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PO workflow - How to consolidate multiple PO's are shipped in one package or sea container. Say we have 5 PO's that all ship in the same container. How do we combine to one so we only need tracking in one place?

  • August 15, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 12 views

We are having trouble with Native Acumatica, and want to see if there are any options. 

We receive a lot of items in Sea Containers. Multiple orders are put in to a container shipment when they are all ready to ship.

Our typical work flow to place an order is:

  1. Place a main order for a container of products. We will call this PO-001. Maybe this PO takes 90 days to prepare for shipment. 
  2. During this time, we will add PO’s for smaller items, generally repair parts. So let’s say that during the time it takes to get PO-001 ready, we make PO-002, PO-003, PO-004, and PO-005.
  3. Now PO-001 is ready to ship, and most of the other open PO’s (PO-002 through PO-005) are also shipping in this sea container. But sometimes, one or 2 items will not be ready in time to make the shipment, so it will still be left on order for shipping at a later date.
  4. Our people need to see an accurate delivery date and tracking info for this shipment, and need to know that all of these shipped in the same container. So right now, we go to each individual PO, manually update the promised date, add tracking, and add notes. And anything that did not make the shipment, we will delete and make a new PO to keep it on order. Very time consuming. 

So instead of manually going through each PO, updating the promise date, adding the same container tracking, removing items and making new PO;s for the items that did not make the shipment, and adding notes that they all shipped together, how would we consolidate this process?  

 

What we have tried:

 We have tried to make a Purchase Receipt and receive the items that shipped to an In Transit location - But that does not work, because we do not always have the correct dollar amounts at this stage, so it messes with the financial end of things. If we enter items at zero dollars and then later correct them, it posts these figures in a way that does not work. AND not only that, but receiving them messed up our inventory replenishment. Because the In transit location had to be a location that was unavailable, so once we received it there, the items were no longer on PO, but were also out of stock, so Acumatica was generating Auto Reorder PO’s. It was a mess. 

 We also tried the PC Bennet Container Receiving Module, but it did not work with serial numbers. Although at this point, we do not need to work with serial numbers, but the PC Bennet Solution had other hangups. 

 

What I imagine we need:

All we really need is a step in between a PO and Purchase Receipt - So we could just receive the items from the PO’s on to one consolidated PO, then we could have one place to look to see whats coming in. 

All we need to do is take orders that are on multiple PO’s, and show that they have all shipped in one shipment. Whether it is a small UPS Box, or a sea container. If we could have some kind of step that takes these PO’s and combines them to one master PO, that would solve it.

 

 

1 reply

smilner3
Varsity II
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  • Varsity II
  • August 15, 2026

Matt,

Why the in-transit location approach broke

Based on what you've described, this may come down to setup. Acumatica tracks in-transit inventory at the warehouse level, not the location level, so it usually calls for a dedicated in-transit warehouse rather than a location. On the replenishment side, two settings are worth checking:

  • Include in Qty. Available on the location (Warehouses screen, IN204000)
  • The Availability Calculation Rule on your item class (IN201500), which controls which plan types count toward available. In-Transit, PO Receipts, and Purchase Orders can all be included there.

If those are set so in-transit stock still counts as available, that should stop the auto-reorder POs, though I'd verify it against your replenishment setup in a sandbox first. One limitation: the rule is per item class, with no per-item override.

A native option: consolidate at the receipt

The Purchase Receipts screen (PO302000) has an Add Purchase Order Line action that can pull multiple POs onto one receipt, whether whole POs, selected lines, or partial quantities. That gives you one document to watch instead of five, and it may address the cost problem without in-transit at all:

  • Nothing posts to inventory or GL until the receipt is released, so leaving it unreleased until you have actual costs should avoid the zero-dollar corrections you ran into.
  • Freight and duty can go on as landed costs (codes on PO202000, with the vendor flagged as a Landed Cost Vendor on AP303000).
  • For items that miss the container, unchecking Complete PO Line should leave the balance open on the original PO instead of deleting and rebuilding.

Two limitations here: receipts are per vendor, so POs from different vendors would still mean separate receipts, and there's no native way to merge POs into a single master PO.

ISV option: AcuContainer from IIG

Since PC Bennett didn't work out for you, this one may be worth evaluating. Per their marketplace listing, it covers the in-between step you described:

  • Load items from multiple POs into a container transaction (whole PO or partial quantities)
  • Receive into an in-transit warehouse and fulfill sales orders from container stock
  • Allocate landed costs and duties automatically
  • Live container tracking with ETAs

It's listed as Fulfilled by Acumatica and validated through 2026 R1. The listing doesn't mention lot/serial support, so even though serials aren't a requirement for you today, I'd confirm that with IIG and see a demo against your actual workflow before committing.

Hard to be definitive without seeing your configuration, but hopefully this gives you a couple of directions to test.

AcuContainer on the Marketplace: https://www.acumatica.com/acumatica-marketplace/iig-acuboost-container-tracking/
IIG's page: https://www.iigservices.com/acumatica-container-tracking