What is purchase-to-order?

Purchase-to-order (also called SO line pegging) lets you allocate each line of a posted sales order to a specific supply source before you ship it. For every line you can choose:

  • On-hand stock – fulfill immediately from stock already in your warehouse.
  • Existing inbound PO – pin the line to an inbound purchase order that is already on its way.
  • New supplier PO – create a new purchase order for that line directly from the sales order; the fulfillment order is generated automatically when the goods are received.
  • Preorder – reserve the line against future stock without specifying a PO; Luminous generates the fulfillment order as soon as matching stock becomes available.

You can also set a ship-complete option so that all lines of an order ship together once every piece of supply is available, rather than shipping in-stock items early.

How to get the feature turned on

Purchase-to-order is a per-account feature that is off by default. It cannot be switched on from within the Luminous settings screens — the Luminous team enables it for your account at the platform level.

To request access:

  1. Contact Luminous Support or your Customer Success Manager.
  2. Ask them to enable the purchase-to-order feature for your account.
  3. Once enabled, the feature is active immediately — no further action is needed on your side.

What changes once the feature is active

After the feature is enabled you will notice the following on any posted sales order:

  • A Supply / Allocations column is available in the Columns picker on the order's Items table (it is hidden by default in the picker; toggle it on to see it).
  • An "Allocate order" action appears (in the order's Actions menu under Purchase to Order), letting you open the Allocation Planner directly from the order.
  • The Allocation Planner page shows on-hand availability and incoming POs per warehouse group for each line, so you can apportion supply across lines and channels in one step.

Companion setting: auto-fulfill from stock

If you plan to use the Preorder allocation type, make sure the "Auto-fulfill orders from stock as it becomes available" toggle is turned on in Settings → Inventory. When active, Luminous automatically generates fulfillment orders for preordered lines as soon as matching stock lands at the pinned warehouse, on a recurring background schedule. This setting can be changed directly by your team without contacting support.

Reversing an allocation

Allocations that have not yet shipped can be reversed from the Supply / Allocations column on the order's Items table. Shipped coverage must be reversed through a Return instead.