Blanket sales orders and blanket purchase orders are used to manage long-term purchasing and sales agreements in Business Central. A blanket sales order represents a long-term agreement between a company and its customer to purchase items or services over a period of time. Similarly, a blanket purchase order represents a long-term purchasing agreement with a vendor.

Blanket orders are commonly used when large quantities will be delivered or received in smaller increments over time. For example, a customer may commit to purchasing 1,000 units but request delivery in four separate shipments of 250 units each. One of the primary advantages of blanket orders is that quantities entered on the blanket order do not affect item availability. This makes them useful as a planning, forecasting, and monitoring tool.

Creating a blanket sales order

To create a Blanket Sales Order:

1. Navigate to Blanket Sales Orders.
2. Select New.
3. Enter the customer information.
4. Leave the Order Date blank, as sales orders created from the blanket order will use the work date at the time of creation.
5. Add the items and quantities associated with the agreement.
6. Create separate lines for each planned shipment if desired.

Unlike standard sales orders, blanket sales orders cannot be posted directly.

Converting a blanket order to a sales order

To create a sales order from a blanket sales order:

1. Enter the quantity to be shipped in the Quantity to Ship field.
2. Leave quantities blank for lines that should not be included in the current order.
3. Select Process > Make Order.
4. Confirm the prompt to create the sales order.

Business Central generates a sales order containing the selected shipment quantities.

Important blanket order rules

When a sales order has been created from a blanket order line:

• The sales order quantity cannot exceed the quantity on the blanket order line.
• Additional sales orders cannot be created from the same blanket order line while an existing sales order remains open.
• If additional quantities are needed, users can increase the quantity on the blanket order and create new orders as required.

These controls help ensure that fulfillment activity remains aligned with the original agreement.

Tracking blanket order activity

Business Central provides several ways to monitor the status of blanket orders. Users can review:

• Quantity Shipped
• Quantity Invoiced
• Remaining quantities

Additional details are available through the Order Statistics page, which includes:

• General order summaries
• Invoicing information
• Shipping information
• Prepayment details
• Customer or vendor information

This gives users a clear view of overall order progress and remaining commitments.

Posting the resulting sales order

Once a sales order has been created from the blanket order, it can be processed like any standard sales order. Users can:

1. Open the generated sales order.
2. Review quantities and shipment information.
3. Select Post to complete the transaction.

Posted shipments and invoices can later be reviewed through the related posted documents.

Managing blanket order history

Blanket orders remain in the system until they are manually deleted or removed through a batch process. Organizations that need historical visibility may wish to use archiving instead of deletion. Archiving allows users to maintain a record of previous blanket orders for audit and reference purposes.

Blanket purchase orders

Blanket purchase orders function in the same way as Blanket Sales Orders. The primary difference is that they use a Quantity to Receive field instead of Quantity to Ship. When an order is created from a blanket purchase order, Business Central generates a standard purchase order rather than a sales order. The same planning, tracking, and quantity control benefits apply to purchasing processes.

Key takeaways

• Blanket orders help manage long-term customer and vendor agreements.
• Quantities on blanket orders do not impact inventory availability until orders are created.
• Blanket orders act as planning and forecasting tools for future shipments and receipts.
• Sales and purchase orders can be generated as fulfillment activities occur.
• Order statistics provide visibility into shipped, received, and invoiced quantities.
• Blanket purchase orders work similarly to blanket sales orders, using quantities to receive instead of quantities to ship.
• Consider archiving blanket orders if long-term historical tracking is important to your organization.