Availability Calculation

The field “Quantity Hard Available” which is also called “Quantity Available to Ship” is the true qty available in the system. This is the qty physically available in that location or warehouse.

This is the field that is most useful to shipping managers and shipping clerks who need to get orders out the door. 

Quantity available which is defined by the availability calculation rules I believe is more useful to inventory managers and folks who do the ordering/production as it considers current demand as well as replenishment. In most cases I would include SO prepared as represents the total demand for the inventory in the system. Including this additional availability rule I believe helps the inventory manager in most cases as it shows a better picture of the total demand.

Hi ​@dales60 !

Good question, it really depends on the client, which “numbers” are used by which team (as ​@bwhite49 shared), and what their procurement process looks like. 

The primary question I think that would need to be answered is “Does your client want to have “On Hold” (and the other referenced status) Sales Orders count towards demand?”

With “Deduct Qty. on Sales Prepared” = True, if a client often creates a Sales Order “On Hold”, but the Order does not actually get created with the items it had when “On Hold”, the Procurement Manager/Team may see the effect of the demand and replenish stock incorrectly.

If an item is used on an “On Hold” Sales Order, but is not on the Sales Order when it is released, a user using “Available Quantity” would think there are no available stock (or negative stock depending on the configuration).

However, if the client has a process where items added to Sales Orders rarely change between On Hold and Released (or rarely change before Procurement needs are calculated), having “Sales Order Prepared” = True would help the Procurement team see the demand of “On Hold” Sales Orders and procure stock “earlier” (before the Sale is confirmed).

For a Make to Stock business, having “Deduct Qty. on Sales Prepared” = True might be helpful, but I think a Make to Order business would be more hesitant to enable the setting

Hope this information is helpful!