Go to Fulfillment > Backorder Allocation.

1. Select your filters and click Submit.

• Shipdate: Sorts by shipdate showing oldest orders first. This makes it easier for you to fulfill them in the order they were estimated to ship out.
• Account Name: Sorts alphabetically by account name.
• Sales Rep: Filters your backorders by the sales rep assigned to them. (Note that this searches by rep assigned to the order, not to the customer.)

2. In the box column, enter the quantity you would like to allocate to the order.

By default, any product that is available will appear in the box column, while any product that is not available will be in the red X column, meaning that it is backordered.

3. Click Update Order to allocate the inventory, changing the status of this order to 'To Be Shipped.'

Any product that is available will appear in the box column, while any product that is not available will be in the red X column, meaning that it is backordered.

But what if you have 5 orders to fulfill? How do you know how much inventory you have available and how do you make sure that you assign it to the right orders? The backorder allocation page shows your stock status in detail, providing you with the information you need to make those decisions.

• O/O - On Order refers to the quantity of the product on this particular order. You can't add more units to your order on the backorder allocation page, but you can decide whether or not you would like this unit to be on backorder or if it's ready to ship.
• O/H - On Hand refers to the number of units that are physically present in your warehouse. (Imagine that you have 35 boxes stacked on your warehouse floor.)
• TBS To Be Shipped refers to the number of units that have already been promised to an order. (Imagine that you have 35 boxes, but 7 have been set aside in a different pile because they are ready to ship out.) Note that To be shipped may include multiple order statuses, depending on your settings under Prefs > Order Setup > Order Settings.
• AVAIL - Available refers to the number of units available to allocate. O/H - TBS = AVAIL (Imagine that you have 35 boxes, and 7 have already been promised to customers. You have 28 boxes leftover that you can allocate to new orders.)
• BO - Backorder refers to the number of backorders that are currently waiting for inventory.

 Generally, 'Backorder' quantities are not included in TBS. To fit your business flow, you can set this status as 'to be shipped' under Prefs > Order Setup > Order Settings. This means that your TBS numbers will already include backorders, and you may see negative 'Available' quantities. If this is the case, you will need to manually allocate your inventory to the 'box' column and take care not to commit to more backorders than you have physical inventory on-hand.

Sometimes, you may have an order where some of the products are ready to ship, while others are still backordered. Using backorder allocation, you can quickly split orders, generating new backorders (also known as child orders).

To split orders using backorder allocation, the basic process is the same as we already outlined above.

1. Go to Fulfillment > Backorder Allocation.

2. Select your filters and click Submit. (For more information on filters, please see our 'Allocation Basics' section above.)

3. Enter quantities in the box column (to allocate) or in the Red X column (to place on a new backorder.)

4. Click Update Order. This will split the order, creating a parent-child relationship between your original order and the newly-created backorder. (This means that if you search for either the parent or the child orders, you will be able to see all linked orders on the order detail page.)

5. If you run the backorder allocation report again, you can view the original order as a 'parent' of the newly-created backorder.

A parent order is one that is linked to dependent orders, or children. An order may have multiple children, depending on how many times it has been split. It's also possible for you to split a backorder from a backorder, meaning that you can have a parent order with children, whose children also have children. All of these orders will be visible together on the order detail page, making it easy for you to see their relationship.

This is a common mistake. If you look at our screenshot below, you will see an example of an order.

Please note there are 5 units in the 'box' column (to be allocated to the order), but there is only 2 units currently on this Order. No matter how you split an Order, you cannot exceed the number of units 'O/O' or 'On Order.'  This will result in an error.

To increase the number of products on the order itself, go to Orders > View Orders. There you may find and edit your order, adding more products.