Freight order statuses

The sources of status updates

For outbound transports, the goods listed on freight orders are picked up in your warehouse, loaded onto a truck or other means of transport, and unloaded at the customer's warehouse. For inbound transports, the goods are picked up from the supplier and brought to your warehouse, where the goods are unloaded and stored.

If loads and shipments are created from a freight order, the progress of the loads and shipments through warehouse processing is reflected in the freight order status.

Because some of the stages that a freight order goes through take place in the warehouse, various freight order statuses are generated for the originating warehousing order in Warehousing and passed on to the freight order. For more information, refer to To define warehousing procedures and To define warehousing order types.

To monitor the progress of a freight order, you can view the freight order status. The status of a freight order is displayed in the Freight Orders (fmfoc2100m000) session. Both freight order headers and freight order lines have statuses. Freight order line statuses are displayed in the Freight Order Lines (fmfoc2101m000) session.

Warehouse Management updates freight orders that are not planned or actual

Sometimes, freight orders that have not been planned, or freight orders related to load plans that are not set to Actual are nevertheless processed in the warehouse, provided that the originating orders of these freight orders are released to Warehousing.

If an originating order is released to Warehousing, one or more warehousing orders are generated for the originating order, and Warehousing generates loads and shipments for these warehousing orders. ( Warehousing can create loads and shipments, but the planning functionality is limited.)

From these Warehousing loads and shipments, Freight creates loads and shipments, adding extra information, such as freight costs. When these loads and shipments are processed in the warehouse, the related freight orders are updated.

How LN passes on status changes to freight order lines and headers

The status of a freight order line is changed when the status of the shipment lines related to the freight order line is changed. When the statuses of all freight order lines of a freight order are changed, the status of the freight order is changed. However, the In Progress status is an exception to this rule. If a freight order line obtains the In Progress status, this status is automatically passed on to the entire freight order.

Updates without status change

The following updates to freight orders do not affect the freight order status.

Order blocking

Originating orders can be blocked. If an originating order is blocked, the corresponding freight order is blocked as well.

Quantities

If quantities of loads, shipments, and warehousing orders are changed in Warehousing, these changes are reflected in the related freight order lines.

Status overview

The freight order status determines whether you can change or delete a freight order, as described in the following freight order status overview.

Expected

This status is the initial status of a freight order. You can make changes to the freight order header or the freight order lines without any consequences. In addition, changes in any originating orders, such as purchase orders, sales orders, or enterprise planning orders, are implemented in the freight order.

Planned

The Planned status is only allocated to freight orders that you plan by means of the load building engine. When transport planning is carried out for a freight order in Freight, shipments and loads are created from the freight order. The freight order, and the loads and shipments created from the freight order obtain the Planned status.

You can use the load building engine to create shipments and loads, or you can create shipments and loads manually and link freight orders to them. You can carry out planning more than once for a freight order using various planning algorithms to find out which algorithm provides you with the best results, but the freight order's status remains Planned until one of the shipment lines linked to the order lines of the freight order obtains the Actual status.

If all the loads and shipments created from a freight order line that has the Planned status are deleted, the status of the freight order changes back to Expected.

Freight order headers or the freight order lines that have the Planned status can be changed, and changes in any originating orders will be implemented in the freight orders or freight order lines. However, such changes affect the load plans on which these freight orders are based. For more information, refer to Replan separately or include in Planned freight orders and Load plan, load, and shipment maintenance.

Actual

Freight orders that are planned by means of the load building engine can obtain the Actual status. Freight order clusters (cluster headers) can also obtain the Actual status.

• Planned freight orders

  The Actual status indicates that a load plan will be actually used to transport the goods listed on the shipment lines included in the load plan. If a load plan is made Actual, the loads, shipments, and shipment lines of the plan obtain the Actual status. The freight order lines and related freight orders on which the load plan is based also receive the Actual status.

  The Update Actual Load Data parameter in the Freight Planning Parameters (fmlbd0100m000) session enables you to specify how Freight deals with changes in freight orders that have the Actual status. For more information, refer to To replan changed Actual freight orders.

  To manually change an Actual freight order, you must cancel the Actual status of the load plan related to the freight order. For this purpose, use the Undo Actualize command on the appropriate menu of the Plans (fmlbd0110m000) session.

  If the Actual status of load plan is cancelled, the status of all related loads, shipments, and shipment lines changes back to the Planned status. In turn, the freight order lines and freight orders on which the load plan was based also receive the Planned status again.

• Clustered freight orders

  Freight order clusters do not obtain the Actual status from the load building engine. The Actual status for clusters is provided using the clustering functionality. The Actual status indicates that the cluster is finalized and ready to be offered to a carrier. The user decides when a cluster is ready for actualization. For more information, refer to Cluster and cluster line status overview.

In Progress

The In Progress status is given to freight orders, freight order lines, and cluster lines for which inbound and outbound processing in Warehousing has started. This takes place in the following cases:

• Freight orders, freight order lines and freight order cluster lines whose related warehousing order lines are being prepared for inbound or outbound transport in Warehousing.
• Freight orders and freight order lines whose related Freight loads and shipments are prepared for inbound or outbound processing in Warehousing.

If a freight order line obtains the In Progress status, this status is automatically passed on to the entire freight order.

Freight order lines that have the In Progress status cannot be changed in Freight.

Confirmed

In Warehousing, the Confirmed status is used to indicate that outbound goods are loaded and ready to leave the warehouse. For inbound goods transports, the Confirmed status is not used.

As soon as outbound shipment lines, shipments, and loads have received the Confirmed status in Warehousing, the Confirmed status is passed on to Freight.

If the Automatically Change from 'Confirmed' to 'Shipped' check box in the Freight Planning Parameters (fmlbd0100m000) session is cleared, this status appears in the following sessions:

• Loads (fmlbd4100m000)
• Shipments (fmlbd3100m000)
• Shipment Lines (fmlbd3150m000)

In addition, the freight order lines and freight order headers related to the loads and shipments obtain the Confirmed status.

If the Automatically Change from 'Confirmed' to 'Shipped' check box in the Freight Planning Parameters (fmlbd0100m000) session is selected, the Confirmed status does not appear in Freight.

The Confirmed status is not passed on to freight order headers or lines that are clustered, to cluster lines, or to freight order lines that are available for clustering. The reason is that if you do not perform transport planning, you are not interested in knowing whether the goods are ready to leave the warehouse. What you do want to know is whether or not the goods have left the warehouse, which is indicated by the Shipped status.

Shipped

The Shipped status is used to indicate that outbound goods have left the warehouse and are on their way to the customer, or that inbound goods have left the supplier's warehouse and are on their way to your warehouse.

The Shipped status is passed on from Warehousing to Freight for freight orders/order lines in the following way:

• Load building

  Outbound loads and shipments that have received the Confirmed status in Warehousing are given the Shipped status in Freight. This status is applied automatically if the Automatically Change from 'Confirmed' to 'Shipped' check box in the Freight Planning Parameters (fmlbd0100m000) session is selected. If this check box is cleared, you can convert the Warehousing Confirmed status to Shipped in the Confirm Delivery / Receipt (fmlbd3252m000) session. The Shipped status is passed on from the loads and shipments to the freight orders on which the loads and shipments are based.

  When inbound advance shipment notices are received in Freight, which is performed by means of EDI, for example, the related shipments and loads obtain the Shipped status. This status is passed on to the freight order headers and lines on which the loads and shipments are based.

• Clustering

  Outbound freight order headers, freight order lines, and cluster lines automatically receive the Shipped status if all goods of the related warehousing orders are loaded, have left the warehouse, and are set to Shipped in Warehousing. Inbound freight order headers, freight order lines, and cluster lines are set to Shipped when inbound advance shipment notices are received in Freight, for example by means of EDI. If no EDI relation is set up with the supplier, the user sets the inbound cluster lines or freight order lines to Shipped when the user is notified by the carrier that the goods have left the supplier's warehouse.

Completed

The Completed status is allocated to freight orders/lines when the goods have reached their destination. For outbound goods, this is when the goods have been delivered at the customer's. For inbound goods, this is when the goods have been received in the warehouse.

• Load building

  Inbound warehousing order lines, loads, and shipments obtain the Received status in Warehousing when they are unloaded and being processed in the warehouse. When inbound loads and shipments obtain the Received status in Warehousing, the freight orders and freight order lines on which these loads and shipments are based receive the Completed status in Freight.

  Freight orders based on outbound loads and shipments receive the Completed status after the loads and shipments are set to Completed in the Confirm Delivery / Receipt (fmlbd3252m000) session.

• Clustering

  Inbound freight order cluster lines, freight order headers, and freight order lines obtain the Completed status if the related warehousing orders are set to Final Receipt in Warehousing.

  For outbound freight order headers, freight order lines, and cluster lines you can use the Confirm Delivery / Receipt (fmlbd3252m000) session to set the status to Completed when the carrier informs you that the goods of the cluster are delivered at the customer's.

Closed

When the invoicing procedure is completed in the Accounts Payable module of Financials, the status changes to Closed.

Ignored

For more information, refer to Ignore freight order lines.