Automate shipping, compliance, and eligibility decisions before order issues arise.
What is Advanced Order Rules?
Advanced Order Rules by Crestwood Associates enhances Acumatica’s ERP capabilities by automatically managing compliance, ensuring each order follows industry-specific shipping and distribution regulations without manual effort. It provides instant feedback on potential rule violations to prevent future issues, and its user-friendly design allows non-technical staff to manage rules more independently, reducing reliance on IT. Automating these checks accelerates order processing, lessens human errors, and decreases manual reviews saving teams time and avoiding costly compliance penalties.
What are Advanced Order Rules Capabilities (Functionality)?
- Automated Rule Application: Enforces distribution rules on all orders and purchase orders automatically.
- Easy Configuration: Users can quickly set up and modify rules through an intuitive, user-friendly interface.
- Comprehensive Rule Coverage: Supports a variety of rule types, including shipping methods, customer categories, locations, and customer attributes for greater flexibility.
- Real-Time Alerts: Immediately notifies users of potential rule violations.
- Reduce Manual Review: Minimizes the need for manual checks, saving time.
- Seamless Integration: Integrates smoothly with Acumatica’s order management system.
- Scalability: Easily adjusts to growing businesses and evolving regulations, making it a versatile tool.
How do you utilize Advanced Order Rules? Here are two practical examples.
1) Shipping Restrictions: Items with lithium-ion batteries cannot “Ship Via” an Air Service
Some products, such as devices with lithium-ion batteries, might be restricted from certain modes of transportation due to carrier policies, destination, packaging, or regulatory requirements. An Advanced Order Rule can help prevent invalid shipping choices early, ensuring the order doesn’t fail later in the warehouse or with the carrier.
- Condition: The sales order includes one or more inventory items that are flagged as cannot be shipped via one of the Air Services.
- Additional check: The sales order’s “Ship Via” is set to an Air Service, for instance, “Air,” “Next Day Air,” or any “Ship Via” categorized as Air.
- User Message: The Sales Order Line is flagged with a message indicating the item violates a rule and displays the “Ship Via” in question.
- Action: In the sales order, change the “Ship Via” to a method that does not conflict with the inventory item’s restrictions.
This process automatically detects that the lithium-ion product is ineligible for Air Service before the product is shipped, rather than relying on manual user oversight. In some environments, this incorrect choice of shipping service may not be caught until after shipping, disrupting shipping operations.
2) Eligibility Restrictions: Required training, certifications, or receiving facilities
Certain products are restricted to customers who meet specific qualifications, such as documented training, professional licenses, or suitable facilities for storage and receipt. Advanced Order Rules helps enforce these requirements by assessing customer category data, location constraints, and other customer attributes, flagging orders that do not meet the criteria before processing.
- Condition: The order includes inventory items that need qualification, such as an attribute like “Requires Certification” = Yes, or “Training Level” = Level 2.
- Customer Check: The customer does not have the required attribute designation, indicating the customer is approved to order and receive the item(s).
- User Message: The Sales Order Line displays a message indicating the item violates a rule and then shows the relevant attribute.
- Action: Remove the item from the sales order or add the appropriate attribute to the customer.
The Advance Order Rules solution moves verification to the order entry step, where it can be resolved before the order is released into the fulfillment process – saving time and money.
How Can Advanced Order Rules Transform Your Order Processing Efficiency and Compliance?
Advanced Order Rules helps teams stay compliant by automatically enforcing shipping and distribution rules and providing real-time alerts when policies aren’t met ensuring issues are caught early. It reduces manual work and errors by minimizing repetitive checks, and its user-friendly interface makes rule management easier for non-technical users. Examples like blocking air shipping for lithium-ion batteries and holding orders until training or site requirements are met turn complex rules into consistent guardrails. With integration into Acumatica’s order management and scalability, Advanced Order Rules supports safer, faster, and more cost-effective order processing.
What are the next steps?
Want to implement these guardrails? Pinpoint your top high-risk order situations, then set up a brief review or demo with Shaun Garrity to explore how Advanced Order Rules can be tailored to your Acumatica ERP shipping and distribution needs.
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