VIDEO: Sales Order Purchase Order and Drop Ship Process Example

Not every customer order can be fulfilled from the inventory sitting in your warehouse. Some products must be purchased specifically for the order, while others may be shipped directly from the vendor to the customer. Managing these scenarios manually can lead to duplicate entry, missed details and limited order visibility.

Acumatica Cloud ERP connects sales orders with purchase orders and drop-ship transactions. This gives sales, purchasing and accounting teams a shared process for managing customer demand when products must be sourced from a vendor.

Watch the video to see an example of the sales order, purchase order and drop-ship process in Acumatica.

Create Purchasing Documents from Customer Demand

The process begins with a customer sales order. When an item must be purchased to fulfill that order, users can mark the line for purchasing and create the related purchase order from the sales transaction.

This connected process can help teams manage:

• Customer and item information
• Requested quantities and delivery dates
• Preferred vendors
• Purchase order creation
• Purchase-to-order items
• Drop-ship items
• Vendor costs and customer pricing
• Related sales and purchasing documents

Because the purchase order is connected to the original sales order, employees can trace the transaction without maintaining a separate spreadsheet or reference file.

Choose the Right Fulfillment Process

A purchase-to-order item is typically received into the company’s inventory before being shipped to the customer. This gives warehouse employees control over receiving, inspection and final fulfillment.

A drop shipment takes a different path. The vendor ships the product directly to the customer, allowing the business to fulfill the order without receiving the item into its warehouse first.

Acumatica maintains the relationship between the customer order, vendor purchase order and resulting financial transactions in either scenario.

Improve Visibility Across the Order

Connected documents help employees understand whether an item has been ordered, received or shipped. Sales teams can respond to customer questions while purchasing teams monitor vendor activity and accounting teams manage the related bills and invoices.

This reduces duplicate entry and creates a clearer record of the entire transaction.

Watch the video above to see the sales order, purchase order and drop-ship process in action, then talk with 3Value about creating a more connected fulfillment workflow in Acumatica Cloud ERP.