Dates, assemblies, batches and shipments
Lesson 16 of 24 7 min read
Set required and dispatch dates, handle assemblies and serial or batch numbers, and decide whether Supply Lens creates the sales shipment.
The last group of order settings deals with timing and production: when the order is required, whether kits are assembled automatically, how batch-tracked stock is allocated, and whether the order is shipped at the moment it is created. These matter most to manufacturers, food businesses and anyone fulfilling outside Unleashed.
Decision 1: which dates?
| useOrderDateAsRequiredDate | Uses the order date as the Required Date too. Choose it when everything ships as soon as possible. |
|---|---|
| useRequiredDateAsOrderDate | Uses the source order's Required Date as the order date in Unleashed. Choose it when the channel's required date is the date that matters, such as a retailer's delivery date. |
| adjustSalesOrderRequiredDate | An offset added to the Required Date, written as days.hours:minutes:seconds. 1.00:00:00 adds one day. |
| adjustSalesShipmentDispatchDate | An offset applied to the dispatch date when creating a sales shipment. |
Decision 2: assemblies
If your products are assembled from components (gift boxes, kits, blends), selling them can create assembly orders in Unleashed.
| autoCompleteAssemblies | Automatically completes assembly orders created from sales order lines. Choose it when assembly happens on the fly and nobody completes assemblies by hand. |
|---|---|
| setAssemblyAssembleByDatesToRequiredDate | Sets the Assemble By date on generated assemblies to the sales order's Required Date, so production planning sees the right deadline. |
autoCompleteParkedAssemblies is a different setting for importing orders from Unleashed; you met it in the import lesson.
Decision 3: serial and batch numbers
| serialBatch | Auto-assigns serial and batch numbers to sales order lines when the order is created. |
|---|---|
| serialBatchTagMap | Turns auto-assignment on or off per order by tag. serialBatch applies when no tag matches. |
Turn on serialBatch if you track batches (for example best-before dates) and want Unleashed to allocate them at order time. Use the tag map if only some channels need it.
Decision 4: should Supply Lens ship the order?
| createSalesShipment | Creates a sales shipment in Unleashed when the order is processed. |
|---|---|
| stripNeverDiminishingProductsFromShipment | Leaves products set as never diminishing (non-inventory products such as shipping or services) off the generated shipment. |
When to turn it on: when the order is already fulfilled elsewhere by the time it reaches Unleashed, for example a marketplace that ships from its own stock, or a shop where a 3PL ships before Unleashed is updated. Creating the shipment straight away reduces stock in Unleashed to match.
When to leave it off: when your team picks and ships from Unleashed. The shipment should be created when the goods actually leave.
Stripping costs a little extra
stripNeverDiminishingProductsFromShipment needs Supply Lens to read your product list from Unleashed, every page, before creating the shipment. On a large catalogue that adds calls to each run.
Hilltop's gift boxes
Hilltop sells a Discovery Box assembled from three coffees. Selling it creates an assembly in Unleashed, and nobody wants to complete these by hand. Priya turns on autoCompleteAssemblies. Café orders often ask for delivery on a particular day, so she turns on setAssemblyAssembleByDatesToRequiredDate. Hilltop picks and ships from Unleashed itself, so createSalesShipment stays off.
Recap
- Choose whether the order date or the required date drives Unleashed's dates, and offset them if needed.
autoCompleteAssembliescompletes assemblies created by sales; set their Assemble By date from the Required Date.serialBatchallocates serial and batch numbers at order time, per order if you use the tag map.- Turn on
createSalesShipmentonly when orders are already fulfilled when they reach Unleashed.
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