1. Order Management
  2. Order Fulfillment and Shipping
  3. Order Fulfillment Automation
  4. Fulfillment Request Creation

Fulfillment Request Creation

Fulfillment request creation is one of the two automation capabilities provided with the Advanced Order Management features. Setting up automated fulfillment requests involves two steps. First, you choose automation settings, and then you run the automation processes. Even when automation is running for fulfillment requests, you can continue creating fulfillment requests manually from sales orders – see Fulfillment Requests for more information.

Before you set up automated fulfillment requests in your account, make sure you have set the correct location type (store or warehouse) on location records. To set the location type on a location record, go to Setup > Company > Classifications > Locations. Click Edit next to the location record you want to work with. In the Location Type field, select either Store or Warehouse, and then click Save. (You can also leave the location type blank.)

To set up automation for fulfillment requests, complete the following steps:

  1. Choose automation settings for fulfillment requests.

  2. Run automation. See Running Automation.

When you automate the fulfillment request creation process, NetSuite creates the fulfillment request when the selected business events occur on the sales order. For more information about the business events that trigger the creation of fulfillment requests, see Business Events.

Note:

Fulfillment requests are created only if the sales order is approved and there is no payment hold on the sales order.

To set up automation for fulfillment requests:

  1. Go to Setup > Order Management > Setup Tasks > Advanced Order Management.

  2. On the Fulfillment Requests tab, choose the location types that will use fulfillment requests. Make sure you have set the correct location type on location records.

  3. To create fulfillment requests automatically for shipping orders:

    1. On the Automation tab, select the Shipping Orders subtab.

    2. Under Automation Process, ensure Fulfillment Request Creation is selected.

      If the Automatic Location Assignment feature (ALA) is enabled, you can also select Both (Automatic Location Assignment and Fulfillment Request Creation). See Automatic Location Assignment for more information about configuring ALA.

    3. Under Fulfillment Request Creation, choose the business events that will trigger the creation of fulfillment requests. The options available are:

      • Sales Order Approved

      • Payment Hold Released

      • Expected Ship Date is Reached

        If you choose this option, you cannot choose Sales Order Approved or Payment Hold Released.

      See Business Events for more information about the business events for fulfillment requests.

    4. To delay the creation of fulfillment requests, check the Wait Period Between Sales Order Creation and Fulfillment Request Creation box and enter the delay interval (in minutes) in the Wait Period Duration field. See Delaying Fulfillment Request Creation with a Wait Period for more information about setting a wait period.

  4. To create fulfillment requests automatically for store pickup orders:,

    1. On the Automation tab, select the Pickup Orders subtab.

      Note:

      The Pickup Orders subtab only appears if the Store Pickup feature is enabled in your account. See Store Pickup for more information.

    2. Under Fulfillment Request Creation, choose the business events that will trigger the creation of fulfillment requests. The options available are:

      • Sales Order Approved

      • Payment Hold Released

      See Business Events for more information about the business events for fulfillment requests.

  5. Click Save.

    After choosing settings for fulfillment request creation, ensure automation is running – see Running Automation.

Delaying Fulfillment Request Creation with a Wait Period

The automation settings for fulfillment requests include the option to specify a wait period, which lets you delay creation of fulfillment requests by the specified number of minutes. Delaying the creation of fulfillment requests lets you modify the sales order before fulfillment requests are created.

Note:

The wait period only applies to shipping orders. Fulfillment requests for store pickup orders are always created immediately after the sales order is saved.

The wait period duration starts when you create the sales order in the system. It is not dependent on the approval status of the sales order or the release of a payment hold on the sales order.

If you specify a wait period and select the Expected Ship Date is Reached option, the process will run after the date is reached or the wait period ends, whichever occurs last.

For example, you configure fulfillment requests to be created on the expected ship date. You also specify a wait period of 3 hours. The expected ship date is set for today. You create a sales order at 10 p.m. today. The process to create fulfillment requests will run on the next day at 1 a.m. when the wait period ends even if expected ship date is today.

The following diagram shows the timeline of the fulfillment request creation process with a wait period of 90 minutes. The selected business event is Sales Order Approved. When the sales order is created, the wait period starts. The order is approved a few minutes after it is created. At the end of the wait period, the fulfillment request is created.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

If the Automatic Location Assignment feature is enabled, you can run both automation processes (automatic location assignment and fulfillment request creation) at the same time.

The following diagram shows the timeline of the fulfillment request creation process with the automatic location assignment process and a wait period of 90 minutes. The selected business event is Sales Order Approved. The option to rerun automatic location assignment is selected to ensure the ideal fulfillment locations are assigned.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Using Automation for Fulfillment Requests

You can choose to automate the creation of fulfillment requests only, or, both the assignment of fulfillment locations to sales order lines and the creation of fulfillment requests.

When you automate the creation of fulfillment requests only, consider the following:

When you automate both the assignment of fulfillment locations to sales order lines and the creation of fulfillment requests, consider the following:

Differences Between Today and Future Date Expected Ship Dates

When you select the Expected Ship Date is Reached option, the expected ship date can be today or a future date.

If the expected ship date is a future date, consider the following:

If the expected ship date is today, consider the following:

Viewing the Fulfillment Request Creation Log

NetSuite records information about the fulfillment request creation process in a log to give you more visibility into the creation of fulfillment requests. You can view this log on the sales order in Business Events Processing History, under the System Information subtab. A summary field displays the outcome of the fulfillment request creation process. Click See more to view more detailed information about this process. The information is classified as one of the following types:

The information is listed chronologically with the most recent events at the top.

To view information about fulfillment request creation on a sales order:

  1. Go to Transactions > Sales > Enter Sales Orders > List.

  2. Click View next to the sales order you want to work with.

  3. Click the System Information subtab, and then click Business Events Processing History.

  4. In the Summary Status column, you can view the outcome of the automation process.

  5. Click See more. A popup window called Business Events Details opens that contains more information about the automation process. You can filter this information by information type.

You can also view information about the fulfillment request creation process by creating a saved search or a SuiteAnalytics workbook.

Related Topics

General Notices