The delivery note with the lines crossed out
The driver hands over the order and the customer looks at the note. Four lines have 'short' written against them in pen. One of those was the reason they ordered. They ring your office, who check the system and find the lines on back order, with no date and no idea whether a purchase order is even placed.
A week later, the back ordered stock arrives, and it goes out automatically on the next order. By then the customer has bought it from someone else and does not want it. They refuse the line, and you raise a credit.
Why shortages are a surprise
The system allows orders against stock it believes is there. Then the picker finds the location empty or the count wrong. The shortage is recorded on the pick sheet and may or may not be updated in the system. Back orders are then created by default, without anyone deciding whether the customer wants them, and there is no link between the back order and the incoming purchase order.
- Stock levels are not reliable enough to promise from.
- Shortages are found at picking, after the customer has been told everything is fine.
- Back orders are created by default rather than by agreement.
- Nobody owns the back order list.
- Expected dates from suppliers are not linked to the lines that are waiting.
The price of silent shortages
Customers who have planned their week around your delivery find out too late to buy elsewhere. They start splitting orders across other distributors to protect themselves. Old back orders ship to customers who no longer want them, which means redeliveries, returns and credits. Sales reps spend their visits apologising instead of selling.
Back orders also distort your buying. A line with a long queue of old back orders looks like it has strong demand, so the buyer orders heavily, and half of that demand was cancelled weeks ago by customers who went elsewhere.
The shortage and back order process we build
- When orders are accepted, each line is checked against available stock and incoming purchase orders. Lines that cannot be met are flagged before picking starts.
- The customer gets a message the same day listing any short lines, with a suggested substitute where one exists, and the expected date where a purchase order is due.
- Customers can reply or click to accept the substitute, keep the back order, or cancel the line, and their choice updates the order.
- Pickers record shortages on the handheld, which updates stock and triggers the same message for anything found short at the shelf.
- A back order list, with owner and age, is linked to purchase orders. When stock is booked in, waiting back orders are shown for allocation.
- Back orders past an age you set are reviewed with the customer rather than shipped by default.
| Moment | Today | With the process |
|---|---|---|
| Order accepted | All lines assumed available | Shortages flagged before picking |
| Customer informed | When the van arrives | Same day, with options |
| Substitute offered | If the rep thinks of it | Suggested from your own rules |
| Back order ships | Automatically, however late | After a check with the customer |
Life with visible back orders
The customer knows before delivery what is missing and when it is likely to come. The office works one back order list rather than piecemeal phone calls. Buyers see which shortages are hurting which customers, which helps with what to chase first. And fewer unwanted lines come back on the van.
Is this what your customers see?
- Short lines are written on the delivery note by hand.
- Customers ring to ask where missing lines are.
- Nobody can say when a back order will ship.
- Old back orders go out to customers who no longer want them.
- Picking shortages are not always updated in the system.