Load Confirmation

Loads are made up of one or more shipments. You confirm loads to record the actual quantities of products that were shipped. The method that you use to confirm loads depends on whether the loads are compartmentalized and whether you track in-transit inventory.

If the load is not compartmentalized, you confirm the load at the shipment and order line level. If the load is compartmentalized, you confirm the load at the product and compartment level.

If the load is defined to track in-transit inventory, the inventory moves from the branch/plant's inventory balance to a load in-transit balance, and the system creates a general ledger entry to move the value of the products for inventory to the in-transit inventory account. The system tracks the movement of product into and out of in-transit inventory through the Load In-transit Ledger table (F49631). The system stores the balance of the in-transit inventory in the Load In-transit table (F4963).

You can confirm compartmentalized loads with in-transit inventory either as-scheduled or using the actual quantity loaded. When you confirm a load as-scheduled, the system relieves inventory based on the quantity scheduled on the load. When you confirm a load using the actual quantity loaded, the system relieves inventory based on the actual quantity loaded. However, you must have actuals turned on for the current load type. When you use the Actual Quantities option to confirm a load, you can also specify whether sales orders are adjusted at load time if the quantity loaded does not match the quantity scheduled. Unless an invoice is printed and accompanies the product, you normally do not adjust the sales order quantities until delivery confirmation.

If the load does not track in-transit inventory, inventory might or might not be relieved at load confirmation based on how the ship confirmation options are set up in the order entry programs. For compartmentalized loads that track in-transit inventory, the system tracks the product left on board. The system considers product left on board as a pre-loaded quantity and reflects that some product is on board the vehicle.

The system retrieves the actual ship date and time for the load date and time when you confirm a load. You can update the actual delivery date and time if needed. The system validates the actual ship date and issues a warning or error when the date entered is not within the current fiscal period. (Release 9.2 Update)

At the time of load confirmation, you can use weigh bridge information to calculate the weight of product in the compartment. The system then retrieves the calculated data and enters the information on the Confirm Load form. For bulk products that are affected by temperature differences, the system also calculates the variances in density, temperature, or both.

If necessary, you can apply excess charge codes and specify a reason code and establish authorization. The excess transportation codes are required when expedited charges exist. The codes are given to the supplier by the customer and are needed for both the Advance Ship Notice and payment.

Use the processing options on the Cartons tab in the Transportation Load Confirmations (P49640) processing options to ensure that cartons have passed necessary edits before load confirmation. For example, after you have assigned all labels to the shipment, you can advance the carton status to indicate that carton detail has been reconciled to shipment detail. This process is optional.