Using Sales Order Dates in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2018

Using Sales Order Dates in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2018

Date fields on NAV 2018 sales orders can be confusing, but used correctly, they will improve your sales order processing. The dates are designed to allow you to plan the shipments to meet your customer’s delivery expectations.

There are ten date options when processing sales orders in NAV 2018. Six are on the sales header, four are on both the header and lines, and one is only on the lines. The use of the header-only dates is straightforward. The dates that are on both header and lines interact with each other and must be used more carefully.

Sales Order Dates – General FastTab

By default, the Sales Header General FastTab has six dates, as seen in Figure 1.

Figure 1 – Sales Header General FastTab with six dates highlighted in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2018
Figure 1 – Sales Header General FastTab with six dates highlighted in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2018

  1. Document Date – Defaults to the date the document was created. Document Date is used by NAV to calculate the due date of the payment for the order. This date also is used to calculate finance charges based on the grace period for finance charge terms.
  2. Posting Date – Defaults to the date the document was created. This date can be changed by the user. It is used by the system when posting transactions to the Ledger Entry tables. It is also used when creating various related documents like Posted Shipments and Posted Invoices.
  3. Order Date – The date the order was created. NAV populates this with the work date when the order is created. It can be changed, but typically would not be as it is the record of when the order was created. If the date is changed, since this date is also on the line records, the system will warn the user that the line order dates were not changed. They can be manually changed if desired.
  4. Due Date – The date payment is due for the custom to avoid payment penalties: [Document Date + payment terms = Due Date]. This date can be changed without affecting the document date.
  5. Requested Delivery Date – The date the customer has asked for the order to be delivered. The shipment date is calculated from this field. If the date is changed, since this date is also on the line records, the system will ask the user if they want the line dates changed.

By default, this date is not populated on the header since it relates to when line items are requested, and that can be different by line. However, if you set or change the date on the header, the system will ask if you want to update the date on the lines. If you answer “Yes,” the system will populate every line item with the Requested Delivery Date. The system will then recalculate the Order Dates, Planned Delivery Dates, Planned Shipment Dates, and Shipment Date for the line items. See the Sales Lines section below for more information.

The Requested Delivery Date field allows you to record the date the customer wanted to receive the goods. This date is not recalculated, so once established it gives you a marker to measure your customer’s requested date vs. the actual delivery date. Also, when you fill in the Promised Delivery Date, you are prevented from changing the Requested Delivery Date.

  1. Promised Delivery Date – The date by which you have promised the customer to deliver the order. By default, this date is not populated on the header since it relates to when line items are promised, and that can be different by line item. However, if you set or change the date on the header, the system will ask if you want to update the date on the lines. If you answer “Yes,” the system will populate every line item with the Promised Delivery Date. The system will then recalculate the Order Dates, Planned Delivery Dates, Planned Shipment Dates, and Shipment Dates for the line items. See the Sales Lines section below for more information.

Sales Order Dates – Invoice Details FastTab

By default, the Sales Header Invoice Details FastTab has one date, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 – Invoice Details FastTab with two dates highlighted in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2018
Figure 2 – Invoice Details FastTab with two dates highlighted in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2018

  1. Pmt. Discount Date – Calculated based on the Document Date + the discount portion (if any) of the payment terms. If there is no discount associated with the payment terms, this date will be equal to the Document Date.

Sales Order Dates – Shipping and Billing Details FastTab

By default, the Sales Header Shipping and Billing FastTab has one date, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3 – Shipping and Billing Details FastTab with two dates highlighted in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2018
Figure 3 – Shipping and Billing Details FastTab with two dates highlighted in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2018

  1. Shipment Date – Defaults to the work date. The Shipment Date specifies the date the items are to be available in inventory, so the warehouse can pick the items for shipment. However, if you set or change the date on the header, the system will ask if you want to update the date on the lines. If you answer “Yes” the system will populate every line item with the Shipment Date. The system will then recalculate the Order Dates, Planned Delivery Date, and Planned Shipment Date for the line items. See the Sales Lines section below for more information

Sales Order Dates – Prepayment FastTab

By default, the Sales Header Prepayment FastTab has two dates, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4 – Sales Header Prepayment FastTab with two dates highlighted in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2018
Figure 4 – Sales Header Prepayment FastTab with two dates highlighted in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2018

  1. Prepayment Due Date – If prepayment is required, the date prepayment is due to avoid penalties.
  2. Prepayment Payment Discount Date – If prepayment is required, the date prepayment is due to take any discounts offered.

Sales Order Dates – Lines

Many of the same dates on the Sales Header are also on the lines. Based on the line dates, NAV 2018 can do replenishment calculations.

NOTE: These five dates – Shipment Date, Planned Shipment Date, Requested Delivery Date, Planned Delivery Date, Promised Delivery Date – are related to each other. Changing one of these dates will cause the system to recalculate one or more of the other dates.

The best way to think about NAV Sales Order dates is to realize that NAV tries to get to a Planned Shipment Date as a baseline and then does calculations based on planning parameters to get to dates that are useful to the users, as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5 – Calculations based on planning parameters with Planned Shipment Date as the baseline in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2018
Figure 5 – Calculations based on planning parameters with Planned Shipment Date as the baseline in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2018

  1. Shipment Date – The date you expect your inventory to be available in stock. The line’s shipment date gets auto-populated from the sales header shipment date, but you can change this and have different dates on the lines. If you change the date on the header, the system will ask if you want to change the date on the lines.
  2. Planned Shipment Date – The date you expect inventory to ship from the warehouse: [Shipment Date + Outbound Warehouse Handling Time = Planned Shipment Date]. If the Planned Shipment Date is changed manually, the system will recalculate the Planned Shipment Date = Shipment Date + Outbound Warehouse Handling Time.
  3. Requested Delivery Date – The date your customer would like to have the goods delivered. Once set, the system will not recalculate this date, so it serves as a marker to measure your performance against the customer’s requested date. If you set this date, NAV sets the Planned Delivery Date = Requested Date calculations using lead times and handling times.
  4. Planned Delivery Date – The date you expect the order to arrive at your customer’s facility: [Requested delivery date – shipping time = Planned Delivery Date]. If the customer doesn’t request a delivery date or the requested delivery date cannot be met, the program calculates the planned shipment date by (Shipment Date + Shipment Time = Planned Delivery Date). If the Planned Delivery Date is changed manually, the system will recalculate the Planned Delivery Date = Requested Delivery Date – Shipping Time.
  5. Promised Delivery Date – The date you promised the customer the goods would arrive at their facility. This is set manually, and the system will not recalculate this date. NAV sets the Planned Delivery Date = Promised Delivery Date and then makes appropriate calculations shipping time and handling times.

Contact ArcherPoint with your questions about date and date calculations in Dynamics NAV or Business Central. You may also be interested in our blog, Using Purchase Order Dates in Dynamics NAV 2017.

Read more “How To” blogs from ArcherPoint for practical advice on using Microsoft Dynamics Business Central or NAV.

If you are interested in NAV/Business Central development, check out our collection of NAV/BC Development Blogs.

 

 

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