Unallocating orders

During picking operations, certain conditions can arise, such as cancellations that make it necessary to reverse the effects of allocation for an entire shipment order. The use of unallocation at the order level indicates that no portion of the order is to be shipped.

Unallocation removes the application’s reservation of stock for a customer’s order. It also removes any associated task manager pick tasks. If you need to unallocate an entire shipment order Unallocate Orders should be used.

An order can be unallocated (clearing the quantity allocated and quantity picked columns) until it is shipped. Shipping product is in the point of no return and orders cannot be unallocated at this point.

The two basic types of unallocation that you can perform against orders are:

  • Mass unallocation

    Use the mass unallocation option to remove allocation or pick information only for specific picks that are not updated to Picked status. If the pick record has already been updated to Picked status you must unallocate by using one of the Single Pick methods listed below. This reduces the risk of accidentally unallocating orders that have already been through the pick process. The mass unallocation functions include:

    • Wave Maintenance (Action > Unallocate)
    • Shipment Orders (Action > Unallocate)
    • Unallocate Shipment Orders
    • Unallocate Order Details
  • Single pick.

    Use the single pick unallocation options to remove the allocation or pick information if the information is not updated to Shipped status. You can use these screens to perform this type of unallocation:

    • Shipment Order (Pick Detail tab)
    • Unallocate Pick Details
    • Pick Detail screen

Below are some common examples why Unallocate Orders would be required:

  • Accounts receivable has informed the warehouse that an order, which has already been released to the floor, must be cancelled due to the customer’s non-payment of bills.
  • A customer has called and cancelled their order, which has been allocated, and you must remove the entire order from picking.
  • Certain orders cannot be picked in time for the overnight service. The warehouse needs to unallocate the orders today and re-allocate them tomorrow.