Introduction

A sales order within PVX refers to an order that has been placed by a customer for items that you stock and sell. The sales order contains information about the customer and the items ordered.

This article describes ways of using PVX to manage your sales orders while they are in the process of being fulfilled. It covers how to view orders that have been imported into PVX, the attributes of an order that you can edit, how to delete and cancel orders and how to manage orders while they are in the process of being picked.

Viewing imported sales orders

Sales orders can be imported into PVX using an integration with a suitable web sales platform, such as Magento. They can also be created directly within the web app, although this is not recommended as it is very time-consuming and prone to errors. However, you can use the web app to manage the sales order as it progresses through your warehouse management process.

Go to the Sales tab in the Warehouse module of the PVX web app. The list of active sales orders is displayed together with their status and whether or not they have been released for picking. The sales order status will update as the sales order progresses through the process.
To view cancelled or despatched sales orders, tick the Show Despatched / Cancelled orders check box.
To view the details of an order, click the order and then click View. The Sales order dialog is displayed. From here you can edit or cancel sales orders.
To delete a sales order, click the order and then click Delete; click Proceed to confirm the deletion. You can only delete a sales order up to the point where it is allocated; a sales order that is being or has been picked cannot be deleted.

Note: Deleting an order is not the same as cancelling an order. A deleted sales order leaves no record within the system and the sales order number can be reused. A cancelled sales order remains recorded in the system and so the sales order number cannot be reused.

To view a summary of the entire history of a sales order in PVX, click the order to select it, then click and select Show sales order summary from the drop-down list.

If a sales order is not imported automatically into PVX via the integration, this may be because the product database does not contain the item and therefore PVX does not recognise it. Should this happen, you will need to add the item using the Items tab. Alternatively, add the item into the master product list where it can be imported into PVX.

Refer to the articles on integrations for further information.

Understanding sales order status

The different stages of processing a sales order are indicated in PVX by changes in the sales order status. The status also affects the inventory levels of the item(s) in the order and whether picking actions can be created. These are described in the table below:

Status	Description	Effect on inventory	Effect on picking actions
New	Sales order has been imported into PVX.	No inventory is allocated, either because item is not available or auto-allocation is not enabled on the system.	No picking actions can be created for the order.
Partially allocated	Some inventory has been allocated to the order (not all items are available).	Available level of each item decreases while allocated level increases.	Picking action can only be created if Allow partial shipment option is selected for the order.
Allocated	All the required inventory is allocated to the order (all items are available).	Available level of each item decreases while allocated level increases.	Picking action can be created.
Partially picked	Some of the items in the order have been picked.	Inventory levels unchanged.	Further picking actions can be created to complete order.
Picked	Order has been picked.	Inventory levels unchanged.	Items must be unpicked to allow new actions to be created.
Partially despatched	Some of the items have been despatched to the customer.	On hand, available and allocated levels of each item all decrease.	Further picking actions can be created to complete order.
Despatched	Order has been despatched to the customer.	On hand, available and allocated levels of each item all decrease.	No actions can be created against the order.
Cancelled	Order has been cancelled (NOT deleted).	Available level of each item increases while allocated level decreases.	No actions can be created against the order.

In addition, an order can be categorised as either Released or Not released. An order that is not released has had no picking actions created against it. When an action is created, the order is automatically released to the picking operators who can then select the action and complete the pick for that order.

Editing sales orders

Up to the moment when a sales order is assigned a status of partially picked or picked, all its information can be edited:

Select the sales order in the Sales tab and click View.
Click Edit in the dialog.
Make the required changes and click Save.

Once an order is in the process of being picked, only specific attributes can be edited in this way:

Attributes that CAN be edited during/after picking	Customer name, customer email, customer order ref, invoice address, shipping address, Use invoice address for shipping option, Allow partial shipment option, shipping cost, service type, payment method, sales channel, stop ship, attributes 1-5
Attributes that CANNOT be edited during/after picking	Sales order number, priority, requested delivery date, item, ordered quantity, unit price, on hold option, site

Managing partially allocated and partially picked sales orders

A sales order will have a status of partially allocated if one or more of the items on the order is not allocated. This usually indicates the item(s) not allocated to the order is out of stock. By default an action cannot be created against a partially allocated order. This means the order will not be picked and despatched until further stock of the ‘non-allocated’ item(s) is received and allocated to the order, causing the order status to change to allocated.

You can 'unblock' a partially allocated sales order by ticking the Allow partial shipment checkbox in the sales order dialog, and then clicking Save. This will allow you to create picking actions against a partially allocated sales order which is then shown as partially picked; the order can then be partially despatched.

Similarly, a sales order will have a status of partially picked if the picking action against the sales order is completed but one or more of the items on the sales order could not be picked. An operator may not be able to pick an item for several reasons, such as not being able to locate the item or finding it damaged. By default the system will not allow partially picked sales orders to be despatched, but you can allow this if you tick the Allow partial shipment checkbox. Once the failed picking action has been handled to resolve the issue, a new action can be created for the partially despatched sales order in order to pick and despatch the outstanding item(s).

Note: Before ticking the Allow partial shipment checkbox on the order, you may want to contact the customer to advise them of the status of their order and ask how they would like to proceed. For example, a customer may have ordered three items but if one or more of those items cannot be sent to them they may no longer require the other items. In these circumstances the order would need to be cancelled rather than partially despatched.

Managing sales orders on hold

When a sales order is placed on hold, PVX is prevented from creating any further picking actions for that order until the hold is released. You may want to place an order on hold for several reasons, such as a suspicion that an order is fraudulent which requires further investigation. When it has been decided how to proceed with the order, the hold can be released to allow the order to be processed. Alternatively the order can be cancelled.

You can apply or release a hold on a sales order as follows:

Go to the Sales tab in the Warehouse module of the web app.
Click the sales order in the list that you want to place on hold, and click View.
In the Sales Order dialog, tick the on hold checkbox, and then click Save. Untick the checkbox to remove the hold on the order.

You can place an order on hold if it has a status of new, allocated or partially allocated. This will prevent the order from being processed any further until the hold is released. No picking actions can be created against the order during this time. If a sales order has a status of picked, partially picked or partially despatched, you cannot place the order on hold.

Note that 'on hold' is different from Stop Ship, which allows an order to be processed up to the point when it is despatched. If the order has a status of new or allocated then use 'on hold' to immediately block picking of the order. Alternatively, apply the Stop Ship option to allow the order to be allocated and picked but not despatched.

Cancelling sales orders

You can cancel an order in the Sales tab of the PVX web app:

Select the order you want to cancel and click View.
At the bottom of the Sales Order dialog, click Cancel the order.
Click Yes to confirm.

This is a straightforward task up until the moment that the order is released for picking and an operator accepts the action to pick the order. This is shown by the operator's name being listed in the Locked By column in the Actions tab of the web app. If an order needs cancelling at this stage, proceed as follows:

Physically locate the operator who is picking the action within the warehouse.
Ask the operator to skip any remaining items on the action not yet picked using the Skip option in the mobile app. The order status will change to partially picked and a failed action will be added to the list in the Actions tab.
Cancel the order in PVX as described above.
Register any picked items back into the warehouse inventory.
Handle the failed action.

Once the status of an order is shown as picked, this means it is awaiting despatch. To cancel the order at this stage, proceed as follows:

Physically locate the picked items relating to the sales order.
Cancel the sales order in PVX as described above.
Use move to return the items from the despatch location back to the pick face

If cancelling an order in the ways described above is difficult or impractical within your warehouse operations, you may want to include a cancellation clause in your terms and conditions stating that an order can only be cancelled up to a certain stage of the order fulfilment process. For example, if your customer service team and your warehouse are on separate sites and a customer calls to cancel an order that is being picked, it may not be possible for customer services to go to the warehouse and find the person that is picking that order.

To address this, you could state that an order can only be cancelled within a certain time interval from being placed. This gives the customer a 'time window' in which to cancel an order, and you would then only create and perform actions for sales orders after this interval has elapsed.

Managing Sales Orders