How to associate sales to purchase orders?

[Jacopo Cappellato]

Hi,

the first version of the new drop shipment stuff is in svn (mostly
finished), but now I need a few advices to complete my work.

First of all some background information: drop shipments are created
when one or more sales order ship groups are associated to a supplier
(you can do this manually using the supplier drop down box in the first
order checkout step, but it is also done automatically by the system for
drop-ship-only items); when the sales order is created, one purchase
order is also created for each of the ship groups associated to a supplier.
The sales order items in these 'special' ship groups are not
reserved/issued because they are shipped directly from the supplier to
the customer.

My first question is: how should I associate the sales order ship group
to the purchase order generated for it? Using the OrderItemAssociation
entity is an option I've considered, but I'll need to specify the sales
order ship group id as well. Another option is to reuse the
OrderItemShipGroupAssoc but we will probably need to find a good way to
distinguish between (a new type field?) standard association and inter
order association (a po associated to the ship group of a sales order).
The third option is to create a new entity (any suggestions for the name?).

My second question is: the sales order items that are in a drop ship
group are not reserved and shipped; when should I change the status of
these items to complete? When the associated purchase order (shipment)
is delivered to customer? And how this should be handled? Should I
perform a 'bogus' inventory receipt screen to mark items that are
received from the customer? Or should I simply change the status of the
drop shipment to delivered?

Thanks for your help!

Jacopo

[Si Chen-2]

Jacopo,

I think you should use the same entity as for Requirements which  
currently links sales to purchase orders.  I think that is  
OrderItemAssocation.  Associating sales order ship group is also the  
correct thing to do, since a drop shipped sales order could have  
several destinations in separate ship groups, each of which would  
either have to be their own purchase order or be part of a different  
ship group on the purchase order.

I think you should create a Shipment of "Drop Shipment" type for your  
drop shipped order.  (Interestingly enough, that type is already  
there--I think David & Andy anticipated this a long time ago.)  Then  
when the Shipment is marked to a certain status, such as "Received"  
or "Completed" (don't know which one...) then the order is  
completed.  We should then introduce SECAs that mark both the sales  
and purchase orders when a drop shipment is completed.

I do not think you should create "bogus" inventory--that could create  
confusion down the road and really mess up the accounting, as the  
transaction did not in fact receiving and taking stock of inventory.

Si


On Sep 11, 2006, at 8:54 AM, Jacopo Cappellato wrote:

> Hi,
>
> the first version of the new drop shipment stuff is in svn (mostly  
> finished), but now I need a few advices to complete my work.
>
> First of all some background information: drop shipments are  
> created when one or more sales order ship groups are associated to  
> a supplier (you can do this manually using the supplier drop down  
> box in the first order checkout step, but it is also done  
> automatically by the system for drop-ship-only items); when the  
> sales order is created, one purchase order is also created for each  
> of the ship groups associated to a supplier.
> The sales order items in these 'special' ship groups are not  
> reserved/issued because they are shipped directly from the supplier  
> to the customer.
>
> My first question is: how should I associate the sales order ship  
> group to the purchase order generated for it? Using the  
> OrderItemAssociation entity is an option I've considered, but I'll  
> need to specify the sales order ship group id as well. Another  
> option is to reuse the OrderItemShipGroupAssoc but we will probably  
> need to find a good way to distinguish between (a new type field?)  
> standard association and inter order association (a po associated  
> to the ship group of a sales order).
> The third option is to create a new entity (any suggestions for the  
> name?).
>
> My second question is: the sales order items that are in a drop  
> ship group are not reserved and shipped; when should I change the  
> status of these items to complete? When the associated purchase  
> order (shipment) is delivered to customer? And how this should be  
> handled? Should I perform a 'bogus' inventory receipt screen to  
> mark items that are received from the customer? Or should I simply  
> change the status of the drop shipment to delivered?
>
> Thanks for your help!
>
> Jacopo

[Jacopo Cappellato]

Si,

thanks for your comments:

Si Chen wrote:

> Jacopo,
>
> I think you should use the same entity as for Requirements which
> currently links sales to purchase orders.  I think that is
> OrderItemAssociation.  Associating sales order ship group is also the
> correct thing to do, since a drop shipped sales order could have several
> destinations in separate ship groups, each of which would either have to
> be their own purchase order or be part of a different ship group on the
> purchase order.
>

So, should I add a new pk field (shipGroupSeqId) to OrderItemAssociation?

> I think you should create a Shipment of "Drop Shipment" type for your
> drop shipped order.  (Interestingly enough, that type is already
> there--I think David & Andy anticipated this a long time ago.)  Then
> when the Shipment is marked to a certain status, such as "Received" or
> "Completed" (don't know which one...) then the order is completed.  We
> should then introduce SECAs that mark both the sales and purchase orders
> when a drop shipment is completed.
>

Let's see if I've understood your suggestions:

1) the shipment associated to the purchase order is of a special type
"Drop Shipment" and is shipped from the supplier to the customer
2) when the drop shipment is "received" the purchase order is complete
and the sales order items in the ship group associated with the purchase
order are also marked as "complete"

Is it correct?

Thanks,

Jacopo

> I do not think you should create "bogus" inventory--that could create
> confusion down the road and really mess up the accounting, as the
> transaction did not in fact receiving and taking stock of inventory.
>
> Si
>
>
> On Sep 11, 2006, at 8:54 AM, Jacopo Cappellato wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> the first version of the new drop shipment stuff is in svn (mostly
>> finished), but now I need a few advices to complete my work.
>>
>> First of all some background information: drop shipments are created
>> when one or more sales order ship groups are associated to a supplier
>> (you can do this manually using the supplier drop down box in the
>> first order checkout step, but it is also done automatically by the
>> system for drop-ship-only items); when the sales order is created, one
>> purchase order is also created for each of the ship groups associated
>> to a supplier.
>> The sales order items in these 'special' ship groups are not
>> reserved/issued because they are shipped directly from the supplier to
>> the customer.
>>
>> My first question is: how should I associate the sales order ship
>> group to the purchase order generated for it? Using the
>> OrderItemAssociation entity is an option I've considered, but I'll
>> need to specify the sales order ship group id as well. Another option
>> is to reuse the OrderItemShipGroupAssoc but we will probably need to
>> find a good way to distinguish between (a new type field?) standard
>> association and inter order association (a po associated to the ship
>> group of a sales order).
>> The third option is to create a new entity (any suggestions for the
>> name?).
>>
>> My second question is: the sales order items that are in a drop ship
>> group are not reserved and shipped; when should I change the status of
>> these items to complete? When the associated purchase order (shipment)
>> is delivered to customer? And how this should be handled? Should I
>> perform a 'bogus' inventory receipt screen to mark items that are
>> received from the customer? Or should I simply change the status of
>> the drop shipment to delivered?
>>
>> Thanks for your help!
>>
>> Jacopo

[Si Chen-2]

Do you need the shipGroupSeqId?  If so, then definitely add it.  It  
had seemed that we were able to link PO-SO together before using this  
entity, right?

Yes.  That's what I was thinking.  Does that make sense?


On Sep 11, 2006, at 12:31 PM, Jacopo Cappellato wrote:

>

[David E Jones-2]

On Sep 11, 2006, at 1:31 PM, Jacopo Cappellato wrote:

>> I think you should create a Shipment of "Drop Shipment" type for  
>> your drop shipped order.  (Interestingly enough, that type is  
>> already there--I think David & Andy anticipated this a long time  
>> ago.)  Then when the Shipment is marked to a certain status, such  
>> as "Received" or "Completed" (don't know which one...) then the  
>> order is completed.  We should then introduce SECAs that mark both  
>> the sales and purchase orders when a drop shipment is completed.
>
> Let's see if I've understood your suggestions:
>
> 1) the shipment associated to the purchase order is of a special  
> type "Drop Shipment" and is shipped from the supplier to the customer
> 2) when the drop shipment is "received" the purchase order is  
> complete and the sales order items in the ship group associated  
> with the purchase order are also marked as "complete"
>
> Is it correct?

This part is a good question... What sort of information comes back  
from the supplier that is drop shipping the order?

For the one you are working with for example, do they send you an  
email or something when the order is shipped? I guess one way or  
another we need a service to take a notice from the drop-shipper/
supplier that the package is packed, or at least when it is shipped,  
so that we can mark the drop type Shipment as packed or sent, which  
can through the ECA mark the order items as complete. The important  
status is really the Packed status, but if we get a sent status back  
from the drop shipper then we can mark the Shipment Packed and then  
Sent/Shipped.

Right now we use the ItemIssuance to associate an OrderItem,  
InventoryItem, and ShipmentItem together. It should be possible to  
leave out the InventoryItem, but don't be too surprised during  
testing if some piece of code "barfs" because it's not there...

-David