QuickBooks Enterprise 18 Advanced Inventory: Sales Order Enhancements

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In prior versions of QuickBooks offering Sales Orders, even in QuickBooks Enterprise with Advanced Inventory, the process of Sales Order fulfillment was "manual" and based upon printed pick-lists. Picked quantities were only updated in QuickBooks by creating an Invoice from the Sales Order.

The old process was slow and resulted in potentially inaccurate information being displayed within QuickBooks, because picked inventory didn't impact the quantity available to fulfill orders. In these cases, some orders might have been considered as fulfillable, when in fact they were not due to insufficient inventory quantities.

The combination of manual processing and reliance upon invoicing to change the quantity available meant that it was difficult to prioritize Sales Orders needing to be processed.

For QuickBooks Enterprise 18 Advanced Inventory users, there is an optional Enhanced Sales Order Fulfillment Worksheet designed to make it easier and quicker to find and prioritize sales orders for fulfillment. That means the relevant information is available to you.

This Enhanced Sales Order Fulfillment Worksheet provides all your Sales Orders in one place with the information you need, including shipping date, global inventory availability, and more. The revised fulfillable column now clearly displays the status of available inventory in plain language – yes, no or partial (no more confusing symbols to learn). If you're using the multi-location feature you can also find which site(s) can fulfill each sales order with one click.

To go along with the Enhanced Sales Order Fulfillment Worksheet and workflows, the Sales Order screen within QuickBooks now incorporates real time status updates with messaging that gives you the current status of your sales orders.

Notice the orange message "Sent for Picking" appearing just below the Sales Order (form name) at the top left of the form. Other message options you may see include "Pick in progress" and "Picked" or "Partially picked"

New columns on the Sales Order show the picked status of each item and the quantity picked.

The enhanced worksheet functionality and sales order information additions were designed for the new Mobile Sales Order Fulfillment workflow making use of a Barcode Scanner. Now there is a new workflow option that combines manual picking with virtual pick updates.

I think a lot of QuickBooks Enterprise Advanced Inventory users who migrate to this 2018 version will want to use this manual workflow to see how it impacts their business before they commit to buying a Mobile Scanner. Therefore, I'm going to outline how this new workflow differs from previous versions of the product.

To use the Enhanced Sales Order Fulfillment "Manual" Workflow you must first turn on the new Enhanced Sales Order Fulfillment Worksheet from the new Site Operation tab within Advanced Inventory Settings. Advanced Inventory Settings are accessed from the Items and Inventory Company Preferences. 

Note: This settings tab is also where you install and add your connection with the mobile barcode device. The workflow associated with the mobile scanner will be outlined within an additional article covering QuickBooks 2018.

When you open the Sales Order Fulfillment Worksheet, the enhanced version (shown below) will have replaced the standard version.

In the example below, we have selected (highlighted in green) a Sales Order that's reported as "Yes" within the Fulfillable column.  

  • We click Next to begin the process of preparing the Picklist.
  • Next, select the items to be picked for the specific Sales Order we chose.  After selecting the item(s), click Next to create the picklist.
  • The Picklist Creation window appears in front of the select items for picklist screen. We can either accept or change the Picklist Name created by QuickBooks. Next, select the Picker from the Picker’s Name drop-down list and add any notes we wish to include within the "Add note to picker" field. (Shown at the top off the next page.)
  • Instead of using the Create & Send button, we use the button drop down to choose the option to Create & Print. Once we print the picklist the Create & Send button changes to a View Progress button and a "Picklist created" message is displayed. By clicking on the View Progress button, we're taken to the Picklist tab, where the newly created Picklist is visible with the status of "Sent for Picking."
  • Once we open the picklist, we are allowed to edit the Picked Quantity. The pick status will change automatically based upon the entry we make.
  • When the picked items have been updated, click the blue Update Sales Order button. The sales order is updated in real-time with the pick quantity and status. 

The picked quantities impact the available quantity used by the Enhanced Sales Order Fulfillment Worksheet in determining the "fulfillability" of additional sales orders.

So, if you're an Advanced Inventory user who isn’t planning on using the mobile barcode scanner for Sales Order fulfillment, this new workflow is much better than the "old way."

I suggest you really consider turning on this feature, because it doesn’t cost you anything extra over your current Advanced Inventory Enterprise plan.

If you find out you don’t like the new capabilities, you can always turn the feature off by unchecking the preference on the Site Operation tab.

Editor's Note: The information and screen shots appearing in this article were taken from a pre-release version. There could be differences from what's included here and what exists within the initial or subsequent releases of the software.

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