Allocation settings

Allocation reserves specific inventory for an order line so it can be picked. The Allocation group decides whether Boxture allocates by itself, what happens to quantities that cannot be allocated, and whether an order may be allocated in part. Find them under Admin › Settings › Allocation. For how levels and conditions work, see Settings; for the allocation process itself see Allocation and Backorders.

All four settings are read from the order's account and offer the conditions Customer and Location. The location is the order's origin location, which is only known once a line has been allocated or an origin location has been chosen. They can be overridden per order through the API.

Backorder allowed

Key	allocation.backorder_allowed
Type	On/off
Default	On
Conditions	Customer, Location
Account lookup	The order's account

Allow backorders, or should we cancel lines in backorder?

Decides what happens to units that cannot be allocated because there is not enough inventory:

• On: the units go to backordered, and the order gets status backorder. They are allocated later, when inventory becomes available (see Auto allocate backorders).
• Off: the units are cancelled. When all units of a line are cancelled the line is cancelled; when everything on the order is cancelled, the order is cancelled.

Units that are deliberately left pending (for example because of a ship earliest on date) are not affected.

Some order types ignore this setting: scrap orders always allow backorders, and remove inventory orders never do.

Auto allocate

Key	allocation.auto_allocate
Type	On/off
Default	On
Conditions	Customer, Location
Account lookup	The order's account

Automatically allocate orders?

When on, Boxture allocates orders without anyone clicking Allocate:

• On confirm. When an order is confirmed, Boxture first tries to allocate older backorders for the same products, then allocates the order itself.
• Every 30 minutes a background job looks for orders with pending or backordered quantities for products that have gained available inventory since the order was last allocated, and allocates them.
• When inventory is released or put away, pending and backordered orders for that product are allocated.

When off, orders stay pending after confirmation until a user allocates them. Use this for customers whose orders must be reviewed first, for example with a Customer condition.

Orders that were ever unallocated by a user are not auto-allocated again by the confirm step or the 30-minute job. Purchase orders and add inventory orders are never allocated; remove inventory orders are always auto-allocated regardless of this setting.

Ship earliest on and SLA days

A sales order with a ship earliest on or ship latest on date is only auto-allocated from the moment that date, minus the SLA days in business days, has been reached. Before that the order stays pending.

Auto allocate backorders

Key	allocation.auto_allocate_backorders
Type	On/off
Default	On
Conditions	Customer, Location
Account lookup	The order's account

Automatically allocate orders in status backorders?

Controls whether backordered orders are allocated as soon as inventory arrives. Inventory arriving means:

• receiving on a purchase or return order,
• a positive inventory adjustment,
• putting inventory away,
• confirming an order (older backorders for the products on that order are tried first).

When on, Boxture goes through the backordered orders for the product, oldest ship at date first, and allocates what it can. You get a notification per order that was allocated or could not be allocated.

When off, backordered orders wait until a user allocates them, or until the 30-minute auto-allocation job picks them up if Auto allocate is on.

Partial allocation

Key	allocation.partial_allocation
Type	On/off
Default	On
Conditions	Customer, Location
Account lookup	The order's account

Allow partial allocation of an order.

• On: Boxture allocates whatever is available. An order line of 10 with 6 in stock gets 6 allocated and 4 backordered (or cancelled, see Backorder allowed). A location is a candidate as soon as it has at least one unit.
• Off: a location is only used for a line if it can supply the full remaining quantity. When the whole order is allocated and not everything could be allocated, allocation fails with could not fully allocate and nothing is reserved. Allocating a selection of items manually is refused with partial allocation is not allowed.

For kits, the same rule applies to the number of kits that can be built from components.

Switch this off for customers who want complete orders only, typically B2B customers that do not accept split deliveries. Combine with Partial shipping to also prevent shipping in parts.