How stock gets reserved for a shipment

Overview

Reserving (the screens also say allocating) means setting aside specific stock for a shipment: this quantity, from this location, of this lot. Nothing moves physically and no inventory movement is recorded; the stock stays where it is, but it is no longer available to other shipments. The real deduction happens only when the shipment is closed, and it comes out of exactly the reserved locations.

There is no manual picking task or staging area: the reservation is the list of where the worker will pull each item from during loading.

When reservation happens

Moment	How	Partial allowed?
On confirm (Save & Confirm or Confirm Shipment)	Automatic	Yes
Allocate Stock button on the timeline (shipment in Confirmed)	Manual	Yes (that’s the default)
When saving an edit of a confirmed or reserved shipment	Automatic, after releasing the previous one	Yes
When the dock job starts and the shipment is still Confirmed	Automatic, as a safety net	Yes; with nothing available it stays Confirmed
API or EDI order	Automatic on creation	Yes
Cross-dock	When its receipt is confirmed, exactly what came in on it	See How to run a cross-dock

Allocating by hand needs the Create Shipments permission (default: Admin and Supervisor) and the warehouse needs the inventory module. Without it there is no allocate button.

The picking rules

For each line, the system gathers all of the product’s stock in the warehouse that meets the conditions in the next section and sorts it like this:

Earliest expiry first. Lots expiring soonest go first.
No expiry goes last, after everything that has one.
On a tie, oldest first: the stock row created earliest.

It then takes what is available from each location until the ordered quantity is covered. If one location isn’t enough it moves to the next, so a line can end up split across several locations and lots.

Each line reserves stock of its own customer or general stock with no owner. One customer never consumes another’s stock, not even in a multi-customer shipment.

What the reservation never takes

Expired lots: expiry date before today.
On-hold, quarantined or damaged stock: only available stock counts. See Change inventory status.
Stock already reserved by another shipment.
Non-pickable or inactive locations. See Locations and zones.
Staging-type locations, so stock already staged for another outbound isn’t taken.
The cross-dock pass-through location (XD-STAGE), which is non-pickable.
Serial-numbered stock: the automatic reservation only takes stock without a serial.
Another customer’s stock or another warehouse’s.

Partial reservation

If some line can’t be covered, the system reserves what there is and the shipment is partially allocated. On the timeline it looks the same as Reserved; the difference is in each line’s allocated column (lower than ordered). If no line can get anything, nothing is reserved and the shipment stays Confirmed.

A partially allocated shipment can be loaded and closed. When the rest arrives, complete the reservation with Edit (release and reserve again) or by cancelling the allocation and allocating again.

Important: before closing a partially allocated shipment, check the lines left with zero allocated. Today the close records them as loaded for the ordered quantity even though nothing leaves inventory, so they count towards handling and KPIs. Remove or adjust them with Edit before closing. See Close a shipment.

Where to see what is reserved

The Allocated column of each shipment line.
The Receipt # column: the receipt(s) the reserved lot came in on, each linked.
The Pull list at the bottom of the shipment screen: location, SKU, lot, the date that lot arrived in the warehouse, quantity and reservation status (Reserved while live; Shipped or Short after the close; Cancelled if released).
The worker’s Loading record: each line lists its locations with the quantity to pull from each.
The printed pick ticket. See The pick ticket.

What changes in inventory

In each reserved location the reserved quantity goes up and available goes down. The physical quantity doesn’t change.
In Inventory › Stock and in the product search of a new shipment, that stock shows as reserved. See Look up stock.
Nothing is logged in the stock history until the close. See The life of your stock.

Example

Central Warehousing orders 100 eaches of SKU CW-500. The warehouse holds:

Location	Lot	Expiry	Available
`B-02-01`	L-0425	April 15 (past)	30
`B-02-03`	L-0710	July 10	60
`B-05-01`	L-0930	September 30	80
`STG-01` (staging)	L-0710	July 10	20

Today is June 1. The expired lot and the staging location are left out. 60 are reserved from B-02-03 (expires sooner) and 40 from B-05-01. The pull list shows two rows; so does the pick ticket.

How it gets released

Cancel Allocation from the ⋮ menu: releases everything and the shipment goes back to Confirmed.
Edit a confirmed or reserved shipment: releases, applies your changes and reserves again.
Correct the customer: releases and returns to Confirmed.
Close: what was loaded ships and the rest of each reservation is released.

Details in Cancel, release the reservation or roll back a shipment.

Messages you may see

“Confirmed, but stock could not be reserved: …”

It comes with the reason. Most often there is nothing available for any line. Receive the stock and allocate later.

“No stock available for any line of this shipment.”

You clicked Allocate Stock and no line found anything that meets the rules. Check What the reservation never takes.

“Only confirmed shipments can be allocated (current status: …)”

The shipment is a draft (confirm it) or already reserved, loading or closed. The status shows its internal code, e.g. draft or loading.

“This shipment already has live stock reservations.”

It was already reserved. To redo it, cancel the allocation first or use Edit.

“Insufficient stock (allocated/needed): … Enable partial allocation to reserve what is available.”

Partial allocation is turned off in your installation (it ships turned on). Ask support to check it, or lower the quantities with Edit.

A message says the shipment belongs to a cross-dock and re-allocating would work against the floor.

A cross-dock’s reservation is managed by the cross-dock. See Tracking and closing a cross-dock.

Troubleshooting

The stock screen shows goods, but the shipment won’t reserve them.

Check, in this order: same customer (or general), not on hold, quarantined or damaged, lot not expired, location pickable, active and not staging, no serial number, and not reserved by another shipment.

It reserved from a far location instead of the usual one.

The rule goes by expiry and age, not by distance. See Can I choose which location it comes from?

It reserved less than the inventory screen shows.

The inventory screen adds everything up; the reservation only counts available stock that meets the rules. The difference is usually stock reserved by another shipment or in a non-pickable location.

FAQ

Can I choose which location it comes from?

Not directly: the reservation always follows the rules. If you need it to come from elsewhere, cancel the allocation, move the stock with a transfer or mark the location you don’t want as non-pickable, and allocate again.

What if the customer asks for a specific lot?

The reservation doesn’t take a lot as an instruction. The workaround is to cancel the allocation, temporarily put the product’s other lots on hold (with the inventory status change), allocate, and then release the hold. Note the requested lot in the shipment notes.

What about serial-numbered products?

The automatic reservation doesn’t take serial-numbered stock, so a shipment of those products stays Confirmed and can’t be closed while the warehouse uses inventory. If you handle serials, talk to support before shipping them; meanwhile, record those units leaving with an adjustment and cancel the shipment with the reason.