Program: Draft Order Review

This program lets supervisors review, correct, and approve sales orders held in D - Draft status after the AI Sales Order Rules Engine agent has flagged them with errors or warnings. You set filter criteria, run a review, drill into the validation issues on any order, open Sales Order Entry Express to correct problems, and bulk-approve warning-only orders so they release to active status.

Exploring

When your company places sales orders in D - Draft status, by enabling the Place orders in draft status setup option, the AI Sales Order Rules Engine agent validates each order and posts any errors and warnings against the header and lines.

Draft Order Review is the workspace where a supervisor manages those flagged orders in one place.

Things you can do in this program include:

  • View a list of sales orders in D - Draft status with their error and warning count.

  • Filter and query by error and warning presence, customer, sales order, salesperson, area, branch, and requested ship date.

  • Drill into the individual validation issues raised by the AI Sales Order Rules Engine agent for any order.

  • Bulk-approve warning-only orders, capturing an approval reason and notes.

This program is accessed from the Program List of the Syspro menu:

  • Program List > Sales Orders > Sales Order Processing

A sales order status that holds an order for validation and approval before it is released to active status.

A sales order is placed in a D - Draft status at creation time, controlled by the Place orders in draft status setup option (Setup Options > Preferences > Distribution > Sales Orders)

A validation issue that prevents an order from being released. Errors must be corrected in Sales Order Entry Express (Program List > Sales Orders > Sales Order Processing)

A validation that can be accepted with a reason and notes, allowing the order to be released.

A filter option on the Draft Order Review criteria pane in Draft Order Review. When selected, it restricts the review to orders in Draft status that carry no anomalies, that is, sales orders the AI Sales Order Rules Engine agent raised no errors against. Use it to surface clean Draft orders that are ready to be released to active status.

An anomaly raised by the AI Sales Order Rules Engine agent against an order header or line in Draft Order Review, shown in the Validation Issues pane. The Validation Issues pane can be opened on drill-down from a Draft Orders row.

The maintained list of reasons an operator selects from when accepting a warning in Draft Order Review.

Approval reasons are created in the AiaAgentAccReason table via the Syspro Torque Rules and the AI Sales Order Rules Engine agent

Starting

To use this program, the following setup option(s) must be configured appropriately:

Setup Options > Preferences > Distribution > Sales Orders

Select this to place all new sales orders in D - Draft status when created. Orders remain in draft until they pass sales order rules engine validation and any required warning acceptance before being updated to 1 - Open order line, 2 - Open back order line or 8 - Line ready to invoice status.

When enabling this setup option, orders created through Sales Order Entry and Sales Order Entry Express default to a Draft status and can be viewed in this Draft Order Review program.

Syspro Torque is provisioned, with the Order Rules Engine agent and its rules configured.

The following configuration options in Syspro may affect processing within this program or feature, including whether certain fields and options are accessible.

The Setup Options program lets you configure how Syspro behaves across all modules. These settings can affect processing within this program.

Setup Options > Preferences > Distribution > Sales Orders

Select this to place all new sales orders in D - Draft status when created. Orders remain in draft until they pass sales order rules engine validation and any required warning acceptance before being updated to 1 - Open order line, 2 - Open back order line or 8 - Line ready to invoice status.

  • This program only lists sales orders in D - Draft status.

  • Only orders with warnings and no blocking errors can be accepted. Orders that still have errors are shown but cannot be selected for acceptance.

  • Acceptance releases an order from D - Draft status to 1 - Open order line, 2 - Open back order line or 8 - Line ready to invoice status only.

Solving

The Place orders in draft status setup option is disabled, so there is nothing for the program to review.

Enable the Place orders in draft status setup option (Setup Options > Preferences > Distribution > Sales Orders), then reopen the program.

The order still has one or more blocking errors. Correct the errors in Sales Order Entry Express (Program List > Sales Orders > Sales Order Processing) first, then re-run the review.

It restricts the list of orders that have no outstanding issues, so you can release orders that are already clean. It cannot be combined with Warning only orders.

Acceptance post each order individually. If the status change is rejected (for example, an error was introduced after the list loaded), that order is not released.

Re-run the review to see its current state.

Using

The Draft Order Review process is as follows:

The program requires the Place orders in draft status setup option to be enabled. If it is not enabled, the program shows a message and exists.

  • In the Draft Order Review Criteria pane, choose your filters. Optionally, set Warnings only or Anomaly free only.

  • Select Start Review to load the Draft Orders  listview with each order's error and warning counts.

    The criteria pane locks until you select Change Criteria.

  • Select Start Review to load the listview of D - Draft orders with error and warning counts.

  • Select an order's View Issues hyperlink, to open the a dialog and view each order's issue the agent raised.

  • Select Select All. Orders with blocking errors stay locked.

  • Select Accept Selected to submit checked, warning-only orders for acceptance.

  • Capture an approval reason (from the AiaAgentAccReason table) and notes.

    When you choose Accept Selected, each checked order is submitted individually to the SO Change Order Status business object as a status change that releases it from D - Draft status to its target active status (1 - Open order line, 2 - Open back order line or 8 - Line ready to invoice.)

Each successful release is counted. When the run completes, the screen shows how many orders were accepted and reloads the list so the released orders drop out of the D - Draft view. Orders with blocking errors are unchecked and locked. Correct them in Sales Order Entry Express first, using the launch-in hyperlink, before approving them again.

Following the entry of a sales order document into the system, a status code is assigned to the order header indicating its progress within the system.

The status code held against an order determines which functions can be performed at that point, particularly during maintenance and printing.

The current order status is stored in the SorMaster table.

The status may also be stored in the SorMasterRep table, but may not be the same as the status in the SorMaster table.

For example:

For an SCT order, the status in the SorMasterRep table is the order status at the time of performing the transfer, whereas the order status in SorMaster is the current status.

The following are the possible statuses that can be assigned to a sales order header:

Status Description
0 - Order in process

The entered order is currently being maintained by another user or the End order function was not performed (e.g. a power failure occurred during the entry or maintenance of an order).

This status can be reset to the previous status using the Order Maintenance function.
1 - Open order line

An order has been entered into the system.

A delivery note must be printed before the order can be released for invoicing.

Next status: 4 - In warehouse

The following actions place an order into a status of 4 - In warehouse:

  • Printing a delivery note upon ending the order.
  • Printing delivery notes using the Sales Order Batch Invoicing program for sales orders in 1 - Open order line.
  • Using the Sales Order Entry program to manually change the order status from 8 - To invoice to 4 - In warehouse
2 - Open back order

An order or billing contains lines which could not be shipped owing to a stock shortage.

The order or billing may have been partially invoiced, but there are remaining lines on back order.

Releases for a Blanket Sales Order have been accepted.

An order or billing has to pass through the invoicing process at least once to become an open order.

You can cancel an order that is in a status 2 - Open back order providing that the order has been partially invoiced and the Cancel open order previously invoiced setup option is enabled (Setup Options > Preferences > Distribution > Sales Orders).

Your configuration of the Back orders setup option affects how this status is updated (Setup Options > Preferences > Distribution > Sales Orders):

  • If the option is set to Manual, then the order is set to a status of 2 - Open back order.

  • If the option is set to Automatic, then the order is set to a status of 3 - Released back order.

Next status:

  • 3 - Released back order (for orders)
  • 8 - To invoice (for billings)
3 - Released back order

An open back order now has items to be shipped and has been released for delivery note printing.

Billings are released into status 8 - To invoice, not status 3 - Released back order.

The next delivery note print will produce a delivery note document.

Your configuration of the Back orders setup option affects how this status is updated (Setup Options > Preferences > Distribution > Sales Orders):

  • If the option is set to Manual, then the order is set to a status of 2 - Open back order.

  • If the option is set to Automatic, then the order is set to a status of 3 - Released back order.

Next status: 4 - In warehouse
4 - In warehouse

A delivery note has been printed for an open order or a released back order.

Next status: 8 - To invoice
8 - To invoice

A billing has been entered.

A back ordered billing has been released.

An order in the warehouse has been released.

Next status:

  • 9 - Complete (if completely shipped after invoicing)
  • 2 - Open back order (if any back orders remain)
8 - To transfer

A Supply Chain Transfer order has been entered.

Next status: 9 - Complete
F - Forward order

The order is indefinite and must be released before it is processed as a normal order.

Next status: 1 - Open order line

When releasing a Forward order, the quantity is placed in back order when any of the following are true:

  • The sales order entry preference Automatically put order qty into back order is enabled.

  • There is insufficient stock and negative stock is not allowed for the selected warehouse.

  • Multiple bins are enabled (irrespective of whether stock is being reserved).

  • The item is traceable, ECC-controlled, or serialized.

  • The line is for items that are parents or components of kits (i.e. a single level BOM structure of parent or component exists).

    Components cannot automatically be released because the stock allocations are required before the lines can be shipped.

  • The Packaging option Requested and mandatory or Requested but optional are selected.

    These lines must be manually shipped to ensure that packaging details are entered.

S - In suspense

An order or billing has failed credit checking.

An order or billing has been placed on hold.

Next status: The order reverts to the status in process (0 - Order in process) prior to the order being suspended.
9 - Complete

A sales order has been fully invoiced and will be removed from file when the Order Purge program is run.

When a Blanket Sales Order is complete in terms of invoicing, it is set to a status of S - In suspense while waiting for the next release. It is not set to a status of 9 - Complete.
* Cancelled

An order was canceled during entry (i.e. before it was completely entered into the system) and will be removed from the file when the Order Purge program is run.
\ Cancelled

An order was canceled prior to invoicing and will be removed from the file when the Order Purge program is run.
R - Released to picking

Indicates that an order has been released to picking.

An open order (status 1 - Open order line) which contains lines for picking, would typically move to a status R - Released to picking and then P - In picking.

Sales orders can only be invoiced when the picking cycle has been completed.
P - In picking

Indicates that the order is currently within the picking process.

Once picking has completed, the order would return to a status 1 - Open order line, therefore enabling you to add additional lines if required, or proceed to the next required stage.

D - Draft

An order is held for validation and approval before it can be processed.

Orders are created in this status when the Place orders in draft status setup option is enabled to place sales orders in draft on creation. The AI Sales Order Rules Engine agent evaluate the order and flags any errors and warnings, which you correct or accept in Draft Order Review.

You can release an order to status 1 - Open order line, 2 - Open back order line or 8 - Line ready to invoice only once it has no outstanding errors and any warnings have been accepted with a reason.

While an order is in D - Draft, no stock is committed and the order is excluded from credit checking and demand planning.

Referencing

This commences processing according to your selections.

This lets you change the currently configured review criteria.

Field Description

Anomaly free only

 When enabled the listview only display D - Draft orders with no outstanding issues.

Warnings only

When enabled the listview only display D - Draft orders with warnings.

Customer selection

Selects All (default), single, range, or list of customers.

Sales order selection

Selects All (default), single, range, or list of sales orders.

Salesperson selection

Filter by salesperson. Selects All, single, range or list.

Area selection

Filter by area. Selects, All, single, range or list.

Branch selection

Selects All (default), single, range, or list of sales orders.
Request ship date selection Selects All, single, range (there is no list option). This fields matches the RegShipDate filter in the SO Draft Order Review Query business object.

This lets you view the next set of lines in the listview.

Submits the checked, warning-only orders for acceptance.

This lets you select all lines in the listview.

This lets you deselect all lines in the listview.

This outputs the data to a printer destination of your choice.

This lets you refine the results displayed in the grid according to specific text that you've searched.

Field Description

Selected

Enable this check box to include the order in a bulk acceptance.

The check box is locked and cannot be selected when the order has blocking errors.

Sales order

Indicates the sales order number.

Customer

Indicates the customer code.

Customer name

Indicates the customer name.

Requested ship date

Indicates the requested ship date on the order.

Order date

Indicates the date the order was captured.

Area

Indicates the sales area for the order.
Branch Indicates the branch for the order.
Salesperson Indicates the salesperson for the order.
Customer PO Indicates the customer purchase order reference number.
Errors Indicates the number of errors raised on the order.
Warnings Indicates the number of warnings raised on the order.
Issues Select the View Issues hyperlink to open the Validation Issue dialog for the order.

The Validation Issues listview will open when you select the View Issues hyperlink on an order line.

Field Description
Severity Indicates the severity of the issue as raised by the agent.
Category Indicates the category of the issue.
Agent code Indicates the code of the rule or agent that raises the issue.
Agent message Indicates in plain-language a description of the issue.
Entity field Indicates the sales order field the issue relates to.
Entity value Indicates the current value of that field.
Entity detail Display additional detail about the affected entity.
Can accept Indicates whether the issue is a warning that can be accepted.
Reason required Indicates whether an approval reason must be captured to accept the issue.
Translated severity Indicates the severity in the operators language.