Item availability and order promising in Business Central

When a customer asks "can you ship this by next Tuesday?", the right answer needs more than just current inventory. Item availability in Business Central considers on-hand stock, inbound orders, outbound commitments, planned production, transfers in flight — producing a forward view of when inventory will be available. Order promising turns that view into delivery date commitments.

The availability views. Business Central provides several availability views per item:

• By Location — quantity on hand per warehouse / location.
• By Variant — quantity per size / colour / configuration combination.
• By Lot — quantity per batch (for lot-tracked items).
• By Period — projected balance across upcoming periods (this week, next week, etc.).
• By Event — itemised list of every projected event (sales order shipments, purchase order receipts, transfers, production completions) with running balance.
• By BOM Level — for manufactured items, availability considering components and assemblies.
• By Timeline — visual graph of projected balance over time.

The same data, presented different ways for different decision contexts.

The projected balance computation. Starting from current on-hand, the system walks forward in time:

• Adding inbound: open purchase orders (with expected receipt dates), open transfer-ins, planned production order completions, firmed assembly orders.
• Subtracting outbound: open sales orders (with expected shipment dates), open transfer-outs, planned production order component consumption, service order item issuance.

The projected balance at any future date is the running total. Negative projected balance signals a future stockout; positive balance signals capacity for additional orders.

Available-to-Promise (ATP). ATP is the inventory available to commit to new orders at a given date, considering current commitments. The computation:

• ATP at date D = sum of inbound through D − sum of outbound through D (including reserved).
• Reservations are honoured — reserved stock isn't ATP-available to other orders.
• For each future date, the ATP is the cumulative position.

ATP answers: "if I take a new order for X units to ship on date D, can I deliver?" The answer is yes if ATP at D is at least X.

Capable-to-Promise (CTP). CTP extends ATP by considering plans — not just existing supply but supply that could be created. The engine considers:

• Lead time to produce or procure additional supply.
• Current capacity availability.
• Routing time on production.

CTP answers: "if I take a new order for X units, when's the earliest I can deliver, considering we can produce or buy more?" The system suggests the earliest feasible date based on all the constraints.

CTP requires the planning engine to be active and configured; it's more sophisticated than ATP but takes longer to compute.

Order promising in practice. When entering a sales line:

1. The user enters the customer's requested ship date.
2. The system evaluates availability:
   • If ATP at the date covers the quantity, confirm the date.
   • If not, the Order Promising function suggests:
     • Earlier ATP date (when sufficient stock will be available).
     • CTP date (if production / procurement is run to meet the request).
3. The user negotiates with the customer based on the system's suggestion.

Order Promising worksheet. A dedicated workspace consolidates the analysis:

• Lists order lines with unmet availability.
• Per line, shows ATP date and CTP date.
• Per line, the user can:
  • Accept the new date.
  • Modify the requested date.
  • Trigger replenishment (a planned purchase / production / transfer).

Reservation. Once a delivery date is confirmed, reservations lock the needed inventory (or planned supply) against the sales line. Reserved inventory isn't visible to other ATP calculations — it's committed.

Multi-location availability. For multi-warehouse operations:

• Availability can be computed per location or aggregated.
• Order Promising can suggest sourcing from alternative locations if the requested location is short.
• Transfer planning triggers cross-location moves.

Limits.

• ATP / CTP at item level only — no automatic capacity-aware promising for multi-level BOM (CTP considers final-item production but doesn't deeply walk component supply chains).
• Lead-time accuracy critical — wrong lead times produce wrong CTP suggestions.
• No external integration to suppliers' availability — CTP assumes your supplier will deliver on time per their stated lead time.

Common pitfalls.

• Stale demand / supply data — open orders not updated as customer dates change; cancelled orders not closed. Projected balance becomes wrong.
• Ignoring reservations — promising stock that's already reserved to other customers.
• Overly optimistic CTP — production lead time doesn't reflect reality.
• Date confusion — customer requested date vs system shipping date vs delivery date; alignment matters.

Operational reality. Order promising works when the underlying data is honest. Spend the discipline maintaining lead times, dates, and reservations; the system rewards you with reliable delivery promises that customers can count on.