Why the product does not enter the "Order formation to the supplier": prohibitions, blocking, reserves and filters

Why a product does not appear in «Supplier Order Formation»: how to find and resolve the cause

When managing the assortment in retail and wholesale trade, timely stock replenishment is a key business process. The «Supplier Order Formation» mode in the inventory management system is designed to automatically calculate product demand based on current stock levels, specified limits, and sales history. Business owners often ask technical support and sales specialists questions such as: «Why does a certain product not appear in the order list even though it is out of stock?», «Why does the program show an empty list or only some products when I select a specific supplier?», «How does the program determine which supplier to order a product from?», and «Why has a product that we recently ordered disappeared from the selection?».

This guide provides a detailed step-by-step procedure for finding and resolving the reasons why a product does not appear in the order selection.

Basic concepts of the mode

To work correctly with automatic ordering, it is important to understand the basic terms:

• Supplier Order Formation — a tool that analyzes product quantities at accounting centers and automatically calculates the quantity that needs to be ordered based on minimum stock levels and product movement history.

• Minimum stock level — the quantity limit at which, or below which, a product is considered to be running low.

• Method for determining supply parameters — a setting (for example, «Last delivery» or «Delivery with minimum price») that determines which supplier the program assigns to a product when generating the selection.

Below is a step-by-step procedure for checking why a product is missing from the selection.

1. Check whether the product is prohibited from ordering

The program allows you to restrict the purchase of specific products. If a product does not appear in the selection, first check the ordering restrictions.

General prohibition on ordering a product. The product card contains a special setting (toggle) «Prohibit ordering from supplier» (or «Prohibited from ordering from supplier»). If this option is enabled, the product will not appear in the «Supplier Order Formation» form at all, regardless of its stock quantity or the selected filters. This setting is used for products that are being discontinued.

Prohibition on ordering from a specific supplier. A product may be generally available for ordering but prohibited for a particular supplier, for example, if their price or product quality is unsuitable. When generating an order for this supplier, such products will be excluded from the calculation and will not be displayed.

 How to check? Go to «Warehouse» — «Product prohibited from ordering from supplier». In this window, you can view all restrictions, find out who created them and when, and delete a record if necessary so that the product becomes available for ordering from this supplier again.

2. Blocking period of a previously created order

A common situation is when a business owner orders a product, saves the order, and needs to order the same product again the next day, but it no longer appears in the selection. The reason may be the product blocking period. When a generated order is saved in the «Supplier Order» form, the «Product blocking period» field is filled in. This specifies the date until which the product will remain unavailable in subsequent order formations. This mechanism prevents the same product from being ordered twice from different suppliers before it is actually received into stock.

 How to resolve it? Find the open «Supplier Order» containing this product and check or cancel the blocking period.

3. Form filters and method for determining supply parameters

Business owners often ask: «I select supplier A, from whom we usually purchase this product, but the product does not appear in the selection even though its stock level is zero».

The reason lies in the interaction between the «Supplier» filter and the «Method for determining supply parameters» setting. The «Supplier» filter in this form does not search through all suppliers from whom you have ever purchased the product. It filters the already generated data set according to the selected criterion.

• If the «Last delivery» method is selected, the program analyzes all products and assigns each product to the supplier from whom the most recent goods receipt was received. If you select supplier «A» in the filter, but the most recent delivery of this product was actually received from supplier «B» (or the product was transferred), the product will not appear in the selection for supplier «A».

• If «Delivery with minimum price» is selected, the program analyzes goods receipts for the specified period and assigns the product to the supplier that offered the lowest price.

Effect of system suppliers. When generating an order, suppliers such as «INITIAL BALANCES» or «RECEIPT OF GOODS FROM PRODUCTION» may appear in the supplier list. If the most recent batch of a product was entered as an initial balance or received from production, the program considers this source to be the «last supplier». To make the product appear when selecting the actual supplier, change the method for determining the supply parameters, for example to the minimum-price method, or use the function for automatically assigning products from initial balances to actual suppliers.

4. Accounting center settings and demand calculation

A product may not appear in the order because the accounting centers included in the calculation are configured incorrectly.

The form contains the «Calculation method for "Need to order"» setting, which has two options:

1. Across the retail network. The program calculates the total stock balance across all selected warehouses and compares it with the overall minimum stock level. If the total quantity is sufficient, the product will not be included in the order list.

2. For each accounting center. The program calculates demand separately for each location (available when the additional option «Minimum and maximum stock levels by warehouse» is enabled). If one warehouse has insufficient stock while another has a surplus, the program will still suggest ordering the product for the first warehouse.

An important point regarding accounting centers: for the program to calculate demand, the user must specify the warehouses using the «Select accounting centers for ordering» action. When the «For each accounting center» calculation method is used, a strict rule applies: if the product has never had any movement (receipts, sales, or transfers) at the selected accounting center, that accounting center is ignored in the calculation and the need to order the product for it is not calculated.

5. Reservations and their effect on actual stock

Business owners ask: «Does the program take into account products that have already been reserved for customers?»

If the business uses reservations, for example through «Customer Product Order» or invoices, the reserved product is transferred to temporary storage warehouses (third-level warehouses). Because this product is physically removed from the main balance of the accounting center, the quantity at the main warehouse decreases. If the actual balance at the accounting center falls below the specified minimum stock level due to reservations, the product automatically appears when using the «Products running low» or «Products that need to be ordered» filter in Supplier Order Formation. Therefore, the system correctly identifies the shortage and suggests reordering products that have already been reserved by customers.

6. Additional product filter values

Be sure to check the product drop-down filter at the top of the window:

• If «Products in stock» is selected, products with a zero stock balance will not be displayed at all.

• If «Products with zero quantity that had movement» is selected, the selection will include only zero-stock products for which documents, such as receipts or sales, were previously processed during the specified period. Products that have just been created in the directory but have never been received into stock will not be included.

• If «Products running low» or «Products that need to be ordered» is selected, but no value is specified in the product’s «Minimum stock level» field (or the value is zero and the current balance is also zero or positive), the program will not be able to calculate the demand and will not display this product.