Fulfillment orders
A fulfillment order (FO) is a way to track orders that parts and products need to be fulfilled and sent to customers or between locations. Fulfillment orders help you manage what needs to be shipped, where it's going, and when it's promised to arrive.
Fulfillment orders provide visibility into what needs to be shipped, in order to help ensure customer commitments are met. They serve as the planning layer before actual shipments are created and inventory is moved. It is essentially a set of instructions.
As such, an FO is a business object that tracks what needs to be shipped, where it's going, and when it's promised to arrive. The FO itself does not track any items or real world movement. It is a tool to help organize your logistics and ensure that each team knows what they need to do and when they need to do it.
Example: The sales team closes a deal for 10 units of product LDR-4.1 with a customer in Milwaukee. A project is created to track the sale. The supply chain team checks availability and creates a fulfillment order to ship 10 units of LDR-4.1 from your Chicago warehouse. The logistics team in the warehouse creates an outbound shipment to fulfill the order and ship the 10 units of LDR-4.1 from your Chicago warehouse to the Milwaukee customer location. When the shipment is shipped, the assets appear in transit. When the shipment is delivered, the assets appear in the customer's location.
Fulfillment orders are part of the logistics workflow for managing outbound goods:
Note: fulfillment orders are for tracking what needs to be fulfilled and shipped. To actually ship the items and update inventory, you'll create an outbound shipment based on the fulfillment order.
List all fulfillment orders
To see a list of all fulfillment orders, navigate to the fulfillment page. Fulfillment orders are listed in a table with each fulfillment order, along with the following information:
Order number. Fulfillment order reference number automatically assigned by Hardfin (e.g., FO-2024-0001), and optionally associated with a project
From/to location. The origin location where items should be shipped from and the destination location where items should be delivered
Items. The parts and products included in this FO with their quantities
Promise dates. Optional promise ship date (when items should be shipped) and promise delivery date (when items should arrive)
Status. Whether the FO is draft, pending, partially filled, filled, or cancelled
Notes. Any additional information about the fulfillment order
Use the tabs to filter fulfillment orders by status: All, Draft, Pending, Partially filled, Filled, or Cancelled. Use the search to search all fulfillment orders.
Fulfillment order status
Fulfillment orders progress through different statuses as they are processed:
Draft - Order is being prepared but not yet ready to fulfill
Pending - Order has been sent to a third-party for fulfillment and is ready to be shipped*
Partially filled - Some items have been shipped but the order is not complete
Filled - All items in the order have been shipped
Cancelled - The FO has been cancelled and is no longer valid
The status automatically updates as shipments are created and processed for the fulfillment order.
*Note: A fulfillment order is considered pending when it is created and sent to a third party for fulfillment. This status only appears if your organization has third-party fulfillment enabled. An FO will only go into "Pending" status if it is shipping from a third-party location and you've sent the FO to your third party via integration.
Add a fulfillment order
To create a new fulfillment order, click the "Add fulfillment order" button and a window will appear. Enter the appropriate details for the order:
Order details - "From" location, "To" location, and optional project association
Promise dates - Optional promise ship date and promise delivery date for customer commitments
Items - Parts or products to be fulfilled
Notes - Any additional information about the FO
If you associate an FO with a project, it will automatically populate with all the appropriate data to fulfill that project.
Once all required information is entered, click "Create fulfillment order" to confirm. The FO will be created in draft status.
Not all fields are required to create a fulfillment order. At minimum, you need to specify the "From" and "To" locations and at least one item to fulfill.
View a fulfillment order
To view a new fulfillment order, click the FO in the fulfillment order list. It will open the full FO details page. Enter the appropriate details for the order:
From the FO details, you can take action on the fulfillment order.
Taking action on a fulfillment order
Several actions can be taken on a fulfillment order:
Edit. A draft FO can be edited to change the order
Send to 3PL. If third-party fulfillment is enabled for your organization and the FO is coming "From" a 3PL location, you can send the order to the 3PL (see Third Party Fulfillment below)
Fulfill. Creates a new outbound shipment against the fulfillment order
Cancel. A fulfillment order can be canceled if it is in Draft or Partially Fulfilled status (unless it has already been sent to a 3PL).
These actions appear at the top right of the fulfillment order details page.
Creating shipments from fulfillment orders
Once a fulfillment order is ready to ship, you can click "Fulfill" button to create an outbound shipment to actually move the items and update inventory. The shipment references the fulfillment order number and tracks:
The actual quantity shipped (which may differ from what was ordered)
The actual ship date
The carrier and tracking information
The actual delivery date
As shipments are created and completed for a fulfillment order, the fulfillment status automatically updates from Pending to Partially filled to Filled.
Third-party fulfillment (3PL)
Some fulfillment orders may be handled by third-party logistics providers (3PLs) rather than your own warehouse. Hardfin's 3PL integrations allow you to send fulfillment orders to your 3PL provider and automatically update the fulfillment order status to "Pending" when the order is sent.
If the "From" location has been designated as a 3PL location, the fulfillment order will automatically provide the optiont to "Send to 3PL" instead of "Fulfill" directly. Once the order is sent to the 3PL, the fulfillment order will automatically be marked as "Pending" status.
Third-party fulfillment orders still track the same information (what needs to be sent, where it's going, promise dates) but indicate that your organization is not directly handling the shipping logistics. When Hardfin receives confirmation from the 3PL that the order has been shipped, the fulfillment order will be automatically moved to "Partially filled" status. Once all items have been shipped, the fulfillment order will be automatically moved to "Filled" status.
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