Overview
The Allocation Planner is a full-page screen that lets you decide where every unit on a posted sales order ships from — existing stock, an inbound purchase order (PO) already on its way, or a brand-new purchase order you want Luminous to create. You can source the whole order in one pass, mix methods across lines, and see a live "What will happen" summary before you commit.
Opening the Allocation Planner
- Go to Operations → Sales Orders and open the posted sales order you want to work on.
- In the order detail, click Allocate order (in the Actions menu under Purchase to Order, or the link in the Supply / Allocations column header; only active when the order still has unallocated line items).
The planner loads and immediately runs an automatic best-fit plan: it fills from on-hand stock first, then from incoming POs sorted by soonest expected arrival, and queues a new PO for anything still short.
Understanding the screen layout
| Area | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Left column — Lines | Every ordered item with its current sourcing plan and a change link to edit it |
| Right panel — What will happen | A live summary grouping all your sourcing decisions (ship today, reserve on PO, buy new, etc.) |
| Top bar | Re-run auto-fill button and the Ship complete toggle |
Choosing a supply method for a line
Click change next to any line to expand its editor. You will see a Fulfill from list with the following options:
In stock
Sources the line from inventory already on hand at one of your warehouses. The selector shows how many units are available. If the stock spans multiple warehouses, the planner draws from them in turn.
- Displays as "X available" when stock exists; "none on hand" when it doesn't (the option is shown but cannot be selected).
Incoming PO
Reserves quantity from a purchase order that is already on its way. The planner automatically picks the soonest-arriving inbound PO with available room.
- Shows the number of inbound POs found and how many units are free to allocate.
- If additional inbound POs aren't listed automatically, use split across sources (see below) and type a PO number in the reserve PO # search box to find and add it.
- A chip in the breakdown row shows which PO(s) units are reserved on and their expected arrival date.
Buy new
Instructs Luminous to create a new purchase order for the shortfall quantity.
- You must pick a supplier before the line is considered ready. An amber "pick a supplier…" prompt appears; click it to search your supplier list.
- The What will happen panel also lets you set the supplier for all "Buy new" lines going to the same warehouse in one click.
- New POs are grouped by supplier and warehouse, so one supplier covering multiple lines going to the same warehouse results in a single PO.
More options (Preorder and Add to existing PO)
Click more options at the bottom of the Fulfill from list to reveal two additional methods:
- Preorder — No stock is reserved. The order will ship automatically once the stock arrives. Useful when the exact inbound PO isn't known yet. (Only available if your account has the preorder feature enabled.)
- Add to existing PO — Appends the line to an open purchase order that already exists. Search for the PO by its number or alternate ID, then select it from the list. A warning appears if the chosen PO delivers to a different warehouse than the line's fulfillment channel.
Splitting a line across multiple sources
For lines where you want to split quantity between, say, partial on-hand stock and an incoming PO, click split across sources at the bottom of the line editor. This reveals a grid where you can enter exact quantities for each available source, including a Buy new row with a supplier picker.
Click simple view to return to the single-method picker at any time (the planner will set the method to whichever source holds the most units).
Auto-fill
The planner runs auto-fill automatically when it first loads. You can re-run it at any time using the Re-run auto-fill button in the top bar. Auto-fill resets all quantities and then re-applies the same priority: on-hand → soonest incoming PO → buy new for any remainder.
Ship complete
Toggle Ship complete (top-right of the page) to hold all allocated lines — even items already in stock — until the entire order can ship together as one shipment. The "What will happen" panel updates to reflect this intent.
Line status badges
| Badge | Meaning |
|---|---|
| needs sourcing | No units assigned yet |
| N units · pick a supplier (amber) | Quantity covered, but "Buy new" is missing a supplier |
| needs N more (amber) | Quantity only partially covered |
| ✓ ready (green) | Fully sourced with all required details |
| already allocated | Line was pre-allocated before you opened the planner |
If any lines show an amber badge, click the badge to jump to the blocker in the summary panel, or click N issues left before you can confirm in the What will happen panel to jump to the first unresolved line.
Confirming the plan
Once every line shows a green ready badge, the Confirm plan button becomes active. Click it to apply the allocation:
- In-stock lines create fulfillment orders ready to ship.
- Incoming PO lines reserve the units against those purchase orders.
- Buy new lines generate one or more draft purchase orders grouped by supplier and warehouse.
- Add to existing PO lines append new line items to the chosen purchase order.
After confirming, you are returned to the sales order detail page.
Tips
- Preferred supplier: If a SKU has a preferred vendor set on its product record, the Buy new row pre-fills that supplier so you don't have to search.
- Multiple warehouses: If your account has more than one warehouse group, a Ship to dropdown appears for single-destination methods (Buy new, Preorder, Add to existing PO) so you can pick the destination.
- Multiple channels: If a warehouse backs more than one fulfillment channel, a Channel dropdown appears so you can pin the units to the right channel.
- Cancelling: Click Cancel to return to the order detail without saving any changes.