Searching for Item Fulfillment Requests from Linked NetSuite Special Purchase Orders

This article is relevant if you are seeking to search NetSuite for item fulfillment requests from related special order purchase orders.

Background

During the design and development of a NetSuite implementation by our firm centered around a special in-house Third-Party Logistics (3PL) order management flow, we were challenged to look up information using a saved search.

Using a NetSuite Special Order function from a Sales Order, we were able to generate a linked Purchase Order. The goal of this linked purchase order is to supply the item to the 3PL warehouse.

Subsequently, because we are using 3PL operations, we are using NetSuite Sales Order Item Fulfillment Requests in order to request the warehouse to fulfill.

I am leaving out more complexity to the situation as it will obscure the point of this article — but in reality, we are using a virtual warehouse location to emulate 3PL operations to drive a particular drop ship flow which is discussed in this linked article.

See the related image.

Look Up Related NetSuite Item Fulfillment Request from Purchase Order

In this unique operation, we have full visibility of the flows at the 3PL warehouse as well as the NetSuite sales organization.

Thus, our goal was to produce the following:

1. PO Item Receipt: at the time the item we receive notification that the item arrived, we desire to generate the related sales order item fulfillment.
2. Find Item Fulfillment Request: we need to find an existing item fulfillment request that is connected to the sales order and special purchase order.

NetSuite Saved Search to Find Item Fulfillment Request

Through the handy work of our senior technical analyst, Elie C., he was able to creatively use NetSuite Saved Search to find the respective Item Fulfillment Request from the connected Special Order Purchase Order.

See related images for the saved search requirements:

1. Transaction Saved Search with Sales Order and Purchase Order Criteria: fortunately, NetSuite’s transaction saved search allows us to reference a Sales Order type and supplies a Purchase Order pointer implied through the Special Order Link.
2. Aggregate on Item Fulfillment Requests: because a sales order may have multiple item fulfillment requests, we need to aggregate to get a single result. Here, we want to find only item fulfillment requests that are yet to be fulfilled and are connected to our purchase order as we know these are connected to a special order operation.

The key to this search is to use the Applying Transaction link.  The idea is that the item fulfillment request is to be applied to the sale order and it allows us to search for those related records.

Click images to see saved search definitions.

Drive the NetSuite Item Fulfillment Automation

Once we were able to find the related Item Fulfillment request, we could then automatically drive the creation of an Item Fulfillment in Shipped state as discussed in this article.  Here is the respective Sales Order SuiteScript transformation call.  From the search, we now know the ItemFulfillment request internal ID which is supplied as a parameter in ifReqId below:

var ifRec = record.transform({
	fromType: record.Type.SALES_ORDER,
	fromId: soId,
	toType: record.Type.ITEM_FULFILLMENT,
	isDynamic: true,
	defaultValues: {
	    "fftreqid" :  ifReqId
	}
}); 

Solve NetSuite Challenges with Experts

The NetSuite business system is a robust platform that can be enhanced to solve automated record management. Such a business system that allows you to lower your management cost and increase your profit through automation is feasible — yet I see many clients struggle to realize this possibility.

The key to unlocking potential is to produce the mixture of talent applied against the capacities offered by NetSuite’s platform architecture. Our firm is recognized as the leader in tackling complex accounting and business operations through the use of NetSuite innovations and automation. As a result, our clients appreciate that they finally reliably solve their NetSuite-related challenges so they can focus on enhanced business operations.

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Marty Zigman

Holding all three official certifications, Marty is regarded as the top NetSuite expert and leads a team of senior professionals at Prolecto Resources, Inc. He is a former Deloitte & Touche CPA and has held CTO roles. For over 30 years, Marty has produced leadership in ERP, CRM and eCommerce business systems. Contact Marty to set up a conversation.

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