originally purchased (refer to the purchase order No. 

6001) rather than at the average cost suggested by the program. 

receive a replacement from the vendor.


8.5 APPENDIX 8-1 ACTIVITY DIAGRAM FOR RETURNS MANAGEMENT 

Check If 

Purchase 

Return Order 

Should Have 

Been Issued 

Should have been 

issued 

No Yes 

Purchase Return Order 

has been received 

Yes 

No 

Delete Purchase 

Return Order 

Invoice 

Corrective 

Purchase 

Invoice 

[Compensation agreed with vendor] 

Ship & Invoice 

Purchase 

Return Order 

Create Purchase 

Return Order 

Ship Purchase 

Return Order 

Invoice 

Purchase 

Return Order 

H 

[Compensation agreed with customer] 

Create Purchase 

Order 

Receive 

Purchase Order 

Invoice 

Purchase Order 

Create Sales 

Return Order 

[Purchase allowance] [Purchase return] [Replacement of purchased item] 

H 

[Replacement of sold item] [Sales return] 

Create Sales 

Order 

Yes 

Ship Sales 

Order 

No 

Invoice Sales 

Order 

Specific item 

The sales return 

order could 

possible include a 

deduction from a 

restock charge 

Receive Sales 

Return Order 

Invoice Sales 

Return Order 

[Sales allowance] 

No 

Receive & 

Invoice Sales 

Return Order 

Delete Sales 

Return Order 

Check If Sales 

Return Order 

Should Have 

Been Issued 

Should have been 

issued 

No Yes 

Sales Return Order 

has been received 

Yes 

Invoice 

Corrective Sales 

Invoice

Appendix A. 

Course Schedule 

This appendix contains a course schedule 

suggesting in which order the chapters should be 

taught.

II Course Schedule 

DAILY SCHEDULE 

It is recommend that the course is taught over a period of three days. 

Conducting the course in the most efficient manner requires that 

participants have in depth knowledge of the essential application areas of 

Navision Financials (Navision Attain) including but not limited to the general 

ledger, basic setup, posting routines and basic design before they join the 

course. 

Day One Welcome 

Chapter 1 

Chapter 2 

Chapter 3 

Chapter 4 

Day Two Chapter 5 

Chapter 6 

Day Three Chapter 7 

Chapter 8 

Introduction 




Item Tracking 


Service Features: 




Returns Management

Appendix B. 

Terminology List 

This appendix contains the terminology list for 

Navision Attain for distribution.

II Terminology List 

NAVISION DISTRIBUTION TERMINOLOGY LIST 

compensation agreement 

An agreement that states how the customer should be compensated; 

implemented in the system as a return order or credit memo. 

corrective sales invoice 

A sales invoice issued in order to balance a sales credit memo (that should 

not have been posted). 

cross-dock 

To move items directly from the receiving area to the shipping area, 

thereby minimizing handling and storage and allowing sales orders to be 

shipped sooner. 

Note: The program systematically compares inventory receipts with 

outstanding sales orders and indicates that a cross-docking opportunity is 

available. 

Noun and adjective forms: cross-dock 

cross reference 

A designation for an item that is used by an external organization and that 

you record in the program. 

Adjective and verb forms: cross-reference 

delivery note 

A note that accompanies a shipment and that lists the items in the 

shipment 

Synonyms: advice note, accompanying note, dispatch note, covering note 

drop shipment 

A shipment of an item directly from a manufacturer or wholesale supplier to 

the customer of a company that buys and sells the item, but does not 

handle, stock or deliver it.

Terminology List III 

expected receipt date 

The date, calculated by program, on which an inbound item will be 

available for picking. 

freight claim 

The refund from a freight carrier, given because the carrier has accepted 

responsibility for damage to an item in their care. 

inventory 

Items held in a store or a warehouse and purchased for resale, items used 

to support production (raw materials and work-in-process) and items for 

maintenance activities (including repair and operating supplies). The 

program calculates inventory as the quantity of an item available in 

inventory. 

item 

A manufactured or purchased article, product, part or material that is part of 

inventory. If a company has several locations, it stores inventory control 

information about items or item variants at a particular location in the 

stockkeeping unit for that item or item variant at that location. 

item substitute 

An item that can be offered to a customer as a substitute for an item that 

currently is not available. 

item substitution 

The functionality that allows you to set up substitution criteria for an item. 

An item can be classified as a replacement substitute for another item, or 

two or more items can be classified as interchangeable items. You can add 

conditions that have to be met before you can substitute one item for 

another. You can set up the program to display information about 

substitutes automatically, for example, when inventory falls to certain 

levels. 

lead time 

The time between recognition of the need for an order and the receipt of 

goods. Individual components of lead time can include order preparation 

time, queue time, processing time, move or transportation time, and 

receiving and inspection time.

IV Terminology List 

location 

A physical structure or place where inventory is received, stored and 

shipped. A location can be a warehouse, service car, showroom, plant or 

area within a plant. 

negative adjustment 

A reduction in inventory that is not due to a sale. 

nonstock item 

An item that a company sells but does not carry in inventory. A nonstock 

item is often an item in a vendor catalog, also called a catalog item. 

order date 

The date on which the vendor must ship the items in order to meet the 

planned receipt date. 

order promising 

The process of making a delivery commitment, that is, answering the 

customer’s question, “When will I receive my order?” 

physical inventory Abbreviation: Phys. Invt. 

The determination of inventory quantity by the counting of items, which is 

performed on a continuous, periodic or annual basis. 

pick 

To physically withdraw from inventory items to be shipped or components 

of items to be assembled and shipped. 

planned delivery date 

The date, calculated by program, on which the company plans to deliver an 

order to a customer. 

planned receipt date 

The date on which you plan to receive items on a purchase order. The 

program calculates this date using the order date and the lead time 

calculation.

Terminology List V 

planned shipment date 

The date on which you plan to deliver an order to a customer. The program 

calculates this date on the basis of the planned shipment date and the 

shipping time associated with the shipping agent service that you have 

arranged. 

positive adjustment 

An increase in inventory that is not due to a purchase. 

promised delivery date 

The date on which you have promised a customer that an order will be 

delivered. 

promised receipt date 

The date on which a vendor has promised to deliver your order. 

put away 

To remove the item from the receiving area, transport it to a specific 

location in a storage area, and record the movement and the exact location 

of the item. Noun and adjective form: put-away 

receipt 

The physical acceptance of an item at a location. A warehouse person 

immediately registers the receipt of an item in the program, but the item is 

not a part of available to pick inventory until it has been put away. 

receiving 

The function encompassing the physical receipt of items, the inspection of 

the items for conformance to the purchase order (quantity and damage), 

the putting away of the items, and the preparation of the receiving report. 

recovering costs 

The process of making third parties responsible for the cost of the 

customer’s compensation agreement; by the issue of a freight claim or the 

initiation of a return-to-vendor process.

VI Terminology List 

release 

To send a document to the next stage of processing without posting the 

document. You cannot change information on a released document unless 

you reopen the document. 

Example: You can release a sales order to the warehouse. The order is 

then among the source documents from which the warehouse can retrieve 

lines to be assigned, picked and shipped. 

replacement sales order 

A sales order for a replacement item; issued as defined by the rules of the 

extant compensation agreement. 

requested delivery date 

The date on which a customer has requested delivery of a sales order or 

some of the items on an order. 

requested receipt date 

The date on which you ask a vendor to deliver a purchase order or some of 

the items on an order. 

reservation 

The designation of a quantity of inventory on a purchase order for a specific 

sales order or production schedule. 

responsibility center Abbreviation: Resp. Ctr. 

An organizational unit to which a company assigns duties or activities. 

Note: A responsibility center can be a cost center or a profit center. 

Examples are a sales office that sells items from one or more locations, a 

purchasing office for one or several locations, a service unit, a production- 

planning unit, and a branch office with responsibility for sales, purchases 

and cost accounting. A responsibility center that has been assigned 

responsibility for a location accounts for location inventory in monetary 

terms, while the location is responsible for the physical inventory count. 

restock charge Abbreviation: Restk. Chrg. 

A fee that might be charged to a customer who returns items for credit or 

replacement.

Terminology List VII 

return to vendor 

A purchase return, typically initiated in response to a sales return for an 

item that is covered by a warranty agreement. 

RMA (Return Materials Authorization) 

The identification number of a compensation agreement. 

safety lead time 

An element of time added to normal lead time to protect against 

fluctuations in lead time so that an order can be completed before its real 

need date. 

sales allowance 

The customer is not required to physically return the faulty or unwanted 

item that they have purchased and a credit memo is immediately issued 

without inspection or the item. 

sales return 

The customer is required to physically return the sold item before a credit 

memo is issued. 

shipment date 

The date a shipment leaves your location for delivery to a customer, either 

with a shipping agent or your own means of transportation. 

shipping time 

The time it takes to transport a shipment from one place to another, 

according to the shipping agent providing the service. 

source document 

The original evidence of a transaction that supports journal entries in the 

accounting system. 

Example: Vouchers and contracts, but also internal documents that create 

journal entries, such as a sales, transfer or purchase order or an internal 

freight charge.

VIII Terminology List 

special order 

A sales order that requires the purchase of at least one nonstock item and 

that is assembled and shipped from a location. 

specific item 

An individual item that is distinguished by a unique identification number. 

stockkeeping unit Abbreviation: SKU 

A unit for inventory control that concerns items and item variants at specific 

locations. 

transfer order 

An order to move items from one location to another. 

warehouse Abbreviation: Whse. 

A building or part of a building where items are received, stored, and 

shipped. As such, it is a particular kind of location. 

Synonyms: distribution center, branch warehouse, field warehouse 

warehouse activity 

An activity in the Warehouse Management application area. Each activity 

has its own menu item.

Appendix C. 

Granules 

This appendix contains information about the 

granules that make up Navision Attain for 

distribution, including the functional area that a 

granule belongs to, its description and the 

requirements.

II Granules 

DISTRIBUTION GRANULES IN NAVISION ATTAIN 


Responsibility Centers 



Functional area: Inventory and Warehouse Management 

Description: You use this granule to handle more than one physical 

location where items are stored (including locations in plants or production 

facilities as well as distribution centers, warehouses and service cars). All 

items can be treated as Stockkeeping Units (SKU), meaning that the same 

item with the same item number can be stored in the different locations and 

managed individually in each location. 

Requirements: Basic Inventory 

Functional area: General Ledger 

Description: You use this granule to handle Cost Centers or Profit Centers. 

Requirements: Multiple Locations 

Functional area: Inventory 

Description: This granule enables you to track inventory effectively as it is 

moved from one location to another. You can also better account for the 

value of inventory in transit and at various locations. 

Requirements: Multiple Locations 

Functional area: Warehouse Management 

Description: This granule is used for communication between the sales 

and warehousing functions. It provides the basic functionality to assist 

warehouse employees in recording the receipt of inventory, arranging 

orders for picking, picking items for shipments and making shipments. All 

released orders (sales, purchase, transfer and production) can be handled 

in the warehouse.. 

Requirements: Multiple Locations, Sales Order Management, Purchase

Granules III 


Shipping Agents 

Item Tracking 

Item Cross References 

Order Management 

Functional area: Sales & Receivables 

Description: You use this granule to calculate availability dates and 

delivery dates. If the customer has a requested delivery date you can find 

out if it is possible to deliver on that date. You can also calculate a possible 

delivery date, based on lead time or production time, if you have nothing on 

inventory. 

Requirements: Basic Inventory, Sales Order Management 


Description: This granule gives you the possibility to setup several 

Shipping Agents (UPS, DHL, external carriers or own carriers) and relate 

their services (express, overnight, standard) with shipping time. Shipping 

Agents can be used together with Sales orders and Transfer orders. 

Requirements: Sales Order Management 


Description: With this granule you can handle and track serial and lot 

numbers. Serial and lot numbers can be assigned manually or 

automatically. The feature will allow the user to receive and ship multiplequantities 

with serial/lot numbers from a single order line entry. 

Requirements: Basic Inventory, Sales Order Management, Purchase 

Order Management 


Description: Using this granule, you can quickly and precisely identify the 

items a customer is ordering on the basis of item numbers other than your 

own. Cross-reference information from customers, vendors and 

manufacturers as well as generic numbers, universal product codes

IV Granules 

Item Substitutions 

Nonstock Item Processing 

(UPCs) and European article numbers (EANs) can be stored and easily 

accessed. 



Description: With this granule, you can link items with the same or similar 

characteristics. If a customer orders an item that is not available, you can 

offer substitute items and avoid losing the sale. Or you can provide an extra 

service to your customer by offering lower-cost alternatives. 



Sales Return Order Management 

Purchase Return Order Management 

Description: You use this granule when you offer items that are not part of 

your inventory, but that you can order from the vendor or manufacturer. 

Such items are registered as nonstock items, but otherwise are treated like 

any other item. 



Description: You use this granule to handle all aspects of customer 

returns. Sales return order management allows you to receive goods back 

from the customers and process the related transactions from one entry 

point. It is possible to do partial return receipt and to combine return 

receipts in one credit memo. 


Functional area: Purchases and Payables 

Description: Purchase return order management allows you to ship goods 

back to you vendor and process the related transactions from one entry

Granules V 

Calendars 

point. It is possible to do partial return shipments and to combine return 

shipments in one credit memo. 

Requirements: Basic Inventory, Purchase Order Management 


With this granule, you can set up calendars with working and non-working 

days. A base calendar can be assigned to Customers, Vendors, Locations, 

Company, Shipping Agent Services and to the Service Management Setup. 

It is possible to add changes to the base calendar for each of the above 

mentioned. 

The calendar entries will be used in the date calculations on Sales orders 

Purchase orders, Transfer orders, Production orders, Service orders and in 

the Requisition Worksheet and Planning Worksheet. 

Requirements: Basic Inventory

Appendix D. 

Class Projects 

This appendix contains class projects based on 

three scenarios. They can be used by the 

instructors as extra exercises or inspiration for 

new, customized exercises.

II Class Projects 

CLASS PROJECTS 

Project 1 

Project 2 

Project 3 

The following class projects are problem-solving exercises based on 

comprehensive business scenarios. The course participants are expected 

to provide the solution(s) by using the distribution functionality in Navision 

Attain. There is no single correct answer for a class project, and the 

participants are encouraged to try a variety of approaches. They can work 

on exercises individually or in a group. 

Scenario 

A customer places an order for an item that is not on stock in your 

warehouse. However, this item is available in another warehouse from 

which you’ll have to transfer the item to your warehouse. 

After the item is shipped from the other warehouse, and before it arrives at 

yours, you’ll have to make an inventory count, and account for the item in 

transit. 

When invoicing your customer, you will also charge them the cost of 

transfer. 

Scenario 

A customer places an order for an item that is not on stock. To fulfill the 

customer’s order, you’ll have to place an order with your vendor for it right 

away. 

As the customer would like to know when they can expect an item to be 

delivered, you’ll have to calculate when it is possible for you to do that. To 

ensure that the item, when received, is shipped to this customer, you’ll 

have to reserve this item, so no-one else sells it in the meantime. 

When the item arrives, you’ll have to ship it as soon as possible. To do that, 

you don’t put the item away, but instead use cross docking. 

Scenario 

A customer places an order for an item that is not on stock in your

Class Projects III 

warehouse. However, this item is available in another warehouse from 

which you’ll have to transfer the item to your warehouse. 

The item is applied an item tracking code that requires the entry of lot 

numbers in all operational areas and serial numbers in the warehouse. 

The transfer-to warehouse has been set up to require receive, put-away 

and pick.

Distribution for Navision Attain

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