How to do sales order promising with ATP and CTP in Business Central?
When I enter sales orders in Business Central, as a salesperson, and the items are not available on inventory, I will get some notification in the header of the item, that it’s not available.
This is what happens in the video
When you enter a sales order in Business Central and the items are not in stock, Business Central shows a notification in the line that the item is unavailable. You can then calculate when you can actually ship the item to the customer using the order promising functionality.
You have two calculation methods: available to promise and capable to promise. Available to promise calculates the delivery date based on existing demand and supply already in your system, including other orders, current stock, and expected lead time. Capable to promise runs a what-if calculation that assumes you have no stock or orders available and must produce everything from scratch, including buying all raw materials.
Available to promise gives you earlier delivery dates because it uses what is already planned and in stock. Capable to promise gives you later dates because it assumes you produce from the bottom up. Both calculations use your existing routings, bills of materials, and product hierarchies.
Getting a notification when items are not available on a sales order
When you enter sales orders in Business Central as a salesperson and the items are not available in inventory, you get a notification in the line telling you the item is not available. From there you often want to know when you can ship the item to the customer.
In a practical example, you can create two order lines with quantities for items you know are out of stock, with a requested shipment date of 25 April. Business Central flags them as unavailable, and you can then work out realistic delivery dates.
How to open order promising in Business Central
From the action menu on the sales order, go to the Plan action and open order promising. The order promising overview gives you two options for advanced calculation: available to promise and capable to promise. Alongside these, the demand overview and planning actions handle the simpler task of creating purchase orders and production orders.
Available to promise: delivery dates based on existing demand and supply
Available to promise calculates a delivery date that includes everything already in your system. It takes into account all existing orders, current stock, and your existing demand and supply, as well as the expected lead time to produce the item at the top level.
In the example, when you calculate available to promise, the bike can ship on 24 May and the front wheel on 30 April. These dates reflect what is already committed in other orders and what is available in stock.
If you hover over the menu option, Business Central shows a description of exactly what the calculation does.
Capable to promise: a what-if calculation that assumes nothing is in stock
Capable to promise runs a what-if analysis. It assumes you have no items and no orders in stock, so you have to produce all of it from scratch. This is useful when everything in your books and your existing orders is already planned for something else, and the new order has to be produced from the bottom up.
Because capable to promise assumes you need to buy all the raw materials and produce everything yourself, the calculation takes a little longer and the resulting dates are further ahead than with available to promise.
What both calculations rely on
With available to promise and capable to promise, you can calculate what is possible based on the existing routings, bills of materials, and hierarchies in your system. This gives the salesperson a realistic shipment date to give the customer instead of guessing.
Q&A
What is the difference between available to promise and capable to promise in Business Central?
Available to promise calculates a delivery date using your existing demand and supply, including other orders, current stock, and expected lead time. Capable to promise runs a what-if calculation that assumes you have no stock or orders available and must produce everything from scratch, including buying raw materials. As a result, capable to promise usually gives later delivery dates.
Where do I find order promising in Business Central?
Open the sales order, go to the action menu, choose the Plan action, and open order promising. From the order promising overview you can run available to promise or capable to promise.
When should I use capable to promise instead of available to promise?
Use capable to promise when everything already in stock and in your existing orders is committed to something else, and you need to produce the new order from the bottom up. It shows you the delivery date if you have to buy all raw materials and produce everything yourself.
What does Business Central use to calculate these delivery dates?
Both available to promise and capable to promise use the existing routings, bills of materials, and product hierarchies in your system, along with expected lead times.