When you sell items through one company in Business Central and have a separate supply company ship them, you don’t always need to check the inventory profile of the supply company before placing the order. You can create the sales order in the sales company, let it default to a preset location, and leave the final shipping location to the supply company.
This article explains how the default location code works on intercompany sales orders, and how the supply company adjusts it when shipping.
Creating the sales order without checking inventory
In some cases you don’t want to do the whole lookup to see the inventory profile for your supply company. You just want to create a sales order in the sales company, send the order to the supply company, and have them decide which location to ship the items from.
To do this, you create a sales order for a customer in the sales company. You set a requested delivery date and pick an item with the quantity you need. The order still carries your buy-from vendor number, and on that vendor you have set up a default location code.
How the default location code is applied
When you release the order without doing a lookup, it defaults to the location set up on the vendor. Once the order is sent, you can see that it has chosen that default location code automatically. No manual selection is needed at this stage.
Adjusting the location in the supply company
In the supply company, a new sales order appears, and it carries the same location code. When the supply company is ready to ship the order, they can change the location code to wherever they are actually going to ship the items from.
This keeps the process simple in the sales company while giving the supply company full control over the actual shipping location.
Q&A
Do I need to check the supply company’s inventory before placing an intercompany sales order?
No. You can create the sales order in the sales company and let it default to the location set up on the vendor. The supply company can then decide the actual shipping location.
Where does the default location code on the sales order come from?
It comes from the default location code set up on the buy-from vendor. When you release the order without doing a lookup, the order automatically uses that location.
Can the supply company change the shipping location?
Yes. The new sales order in the supply company carries the same location code, but the supply company can change it to whichever location they are actually shipping the items from.