Creating Wave Transactions

Creating a wave transaction starts by searching for committed items or quantities that you want to release to the warehouse. On a new wave, you can view the orders retrieved from your search and select the ones to include in the wave. You can select the entire order or specific line items only. Line items that you do not include in a wave can be processed in another one.

See how the following features or conditions affect the orders you can include in waves:

• Your order search can return a maximum of 10,000 line items in the results on wave transactions. If you exceed this limit, you can adjust the search criteria on the Wave Criteria form.

• A wave transaction uses the item units from associated order transactions. Unless you change the unit on an order, it reflects the default unit from the item record.

  Note:

  Before you create a wave, make sure that the order transactions have item units. After you create a wave, you cannot assign or change the unit on the order transaction. Changing the unit on the item record does not affect the unit on existing orders and wave transactions.

  If an item is associated with multiple units, you can choose a different unit for the quantity you want to pick on the app. After you process the pick task, the quantity is converted back to the order transaction’s unit.

• Intercompany Cross-Subsidiary Fulfillment – On sales or transfer orders, this feature requires you to select the inventory location for each line item. This enables you to commit the line items and include them in waves.

  With this feature enabled on your account, you can create separate waves for orders with a different inventory location for each line item. To include these orders in waves, inventory locations must be set as warehouse locations. For instructions, see Creating Warehouse Locations.

• Ship Complete – Using the Ship Complete setting on order transactions, you can include only orders with all fully committed line items in a wave. When combined with the Intercompany Cross-Subsidiary Fulfillment or Multiple Shipping Routes features, you can include fully committed items per line.

  However, if a partially committed line item has the Commitment Confirmed box checked, you can also include it in a wave. For more information about the features, see Multiple Shipping Routes or Intercompany Cross-Subsidiary Fulfillment. For more information about the commitment preference, see Setting Warehouse Management Preferences

• Partially Committed Items – You can add a partially committed line item to a wave if the same line is not included in an active wave. The active wave has to be completely processed before you can include the line item in a new wave. Alternatively, when you have a partially committed line item, you can edit the order transaction to create a separate line for the uncommitted quantity. When this line is committed, you can include it in a new wave without waiting for the active wave to be processed.

• Kit/Package Items – For kit/package items, you can include partially committed kit components that form a single order of a kit/package item. You cannot release kit/package items with missing components.

  For example, a kit requires two units of component A and one unit of component B. You cannot release a partially committed order that has only one unit of component A.

To create a wave transaction:

1. Using the WMS Warehouse Manager role, go to Transactions > Inventory > Create a Wave.

   Tip:

   If you want to edit or release an existing wave, go to Transactions > Order Management > Create a Wave > List. From the Wave list, you can click Edit next to the wave. To continue, you can skip steps 2 and 3. You can update values in the editable fields and columns.

   The Wave Criteria form appears.

2. If you want to change the search template or filters, do the following:

   1. In the Template field, select a wave criteria template.

      Before you create a wave, you can create a new template by clicking New or edit your existing custom template by clicking Edit. You can set predefined criteria filters to search for orders to include in a wave. For instructions, see Creating Custom Wave Criteria Templates

      The template used in a previous search appears in this field by default.

   2. (Optional) To update the default search criteria directly on the form, you can select or enter values in the filtering fields.

      The Location filter limits the location options if a location is set on your employee record. Your search criteria updates on this page do not alter a template.

3. Click Search.

   A new Wave page appears to display the retrieved orders on the Orders and Line Items subtabs. On each subtab, you can click the column headers to sort the transactions, such as by order number or item. For transfer orders, you can sort by to location.

   Tip:

   If you do not see the orders you want to release, click Back to use another template or update your search criteria. For information about orders you can include in waves, see Supported Transactions and Item Types.

4. On the Wave page, in the Priority field, select the priority number, from 1 (top priority) to 9 (lowest priority).

   On the app, high priority waves appear at the top of the list.

5. In the Picking Type field, select one of the following picking types to group line items on pick tasks and pick tickets:

   • Single Order – Generates a pick task for each line item of an order. For kit/package items, you generate one pick task for each component item.

   • Bulk Picking or Multiple Order – Generates a pick task that contains similar items, including components of kit/package items, across all orders in the wave. For bulk picking, you can pick the entire quantity of an item in bulk and the app distributes them across the orders in the wave. For multiple order picking, you can pick the quantity of an item per order.

6. In the Status field, select one of the status options:

   • Pending Release – Generates pick tasks and saves the wave.

     In this status, you can assign pick tasks to operators before you release the wave. When you are ready to release the wave, you can repeat this step to select the Released status.

   • Released – Generates pick tasks and releases the wave.

     Important:

     Releasing orders through NetSuite WMS prepares them for item fulfillment. You must not use the Fulfill option on sales or transfer order transactions. Fulfilling released orders outside of a wave causes errors or failures when pickers process the orders from their mobile device. For more information, see Item Fulfillments of Released Orders.

     Warehouse operators can access and process released waves on the app. NetSuite WMS automatically updates the status of the wave accordingly. For more information, see Monitoring the Status of Released Orders.

     Released waves also sort pick tasks and, for warehouses that use bins, determines the recommended bin for picking. See Pick Task Sorting for Released Orders.

7. To select orders to include in the wave, do either or both of the following:

   Tip:

   To view orders with partially committed items, look for orders or lines marked with the information icon. If you want to exclude them from the wave, clear the box for each order or line.

   • On the Orders subtab, check the box next to the orders you want to release.

     When you select an order, you preselect all the associated line items by default.

   • On the Line Items subtab, clear or check the box next to each item you want to remove from or include in the wave, respectively.

8. (Optional) Before you save the wave, you can review the total selected orders and line items on the Summary table.

9. Click Save.

   After you save a wave, the Pick Tasks subtab appears with the list of generated pick tasks.

10. For waves in Pending Release status, you can assign pick tasks by clicking Edit. Then, on the Pick Tasks subtab, do one of the following:

    • To assign one task at a time, on the Assigned Picker column, you can select the name of the warehouse operator. Then, click Save.

    • To assign all or multiple pick tasks to the same warehouse operator, check the box next to one or more pick tasks. If you want to select all, check the box at the header. In the Assign Selected Pick Tasks To field, select the name of the warehouse operator. To save, click Assign Pick Tasks and then click Save.

After you save the wave, you can do the following:

• If you want to assign or reassign pick tasks before they are processed, see Pick Task Assignment. NetSuite WMS automatically assigns unassigned pick tasks to the warehouse operator who processes it on the app.

• To print pick tickets for released waves, see Printing Pick Tickets from Wave Transactions.

  When you assign pick tasks, the operator names appear on their corresponding pick task assignments.

• On the app, you can start picking items for orders in released waves. For more information, see Picking Orders.

• If you have uncommitted quantities in an order, you can release the associated lines when the quantities after the quantities have been committed. For more information, see Re-releasing Lines with Backorders.

Related Topics

• NetSuite WMS Setup
• Releasing Orders to the Warehouse
• Updating Waves and Handling Wave Issues
• Handling Changes to Associated Sales or Transfer Orders
• Monitoring the Status of Released Orders

General Notices