Hold Until Complete

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Specification discussion for a CMS customization being considered.
 
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=Overview=
=Overview=
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When orders are placed on back order, in many situations it will make sense to hold the order until all of the items are available so it can ship complete. The current CMS behavior is designed to support a ship ASAP model generally preferred for cash flow and inventory movement but causes problems when trying to reduce the number of shipments for an order, be it for shipping expense or desire to deliver complete to the customer.
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When orders are placed on back order, in many situations it will make sense to hold the order until all of the items are available so it can ship complete. The current/default CMS behavior is designed to support a "ship asap" model which is better for cash flow and inventory movement but causes problems when trying to reduce the number of shipments for an order, be it for shipping expense or desire to deliver complete to the customer.
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While there is some merit to the idea of "Fulfill Complete" which seems more complimentary to our current fulfillment methodology (back orders and future ships), it would suffer the problem of never allocating stock to an order. This keeps CMS from being able to fulfill in a FIFO type manner, as it relates to allocating to the customers who requested the items first. To be discussed more in another article on this similar but separate feature.
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=Proposal=
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In CMS 9.0 we added a Back Order All function to make it easy to force an entire order onto back order, so it can fulfill complete, but it does fall short of allocating stock to an order for the items available now. This prevents the user from being able to fulfill/allocate in a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFO FIFO] (first in first out) manner, in other words, allocating to the customers in sequential order of when they purchased.
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The proposed "Hold Until Complete" feature discussed here would work in conjunction with our existing Order Holds mechanism. If an order has any items on back order, the operator should be presented with an Hold Until Complete option which would allocate what is available now and hold the invoice out of further processing.  
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CMS would also need a mechanism for allocating as other stock becomes available and releasing without having to edit the order to manually allocate or update financials (shipping amount, payment amount, etc.)
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=Hold Until Complete ([http://updates.newhavensoftware.com/whatsnew905.htm CMS 9.0.5])=
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The Hold Until Complete (HUC) feature works in conjunction both with CMS's existing Hold mechanism and Fulfillment Manager. If an order has any items on back order, CMS can place the order on hold using a new HUC hold type when the order is saved. Whether or not the order is placed on HUC will be based on a new Order Entry option indicating if you want orders with back orders placed on HUC automatically. You can override the default and manually set or remove the HUC flag before or after the order is saved (done from the View Invoice screen for the invoice in question).
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Consider which should be the default behavior and if it would be a setting. Some customers will want to default to hold until complete, others will not. Either would want an override option to choose the other for certain orders.
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HUC orders are released/fulfilled using the Fulfillment Manager's Back Order processing. This allows you to have a single list of back order invoices, potentially a mix of HUC and non-HUC back orders, and can fulfill FIFO. No added filter is necessary, just click the radio button for All Orders Shown and then the button for Process Orders.
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*Those orders with no HUC flag will fulfill based on settings on the options shown (partial orders can fulfill, partial items can fulfill) and fulfill onto a -2 (or later) invoice as is standard behavior now
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*Those ''with'' the HUC flag (and no other hold flags) and all items available will fulfill onto the -1 invoice
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**If the option for 'Partial Orders can Ship' is selected in Fulfillment Manager, but not all items are available, CMS will allocate them to the waiting HUC orders while leaving the remaining items on back order. In this case the invoice remains on hold until all items have been fulfilled and no payment is created until the final fulfillment.
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**When fulfilling the remaining items on an HUC order CMS will set the fulfill date of the invoice to today, allocate remaining stock needed, and create a new payment if needed (the same as any other back order fulfillment) and will remove the HUC hold flag
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*HUC PAYMENTS - CMS defaults to, and we recommend, setting an electronic payment (eCheck or credit card) for $0.00 when placing the order. CMS will create an appropriate payment using that payment information for the total order amount when the order is fulfilled. That said, you can take deposits/payments on HUC orders. The HUC hold type is ignored for payment processing so if you desire to apply a down-payment to an HUC order (e.g. layaway), it will be processed today without have to set Bill Delayed or marking the order as shipped. We have noted though that some companies have found reporting issues with accepting payments against unshipped orders or those on hold so you may wish to test this before starting to accept such payments.
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Have a queue or filter to show orders which are now complete that can be released. Presumably this would be in Fulfillment Manager where other Order Holds are managed.
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Orders set as HUC can be reviewed in the Fulfillment Manager under the tab for Invoices on Hold where hold can be individually reviewed and edited as needed.
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*Use cases should be documented illustrating different scenarios for holding and releasing to ensure all possibilities are considered. Consider how to handle payments pre and post hold and their dates.
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Additional enhancements include:
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*Orders set as HUC cannot be cancelled and the user will be warned if a cancel is attempted (no affect on return of shipped) - The HUC flag must be removed first by someone with employee permissions to remove that flag.
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*Employee permission will be added to indicate who can alter the HUC of an order
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*Option in Order Entry, (location tbd, perhaps in the Holds UI) to refresh allocation on the order (so if some new stock has become available, allocations can be updated)
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*Add filter to Batch Approvals to allow the limiting of processing to next X payments (display sequence should be FIFO) and should also show a total count of payments in the grid. Should the fulfillment of back orders (release of HUC) release more invoices into your fulfillment flow (printing, picking, shipping) than you want to deal with at once, you can limit how many you authorize which in turn limits how many will be printed (per CMS config.)
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*If a user removes the HUC flag from an order, CMS will not reset it on save based on the order entry default
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*The HUC hold reason will be displayed on the order (location tbd, likely View Invoice)
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*Refreshing allocation option - An option will be available to allocate newly available inventory when editing an order. (stock becomes available after the initial save and you wish to refresh the allocations)
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=Options/Features=
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=Related Exceptions and Comments=
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*Default to put any bo invoice on Hold Until Complete (HUC) automatically
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*Orders that are a mix of future ship and back order items cannot be set as HUC
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*Button to tell CMS to update allocations on such HUC orders (e.g. as inventory is received)
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*After fulfillment, there is no record retained to indicate that the order was previously HUC
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**Could prompt as stock is received but seems a simple global 'allocate all to HUCs' would be better for the phase 1 introduction of this feature.
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*Reporting changes are being evaluated for inclusion in CMS version 10. Please contact your NHS Support rep to obtain the latest Crystal invoice template if you'll be using HUC
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*No specific option to de-allocate is included although an item or order can be forced onto back order which does deallocate
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=Challenges=
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=Phase 2 - CMS 9.0.6=
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*Allocating to held items
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*Automate allocations so newly received stock can be committed to current HUC orders (those already saved but not yet fulfilled/released)
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*Financial changes as allocations change (HUC is always bill delayed maybe?)
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*Exposing Allocation - how to indicate in the interface that stock is allocated in order entry, stock manager, reports
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*Allowing de-allocation - From within the order, allow the user to de-allocate without canceling/returning.
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*Filtering Holds from fulfilling (need to make sure HUCs are not considered in bo/fuship fulfillments, likely inherently handled by our current hold mechanisms)
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*Interaction with future ships? Concepts seem exclusive of each other. Maybe hold until a selected date, allow allocation up front and incrementally as with HUC, and then release on that date regardless of status...or continue to hold if HUC?
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*'fulfilling' onto -1 - We are not really fulfilling onto -1, more allocating in several steps. Any concerns with having dated transactions or paper trail/exposure for these allocations?
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*Allocating to HUCs as stock is received - After stock is received or on a schedule (or something else?) allocate all available inventory to HUCs.
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=Related Considerations=
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=Future Possibilities=
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*Proforma/Temps and their allocations could benefit from allocation enhancements?
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*Making the use of HUC conditional based on a global user-specified threshold of Expected Delivery dates for back ordered items (so items coming in soon may be worth holding an order for while others beyond the threshold may not be worth holding an order for.)
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*Fulfill Complete
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*Treating future ships in a similar way with allocations and fulfillments onto -1 (future shipping vs future fulfillment), perhaps a "Hold Until Date"

Current revision as of 00:37, 20 January 2017

Contents

Overview

When orders are placed on back order, in many situations it will make sense to hold the order until all of the items are available so it can ship complete. The current/default CMS behavior is designed to support a "ship asap" model which is better for cash flow and inventory movement but causes problems when trying to reduce the number of shipments for an order, be it for shipping expense or desire to deliver complete to the customer.

In CMS 9.0 we added a Back Order All function to make it easy to force an entire order onto back order, so it can fulfill complete, but it does fall short of allocating stock to an order for the items available now. This prevents the user from being able to fulfill/allocate in a FIFO (first in first out) manner, in other words, allocating to the customers in sequential order of when they purchased.

Hold Until Complete (CMS 9.0.5)

The Hold Until Complete (HUC) feature works in conjunction both with CMS's existing Hold mechanism and Fulfillment Manager. If an order has any items on back order, CMS can place the order on hold using a new HUC hold type when the order is saved. Whether or not the order is placed on HUC will be based on a new Order Entry option indicating if you want orders with back orders placed on HUC automatically. You can override the default and manually set or remove the HUC flag before or after the order is saved (done from the View Invoice screen for the invoice in question).

HUC orders are released/fulfilled using the Fulfillment Manager's Back Order processing. This allows you to have a single list of back order invoices, potentially a mix of HUC and non-HUC back orders, and can fulfill FIFO. No added filter is necessary, just click the radio button for All Orders Shown and then the button for Process Orders.

  • Those orders with no HUC flag will fulfill based on settings on the options shown (partial orders can fulfill, partial items can fulfill) and fulfill onto a -2 (or later) invoice as is standard behavior now
  • Those with the HUC flag (and no other hold flags) and all items available will fulfill onto the -1 invoice
    • If the option for 'Partial Orders can Ship' is selected in Fulfillment Manager, but not all items are available, CMS will allocate them to the waiting HUC orders while leaving the remaining items on back order. In this case the invoice remains on hold until all items have been fulfilled and no payment is created until the final fulfillment.
    • When fulfilling the remaining items on an HUC order CMS will set the fulfill date of the invoice to today, allocate remaining stock needed, and create a new payment if needed (the same as any other back order fulfillment) and will remove the HUC hold flag
  • HUC PAYMENTS - CMS defaults to, and we recommend, setting an electronic payment (eCheck or credit card) for $0.00 when placing the order. CMS will create an appropriate payment using that payment information for the total order amount when the order is fulfilled. That said, you can take deposits/payments on HUC orders. The HUC hold type is ignored for payment processing so if you desire to apply a down-payment to an HUC order (e.g. layaway), it will be processed today without have to set Bill Delayed or marking the order as shipped. We have noted though that some companies have found reporting issues with accepting payments against unshipped orders or those on hold so you may wish to test this before starting to accept such payments.

Orders set as HUC can be reviewed in the Fulfillment Manager under the tab for Invoices on Hold where hold can be individually reviewed and edited as needed.

Additional enhancements include:

  • Orders set as HUC cannot be cancelled and the user will be warned if a cancel is attempted (no affect on return of shipped) - The HUC flag must be removed first by someone with employee permissions to remove that flag.
  • Employee permission will be added to indicate who can alter the HUC of an order
  • Option in Order Entry, (location tbd, perhaps in the Holds UI) to refresh allocation on the order (so if some new stock has become available, allocations can be updated)
  • Add filter to Batch Approvals to allow the limiting of processing to next X payments (display sequence should be FIFO) and should also show a total count of payments in the grid. Should the fulfillment of back orders (release of HUC) release more invoices into your fulfillment flow (printing, picking, shipping) than you want to deal with at once, you can limit how many you authorize which in turn limits how many will be printed (per CMS config.)
  • If a user removes the HUC flag from an order, CMS will not reset it on save based on the order entry default
  • The HUC hold reason will be displayed on the order (location tbd, likely View Invoice)
  • Refreshing allocation option - An option will be available to allocate newly available inventory when editing an order. (stock becomes available after the initial save and you wish to refresh the allocations)

Related Exceptions and Comments

  • Orders that are a mix of future ship and back order items cannot be set as HUC
  • After fulfillment, there is no record retained to indicate that the order was previously HUC
  • Reporting changes are being evaluated for inclusion in CMS version 10. Please contact your NHS Support rep to obtain the latest Crystal invoice template if you'll be using HUC
  • No specific option to de-allocate is included although an item or order can be forced onto back order which does deallocate

Phase 2 - CMS 9.0.6

  • Automate allocations so newly received stock can be committed to current HUC orders (those already saved but not yet fulfilled/released)

Future Possibilities

  • Making the use of HUC conditional based on a global user-specified threshold of Expected Delivery dates for back ordered items (so items coming in soon may be worth holding an order for while others beyond the threshold may not be worth holding an order for.)
  • Treating future ships in a similar way with allocations and fulfillments onto -1 (future shipping vs future fulfillment), perhaps a "Hold Until Date"
Retrieved from "http://wiki.newhavensoftware.com/index.php/Hold_Until_Complete"
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