Fulfillment (FAQ)

FAQ

Topics relating to Backordered Items

Q. What happens if an order contains both back order and in-stock items? When is shipping charged?

A. The answer to this is dependent on whether or not the system option RecognizeRevenueDuringFulfillment is enabled or not. If the option is set to true, then at the time of sale, an order is created for all items (backordered or not), including shipping for all items. Please note, though, that this is an order - not an invoice. This means that no journal entries recording the sale are created at this time. If the order was paid for with a credit card, the card is not charged at this time. If it was paid for by check, a credit is created on the customer's record in that amount.

At the time of fulfillment, an invoice is created for the products that are currently available to be fulfilled (including shipping charges for the products being fulfilled). If the order was paid for by credit card, the card number provided at the time of sale is charged at this time, but only for the items which are being fulfilled. If it was paid for by check, the credit created at the time of sale is used to pay for the items being fulfilled.

When backordered products are received into inventory, subsequent fulfillments will need to be run. With each fulfillment, shipping charges related to the invoice line item being fulfilled will be invoiced (and paid, if payment was provided at the time of order).

Q. Is shipping broken into two installments (one for shipped items and one for backordered items)?

A. Assuming that shipping charges have been set up in relation to each line item and not the overall invoice, yes.

Q. What happens to the invoice? Invoices are created from orders at time of fulfillment, so does the "order" stay open until the second half is fulfilled?

A. An invoice is created for each fulfillment; the order remains open until it is completely fulfilled.

Q. What about the batch for that invoice or order? Do we need to reopen a batch? Open a new batch?

A. When the order is fulfilled, NetForum automatically creates a batch for the invoices included in the fulfillment (default naming convention is YYYY-MM-DD-FUL-###).