In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, you change a released production order to Finished status from the Change Status function on the production order. You do this when all output, consumption, and time have been posted and the order is fully produced.
You cannot move the WIP (work in progress) amount from the production order to the chart of accounts until you change the status to Finished. This is the reason the step matters.
Once a production order is finished, you cannot reopen it. Make sure everything is posted before you change the status.
To finish a production order, you need at least one posted output quantity. You need an item in inventory to move the work in progress amount to. You can adjust the output later if needed.
Changing a released production order to Finished status in Business Central
When everyone is done posting on a production order and everything is produced, you change its status from released to Finished. In practice, this is often handled by the finance department. By that point the item was usually output long ago, and it may even have been sold on a sales order. The production order is just waiting to be archived.
You change the status directly on the production order. Go to Change Status, and Business Central suggests Finished, because the order is already a released production order.
Why you finish the production order before moving the WIP amount
Changing the status to Finished is important because of how the work in progress amount is handled. You cannot move the WIP amount from the production order to the chart of accounts on the entries until you have actually changed the status to Finished.
This is why everything needs to be posted on the production order first. Once it is finished, you cannot reopen it, so there is no going back to correct a missed posting in the same way.
You need at least one posted output quantity to finish the order
When you finish the order, Business Central tells you if something is missing, for example if you did not post everything you were expected to. That can happen. Maybe something went wrong and you did not output anything, but you still want to finish the order.
If you posted consumption or time usage, you need to post at least one output as a quantity. You need something in inventory to move your work in progress amount to. So you output something, and then you can adjust it later if it did not produce the result you expected.
In a typical case, you might output 10 and then finish the production order. It disappears from your released production orders and you find it under finished production orders. From there, you cannot reopen it.
Q&A
How do you change a released production order to Finished in Business Central?
Open the production order, go to Change Status, and select Finished. Since the order is already released, Business Central suggests Finished automatically.
Can you reopen a finished production order?
No. Once a production order is set to Finished status, you cannot reopen it. Make sure everything is posted before you change the status.
Why do you need to finish a production order before posting the WIP amount?
You cannot move the work in progress (WIP) amount from the production order to the chart of accounts on the entries until you have changed the status to Finished.
Can you finish a production order without any output?
If you posted consumption or time usage, you must post at least one output quantity first. You need an item in inventory to move the WIP amount to. You can adjust the output later if needed.
Who usually changes the status of a production order to Finished?
It is often the finance department, since by the time the order is ready to be archived the item has usually been output and may even have been sold on a sales order.