In the first two posts in our series on Working with date and time in D365, we’ve explored what fields exist and how they are related on the sales order, purchase order, load, and appointment. Out of everything we’ve used, the date calculation on sales orders has the most complexity. This post will try to demystify the calculation tools which exist for calculating key fields on the sales order.

All the files from the sales order, Requested Ship Date, Requested Receipt Date, Confirmed Ship Date, and Confirmed Receipt Date, can be set at both the header level (for the whole order) and the line item level (for each item in the order). A certain relation exists between these fields.

Requested Ship Date and Requested Receipt Date

Header Level: The Requested Ship Date at the header level is the shipping date expected for the entire order. The Requested Receipt Date shows when the customer expects to receive the whole order.

Line Level: Each line item has its Requested Ship Date and Requested Receipt Date. These can be the same as the header dates or differ if, for example, certain items take longer to prepare or need special shipping.

Updates: If you change the header-level Requested Ship Date or Requested Receipt Date, the system will ask if you'd like to update the line items with this new date and how to do so.

You can update the dates for all line items or keep each line's date unique by turning off the delivery date control. If you choose to recalculate the delivery dates, the system will use the delivery date control from the line for the calculation.

It's important to note that if a line item is updated, the system will not update the header field or prompt you to do so. If a line item's Requested Ship Date is changed to a date later than the header, a manual adjustment of the header date or approval is needed to keep everything consistent.

Confirmed Ship Date and Confirmed Receipt Date

Header Level: The Confirmed Ship Date at the header level confirms the shipping date for the entire order. The Confirmed Receipt Date shows when the customer should expect to receive everything.

Line Level: Each line item has its Confirmed Ship Date and Confirmed Receipt Date, which shows when each specific item is planned to ship or arrive.

Updates: The same behavior applies as in part 1.

Impact of Simulate Delivery Dates

D365 offers the possibility of simulating delivery dates by using Simulate Delivery Dates. This feature helps predict when an order will be delivered based on current settings and conditions. It can be used both on a header level and on the line level.

How It Works:

When the user selects the "Simulate Delivery Dates" option, the system estimates delivery dates for each item in the order by looking at shipping methods, inventory availability, and transportation times.

This feature helps the user view possible delivery dates before finalizing the order, so they can make adjustments if necessary.

The system will display potential available ship and receipt dates to the user, considering the delivery date control, which translates into lead time, the transport days, and whether the system should use working days in its calculation.

After selecting the date, the user can update the Confirmed and Requested ship dates.

The system will automatically prompt this screen if the user inputs an impossible date in the Confirmed ship date or Confirmed receipt date based on the delivery date control criteria.

The system will then display a message informing the user that the selected date is invalid based on the delivery date control. In addition, the other invalid dates will be marked with a warning sign.

After selecting the date, the user can update the confirmed ship date or turn off the delivery date control so it is no longer restricted. 

Business view:

It helps both the warehouse team and the customer by providing a clearer idea of when items can be shipped and, therefore, when they will be delivered to the customer.

The estimated delivery dates can help you better manage customers' expectations and plan your warehouse activities.

Now that our sales order header and lines have been updated, we can generate our load.

Conclusion

This post concludes the series on working with date and time in D365 (for now, at least). If you have gone through this series and are still missing something, comment on our posts on LinkedIn (or here directly on our blog), and/or reach out to our team!