If your location setup in Business Central does not require warehouse documents, you can ship items directly from the sales order document. This is useful for businesses running a simple Business Central setup without bins or separate warehouse handling. Using a mobile scanner flow, you can ship items by scanning the sales order number, blanking the quantity to ship, and registering what you actually pick.
You can pause the flow partway through, for example to go to lunch, without posting. When you return, you can continue shipping on the same sales order without resetting the quantity already registered. When you finish, you post the shipment and move on to the next sales order.
The flow automatically fills in the quantity to invoice as a copy of the quantity to ship, so the invoicing follows what you actually shipped.
Shipping directly from a sales order in a simple location setup
When your location setup requires no warehouse documents, you can ship directly on the sales order document. This works well for a very simple Business Central setup, where you do not need separate warehouse shipment documents to handle outbound items.
Consider a sales order with three items added, three different bikes in different quantities. By default, when you enter a simple sales order like that, the quantity to ship is prefilled with the full quantity on each line. The mobile flow needs to reset that prefilled quantity before you start registering what you actually pick.
Using the scanner flow to ship items
To ship from a sales order, you open the mobile flow or scanner functionality and select or scan the sales order number you want to ship from. You then add a posting date, which defaults to today, and state a shipping agent code if you have one. This updates the header on the sales order.
The flow then asks whether you would like to blank the quantity to ship on the sales order. When you confirm, you can see in the background that it blanks the quantity to ship on all lines. From there, you register the items you actually pick.
Because this is a very simple location setup, there are no bins involved. If your location used bins, you would only need a checkmark and a bin code in the setup, and the flow would then prompt you for a bin during the picking process.
For each item, you enter the item number and the quantity. For example, you might pick one of two on the first item, then select or scan the next item number and pick five of six.
Pausing and continuing the flow
You can stop the flow before you finish. If you want to go to lunch midway through, you stop the flow. When it asks whether you want to post, you say no, because you are not done yet.
In the background, the flow fills in the quantity to invoice as a copy of the quantity to ship. So whatever you have registered to ship is also set up for invoicing.
When you continue the flow after lunch, you go back into your sales order and select the source order again. This time you do not blank the quantity to ship, because you want to continue shipping on the same sales order rather than start over. You then pick the remaining items you want to ship in whatever quantities apply.
Posting the shipment
When you are done, you press no to the question about continuing, and the flow asks whether you would like to post. You say yes. After posting, you can move straight on to picking on the next sales order.
If you look at the posted sales order afterwards, the quantity shipped reflects what you actually picked, and the quantity to ship is reset.
Q&A
Can you ship directly from a sales order without warehouse documents in Business Central?
Yes. If your location setup requires no warehouse documents, you can ship directly on the sales order document. This is the typical approach for a simple Business Central setup without separate warehouse shipment handling.
Why does the scanner flow blank the quantity to ship on the sales order?
By default, a simple sales order prefills the quantity to ship with the full quantity on each line. The flow blanks that prefilled quantity first, so you can register only the quantities you actually pick during shipping.
Can you pause a shipping flow and continue it later?
Yes. You can stop the flow before finishing and choose not to post. When you return, you go back into the same sales order and continue shipping. This time you do not blank the quantity to ship, so the quantities you already registered remain in place.
Does the flow handle the quantity to invoice automatically?
Yes. The flow fills in the quantity to invoice as a copy of the quantity to ship, so invoicing follows what you actually shipped.
What happens if your location uses bins?
If your location uses bins, your setup only needs a checkmark and a bin code. The flow then prompts you for a bin during the picking process. In a simple setup without bins, no bin prompt appears.