This chapter from our 1,000 page JD Edwards Sales Order manual is being made available as a sample of our training manuals. Please contact [email protected] if you have any JDE training needs, or visit www.JDEtips.com for more information.
Written by Andy Klee and Jane Perry
With contributions from many other Mastery Level consultants Published by Klee Associates, Inc.
Copyright Klee Associates, Inc. 2009
Blanket and Quote Orders
Blanket and Quote orders are special orders that have a very short life. Blankets are generally used to reflect an agreed price or quantity with a customer while Quotes are used to communicate pricing and quantity to a customer.
Blanket Orders
Blanket Orders are typically used when there is an agreement with a customer that he/she will buy X amount of product over a specified period of time at a specified price.
For example, if Customer 3001 wanted to set up an agreement to buy 500 of the 210 bicycles over the next 12 months, at a price of $17,000 each, we would set up a blanket order. (Remember the price is so high because of the Superanium alloy we use.)
As shipment requests are received from the customer, we would do a call off against the blanket order, creating a sales order, and reducing the open quantity on the blanket.
Once the blanket order quantity is 100% released, the price reverts back to the regular price.
The blanket order does not affect today's availability.
We will look at the following steps: Setup necessary for blanket orders Entering a blanket order
The effect of a blanket on item availability
Two methods of releasing a sale against a blanket
What occurs when a release exceeds the quantity available on the blanket Cancel Date functionality in the blanket order
What happens in Batch Order Creation How to see all the releases against a blanket Pricing implications of Blanket Orders
Setup Necessary for Blanket Orders
The first question is: What setup makes a blanket order different from a regular sales order? Since the basic difference lies in the fact that the order is not committed against today's available stock, let's look at the commitment processing options first.
From the Sales Order Processing menu (G4211), select Blankets (P4210) and review the Processing Options.
On the Process tab, note option 7 is blank. It is important that the actual Blanket Order Entry application is set this way.
This option is used by standard order entry to release quantities from blankets. If this option is turned on for Blanket Order entry, you will actually consume existing blankets!
Let's go to menu G4241 and select Branch/Plant Constants.
Find Branch 10 and Row exit to Availability.
That's the only real difference between a blanket and a ―normal‖ sales order. We typically use a different order type to distinguish between Blankets and Sales.
Item Availability
Use Summary Availability (G41112) to confirm the current available quantity on hand.
Your availability might be different. Just note your current availability. Scroll to the right to view the Other Quantity 1 field. Currently zero.
Leave this application active.
Enter Blanket Order
Enter an order as follows:
Ship To 4242
Cancel Date 90 days from current date
Quantity Ordered 500
Item 210
Unit Price 17000 Click OK.
Click Cancel to return to the Customer Service Inquiry form. Click Close to return to the menu.
Item availability
You'll see that the on hand, committed, and available numbers haven't changed. But if you scroll to the right you'll see a quantity of 500 in the Other Quantity 1 column.
Two Methods of Releasing a Sale Against a Blanket
The first method involves setting up Sales Order Entry to do blanket order release. The customer calls up and places a sales order. Order Entry needs to tell us that there is a blanket order to be released against.
From menu G4211, select Sales Order Detail and review the Processing Options.
On the Process tab, there is an option (as we mentioned before) that allows this version of Order Entry to consume existing blankets. You have a choice to make to tell the system how to look for blanket orders.
When you use blanket or quote order processing, the system locates applicable blanket or quote orders from which you can create either multiple sales orders for partial quantities, or a single sales order when you release the complete quantity. Valid values are:
Blank – The system does not use blanket or quote order processing 1 – The system processes blanket/quote orders based on Ship To address 2 – The system processes blanket/quote orders based on Sold To address 3 – The system processes blanket/quote orders based on Sold To address and Customer PO
4 – The system processes blanket/quote orders based on Ship To address and Customer PO
5 – The system processes blanket/quote orders based on Deliver To address.
6 – The system processes blanket/quote orders based on Deliver To address and Customer PO
Xe only has options 1 and 2 available.
Set the value to 1.
Scroll down to options 16 and 17. These options were added post Xe as well.
Option 16 is used to specify whether the system will manually or automatically release a selected blanket order if more than one blanket order is available. Valid values are:
Blank – The system will not release a blanket order when more than one blanket order is available. You will need to manually select and release blanket orders.
1 – The system will select and release the blanket order with the earliest cancel date. If more than one blanket order has the same cancel date, the system will process releases based on the earliest requested date.
Option 17 is used to specify whether the system will manually or automatically release a selected blanket order if only one matching blanket order exists. Valid values are:
Blank – The system will release a blanket order if only one matching blanket order exists.
1 – The system will not release a blanket order if only one matching blanket order exists. You will need to manually select and release blanket orders.
Click Add.
Enter a Sales Order for 5 of the 210s to Ship To customer 4242. We got our price! Accept the order and re-inquire in Customer Service Inquiry.
The released sales order references the original blanket order. Cancel back to Customer Service Inquiry.
As we expect, 5 have been soft committed. Scroll over to the right:
The quantity committed against Other Quantity 1 has been reduced by 5. Since the total quantity committed against Other Quantity 1 could be comprised of more than one blanket order, it's important to know how to look at the blanket order itself and know how many have been released.
There's no evidence on the blanket itself that a release has been done. Here's a neat little trick.
Type 0 in the Quantity Ordered field and arrow down to the next line:
The error message says: ―Error: Qty can't be less than qty released 5‖. So we know the system is keeping track on each blanket of the quantity released.
Type UTB in the Fast Path box. Click File, Open Table.
Type F4211 in the Table field. Click OK.
In the QBE line, type your Blanket Order Number in the column labeled
SDDOCO.
Press Enter.
Scroll about 1/3 of the way over to the right, until you see the SDQTYT field:
You will see 5 in the SDQTYT field. This is where the system tracks the quantity released against each order line.
UDC 40/BT
You might be wondering how the system knew to look for SB orders to do the release against when we entered the SO. There's a User Defined Table (40/BT), which stores blanket order types. If you have your own blanket order types, you'll have to put them in this table; otherwise, the automatic release process will not work.
This UDC contains blankets and quotes for the sales order system as well as blankets and quotes for the procurement system.
Release Blankets
Another way to see what has been released, and another way to do releases is through the Release Blankets program (P420111) on the Additional Order
On the Version tab, make sure that the versions are all blank. Click OK.
Click Find.
Select your order, and we'll do another release against the blanket. Let's just release 10 more, so change the release quantity to 10 and click OK. Note that you can also enter the Request Date.
If you were doing multiple releases for the same customer, the system could aggregate the releases into one sales order.
Now, click the Form exit for SO Generation:
Notice in the top right corner, there is a number and document type in the Added
Order fields:
The advantage of using this program over Sales Order Entry to do releases is that if the client calls and says I want to order this item but not do a release against the blanket, then you can't use the automatic process in order entry at all. You will need to do all your releases with the Release Blankets program.
What Occurs When a Release Exceeds the Quantity Available on the
Blanket
We have a quantity of 485 available on the blanket order. Let's try entering a regular sales order for a quantity of 550:
We get a green check mark on the left. This is our signal that we need to take the Row exit labeled Blanket Orders.
Using the Show All Columns format, you can scroll to the right, and you'll see a check mark in the Blankets Exist column. There are several other conditions that could generate a green check mark on the left side of the order, so you can't always assume it's because there's a blanket order.
Click the Row exit for Blanket Orders.
This form is telling us that we only have 485 left on the Blanket. Go ahead and enter the 550 in the Quantity Ordered field.
The line was split with the 485 at the blanket price and the remaining 65 at the standard price. Not such a good deal for this customer huh?
Click OK to accept your order.
Do you think that fully releasing the blanket order should bump the status of the blanket to 999?
Go to the Blanket Order program on the Sales Order Processing menu (G4211) and find your order.
Looks like the blanket is fully consumed and closed.
Cancel Date Functionality in the Blanket Order
We haven't mentioned the fact that Sales Orders can have a cancel date. The reason we haven't mentioned it yet, is that there is no functionality associated with the cancel date, except with regard to blanket orders.
Once the system date is past the cancel date, you cannot do any blanket releases.
Let's test this by creating a blanket order with a cancel date of yesterday. Enter a quantity of 100.
Click OK to accept. Cancel back to Customer Service Inquiry and find your order.
To view the cancel date and all other dates associated with the order, select the detail line and Row exit to Order Dates.
Now, let's try to do a release against the blanket by entering a regular sales order.
We can tell right away that the blanket was not found—the unit price is not the price from the blanket.
Check out Blanket Order Release to see if it checks the cancel date. Find your order and select the line for release.
Earlier releases of Xe did not completely check the cancel date. Be sure to test this functionality if you use cancel dates on your blanket orders.
Automatic Release When There Is More Than One
Blanket Order
If there is more than one blanket order for a given customer and item, what do you think the system will do?
On your own
Enter two blanket orders for customer 4242.
One for 100 of item 210 at 15000 each and cancel date of 90 days from current date
One for 100 of item 210 at 15500 each and cancel date of 60 days from current date
Enter an order for 50 of the 210. You get the green check mark again. The system will not decide which blanket to use. You must manually select.
On the Process tab, scroll down to options 16 and 17. You can see why the system was not relieving any blankets; the option told it not to.
Set option 16 to use cancel date.
Now enter the same order. The system selects the order with the earliest cancel date.
What Happens in Batch Order Creation and EDI?
Batch Order Creation is used by clients who have outside systems that feed data to JDE that is then used to create sales orders. The EDI suite has its own batch order creation program.
Both programs will do releases against blanket orders.
But what happens when there is more than one blanket order? Or if the ordered quantity exceeds what is available on the blanket? Since this is a manual process in Online Order Entry, the batch order creation program does not find any blanket orders if more than one could be applied.
How to See All the Releases Against a Blanket
This is a nice to know tip. Simply inquire in the Customer Service Inquiry using the Original Order number field on the Additional Selections tab:
This will bring up all orders released against a particular blanket order.
Pricing Implications of Blanket Orders
Normally, blanket orders have manually entered prices. Orders released against these blanket orders have their Price Override flag set. This is what we would expect, because we wouldn’t want repricing to override the price on a release against a blanket that had a manually-entered price.
The Price Override flag is also set in the released order—this prevents repricing from incorrectly changing the price to the regular (non-blanket) price.
An example of when this might not be a good way to price blankets is in the Home Heating Oil industry. Blanket Orders represent the contracted quantity that the customer agrees to buy over the cold season. We may not want to enter a price manually, but rather have the system look up a special blanket price based on the customer type (Residential vs. Commercial). The only way to do this is to set up the base price as the first price adjustment in Advanced Pricing, and to base it on an order detail group that includes document type as a driver field.
If we didn't do this, then we'd have to enter the price manually every time we enter a blanket order. Plus, we'd lose other adjustments such as per gallon taxes.
However, if a blanket order is entered without overriding the price, then releases against that blanket do not have the Price Override flag set, and they may be repriced.
This is especially dangerous if your blanket price was automatically derived from quantity breaks, because the release would be repriced using the quantity on the released order, and would not benefit from the original quantity break on the blanket order.
Previous versions of both World and EnterpriseOne did not carry forward any price history from the blanket order. So be aware that if you are not on EnterpriseOne Xe, even if you do not manually override the price when the blanket is entered, the blanket order releases may appear to have no Price History (F4074) records.
The records are actually in the file, but they have their Price Override flag set. You may need to create a batch job to blank out the Price Override flag prior to Invoice Print.
Other Blanket Release Processing Combinations
You have the option of releasing blanket orders with a direct match on fields other than just the Sold To and Ship To.
On your own
Enter several blanket orders with combinations Customer PO and Sold To; Ship To, and Deliver To.
Change the processing options for each combination and release against combination.
Quote Orders
Quotes are used when a customer requires a formal price quote but is not ready to commit to a sales order.
Entering a quote and converting a quote to a firm order is very similar to the blanket order handling we just looked at.
Quote Orders, generally:
Affect Other Quantity 2 instead of current availability
May be released two ways, either automatically in Order Entry, or through a Quote Release program
May also be converted to a sales order via the copy function.
Since we have already covered the first two bullets, let's concentrate on the third option – convert to a sales order via the copy function.
From menu G4211, select Quotes. Review the Processing Options.
On the Commitment tab, Option 2 should be set to Commit quantities to
Enter a quote order for Customer 4242 for 1000 of Item 210 at a price of 18,000.
Check Item Availability to see that Other Quantity 2 was updated with the 1000 units.
From menu G4211, select Sales Order Detail.
Change the quantity to 100, blank out the extended price, and click OK.
From Customer Service Inquiry, find the new order. Select the grid line and
The original order information is updated with the Quote order number.
Let's just check and see if the 100 units of the quote were consumed. From menu G4212, select Release Quotes.
Find your order. Uh oh – copy function does not relieve the Quote.
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