Create drop shipment purchase orders

Drop Shipment  •  Article  •  3/20/2025  • 

The system facilitates the creation of drop shipment purchase orders by using the Drop Shipment action from the sales order header and line.

  1. Open the Sales Order page.
  2. Fill in the required fields on the header.
  3. On the Lines FastTab, in the Drop Shipment Vendor No. field, select the required code from the dropdown menu. Subsequently, the corresponding Drop Shipment checkbox gets selected automatically.
  4. In the Location Code field, select the required drop shipment location. You can also choose to leave this field blank.
    If the Drop Shipment Vendor No. field is empty after specifying the location code, the Drop Shipment Vendor No. field value is sourced from three pages in a hierarchical manner. Firstly, the system checks the Stockkeeping Unit Card page for a vendor number; if available, it populates the Drop Shipment Vendor No. field value. If not found, it then checks the associated Location Card page. If a vendor number is present, it fills the Drop Shipment Vendor No. field. If still not found, it proceeds to the associated Item Card page, populating the field if a vendor number is present.

  5. On the action bar, select Actions > Functions > Drop Shipment > Create Purchase Order.

    On the Lines FastTab, select Line > Functions > Drop Shipment > Create Purchase Order from the action bar to create the drop shipment purchase order for the selected sales line.
    The Requisition Worksheets page opens if the Skip Requisition Worksheet toggle is turned off on the Drop Shipment Setup page. You must fill in the required details to create the purchase order. To know more about Requisition Worksheet, see Create special orders.

You can also post the sales order fully or partially for the Ship, and Ship and Invoice options. The drop shipment purchase order is created. If the sales order lines involve multiple drop shipment vendor numbers, the system generates multiple drop shipment purchase orders. On the Lines FastTab of the purchase order, select Order > Drop Shipment > Purchase Order to view the newly created drop shipment purchase order.

The below points detail the process following the creation of a purchase order for drop shipment.

  • If the Automatically Assign Lot No. on Purchase Order field is set to On Release on the Lot Management Setup page, the Item Tracking field on the created drop shipment Purchase Order page is set to Complete, and the Assigned Lot(s) field is filled with the newly created lot number. This change is observed only when the order is released. To know more, see Automatic Lot Numbering.
    Furthermore, the linked drop shipment sales order will also inherit the same item tracking records. You can also synchronize the item tracking line with the related drop shipment purchase order item tracking line. > [!NOTE]
    > - Ensure that the Aptean Lot Management extension is installed and configured in your Business Central environment. > - If the purchase order has an open status and is not released, the lot number is not assigned, irrespective of the setting.

  • Changes made in the Quantity, Qty. to Ship, and Shipment Date fields of the sales order are reflected in the associated Quantity, Qty. to Receive, and Expected Receipt Date fields on the drop shipment purchase order lines.

    The system updates the changes made to the quantity or shipment date field values in the sales order lines to the drop shipment purchase order lines only if the related purchase order status is Open. Otherwise, the system displays an error when you attempt to update the sales order line.

  • On the Drop Shipment Setup page, if the Flexible Purchase Invoice Posting toggle is turned on, you can post the purchase order for invoice before the associated sales order has been invoiced.

  • Deleting the sales order line will also delete the associated drop shipment purchase order.

You cannot perform the drop shipment activity when combining shipments into invoices using the Combine Shipment By report. To know more about combine shipments, see Combine Shipments Setup.

External Document No. - Sales Order

The External Document No. – Sales Order field value inherits the External Document No. field value from the sales order linked to the purchase order through the drop shipment or special order processes. The field is populated automatically in the following scenarios:

  • Drop Shipment – Get Sales Orders: When a purchase order is created from a sales order using the Drop Shipment – Get Sales Orders action, the External Document No. from the sales order is automatically copied to the External Document No. – Sales Order field on the purchase order.
  • Special Order – Get Sales Orders: When a purchase order is linked to a sales order using Actions > Functions > Special Order > Get Sales Orders on the purchase order, the External Document No. from the sales order is automatically copied to the External Document No. – Sales Order field.
  • Requisition Worksheet – Carry Out Action Messages: When a purchase order is created from the Requisition Worksheet using Carry Out Action Messages for lines flagged as Drop Shipment or Special Order, the External Document No. from the associated sales order is automatically copied to the External Document No. – Sales Order field on the created purchase order.
  • Multiple Sales Orders: If multiple sales orders are linked to the same purchase order, the External Document No. – Sales Order field is updated each time a sales order is linked. The field always reflects the External Document No. of the last linked sales order.

The field is hidden by default, consistent with other Drop Shipment fields on the Purchase Order page.

Undo the drop shipment

To undo the drop shipment, follow the below steps.

  1. Open the required Posted Sales Invoice page.
  2. On the action bar, select Actions > Functions > Undo Drop Shipment.
    A dialog opens. In the Return Reason Code field, select the required option from the dropdown menu. The reason code will be updated on the sales return and purchase return orders.
    Undoing the drop shipment will post the sales invoice and purchase invoice for shipped and received items that were not previously invoiced. It will also trigger the creation and posting of a sales return order and purchase return order, followed by the creation of a respective sales order and purchase order, which is irreversible. After performing the Undo Drop Shipment action, the system reverts the quantity and amount values in the posted sales invoice lines.

As a result, the system creates the corrective lines on the following documents:

  • Item Ledger Entries
  • Vendor Ledger Entries
  • Customer Ledger Entries

Return the drop shipment

To return the drop shipment, follow the below steps.

  1. Open the required Posted Sales Shipment page.

  2. On the action bar, select Actions > Functions > Return Drop Shipment.
    A dialog opens.

  3. In the Return Reason Code field, select the required option from the dropdown menu. This reason code will be updated in the associated sales and purchase return orders.

    Returning the drop shipment will trigger the creation and posting of a sales return receipt and purchase return shipment.

    • If all lines in the posted sales shipment are fully shipped and no invoice has been posted, the system will proceed with reversal.
    • If any line in the posted sales shipment is partially shipped, an error occurs stating that partial drop shipments cannot be reversed.
    • If an invoice has been posted for the drop shipment order, the system will display an error. It is recommended that you use the Undo Shipment action on the Posted Sales Invoice page.