Where Documents live
Lesson 1 of 17 6 min read
The Document lists in the menu, the source data and target data lists behind them, and which document type goes where.
Every working day starts with a question like "did last night's orders reach the warehouse?" or "has the retailer's invoice gone?". Answering it quickly depends on knowing which list to open. In this lesson you will learn where each kind of Document lives, and how the Document lists relate to the source data and target data lists behind them.
Throughout this course: Hilltop Coffee
Hilltop Coffee, one year on
Hilltop Coffee, from the Foundations course, has grown. It still sells on Shopify and runs stock and sales orders in Unleashed, but now also uses a 3PL, Northgate Fulfilment, to pick and pack orders, and supplies a regional grocery chain. Priya runs operations; Sam in customer service answers "where is my order?" emails. Both use Supply Lens every day.
Document lists in the menu
Document lists are grouped by area in the left-hand menu:
| Menu | Typical lists |
|---|---|
| Sales | Orders, Shipments, Proofs of delivery, Invoices, Credits |
| Warehouse | Warehouse Orders, Warehouse Shipments, Picks, Goods Inbound, Goods Inbound Receipts |
| Purchases | Purchase Orders, and purchase invoices and purchase credit notes |
| All documents | Every Document, whatever its type |
Many more document types have their own entry in the menu, so you can go straight to them. Which lists matter to you depends on your Mappings: if you have no Mapping for Picks, you will not see Picks.
Start specific, widen if needed
Open the specific list first (Sales → Orders for an order query). If you are not sure what type a Document is, for example something a retailer sent, use All documents.
Which type is which?
A few pairs are easy to confuse:
| Document type | What it is |
|---|---|
| Order | A customer's order, usually from a shop or retailer. |
| Warehouse Order | An instruction to a warehouse or 3PL to fulfil something. |
| Shipment | Despatch information for a customer, including tracking. |
| Warehouse Shipment | A despatch reported by the warehouse. |
| Order Change | An amendment to an order already placed. |
| Order Acknowledgement | Confirmation that an order was received and accepted. |
| Inventory | Point-in-time stock levels. |
| Stock Adjustment | A correction to stock, such as a write-off or count. |
Behind every Document: source and target data
Remember the three versions of every transaction: source data in, a Document in the middle, target data out. Supply Lens has lists for each:
- Document lists (above): the standard records.
- Source data list: everything that has arrived, exactly as it was received.
- Target data list: everything Supply Lens has produced to send, exactly as sent, with the logo of the Integration each record is for.
Most of the time you start from a Document and follow its links to the source or target data. Go to the source or target data lists directly when you want to see everything that arrived from, or went to, a system in one place.
Other useful lists
The menu also holds lists of communications sessions (each time an Integration talks to its system) and conversion sessions (each time data is converted), with logs for each. If you trade over AS2, a secure way of exchanging EDI files, there is a list of the AS2 documents you have sent and received, which you can filter by direction.
Sam's first query
A customer emails Sam: "I ordered on Monday, where is it?" Sam opens Sales → Orders to find the order, then Sales → Shipments to see whether a despatch with tracking has come back. If the order is there but no shipment, he checks Warehouse → Warehouse Orders to see whether it reached Northgate.
Recap
- Document lists sit under Sales, Warehouse and Purchases, with All documents showing everything.
- You only see document types your Mappings actually use.
- Know the pairs: Order vs Warehouse Order, Shipment vs Warehouse Shipment.
- Source data and target data lists hold exactly what arrived and what was sent; usually you reach them from a Document's links.
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