Assigned quantity in Business Central lets you control how limited stock is distributed across multiple sales order lines. When you have more demand than available inventory, you can decide manually which customers get how much, rather than letting the system assign everything to the first lines in order.
You change the suggested prioritization simply by lowering the assigned quantity on one sales line. The freed-up stock then becomes available, and you can reassign it to another line. The system automatically picks up the newly available quantity and updates the other line with the maximum amount possible.
You can protect a specific assignment by using the lock quantity option. When a line is locked, rerunning the report keeps that assignment intact and does not reassign it to other lines.
How assigned quantity works with limited stock
Imagine you have the same item on several sales order lines. In practice these could be different sales orders for different customers, but it is easier to see the behavior when the lines are shown together.
In this example, one line already holds 16 units. If you go to the last line and try to assign quantity, there is no available stock left. The reason becomes clear when you look at the graphical inventory profile. Viewing the lines including the assigned quantity shows the inventory dropping to zero, meaning everything is already assigned.
If you view the inventory profile with all quantities, including the standard quantity, you can see that you have a large demand for this item. There is simply more demand than stock.
Reassigning quantity between sales lines
This is where the flexibility matters. Suppose those were two different sales lines, and you want to give one customer a smaller quantity and the other customer another portion. You lower the assigned quantity on one sales line, and then you reassign on the other line. Business Central recognizes that the stock is now available and updates the line with the maximum possible quantity.
With this functionality, you can prioritize and give each customer a share of the stock if that is what you want to do.
Locking an assigned quantity
If you want to make sure a specific line keeps its assignment, you can lock it. For example, if you want a line to keep its six assigned units, you select lock quantity on that line. When you rerun the report, the system takes the lock into account and leaves that assignment untouched.
This gives you two ways to handle limited stock. You can let the system assign everything in the order the sales orders appear, or you can lock some assignments and prioritize the rest manually. The locking behavior connects to the assign flexibility functionality covered in other videos.
Q&A
What does assigned quantity do in Business Central?
It lets you control how limited stock is distributed across multiple sales order lines. When demand exceeds available inventory, you decide which lines and customers get how much, instead of automatically assigning everything to the first lines.
How do I move stock from one sales line to another?
Lower the assigned quantity on one sales line. The freed-up stock becomes available, and when you reassign on another line, Business Central automatically updates it with the maximum possible quantity.
How do I prevent a sales line from being reassigned?
Select the lock quantity option on that line. When you rerun the report, the locked assignment stays in place and is not reassigned to other lines.
How can I check why no stock is available for a sales line?
Open the graphical inventory profile. Viewing the lines including assigned quantity shows whether inventory has dropped to zero, and viewing all quantities including standard quantity shows the total demand for the item.