How to: Work with Blanket Sales Orders
A blanket sales order represents a framework for a long-term agreement between you and your customer.
A blanket order is typically made when a customer has committed to purchasing large quantities that are to be delivered in several smaller shipments over a certain period of time. Often blanket orders cover only one item with predetermined delivery dates. The main reason for using a blanket order rather than a sales order is that quantities entered on a blanket order do not affect item availability and thus can be used as a worksheet for monitoring, forecasting, and planning purposes.
On the blanket order, each separate shipment can be set up as an order line, which can then be converted into a sales order at the time of shipping.
An example of when a blanket sales order could be used is if a customer calls and places an order of 1000 units of an item and they want the items to be delivered in 250 units every week over the next month.
Note
Blanket purchase orders work in a similar way as blanket sales orders. This documentation does not cover blanket purchase orders.
To create a blanket sales order
- Choose the icon, enter Blanket Sales Orders, and then choose the related link.
- Choose the New action.
- Fill in the fields as necessary. Choose a field to read a short description of the field or link to more information.
- Leave the Order Date field blank. When the separate sales orders are created from the blanket order, the order date of the sales order is set to equal the actual work date.
- On the Lines FastTab, create separate lines for each shipment. For instance, if your customer wants 1000 units split out equally between four weeks, you would enter four separate lines of 250 units each.
To create a sales order from a blanket sales order
- To create an order for any of the lines in the blanket assembly order, remove the quantity in the Qty. to Ship field on all the lines that you DO NOT wish to ship at this time.
- When you are ready to create orders, choose the Make Orderm action, and then choose Yes. A message appears informing you that the blanket order has been assigned an order number. Note that the blanket order has not been deleted.
- Choose the OK button.
- To see the results of the preceding steps, choose the Line action, choose the Unposted Lines action, and then choose the Orders action.
- In the Sales Lines window, select the appropriate sales order, choose the Line action, and then choose the Show Document action.
The following applies to sales orders after they have been created from blanket sales orders:
- After the blanket order is converted into a sales order, the sales order contains all the lines from the blanket order. The lines where the quantity in the Qty. to Ship field was deleted appear, but with blank Quantity fields. You may choose to leave, edit, or delete the lines.
- It is important to remember that the sales order line quantity must not exceed the quantity of the associated blanket order line. Otherwise, posting of the sales order will not be possible.
- When the sales order is posted as shipped and/or invoiced, the Quantity Shipped and Quantity Invoiced fields are updated on the related blanket order.
- The blanket order number and line number are recorded as properties of the sales lines when created from a blanket order.
- When sales orders are not created directly from the blanket order but still relate to it, a link between a sales order and a blanket order can be established by entering the associated blanket order number in the Blanket Order No. field on the sales order line.
- After the sales order has been created for the total quantity of a blanket order line, no other sales order can be created for the same line. Users are prevented from entering a quantity in the Qty. to Ship field. If, however, additional quantities need to be added to a blanket order, the value in the Quantity field can be increased and additional orders can then be created.
- The invoiced blanket sales order remains in the system until it is deleted, either by deleting individual blanket orders or by running the Delete Invoiced Blanket Sales Orders batch job.
- If a customer is also recorded as a contact in the Marketing application area, and if you have specified an interaction template code for blanket sales order in the Marketing Setup window, an interaction is recorded in the Interaction Log Entry table when you select Print to print the blanket sales order.
To view the status of a blanket purchase order
You can see the status of a blanket sales order in the Purchase Blanket Order Statistics window. This may be relevant when you start to invoice the order that is created from the blanket purchase order.
Choose the icon, enter Blanket Purchase Orders, and then choose the related link.
Select a blanket purchase order, and then choose the Statistics action.
In the Purchase Blanket Order Statistics window, on the General FastTab, you can see summary information about the entire order based on the total quantity in the various Quantity fields on the blanket purchase order lines.
- On the Invoicing FastTab, you can see summary information based on the total quantity in the Qty. to Invoice fields on the purchase blanket order lines.
- On the Shipping FastTab, you can see summary information based on the total quantity in the Qty. to Receive fields on the purchase blanket order lines.
- On the Prepayment FastTab, you can see summary information about any prepaid amounts.
- On the Vendor FastTab, you can see certain basic information about the vendor.
To view unposted and posted blanket sales order lines
The link between the blanket sales order and the originating sales order, and any other sales document, is retained after posting as a list of posted and unposted sales order invoice lines.
Choose the icon enter Blanket Sales Orders, and then choose the related link.
Open the blanket sales order you want to view.
To view unposted entries, select the line in question, choose the Line action, and then choose the Unposted Lines action. Choose one of the following options.
Option Description **Orders** Specifies open orders associated with the selected line. **Invoices** Specifies open invoices that have been associated with the selected line. Open invoices are manually associated with a blanket order by entering the blanket order number on the sales invoice line. **Return Orders** Specifies open return orders that have been associated with the selected line. **CR/Adj Notes** Specifies open CR/Adj Notes that have been associated with the selected line. To view posted entries, select the line in question, choose the Line action, and then choose the Posted Lines action. Choose one of the following options.
Option Description **Shipments** Posted shipments associated with the selected line. **Invoices** Posted invoices associated with the selected line. **Return Receipts** Posted return receipts that have been associated with the selected line. **CR/Adj Notes** Posted CR/Adj Notes that have been associated with the selected line. In the Sales Lines window, choose the Show Document action to view the entry.