15.3 Sales Quotes, Availability Checks & Order Conversion

15.3 Sales Quotes, Availability Checks & Order Conversion

Quick Summary: The sales fulfillment pipeline in Dynamics 365 Business Central begins with Sales Quotes (Table 38 Sales Header, Document Type = Quote), which capture prospective commercial offers and convert into Sales Orders via the Make Order action (Codeunit 86). Accurately promising delivery dates requires evaluating real-time stock balances through Item Availability across six analytical dimensions (Event, Period, Variant, Location, BOM Level, Unit of Measure). When customer demand exceeds on-hand stock, the Order Promising engine calculates delivery commitments using Available-to-Promise (ATP) for pipeline receipts and Capable-to-Promise (CTP) for manufacturing and assembly lead times.

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Sales Quotes: Configuration, Governance & Order Conversion

A Sales Quote (Alt+Q -> type Sales Quotes, Page 41 / Table 38) provides formal price, discount, and delivery estimates to existing customers or prospective contacts without reserving stock or affecting the General Ledger.

Sales Quote to Order Conversion Workflow:

[Prospect or Existing Customer Inquiry]
                 │
                 ▼
[Sales Quote (Page 41)] ──► Specify Prices, Discounts, Quote Valid Until Date
                 │
                 ├──► Print / Send by Email (PDF Proposal)
                 │
                 ├──► Contact Conversion: If issued to a Contact, prompts to create Customer Card
                 │
                 ├──► Archive Quote (Sales & Receivables Setup: Archive Quotes = Always / Question)
                 │
                 ▼
      Select "Make Order" Action (Codeunit 86 Sales-Quote to Order)
                 │
                 ▼
[Sales Order (Page 42)] ──► Reserves stock, verifies credit limits, enables order promising

Sales Quote Key Capabilities

• Prospect Quoting: Quotes can be created for a Contact who is not yet registered as a Customer. When executing Make Order, Business Central detects this and prompts the user to create a formal Customer Card using a customer template.
• Quote Validity & Expiration: The Quote Valid Until Date establishes an expiration cutoff. If the customer attempts to accept after this date, sales reps can re-evaluate pricing before converting.
• Document Archiving: In Sales & Receivables Setup (Alt+Q -> type Sales & Receivables Setup, Page 459), setting Archive Quotes to Always ensures an immutable record is preserved in the Sales Quote Archives upon conversion, facilitating historical audit trails.
• Make Order vs Make Invoice: Clicking Make Order transfers lines to a Sales Order. For counter-sales or immediate cash fulfillment, clicking Make Invoice bypasses the sales order stage entirely and generates a Sales Invoice.

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Sales Order Architecture: Headers, Lines & Logistics Dates

A Sales Order (Alt+Q -> type Sales Orders, Page 42 / Table 38 with Document Type = Order) represents an accepted commercial commitment to supply items or services.

Document Header Architecture

• General FastTab: Sell-to Customer No., Document Date (calculates customer due date), Posting Date (financial ledger date), Order Date (date placed), and Status (Open vs Released).
• Invoice Details FastTab: Bill-to Customer No. (enables central billing for subsidiary branches), Payment Terms Code, Payment Method Code, Customer Price Group, and Currency Code.
• Shipping and Billing FastTab: Location Code (fulfillment warehouse), Ship-to Code (customer delivery destination), Shipping Agent Code, Shipping Agent Service Code, and Shipping Advice.

Shipping Advice Governance: Partial vs Complete

The Shipping Advice field on the Sales Header controls shipment staging rules:

• Partial (Default): The warehouse is permitted to ship available lines or partial line quantities as inventory becomes available.
• Complete: The customer demands full shipment. Business Central enforces this rule by blocking shipment posting if the quantity ready to ship is less than the total outstanding order quantity across all lines.

The Logistics Date Calculation Engine

Business Central calculates sales delivery dates through an automated date formula chain based on warehouse handling times and carrier transit times:

Logistics Date Forward / Backward Scheduling Chain:

[Requested Delivery Date]
         │  minus Shipping Time (Shipping Agent Service)
         ▼
[Planned Delivery Date] ──► Date goods must reach customer door
         │  minus Outbound Warehouse Handling Time (Location Card)
         ▼
[Planned Shipment Date] ──► Date goods must leave warehouse dock
         │  minus Pick / Pack Lead Time
         ▼
[Shipment Date] ──────────► Date inventory must be available to pick

• Requested Delivery Date: The target arrival date specified by the customer.
• Promised Delivery Date: The contractual arrival date agreed upon and locked by the sales rep.
• Planned Delivery Date: The calculated date goods arrive at the customer's delivery dock ($\text{Planned Shipment Date} + \text{Shipping Time}$).
• Planned Shipment Date: The calculated date goods must depart the warehouse loading dock ($\text{Shipment Date} + \text{Outbound Whse. Handling Time}$).

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Multi-Faceted Item Availability Analysis

Before confirming order lines, sales representatives must verify whether requested quantities are physically in stock or arriving in time. Business Central provides six dedicated analytical views accessible directly from the Sales Order line (Line -> Item Availability by...):

Item Availability Analytical Perspectives:

[Sales Order Line: Item 1000, Qty = 50]
                 │
                 ├──► 1. By Event (Page 5530)       --> Chronological timeline of all supply/demand events
                 ├──► 2. By Period (Page 157)      --> Grouped by Day, Week, Month, or Quarter buckets
                 ├──► 3. By Variant (Page 5414)     --> Matrix comparison across item colors, sizes, styles
                 ├──► 4. By Location (Page 492)    --> Stock levels across regional distribution warehouses
                 ├──► 5. By BOM Level (Page 5870)  --> Component bottleneck analysis for Assembly/Production
                 └──► 6. By Unit of Meas. (Page 5415) -> Availability expressed across alternate UOM packaging

Detailed Breakdown of Availability Analytical Views

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Order Promising: Available-to-Promise (ATP) vs Capable-to-Promise (CTP)

When standard inventory is insufficient to satisfy a requested delivery date, sales reps leverage the Order Promising engine (Alt+Q -> type Order Promising Lines, Page 99000883 / Codeunit 99000771).

Order Promising Calculation Logic:

Is Inventory On Hand Available?
     │
     ├──► YES ──► Promise based on Outbound Handling + Shipping Time
     │
     └──► NO  ──► Evaluate Supply Pipeline:
                     │
                     ├──► Inbound PO / Production Order exists?
                     │       │
                     │       ▼ YES ──► [Available-to-Promise (ATP)]
                     │                 Earliest arrival of open supply pipeline
                     │
                     └──► NO inbound supply scheduled?
                             │
                             ▼ YES ──► [Capable-to-Promise (CTP)]
                                       Evaluates raw material lead times +
                                       manufacturing / assembly routing times

Available-to-Promise (ATP)

• Calculation Basis: Evaluates existing unreserved inventory plus confirmed inbound receipts (released purchase orders, active production orders, assembly orders, and inbound transfer orders) minus unreserved customer demand.
• Scope: Does not plan new manufacturing runs or issue purchase orders; strictly determines the earliest date existing pipeline supply will satisfy the order.

Capable-to-Promise (CTP)

• Calculation Basis: A "what-if" simulation engine. When no inventory or pipeline supply exists, CTP interrogates item bills of materials and routings to calculate the earliest date the item can be manufactured or assembled from scratch.
• Component Feasibility: Checks raw material procurement lead times, machine center capacity, and assembly durations.
• Action: If the customer accepts the CTP date, Business Central can generate planned production orders or purchase requisitions directly to fulfill the promise.

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Availability Analysis & Order Promising Comparison

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Step-by-Step UI Execution Workflows

Workflow A: Creating, Archiving, and Converting a Sales Quote

1. Press Alt+Q, type Sales Quotes, and select New (Page 41).
2. Select Customer 10000. Enter a Quote Valid Until Date 30 days in the future.
3. On the Lines FastTab, enter Type = Item, No. = 1920-S, Quantity = 15, Unit Price = $120.00.
4. In the action bar, click Actions -> Functions -> Archive Document. Confirm the prompt to archive a snapshot.
5. In the action bar, click Print/Send -> Send by Email to generate the customer PDF.
6. Upon customer acceptance, click Process -> Make Order (Codeunit 86). Confirm the prompt to convert the quote into a live Sales Order.

Workflow B: Performing Order Promising (ATP / CTP) on a Sales Line

1. Open an existing Sales Order (Alt+Q -> Sales Orders).
2. Add a line for Item 70000, Quantity = 100. Enter a Requested Delivery Date for next Monday.
3. Highlight the line and select Line -> Item Availability by -> Event to inspect projected negative balance.
4. Return to the order, highlight the line, and select Process -> Order Promising (Page 99000883).
5. On the Order Promising Lines page, click Available-to-Promise in the action bar. Inspect the calculated Earliest Planned Shipment Date.
6. If ATP cannot meet the customer date, click Capable-to-Promise. Business Central simulates component lead times and returns the earliest manufacturing delivery date.
7. Click Accept to write the calculated dates back to the Sales Order line.

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Common Configuration Pitfalls & Exam Traps

• Pitfall 1: Shipping Blocked by Shipping Advice = Complete. If a sales rep sets Shipping Advice to Complete, warehouse personnel cannot ship a partial delivery even if 95% of the items are on the dock. Attempting to post a partial shipment triggers a hard validation error.
• Pitfall 2: Overwriting Promised Delivery Date with ATP. If a Promised Delivery Date has been manually keyed on the sales order, running ATP or changing the Requested Delivery Date will not automatically overwrite the promised date; the system preserves the legally committed customer date.
• Pitfall 3: Converting Contact Quotes Without Customer Templates. Attempting to run Make Order on a quote created for a Contact will halt with an error if no Customer Template has been configured in the system to define default posting groups.
• Pitfall 4: Neglecting Inbound/Outbound Handling Times. Omitting handling times on the Location Card results in Planned Shipment Date equaling Shipment Date, ignoring the real-world days required by warehouse crews to pick, pack, stage, and manifest goods.