An overview of the fields on the Shortage Status Report

This is what happens in the video

The shortage status reports in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central let you see whether you have enough material to fulfil your sales orders and production orders. There are two separate reports, one for sales orders and one for production orders, and they share the same header settings.

You control the calculation with a handful of fields. The “stop and show first error” checkmark decides whether the batch job halts on the first calculation error or skips problem orders and marks them with an error status so the job runs to completion.

The general end date sets how far ahead the report calculates. Calculating four months ahead gives different shortage statuses than calculating two weeks ahead, and earlier calculations remain on orders that fall outside your new date range.

The “use due dates” field calculates against expected due dates rather than order dates. The “include expected supplies” field takes expected incoming supply into account, while “only include promised supplies” restricts this to supplies with a confirmed date on the purchase document.

What the shortage status reports do in Business Central

When you run the shortage status reports, you are actually working with two separate reports. One covers sales orders and the other covers production orders. Both reports use the same header information, so once you understand the settings on one, you understand them on the other.

From the header you select the different fields that control how the calculation runs and what it includes. After you have set the fields, you click OK and let the report run through.

Handling calculation errors with “stop and show first error”

The first field controls how the report reacts to errors during calculation. When you checkmark “stop and show first error”, the report stops as soon as it hits an error and shows you what went wrong. The downside is that this also stops the entire batch job.

If you deselect the field, the report ignores the order that caused the error, sets its status to error, and keeps running. This lets the batch job complete so you can review the problem orders afterwards.

Setting the general end date for the calculation

The general end date determines which date the report calculates to. This setting has a direct effect on the results, so it pays to think about how far ahead you calculate.

If you calculate four months ahead, you get one set of shortage statuses. If you then calculate only two months or two weeks ahead the next day, the sales orders that fall further out keep the shortage status from your earlier calculation. The new run does not reach them, so their status stays as it was.

Using due dates instead of order dates

The “use due dates” field tells the report to calculate against the expected due date rather than the order date. This matters when you have orders with different timing.

For example, if you have two orders and one is due two weeks before the other, the earlier one could already be covered by stock. With this field the report looks at the relevant date and calculates accordingly.

Including expected and promised supplies

The “include expected supplies” field lets the report take expected incoming supplies into account before the sales order due dates. This gives you a more realistic picture when you know more stock is on its way.

The “only include promised supplies” field is stricter. It uses only the confirmed supply date from the supply documents, such as the purchase document. A supply is included only if it has a confirmed date, so anything without a confirmed date is left out of the calculation.

Running the report

Once you have set the fields to match how you want the calculation to behave, you click OK and run the report. Each field controls a specific part of the calculation, so set them deliberately based on the picture you need.

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