One thing which I didn’t mention in the previous Advanced warehousing post was that you can batch source documents into a Warehouse Shipment or Receipt. This is done using one of two functions: Get Source Documents or Use Filters to Get Src. Docs. In this post, I am going to demonstrate how to apply these. Let’s take a look and run through a couple of examples!

Why batch orders into a singular Warehouse Shipment or Receipt?

The benefit of performing this action is it means the purchasing or sales team aren’t responsible for creating warehouse receipts and shipments directly from the original record. This keeps the warehousing functions solely to the warehousing team as the records we will create today will be started and finished without having to go into the original order. It also prevents the salespeople and purchasers from forgetting to create the warehouse document if the warehousing team haven’t got permissions to access the source document.

Most importantly, it allows users to collate orders and receive or ship them in one go, speeding up the process a lot in certain circumstances.

Batch warehouse shipments

There are two ways you can do this, we’ll firstly cover the ‘Get Src. Docs’ action, then ‘Use Filters to Get Src. Docs’.

Get Source Documents

When we make warehouse shipments on a 1:1 basis, we typically make the shipment directly from the sales order. However, when you make a warehouse shipment and wish to tie in multiple different sales orders, the process is a little different. Firstly, navigate to the Warehouse Shipments page. From here, create a new record. After doing this, input a value in the No. field and the Location Code field. Afterwards, click ‘Process’ and ‘Get Source Documents’.

On this screen, you can see a list of all sales orders that haven’t been shipped yet. You can decide which you wish to group together onto one Warehouse Shipment record. You might choose to do this by Destination Type or Shipping Agent Code, just as two examples. However you wish to do this, when you are happy with your selection, click ‘ok’.

Here I am selecting the records I want to batch into a singular warehouse shipment, using the Get Source Documents function.

The resulting pick or put-away will be made from the consolidated shipment you created.

Using the Get Source Documents functionality, we can batch orders into a singular warehouse shipment, regardless of the Item or Customer No. — You can see from this image that the warehouse shipment record has the relevant reference to the sales order it came from, in the Source No. field.

When you are happy with the warehouse shipment, release the document. Next, click ‘Actions’, ‘Functions’ and ‘Create Pick’. Clicking this should take you to the resulting pick record. As the pick record is a result of the consolidated warehouse shipment, you will get a pick document with all of those records.

From this stage, the process is the same as mentioned in the Advanced warehousing post. Simply register the pick and post the shipment on the warehouse shipment.

Use Filters to Get Src. Docs

An alternative way to batch outbound records together into one warehouse shipment is by employing the ‘Use Filters to Get Src. Docs’ function. This allows you to configure templates, based on field values on the outbound records and group them accordingly.

After you click the action, you’re brought to the page below:

In this image, you can see two key actions: 'Run' and 'Modify'. These allow you to manage how you filter the source documents which will make up the warehouse shipment.

The two actions ‘Run’ and ‘Modify’ are key. You’ll start with ‘Modify’ as this is where you can configure what filters will be applied to generate the warehouse shipment. If you click that, you’ll see this page:

In this image, I am filtering the warehouse shipment by the checked fields. — As you can see, I can choose which types of orders I want the records to come from, their shipping agents or even units of measure. There are additional fields you can filter by, including ‘Sell-to Customer No. or ‘Buy-from Vendor No.’ if you’re looking for purchase order return records.

The results after applying the filter will be what will populate the warehouse shipment. You can amend your setup for the template at any time by going back in and clicking ‘Modify’. You can also have multiple templates to choose from, so you aren’t limited to one. The list for Warehouse Shipment templates is separate to receipts, meaning you’re less likely to get mixed up and select an invalid filtered template.

To clarify, when you want to use this function or Get Src. Docs, it will only find source documents relating to unposted shipments. Likewise for receipts, if you want to add a record to the batch, the order must not have been receipted yet.

An example of the Use Filters to Get Src. Docs function

Using the instructions above, I navigated to ‘Use Filters to Get Src. Docs’ screen and clicked ‘Modify’.

Here I am filtering the results of my warehouse shipment with the '|' key. I can filter the results in many different ways as seen on this screen.

In my example, I am filtering by ‘Item No. Filter’. In my case, I decided I only want to group outbound orders containing one of three particular items in my warehouse shipment record. I did this using the ‘|’ key, which acts as an ‘or’ function. I am also filtering to only look for sales orders, not outbound transfers for example. Recently, we posted a detailed guide on using different filter formulas. Feel free to give that a read!

After I pick the goods, register the pick and post the warehouse shipment, the process is complete. Below is the Posted Warehouse Shipment record:

This the Posted Warehouse Shipment record which resulted from applying the Use Filters to Get Src. Docs function.

Batch warehouse receipts

Instead of making individual warehouse receipts for each incoming order, we can batch warehouse receipts into one record, helping ease the load off of the warehousing team.

Get Source Documents

If you want to group inbound orders into a single warehouse receipt record, go to the warehouse receipts page. The process is the same as for warehouse shipments, so I’ll run through it quickly!

Click ‘Actions’, ‘Functions’ and ‘Get Source Documents’. On the resulting screen, select the records that you want in the warehouse receipt record. Click ‘ok’. When you are happy, post the Warehouse receipt and register the resulting put-away.

Use Filters to Get Src. Docs

Like we did with shipments, we can create a Warehouse Receipt by filtering inbound orders, using the Use Filters to Get Src. Docs function. To do this, on a Warehouse Receipt record, follow the same steps as we did with shipments, with ‘Use Filters to Get Src. Docs’.

An example of Use Filters to Get Src. Docs for warehouse receipts

If you look at the example below, you can see I have used slightly different filters this time.

Applying the Use Filters to Get Src. Docs function, I am filtering down the records I want to batch into a Warehouse Receipt record. — This time, I have filtered to allow Purchase Order and Inbound Transfer records only, as well as only Item 1190 (X).

After clicking ‘Run’, this is the result:

This is the resulting Warehouse Receipt after performing the batching process. The only step is to post it and register the put-away.

From here, it’s simply a case of posting the Warehouse Receipt and registering the Warehouse Put-away.

Concluding remarks

Thanks for reading! Hopefully this post will help you batch records into a singular warehouse record, saving you time in actioning your warehousing tasks. If you’d like to keep up to date with all things Business Central, follow us on LinkedIn. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with us.