The problem you're facing is rooted in how Acumatica handles pending transfer orders during inventory planning. By ensuring that transfer orders in certain statuses are treated as available supply or managing transfer orders manually or via safety stock/forecasting adjustments, you can avoid the double-ordering issue. If needed, custom workflows may provide a more tailored solution.

In Acumatica, when generating supply plans through Inventory Planning, the system calculates the supply based on several factors, such as existing inventory, purchase orders, and transfer orders. However, if a Transfer Order is created but not fulfilled (i.e., in a status like "On Hold," "Back Order," or "Open"), it may not be counted as actual available supply in the planning calculations.

This leads to the double-ordering problem you described: the system does not recognize the pending transfer order as supply, so when you regenerate the inventory plan, it assumes the demand is unfulfilled and creates an additional transfer order. This results in excess supply once the original transfer is fulfilled.

Why It Happens:

• Transfer Orders in Non-Final Status: Transfer orders that are not fully processed (e.g., in "On Hold," "Open," or "Back Order" statuses) may not be recognized by the system as "firm" supply, meaning the inventory planning process overlooks them when calculating the fulfillment of demand.
• Regeneration Logic: The inventory planning regeneration focuses on firm supply sources, such as purchase orders that are confirmed or inventory that is on hand, while it may treat transfer orders as provisional until they are in a final or shipped status.

Solutions and Best Practices:

1. Ensure Transfer Orders Are Recognized in Inventory Planning:

   • Check your system configuration to ensure that transfer orders are included in the supply plan even if they are in a pending status. You may need to adjust the logic or business rules in how Acumatica handles these statuses during the inventory planning run.
   • Ensure that transfer orders in certain statuses (like "Open") are marked as available supply in the system. This could involve reviewing how the inventory planning module is set up to treat transfer orders during the MRP (Materials Requirement Planning) run.

2. Use a Hold Status and Manage Manually:

   • One way to avoid over-supply is to place transfer orders that cannot be immediately fulfilled on Hold manually. This would prevent them from being included in the supply calculation and allow you to review demand and stock availability manually before releasing them.
   • Alternatively, ensure that any transfer order marked "On Hold" or "Open" is treated as valid supply to avoid duplicate transfers.

3. Partial Fulfillment and Supply Recognition:

   • If transfer orders are partially fulfilled, Acumatica might still not recognize the partial supply. To address this, check if the system can recognize partially fulfilled transfer orders as partial supply and ensure that this data is captured during planning regeneration.

4. Use of Safety Stock or Forecasting:

   • To avoid over-ordering or creating excessive transfer orders, consider adjusting your safety stock levels or using forecasting tools to balance stock replenishment. This would help the system more effectively predict supply needs without constantly triggering duplicate transfers.

5. Customization or Automation:

   • If the out-of-the-box functionality of Acumatica doesn’t fully address this issue, you could explore a custom automation. For example, you could implement a process that flags when a transfer order is open but not fully processed, preventing the system from creating additional transfer orders for the same demand.

@chameera71  Where in my system would I find the settings to have Inventory Planning take Transfer orders into account as supply? I am not finding anything under Inventory Planning Preferences. Is there another place I am not looking that allows you to set your Inventory Planning settings?

In Acumatica, the Inventory Planning process should ideally consider Transfer Orders as supply, but the system may not be configured to treat them that way by default. Here are several areas where you should look and settings to check to ensure Transfer Orders are counted as supply in your Inventory Planning:

1. Inventory Preferences (Supply Settings)

• Navigate to: Inventory > Preferences > Inventory Preferences.

Under Inventory Preferences, check the following settings:

• Include Transfer Orders as Supply: Ensure that any available options related to transfer orders being included in supply are enabled. In some cases, you might see settings related to Transfer Orders and their inclusion in planning calculations (though the terminology might vary depending on your version of Acumatica).

2. Replenishment Settings (Item or Warehouse Specific)

Each Inventory Item or Warehouse can have specific replenishment settings, which determine how the system forecasts supply and demand for that item. You may need to check if Transfer Orders are considered part of the supply chain logic for the specific item or warehouse.

For Individual Items:

• Navigate to: Inventory > Profiles > Stock Items.
  • Open the relevant Inventory Item.
  • Check the Replenishment Class and Replenishment Settings. Ensure the item’s replenishment method or settings align with treating transfer orders as part of supply.

For Warehouse-Specific Replenishment:

• Navigate to: Inventory > Profiles > Warehouses.
  • Open the specific Warehouse record.
  • Check the Replenishment Settings for the warehouse to ensure that transfers are considered in the supply planning for items stocked in that warehouse.

3. Warehouse Replenishment Settings

• Navigate to: Inventory > Replenishment > Warehouse Replenishment.

This section lets you define replenishment rules for specific warehouses. Check to ensure the transfer orders are marked as supply in the logic for that warehouse. It can also be warehouse-specific whether or not transfer orders are included in supply planning.

4. Transfer Order Status and MRP (Materials Requirements Planning)

• Navigate to: Inventory > Transactions > Transfer Orders.

Check the status of the Transfer Orders. If transfer orders are in an intermediate status (e.g., On Hold or Open) but not fully confirmed or received, the system may not recognize them as confirmed supply. Only confirmed or Shipped transfer orders are usually considered as supply.

If MRP (Materials Requirement Planning) is being used:

• Navigate to: Distribution > MRP > MRP Preferences.
  • Review the settings related to how different supply sources (e.g., transfers, purchase orders) are considered in the planning engine. MRP settings might determine whether transfer orders are treated as supply.

5. Master Planning Settings (MRP or Forecasting)

If you are using Master Planning or MRP for inventory forecasting, you should also check the settings in the Planning Worksheet.

• Navigate to: Distribution > MRP > Planning Worksheet.
  • Make sure transfer orders are selected or visible under the supply sources in the planning worksheet when you regenerate the plan.

6. Replenishment Classes

• Navigate to: Inventory > Profiles > Replenishment Classes.

Check the Replenishment Class that is assigned to the items you’re managing with transfer orders. Replenishment classes can define how and when supply (such as transfer orders, purchase orders, etc.) is considered in the planning process. Make sure that transfer orders are included as a replenishment source in the class settings.

7. Customization of Business Logic

If none of the settings seem to adjust for transfer orders to be considered supply, it might be worth checking if your system has customizations or specific business rules that are preventing transfer orders from being considered in the inventory planning. You may need assistance from a developer or Acumatica partner to check for any such customization.

Additional Tips:

• Ensure that transfer orders have the correct Lead Time and Allocation logic applied.
• Confirm that the Ship Date and Expected Receipt Date of the transfer orders are accurately set to reflect the actual supply availability date.

By reviewing these settings, you should be able to adjust Acumatica to account for transfer orders in your inventory planning process.

I should mention that I am in 24R1

Lets just look at your first step for a moment, this is the screen you reference:

Can you help me see where this is at on this screen? 

• Include Transfer Orders as Supply: Ensure that any available options related to transfer orders being included in supply are enabled. In some cases, you might see settings related to Transfer Orders and their inclusion in planning calculations (though the terminology might vary depending on your version of Acumatica).

The only thing I see talks about the Inventory Turnover Settings, which is not supply related. What am I missing?

@bradmestach, I have the same problem. Did you ever resolve it? If yes, could you tell me how, please?

Thank you!

No, sadly. We even got with our VAR who just copy and pasted this forum as their answer back to us. But as I am sure you have figured out, this ChatGPT produced answer provided on this thread is not relevant. 

Thanks @bradmestach. Yes, the response looked plausible at first glance but was completely nonsensical on closer inspection. I hadn’t thought of ChatGPT but I’m sure you’re right! I have logged the issue with Acumatica support who I’m sure will come up with something more useful.