Automatic Location Assignment Rules

Automatic location assignment rules determine the way in which the engine assigns locations to lines in a sales order. You create rules in a configuration. You must create at least one rule. Rules are exclusive to the configuration in which they are created. The rules in a configuration can be used as both ordinary rules and backorder rules. See Backorder Rules for more information.

There are two aspects about rules that affect how NetSuite assigns locations automatically: the sequence of the rules and the attributes of the rules.

If a configuration has multiple rules, they are evaluated from top to bottom in the specified order in the sequence (called the evaluation order). If all the lines in a sales order have a location after a particular rule has been evaluated, all subsequent rules in the sequence are skipped. You can specify the evaluation order of rules when editing the configuration – see Automatic Location Assignment Configurations. The evaluation order you choose will depend on the characteristics of your business, such as inventory levels at locations, how you want to optimize fulfillment, your choice of shipping carriers, and the criteria of the rules themselves.

A rule can be more restrictive or less restrictive depending on the criteria you specify in the rule. Typically, the more criteria you specify, the more restrictive the rule. Add a more restrictive rule before a less restrictive rule in the evaluation order when you have particular fulfillment requirements for items, for example, when you want to ship heavy items from specially equipped warehouses. Conversely, by adding a less restrictive rule before a more restrictive rule, it is likely that a higher percentage of sales order lines are assigned a fulfillment location before all the rules are evaluated.

The attributes of a rule determine the criteria by which locations are assigned. As the automatic location assignment engine checks each attribute, the list of possible fulfillment locations is narrowed down until the ideal fulfillment location is selected.

You can define rules according to the following criteria:

Line items – You can create a rule that applies to all line items in the sales order or only line items that have particular attributes. To match the line items that have specific attributes, you create a transaction saved search and use it as a filter. See Limiting Rules to Specific Line Items.
Locations – You can restrict locations by location type, by a set of specific locations, and by radius from the shipping address. See Specifying Location Criteria in a Rule.
Strategies – The strategies in an automatic location assignment rule enable you to define the maximum number of locations to assign to lines in the sales order and the method by which the optimal location is selected. The default strategy is to minimize fulfillment locations and assign the closest location. See Choosing a Fulfillment Strategy for more information.

To create a rule:

Go to Setup > Order Management > Configurations and click Edit next to the configuration in which you want to create a rule.
Select the Rules subtab.
Click the New Rule button.

To edit a rule, click the rule name and then click the Open button next to it.
Enter a name to identify the rule.
Under Line Items, choose how the rule applies to line items: all line items or line items that match criteria in a saved search – see Limiting Rules to Specific Line Items.
Under Locations, choose how to narrow down locations in the rule: by location type, by a pre-defined set of locations, or by distance from the shipping address – see Specifying Location Criteria in a Rule.
Under Strategies, choose fulfillment strategies for the rule – see Choosing a Fulfillment Strategy for more information.
- To use as few locations as possible in the sales order, check the Minimize Fulfillment Locations box.
- Select an optimal fulfillment strategy: closest location, highest ranked location, or fulfillment workload distribution.
Click Save.

After you set up rules, make sure the automatic location assignment process is running. See Running Automation.

To edit a rule, open the configuration in which the rule is defined, select the Rules tab, and then open the rule from the list of rules displayed. To remove a rule from a configuration, click the Remove button on the rule line in the configuration.

How Locations Are Assigned with Rules

Here is an overview of the steps performed by the automatic location assignment engine when evaluating rules in a configuration:

Selects only the locations that can ship to the region in which the shipping address is located.

If there are multiple shipping addresses in a sales order, the engine evaluates the automatic location assignment rules for each shipping address separately. To use multiple shipping addresses, the Multiple Shipping Routes feature must be enabled – see Multiple Shipping Routes.
Selects only the locations that have inventory.
Selects all locations that match the specified location types. For example, if you have both store and warehouse locations and the location type in the rule is ‘warehouse’, the engine will only consider locations whose type is ‘warehouse’.
Selects locations that are within the specified radius around the shipping address. To select locations by radius, the shipping address must have a postal code, and the location must have either a postal code or latitude and longitude coordinates.
Selects locations based on the minimize fulfillment locations strategy.
Selects locations based on the optimal fulfillment location strategy . If the optimal fulfillment location is set to Closest Location, the shipping address must have a postal code, and the location must have either a postal code or latitude and longitude coordinates.
If there are still lines in the sales order that have an empty location, the engine goes to the next rule in the configuration and selects locations according to the rule attributes.
If all rules have been evaluated and there are backorder rules, the engine evaluates the backorder rules in sequence from top to bottom.

If all rules have been evaluated and there are still lines in the sales order with an empty location, you need to assign locations manually or backorder items.

Reasons Why Locations Might Not Be Assigned Automatically

Sometimes, a location that you expected to be assigned is not in fact assigned to a sales order line. There are a number of reasons why this might happen. Here are some of the most common things you can check to determine why a location was or was not assigned:

Insufficient stock at the location. The automatic location assignment engine does not split a sales order line between multiple locations, so if the entire quantity ordered is unavailable at a location, the location is not assigned.
Automatic location assignment is disallowed in the location record. If you disallow automatic location assignment for a location, or restrict a location to specific regions and the shipping address is not in one of the regions, the location will not be assigned – even if there is stock at the location.
If you create a rule to assign the location that is closest to the shipping address, but the shipping address postal code is missing, the engine will be unable to assign a location.
One or more attributes in the item record – such as the Preferred Location field or the Auto Loc. Assignment Allowed box – are preventing the engine from assigning a location. See Configuring Items for Automatic Location Assignment.
Incomplete details in the shipping address. If the customer’s shipping address does not have a valid postal code and there is a rule that uses Closest Location as an optimal fulfillment strategy, the engine cannot assign a location.
Incomplete details in the location address. If the location does not have a postal code and the geolocation method is set to Derive From Postal Code, the engine will be unable to calculate the location’s geographic position and will therefore discard the location.
Item is marked for drop shipment. The automatic location assignment engine does not assign locations to sales order lines with a drop ship item because the item will be shipped directly from the vendor.
NetSuite does not assign locations automatically if the Auto Loc. Assignment Suspended box is checked on the item record.

If the Fulfillment Request feature is enabled, NetSuite checks the Auto Loc. Assignment Suspended box automatically when a line item in a fulfillment request is rejected or a picking fulfillment exception is entered for the line item.

To create a rule:

How Locations Are Assigned with Rules

Reasons Why Locations Might Not Be Assigned Automatically

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