WMS - Back Orders Guide
- Mai Labagnoy
- James Seabrook
Overview
A Backorder refers to an order for a product that is temporarily out of stock and cannot be fulfilled immediately. This situation is different from a product being permanently discontinued. A backorder suggests that the product is popular and will be restocked.
Customer can still place orders, however, they will need to wait until the product becomes available again. This process ensures that items remain accessible to customers, even if there is a temporary delay in availability.
Back Order feature in Seko360 is enabled in backend upon Client’s request.
It is configured per Client per DC.
Back Order Notes
Back Orders are only possible when Sales orders are loaded using iHub services.
Sales orders can be submitted at any time. The Order Process is responsible for creating dispatches.
The Order Processor operates on a set schedule depending on Client Set Up.
The priority of orders can be configured for each client.
A maximum of two dispatches per Sales Order are created when back orders are in use.
Client Setup - Default Hold Time Option
When configuring a client for back orders, there are two options to set a default “Hold Time”.
“Hold Time In Hours” - This option is useful for clients who have the same “Hold Time In Hours”, regardless of the destination country or the service used. The hold time is consistent across different countries and services.
Carrier Matrix - Option where the Order Processor “Hold Time” depends on Carrier, Service and Country indicated in the Sales Order.
In this case, a Carrier Matrix is required to be setup.
Seko 360 rejects Sales orders that don’t have a valid Carrier / Service / Country combination for clients using the Carrier Matrix instead of default “Hold Time In Hours“.
Order Processor Priority
Order Processor will sort Order Types by Priority set by Client.
Sample Chart of Order Type by Priority:
Priority | Order Type |
|---|---|
1 | Web |
2 | Standard |
3 | WorkOrder |
4 | Expedited |
5 | Ground |
6 | Wholesale |
7 | Retail |
8 | EcomCrossDock |
Back Order Process
The client uses the “Load Sales Orders” service. This action immediately creates Sales Orders with a status of “Create”. The client can initiate this service at any time.
No dispatches are created for these Sales Orders right away. Instead, they are placed in a queue.
These queued Sales Orders are processed during scheduled runs, which are all in UTC, depending on the “Hold Time” Option for each Client.
If all items on a Sales Order are in stock, the status of the Sales Order changes to “Commit”. A Dispatch is then created for all the items.
If a Sales Order has multiple items and only some of them can be fulfilled, and the Hold Hours have not yet expired, the order is returned to the queue.
If a Sales Order has multiple items and only some of them can be fulfilled, and the Hold Hours have expired, the status of the Sales Order changes to “Commit”. A dispatch is created for the fulfilled items. The Sales Order is marked as a “Back Order”. As soon as the remaining items in a Back Order are available in stock, another dispatch is created.
If a Sales Order has one line or one SKU but multiple quantities and only some of them can be fulfilled, the order remains in the queue until all quantities can be fulfilled.
Back Order Cancellation
Orders that have been pushed to Seko360, where no dispatch has been created yet, can be deleted through the iHub using the “Load Sales Order Cancel” and “Load Sales Order Cancellations” services. These orders can also be cancelled using the order cancellation process in the front end.
If there are lines on an order that have not been fulfilled (known as back order lines), these can be cancelled as well. However, it’s important to note that you cannot specify which lines to cancel. Instead, an order cancellation request will mark the sales order as partially cancelled and any back order lines will no longer be processed.
In the case of a back order existing for a dispatch, the client needs to call the iHub “Load Dispatch Cancellation” service and provide the “Dispatch ID” and Reason Code. To obtain the “dispatch Id”, the client should call the “Retrieve Sales Order Status” service and provide the Sales Order Number. This process ensures that even partially fulfilled orders can be managed effectively.
Back Order List
Log In to WMS Client Interface
Navigate to Sales Channels -> Back Orders -> Back Order List
This section displays Sales Orders currently in the Order Processing Queue with a status of Partially Processed.
For lines where the Requested Quantity exceeds the Available Quantity, the Available Quantity will be highlighted in red, making it easy to identify which lines cannot be fulfilled.
Once a Sales Order is fully processed or its back order lines are canceled, it will be removed from this list.
Note that changes may not be immediate; users might need to wait for the next scheduled run of the Order Processor for updates to take effect.
The Order Processor handles the processing of these queued orders.
Back Order Schedule
Log In to WMS Client Interface
Navigate to Sales Channels -> Back Orders -> Back Order Schedule
Shows all scheduled times of the Order Processer per DC so clients can see when the next run will take place as well as future runs for the day