About Reserving Inventory for an Order

The system reserves inventory for customer orders or order lines, based on these conditions:

  • The item to be reserved must have its Reservable check box (found on the Controls tab of the Items form) selected.
  • The customer order line item status must be Ordered.

Using the Reservations for Orders Form

To enter a new reservation for an order line/release, on the Reservations for Orders form, select Actions > New. Enter the order line/release, warehouse, location, and lot (if applicable).

When you select a line/release containing a serial-tracked item and click Refresh, the serial numbers available for this warehouse, location, and lot that have a status of Inventory display.

Note: The Refresh button is only enabled for a serial-tracked item.

When you display an existing reservation for an order line/release, all existing serial numbers (or serials) associated with the reservation are displayed and selected. Additionally, all serial numbers having a status of Inventory, for the warehouse, location, and lot, are displayed and unselected. This allows you to:

  • Clear serial numbers
  • Change which serial numbers are reserved
  • Add a quantity of serial numbers to the reserved list

If you clear a serial number, its status reverts back to Inventory.

MRP and APS consider the on-hand balance after any reservations are deducted. For example, if your beginning on-hand is 50 and you have reserved a quantity of 20 for a given demand, the system considers the available on-hand to be 30 for allocations to other demands. Also, reserving a quantity for a demand reduces the quantity of that demand to plan. For example, if you have an order for 50, for which a quantity of 40 is reserved, the system plans that order for the remaining unsatisfied quantity of 10.

Effects of Reservations on Planning

MRP and APS consider the on-hand balance after any reservations are deducted. For example, if your beginning on-hand is 50 and you have reserved a quantity of 20 for a given demand, the system considers the available on-hand to be 30 for allocations to other demands. Also, reserving a quantity for a demand reduces the quantity of that demand to plan. For example, if you have an order for 50, for which a quantity of 40 is reserved, the system plans that order for the remaining unsatisfied quantity of 10.

Verifying the Reservation

To verify that the item was actually reserved for the order, use any of these methods:

  • Open the Reservations for Order form. You should see a new record for each order line you added.
  • Open the Reservations for Item form. Select the item you reserved. You should see a reservation record, specifying the order and line number.
  • Run the Reserved Inventory by Order Report, specifying the order and/or item.

Calculations Used in Reserving Inventory

The calculation that the system uses to determine the amount of inventory to reserve is as follows:

  • QO - QS + QR - QAR = RI

where:

  • QO = Quantity Ordered
  • QS = Quantity Shipped
  • QR = Quantity Returned
  • QAR = Quantity Already Reserved

The system reserves inventory in order of Item Stockroom Location rank. The system reserves inventory until the Available to Reserve inventory reaches 0. The Available to Reserve inventory is calculated as follows for a specific warehouse:

  • QOH - QRCO = ATR

where:

  • QOH = Quantity On Hand
  • QRCO = Quantity Reserved for the Customer Order
  • ATR = Available To Reserve

For lot-tracked items, the system uses the Issue By field (on the Controls tab of the Items form) to determine the method for reserving items:

  • If the Issue By field is set to Lot for the item, the system selects items to reserve in lot order alphabetically. Then, for each location within that lot, it reserves items based on the order of Item Stockroom Location rank.
  • If the Issue By field is set to Location, the system reserves items in order of Item Stockroom Location rank for each location and picks the lots alphabetically within that location.

Reserving Serial-Tracked Items

If you reserve an item that is tracked by serial number, you can use the Reservations for Order form's serial number area to reserve specific serial numbers for this order.

Unreserving Items

If you have reserved an item for an order but no longer need to have it reserved, use the Reserve/Unreserve Inventory Utility to remove the reservation. Or you can just delete the record(s) from the Reservations for Item form or Reservations for Order Report.

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