Processing Auto Soldout Cancellations (MASO)

Purpose: Process auto soldout cancellations when you want to automatically cancel soldout items that were ordered before the item was sold out, or to print a list of all such items.

Overview: When you process auto soldout cancellations, the system:

1. Reads every item or SKU that contains a soldout control status of 1 (sell out immediately).

2. Checks the setting of the Auto Soldout Cancel Reason (C20) system control value.

3. Locates every matching open, fully backordered, unreserved line item on open or held orders.

4. Looks at the setting of the Disregard Soldout Controls for Non-Allocatable Warehouses (J27) system control value. If this system control value is set to Y, the system bypasses any order detail lines that are associated with a non-allocatable warehouse.

5. Cancels each of the selected items, using the cancellation reason code identified in the System Control file.

6. Automatically recalculates freight.

7. Removes any duty charge from the Handling field for the soldout item.

8. Optionally, closes any positive or negative additional charges on orders where processing auto soldouts will have the effect of closing the order (if you set the Open charges if order closes field to Y when you process auto soldouts).

9. Writes a message to the Display Order Line History Screen indicating that the item has been cancelled due to a sellout.

10. Generates a notification record that you can use to generate soldout cards using the Print Soldout Notifications function (See Printing Soldout Notifications (MSON)).

11. Generates the Auto Soldout Register.

12. Update the Cancel reason code field the Order Detail Line with the default Auto Soldout Cancel Reason from the system control value.

13. If the item has been downloaded to the web storefront, and you change the soldout control code for the item, this triggers E-Commerce Item Availability Processing.

 

Note:

• Orders that are suspended at the time you process auto soldout cancellations do not sell out. You can sell out the items on these orders at a later time, either by processing auto soldouts again or through Order Maintenance.

• Order lines that are partially reserved are not automatically cancelled by this process.

• When selling out a line, the system does not recalculate handling charges using the special handling charge breaks that apply in order entry. See Using Special Handling Charge Breaks for a discussion.

Cancel reason code: Before you can process auto soldout cancellations, you must define a cancellation reason code in the Cancel Reason Code file and enter that reason code in the Auto Soldout Cancel Reason (C20) system control value.

Stored value card authorization reversal: If a stored value card payment is associated with a cancelled item and contains an open, unused authorization amount, the system generates a stored value card authorization reversal; see Stored Value Card Authorization Reversal.

Reviewing order history: When you review a soldout line in Order Inquiry, you can determine how the item was soldout through the Display Order Line History Screen (option 24) as follows:

• If the item was sold out through option 13, the quantity will be negative and the name of the user who sold out the item appears

• If the line sold out automatically in Order Entry because there was a soldout control code assigned to the item, the line history will have a positive quantity, and the name of the user who entered the order appears

• If the line was sold out through Process Auto Soldouts, the quantity will be negative and no user name appears

**** Reasons ***** Activity Date Qty Exc Can Rtn Add User O Sold Out 9/08/98 1 EKAPLAN

Note: When you sell out an item, the system also writes a message, visible on the Display Order History Screen, indicating that the order was maintained.

Holding coordinate grouped items: You have the option of placing any items coordinate grouped with soldout items on hold at the time you process auto soldouts, if you set the Hold related coordinate group lines field to Y. In this case, the system will also generate the Order Hold Detail Report. You can use this report to contact the customers and see if they still want the coordinate grouped items.

Retaining items from sellout: You have the option of retaining a quantity of an item from selling out if you expect to receive some units in the near future that you can use to fulfill these orders. For example, if you expect a certain number of returns on an item, you might choose to keep an appropriate number of order lines open when you process auto soldouts. In this case, the system uses the Sold out retention method field in the System Control file to determine whether to retain your oldest or newest orders containing the backordered item. The system also produces the Auto Sold Out Retained Order Register. See Retaining Item Quantities for an overview of this process and more information.

Amazon orders: The system updates the Amazon files when you sell out an order if the order type matches the Amazon Order Type (I22) system control value. See Amazon Order Feed for an overview.

Pre-billed items: When you sell out an order line for a pre-billed item, the system sells out the pre-billable item, Also, if the deposit amount has already billed, the system applies a negative additional charge for the pre-billed amount, using the Additional Charge Code for Pre Billed Amount Soldouts (J75). As a result, the system creates a credit invoice and generates a refund for the pre-billed amount. Selling out a pre-billed item causes the following general ledger updates, reflecting the amount that was pre-billed:

• decreasing the Sale/Credit Card account

• increasing (reducing the credit balance) the Pre-Bill Deposit Merch account

• decreasing (increasing the credit balance) the Forfeiture Fee account

• increasing the Sale/Additional Charge account

See Pre Billed Amount Item (J72) for a discussion of pre-billing.

Unfulfillable through Order Broker? If a backordered item is sent to Locate’s Order Broker for fulfillment, but the Order Broker cannot fulfill the item, the item might sell out automatically.

Example: An item is unavailable in the warehouse, so the system assigns it to the Order Broker for fulfillment; however, the Order Broker cannot find a location to fulfill the item, and rejects the item as unfulfillable. In CWDirect, the item is assigned a soldout control value indicating to include the on-order quantity of any open purchase orders before selling out the item, but there are no open purchase orders. As a result, the unfulfillable item sells out automatically after it is rejected by the Order Broker.

When you use the Process Auto Soldouts option, any unfulfillable items that have sold out automatically after rejection by the Order Broker are listed on the Auto Soldout Register, regardless of whether the items are assigned a soldout control value to sell out immediately.

After you have used the Process Auto Soldouts option, the item is then eligible to have a soldout notification generated through the Printing Soldout Notifications (MSON) option, even if you did not select the Update orders option at the Process Auto Sold Outs Screen.

See the Brokered Backorder Integration with Locate for background on fulfilling backorders through integration with Locate’s Order Broker.

Retail pickup and delivery orders: Retail pickup and delivery orders are orders that originate in a store location and that Locate’s Order Broker assigns to your CWDirect warehouse for fulfillment. If you sell out an item on a retail pickup or delivery order, the system sends a status update to Locate to reject the order. The Order Broker might then reassign the order line to another location for fulfillment, or it might change the status of the line to Unfulfillable based on the available locations and the preferences you have set up in Locate.

CWDirect changes the status of the Order Broker record to Rejected.

See Fulfilling Retail Pickup and Delivery Orders in CWDirect for an overview.

In this topic:

• Process Auto Sold Outs Screen

• Auto Soldout Register

• Order Hold Detail Report

• Retaining Item Quantities

• Auto Sold Out Retained Order Register

• Enter Quantity to Retain Screen

Process Auto Sold Outs Screen

Use this screen to cancel all order lines for soldout items. The order must be open or held and the item must be backordered (not reserved or printed).

Notifications: You must generate soldout notification cards or emails as a separate step after you run Auto Soldouts. See Printing Soldout Notifications (MSON) for more information.

How to display this screen: Enter MASO in the Fast path field at the top of any menu or select Process Auto Soldouts from a menu.

CSR0403 ENTER Process Auto Sold Outs 4/16/97 15:35:12 EZK Mail Order Update Orders . . . . . . . . . . . . Y (Y/N) Hold Related Coordinate Group Lines . N (Y/N) Delete Open Charges If Order Closes . N (Y/N) Soldout Control Code to Update SKUs . 1 F3=Exit F7=Review Items F9=Accept F12=Cancel

Field	Description
Update orders	Controls whether the system cancels order lines that contain a soldout item. Valid values are: Y = Cancel soldout order lines. N = (default) Do not cancel soldout order lines; run the Auto Soldout Register only. Alphanumeric, 1 position; required.
Hold related coordinate group lines	Controls whether the system places items on hold if they are on the same order with a soldout item and share a coordinate group code. The system does not print pick slips for held items. Example: You assign a coordinate group code to items or SKUs if they are related, such as a blouse and skirt, or a plate, cup and bowl. Your customers can order each item individually, but if coordinate grouped items are present on the same order, the system forces these items to ship together. The system lists any held coordinate grouped items on the Order Hold Detail Report, produced when you process auto soldouts. You can then work with the held lines either through Order Maintenance or the Work with Order Hold Detail Function; see Working with Held Detail Lines (WOHD). Valid values are: Y = Place coordinate grouped items on the same orders on hold. This value is valid only if you entered Y in the Update orders field. N = (default) Do not place coordinate grouped items on the same orders on hold. Alphanumeric, 1 position; required.
Delete open charges if order closes	Controls whether the system deletes any additional charges, either positive or negative, if processing auto soldouts will close the order completely. The system does not write order history to indicate if additional charges were deleted in this way; if you press F16 to review additional charges in Order Inquiry, there simply will be no additional charges associated with the order. Valid values are: Y = Delete open additional charges N (default) = Do not delete open additional charges. Alphanumeric, 1 position; required.
Soldout control code to update SKUs	Use this field to specify a soldout control code to assign to each item or SKU with a backorder quantity when you process auto soldouts. Assigning a soldout control code through this field might be useful to you if you use the Enter Quantity to Retain Screen to keep orders open for certain items. See Retaining Item Quantities for more information on how you might use this field. The soldout control code most recently entered in this field when you processed auto soldouts defaults, but you can override it. Soldout control codes are defined in and validated against the Soldout Control Code file. See Working with Soldout Controls (WSLD). If an item has been downloaded to the web storefront, and you change the soldout control code for the item, this triggers E-Commerce Item Availability Processing. Alphanumeric, 2 positions; optional.

Instructions: Use the following steps to process auto soldouts:

1. Complete each field on this screen and press Enter.

2. If you want to retain any item quantities, press F7 to advance to the Enter Quantity to Retain Screen. You cannot advance to this screen unless the Update orders field is set to Y and you have selected a Sold Out Retention Method (E63) in the System Control file. See Retaining Item Quantities.

3. If you are not retaining item quantities, press F9. If you entered Y in the Update orders field, the system submits a batch job called AUTO_SO, which cancels the items on open orders and generates the Auto Soldout Register. Each soldout order line will have a status code of S. If you also entered Y in the Hold related coordinate group lines field, the system also submits a batch job called ORD_HOLD, which places items coordinate grouped with the soldout items on hold and generates the Order Hold Detail Report. Each held order line will have a status code of H. If you entered N in both fields, the system generates the Auto Soldout Register only.

Note: If an order contains more than one item that needs to be canceled because it is soldout, the system produces one soldout card per item, and writes one message line per item to the Order Line History file. Each message line indicates that the item was canceled because it was soldout.

Screen Option	Procedure
Review items and specify quantities to retain from selling out	Press F7. See Retaining Item Quantities.
Process auto soldouts	Press F9.

Retaining Item Quantities

Process overview: When you process auto soldouts, you can prevent certain items or SKUs from selling out completely. For example, you might have sold all of your remaining stock of item AB100 and don't plan to order any more. However, based on this item's history you can expect to receive about 15 units as returns. In this case, you can use the Enter Quantity to Retain Screen to keep orders for 15 units of AB100 open when you process auto soldouts.

When you process auto soldouts, you have the option of resetting the soldout control code for each backordered item or SKU to the value you specify at the Process Auto Sold Outs Screen. Typically, you would reset the soldout control code to one with a status of 2 or 3, since only items assigned a soldout control code with a status of 1 (sellout immediately) are eligible to be sold out by Process Auto Soldouts. Resetting the soldout control codes for the items and SKUs prevents them from appearing on the Enter Quantity to Retain Screen or being inadvertently sold out while you attempt to fulfill the retained orders.

When you no longer expect to receive any additional units of an item, you may still have retained orders on your system that you are not able to fulfill. In this case, you could change the soldout control code for the item or SKU back to a code with a status of 1. You can then sell out the item completely the next time you process auto soldouts.

Which orders to retain? The sequence in which the system selects orders to retain is controlled by the Sold out retention method field in the System Control file. Valid settings for this field are:

• FIFO: oldest orders are selected for retention first

• LIFO: newest orders are selected for retention first.

The system selects an order line for retention only if it can retain the entire backordered quantity of the item on the line. For example, if you set a retention quantity of 3, and the first order line the system evaluates has a backordered quantity of 5, the system skips this order line and evaluates the next. The order line with the quantity of 5 will be sold out.

Note: Items that sell out automatically because they were unfulfillable through the Order Broker are not available for retention. See the Order Broker Integration for background.

Another example:

Item AB100 has a quantity to retain of 5 units and the soldout retention method being used is LIFO. The orders on the system, from newest to oldest, are:

Order Number	Units
2000	1
1999	5
1998	3
1997	3
1996	1
1995	1

The system evaluates the orders as follows:

1. Order 2000 with 1 unit is evaluated first, and the order is retained.

2. Order 1999 with 5 units is evaluated next, but there are just 4 units available for retention. The order is sold out.

3. Order 1998 with 3 units is evaluated next, and the order is retained.

4. Order 1997 with 3 units is evaluated next, but there is just one unit available for retention. The order is sold out.

5. Order 1996 with 1 unit is evaluated next, and the order is retained.

6. Order 1995 is sold out.

If there are no open order lines that meet the evaluation criteria (that is, the backorder quantity is less than or equal to the retention quantity), no orders will be retained.

Enter Quantity to Retain Screen

Purpose: Use this screen to review the quantities of items eligible to be sold out when you submit the Process Auto Soldouts job, and to specify any item quantities you want to retain from selling out. The selected number of order lines will remain open so that if, for instance, you expect to receive that quantity of returns, you can fulfill the orders using the returned items.

Note: Items that sell out automatically because they were unfulfillable through the Order Broker are not available for retention. See the Order Broker Integration for background.

How to display this screen: Press F7 at the Process Auto Sold Outs Screen. You can display this screen only if:

• you have selected a valid retention method in the Sold Out Retention Method (E63) field in the System Control file, and

• you have entered Y in the Update orders field on the Process Auto Sold Outs Screen.

CSR0811 DISPLAY Enter Quantity to Retain 4/18/97 13:11:15 EZK Mail Order Item CLR SIZE WDTH Qty to Retain Qty/BO Status BALL LRGE 10 BALLOON GREN MEDM BALLOON YELW MEDM BALLOON YELW SMLL 1 BLENDER MEDM 2 H BO12345 BO45678 BO88888 2 BU001 WHIT MEDM 12 S BU001 WHIT SMLL I JC22222 JC33333 BLU JM44444 BLUE SMLL MU12345 + F3=Exit F9=Accept F12=Cancel

Note: This screen displays each item or SKU assigned a soldout control code with a value of 1, which may include discontinued items for which you will not be taking any more orders. To prevent such an item from appearing on this screen, you can change its soldout control code to one with a value of 2 or 3.

Field	Description
Item	The unit of inventory currently eligible for selling out. Each item or SKU assigned a soldout control code with a value of 1 appears on this screen. Alphanumeric, 12 positions; optional.
SKU	The item's unique characteristics, such as its color and size. Alphanumeric, one 14-position field (full SKU) or three 4-position fields (split SKU); optional.
Qty to retain (Quantity to retain)	The quantity of the item or SKU to prevent from selling out. You cannot enter a number greater than the backorder quantity. Numeric, 8 positions; optional.
Qty/BO (Quantity on backorder)	The total number of units of the item that is currently backordered. Numeric, 8 positions; display-only.
Status	The status of the item specified in the item or SKU file. The item status appears for SKUed items if no status code is specified at the SKU level. Alphanumeric, 1 position; display-only.

Instructions: Follow the steps below to complete this screen:

1. Optionally, enter a quantity to retain for any selected items or SKUs. The system does not allow you to retain a quantity of an item that is greater than the backordered quantity.

2. Press F9 to process auto soldouts. If you cancel from this screen, the system clears your entries in the retained quantities fields.

When you process auto soldouts from this screen, the system produces the Auto Sold Out Retained Order Register in addition to the Auto Soldout Register and the Order Hold Detail Report.