Material Allocation

Material Allocation Video

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Reserve Stock

When adding material to a service or install order, you must make sure stock is reserved from your inventory to keep your inventory levels accurate. You can reserve stock using the Material Allocation window shown below.

The Material Allocation window can be access a few different ways:
1. Allocate material for a particular order (in Service or Install order, click Actions > Inventory Allocation)
2. For a specific inventory item, see all orders item is on and allocate (In Inventory item, click Actions > Inventory Allocation)
3. Allocate all material on all orders in SME (Tools > Inventory Allocation)

Default Warehouse

The default warehouse is either the warehouse called "default" or another warehouse you assigned as default.


When you are adding stock to your inventory, you select which warehouse you are adding the stock to as showing in the Receive PO Items screenshot below.

Item Status

When adding material to the order, there are three basic scenarios.
1. Stock is available in your default warehouse
2. Stock is available, but not in your default warehouse
3. Stock is not available and you need to place a purchase order for the item

Each material on an order has an Item Status. The Item Status will tell you if the stock is available and has been allocated to the order, if stock has been reserved for the order or if no stock is available for the order.

To see the Item Status on an order:

1. Go to the Service or Install Order.
2. Click Actions > Inventory Allocation.
3. In the Material Allocation window, locate the Item Status column (circled in screenshot below)

Below are the Item Status values you will find for the three basic scenarios for serialized and non-serialized items.
Before closing an order, you need to make sure the item status is Reserved.

	Stock Available in the default warehouse	Stock Available, but not in the default warehouse	No stock available
Serialized Item	Link Status = Allocated In Material Allocation window, click to select specific serial number. Once serial number selected, Link Status = Reserved	Link Status = Has JIT Items In Material Allocation window, click to select specific serial number in the warehouse you want to use. Once serial number selected, Link Status = Reserved	Link Status = Has JIT Items Must click Actions > Create PO for JIT-Only Items Once PO items received, Link Status = Reserved
Non Serialized Item	Link Status = Allocated In Material Allocation window, click to select the stock you want to use. Link Status = Reserved *	Link Status = Has JIT Items In Material Allocation window, click to select stock in the warehouse you want to use. Link Status = Reserved	Link Status = Has JIT Items Must click Actions > Create PO for JIT-Only Items Once PO items received, Link Status = Reserved

* If you want to skip the step of manually reserving non-serialized stock that is available in your warehouse, you can leave the link status as "Allocated". If you have SME setup to auto deliver allocated stock on close, then when you close the order the allocated stock will be taken out of your stock.

If you choose to do this, your items left as "Allocated" will not change your Available number. Instead, you will need to look at the "unallocated" number to see how much stock has not been allocated yet.

To setup SME to auto deliver allocated on close, go to Setup module > Company > Order and check Auto Deliver Allocated on Close.

Reserve Stock for Material on an Order

1. Go to the Service or Install Order.
2. Click Actions > Inventory Allocation.
3. Click in the Select column.
4. The Select Inventory Items window opens (image below). Here you can select the items you want to reserve for the order.
If it is a serialized item, you will see a list of all serial numbers. Also, see which warehouse the stock is in.

5. Double click on the material to reserve on the order.
6. Once stock is selected, notice the Item Status changes to Reserved.

Item Status	Next Steps
Has JIT Items	Click to select stock. If no stock available, close the Material Allocation window and click Actions > Create PO for JIt-Only Items in the order.
Allocated	Click to select stock.
Reserved	Don’t need to do anything, stock is already reserved.

Reserve Stock for All Material on All Orders

Click Tools > Allocate Inventory to allocate material on all open orders in SME. Accessing the Material Allocation window this way provides a quick way to see what inventory is needed across all orders.

In the Material Allocation window that opens, locate the Item Status column.

Item Status	Next Steps
Has JIT Items	Click to select stock. If no stock available, close the Material Allocation window and place a purchase order.
Allocated	Click to select stock.
Reserved	Don’t need to do anything, stock is already reserved.

Reserve Stock for a Specific Inventory Item

Go to an inventory item and click Actions > Inventory Allocation. Accessing the Material Allocation window this way provides a way to see all orders the inventory item is on. Here you can reserve stock for this particular item.

Setup the Material Allocation Window

Click in the upper left corner to rearrange the order of the columns or remove columns from the Material Allocation window.

Click on the column title and drag up and down the list. As you drag the title, green arrows will appear. Drop in the location you want.

How to Deliver Partial Quantities of an Item

If you have an item allocated for a service order with quantity of 100 but need to deliver 50 today and 50 at a later date, then you will need to split the material out onto two different line items on the Material Allocation window.

Here is a sample of all 100 on one line and all allocated:

1) Close the Material Allocation window
2) Go to the Order items tab on the order
3) Open the Inventory Item
4) Click the Stock Details tab in Add Items to Order window

5) Click Delete in the lower left corner of Add Items to Order window

6) At the top, enter 50 in the Quantity field and click Select Stock

7) In the window that opens, double click on the stock lot to reserve 50
8) Go back to the Item tab and change quantity from 50 back to 100

9) Back on the Stock Details tab, you will see the 100 items broken out into two details ( 50 & 50)

10) When you open the Inventory Allocation window, you will see the 100 broken out into two lines (50 & 50). You can change the line you want to delivered.