Find via Tell Me search
Press Alt+Q to open Tell Me and type Expected Purchase Receipts or Expected Sales Shipments to open the pages directly.
DeliveryFlow User Guide
User Guide
Master your delivery dates with DeliveryFlow.
DeliveryFlow gives purchasing agents and sales order processors a single, date-sorted overview of all outstanding receipts and shipments — with automatic supply analysis, risk assessment, and linking between purchase, production, assembly, transfer, and sales that Dynamics 365 Business Central does not offer out of the box.
Good to know
DeliveryFlow works entirely with your existing Business Central data. It does not create new tables, background jobs, or outbound connections. All analysis is performed on demand when you open the pages.
Getting started
Installation
Install the extension directly from Microsoft AppSource within Dynamics 365 Business Central.
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1
Open Dynamics 365 Business Central search.
Use Alt+Q to open Tell Me and search for Extension Marketplace.
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2
Find DeliveryFlow.
Open the marketplace entry directly, or search for the app, open the marketplace entry and choose Get it now.
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3
Complete installation.
Follow the standard Dynamics 365 Business Central prompts.
First steps
Getting started
After installation, DeliveryFlow adds two new pages to Dynamics 365 Business Central. No additional setup is required — every user with standard read access to purchase and sales documents can start right away.
Find via Role Center
The pages also appear in the navigation of your Role Center:
- Purchasing Agent Role Center → Expected Purchase Receipts
- Sales Order Processor Role Center → Expected Sales Shipments
For purchasing agents
Expected Purchase Receipts
This page gives you a complete, date-sorted overview of every open purchase order line with outstanding quantity. It answers the question: What goods am I still waiting for, and when should they arrive?
Color-coded urgency
Every line is highlighted based on the expected receipt date so you can spot critical items at a glance:
| Color | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Red | The expected receipt date is in the past — the delivery is overdue. |
| Blue (bold) | The delivery is expected today. |
| Yellow | The delivery is expected within the next three days. |
| Standard | The delivery is expected in more than three days. |
| Gray | No expected receipt date has been set on the purchase line. |
Key columns
Each line shows the most important purchase order details at a glance:
- Order number, status, vendor number and name
- Item number, description, variant, and location
- Order quantity, outstanding quantity, quantity to receive, quantity already received, unit of measure
- Unit price, line amount, and outstanding amount (LCY)
- Order date, requested / promised / expected receipt date
- Vendor order no. and vendor shipment no.
- Currency code and currency factor
- Purchaser and assigned user
Additional columns (payment terms, payment discount, fully received, drop shipment, special order) are available but hidden by default. Use Personalize in Business Central to show them.
Supply source quantities — alternative supply for sales demand
For each purchase line's associated sales demand, DeliveryFlow shows additional supply that may be in the pipeline from other sources:
| Column | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Expected Purchase Qty. | Quantity from other open purchase orders for the same item/variant/location. Hidden by default. |
| Expected Production Qty. | Quantity from production orders (firm planned or released). Only visible on Premium editions. |
| Expected Assembly Qty. | Quantity from open assembly orders. |
| Expected Transfer Qty. | Quantity from transfer orders (receipt at the destination location). |
Earliest supply dates per source (production, assembly, transfer) are also available as hidden columns. Late quantities — where the supply date is after the sales shipment date — are highlighted in red.
Note on replenishment method
The replenishment method set on the item card is not used as a filter. Just like the requisition worksheet, DeliveryFlow always checks the actual orders that exist — a purchase item can have production orders and vice versa.
Supply impact — how a purchase receipt affects sales
For every purchase line, DeliveryFlow automatically calculates whether open sales orders depend on the incoming goods. Four additional columns provide this insight:
| Column | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Dependent Sales Lines | The number of open sales order lines that rely on this purchase receipt for fulfillment. |
| Earliest Dependent Shipment Date | The earliest shipment date among all dependent sales lines — your most urgent customer commitment. |
| Supply Priority | High if this receipt directly affects an overdue or same-day customer shipment. Medium if dependent sales lines exist but are not yet critical. |
| Causes Late Shipment | If this receipt arrives after the shipment date of a dependent sales order, the customer delivery will be late. |
The link between purchase and sales is established via hard links first (drop shipment, special order, reservation entries), then via general matching by item, variant, and location as a fallback.
Available actions
Select a purchase line and use the following actions to drill into details or navigate to related documents:
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Open Purchase Order | Opens the full purchase order document, e.g. to update the expected receipt date after a supplier notification. |
| Posted Receipts | Shows all posted warehouse receipts for this purchase line — useful to check partial deliveries. |
| Posted Invoices | Shows all posted invoices linked to this purchase line. |
| Item Tracking Lines | Opens lot and serial number tracking for the selected line. |
| Affected Sales Lines | Lists every open sales order line that depends on this purchase receipt. |
| Supply Impact | Opens a detailed view of how this purchase line feeds into customer commitments. |
| Reservation Entries | Shows reservation entries linking this purchase line to specific demand. |
Best practice: Keep expected receipt dates up to date
The quality of DeliveryFlow's analysis depends on accurate expected receipt dates on your purchase order lines. Whenever a supplier confirms a new delivery date or communicates a delay, update the Expected Receipt Date on the purchase order immediately. This ensures that the color coding, supply priority calculations, and late-shipment warnings remain reliable.
To update a date, select the line and use the Open Purchase Order action, then change the date on the relevant line.
For sales order processors
Expected Sales Shipments
This page gives you a complete, date-sorted overview of every open sales order line with outstanding quantity. It answers the question: What do I still need to ship, and is the supply secured?
Color-coded urgency
Just like the purchase receipts page, every line is highlighted based on the planned shipment date:
| Color | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Red | The shipment date is in the past — the delivery is overdue. |
| Blue (bold) | The shipment is due today. |
| Yellow | The shipment is due within the next three days. |
| Standard | The shipment is due in more than three days. |
| Gray | No shipment date has been set on the sales line. |
Key columns
Each line shows the essential sales order details:
- Order number, status, customer number and name, external document number
- Ship-to name and ship-to code (hidden by default)
- Item number, description, variant, and location
- Order quantity, outstanding quantity, quantity to ship, quantity already shipped, unit of measure
- Unit price, line amount, and outstanding amount (LCY)
- Order date, planned delivery date, planned shipment date
- Requested delivery date, promised delivery date (hidden by default)
- Shipping agent, shipping agent service code (hidden by default), and package tracking number
- Salesperson, assigned user (hidden by default)
- Payment terms, payment discount (hidden by default)
- Completely shipped (hidden by default)
Supply status and risk assessment
For every open sales line, DeliveryFlow automatically evaluates whether the required goods are available. This is the core of the sales shipments page.
| Column | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Supply Status | The overall assessment: is the demand covered, partially covered, late, or not covered at all? |
| Supply Risk | A traffic-light indicator — Green, Yellow, Red, or Gray — so you can scan for problems quickly. |
| Available Inventory | The unreserved stock at the relevant location. |
| Reserved Quantity | The quantity already reserved specifically for this sales line. |
| Shortage Quantity | The gap: outstanding quantity not covered by stock or reservations. |
| Earliest Supply Date | When the next expected supply will arrive. |
| Supply Source Type / No. | Where the supply comes from (Stock, Reservation, Purchase Order, Special Order, Drop Shipment, Production Order, Assembly Order, Transfer Order) and the document number. |
| Deviation Days | The difference between expected supply date and planned shipment date. Negative = supply arrives too late. |
Supply status values explained
| Status | Risk | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Covered from Stock | Green | Enough unreserved inventory is on hand — you can ship immediately. |
| Covered by Reservation | Green | The required quantity is reserved for this sales line — guaranteed availability. |
| Covered by Expected Receipt | Yellow | An expected supply (purchase order, production order, assembly order, or transfer order) covers the demand, but the goods have not arrived yet. |
| Partially Covered | Yellow / Red | Only part of the quantity is secured. Action is needed for the rest. |
| Late Supply | Red | Supply exists, but it will arrive after the planned shipment date — the customer will experience a delay. |
| Not Covered | Red | No sufficient supply is in sight. You need to source more goods or inform the customer. |
| Not Relevant | Gray | The line cannot be evaluated (e.g. no item reference). |
Supply source quantities — where the supply comes from
Beyond the overall supply status, each sales line also shows the expected supply quantities from each source separately:
| Column | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Expected Purchase Qty. | Quantity from open purchase orders. Hidden by default. |
| Expected Production Qty. | Quantity from firm planned or released production orders. Only visible on Premium editions. |
| Expected Assembly Qty. | Quantity from open assembly orders. |
| Expected Transfer Qty. | Quantity from transfer orders (receipt at the destination location). |
Earliest supply dates per source (production, assembly, transfer) are available as hidden columns. Late quantities — where the supply date is after the planned shipment date — are highlighted in red.
Available actions
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Open Sales Order | Opens the full sales order document. |
| Posted Shipments | Shows all posted shipments for this sales line — useful to check partial deliveries. |
| Posted Invoices | Shows all posted invoices linked to this sales line. |
| Item Tracking Lines | Opens lot and serial number tracking for the selected line. |
| Supply Details | Opens a detailed breakdown of the supply situation for this sales line. |
| Related Purchase Lines | Shows all open purchase order lines that supply this sales line. |
| Reservation Entries | Shows reservation entries for this sales line. |
How overdue purchase receipts are handled
If a purchase order line has an expected receipt date that lies in the past and the goods have not yet been received, DeliveryFlow treats that line as if the receipt date were today when linking it to sales demand. This prevents overdue purchase lines from being excluded from the supply analysis entirely. However, this also means that the resulting supply assessment is only as reliable as the data: if purchasing has not updated the expected receipt date after a supplier delay, the analysis may appear more optimistic than the actual situation. Coordinate with your purchasing team to keep dates current.
Core feature
Automatic supply linking
Standard Dynamics 365 Business Central does not show you which sales orders are waiting for which purchase orders — unless you manually create reservations or use special orders. DeliveryFlow closes this gap by automatically analyzing the relationship between open purchase and sales lines and evaluating supply from purchase orders, production orders, assembly orders, and transfer orders, without any manual setup.
How the linking works
DeliveryFlow evaluates supply sources for each open sales line in a fixed priority order. Hard links (explicit connections in Business Central) always take precedence over soft links (automatic matching):
- 1Drop shipments
If a sales line is fulfilled via drop shipment, the directly linked purchase order is resolved first. This is a hard link — no ambiguity.
- 2Special orders
Special-order purchase lines are matched to their corresponding sales demand via the explicit link in Business Central.
- 3Reservations
If inventory or a supply line has been explicitly reserved for the sales line, this hard link takes priority over general matching. Reservations against purchase lines, production order lines, assembly orders, and transfer lines are all recognized.
- 4General purchase orders
If no hard link exists and stock is insufficient, DeliveryFlow matches open purchase lines by item, variant, and location.
- 5Production orders
Firm planned and released production order lines are matched by item, variant, and location.
- 6Assembly orders
Open assembly orders (document type = Order) are matched by item, variant, and location.
- 7Transfer orders
Transfer lines are matched by item and variant where the transfer-to location equals the sales line's location.
Supply pools are evaluated independently
Sources 4–7 (purchase, production, assembly, transfer) are checked in parallel and their quantities are reported separately. The combined supply status considers the sum of all sources. Each pool runs its own demand prioritization to prevent one pool from "cannibalizing" another.
Demand prioritization — first come, first served by date
When multiple sales orders need the same item and a supply source can only cover part of the demand, DeliveryFlow allocates the available supply quantity to the sales line with the earliest shipment date first.
Example
You have two sales orders, each requiring 10 units of the same item. One purchase order for 10 units is on its way.
- Sales order A (shipment date: March 10) → Status: Covered by Expected Receipt — the 10 incoming units are allocated here first.
- Sales order B (shipment date: March 15) → Status: Not Covered — the purchase quantity is already consumed by the earlier order.
This prevents the same supply quantity from appearing as coverage for multiple sales orders, giving you an honest picture of your supply situation.
Recommendations
Best practices for daily use
DeliveryFlow is designed for daily monitoring. Here are some tips to get the most out of it.
For purchasing agents
- Check the page every morning. Open Expected Purchase Receipts and scan for red (overdue) and blue (today) lines first.
- Update dates immediately. When a supplier confirms a delay, update the expected receipt date on the purchase order right away. This keeps the supply analysis accurate for your sales colleagues.
- Watch the Supply Priority column. Lines marked High directly affect a customer shipment — prioritize follow-up with those suppliers.
- Use Affected Sales Lines. Before escalating a supplier delay, check which customer orders are at risk so you can inform the sales team proactively.
For sales order processors
- Check the page every morning. Open Expected Sales Shipments and focus on red-risk lines first.
- Review Not Covered lines. These sales lines have no supply in sight. Coordinate with purchasing or communicate revised delivery dates to your customers.
- Use Related Purchase Lines. If a line shows Covered by Expected Receipt, drill into the purchase order to see the exact expected arrival date.
- Monitor Late Supply lines. The goods will arrive, but after the promised shipment date — consider informing the customer proactively.
Compatibility
Business Central Editions (Essentials vs. Premium)
DeliveryFlow automatically adapts to the edition of Business Central you are running.
| Capability | Essentials | Premium |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase orders | ✓ | ✓ |
| Assembly orders | ✓ | ✓ |
| Transfer orders | ✓ | ✓ |
| Production orders | — | ✓ |
On Essentials environments, the production-related columns (Expected Production Qty., Earliest Production Supply Date) are hidden automatically. The supply analysis skips production order lookups entirely, so there is no performance or functional impact.
Permissions
Users need standard read permissions for purchase lines, sales lines, item ledger entries, and reservation entries. No special setup is required — if you can view purchase or sales orders in Business Central, you can use DeliveryFlow.
Questions & answers
Frequently asked questions
Does DeliveryFlow slow down Business Central?
No. The analysis runs on demand when you open the pages and uses standard Business Central APIs and FlowFields. There are no background jobs or scheduled tasks.
Does the extension store any data?
No. DeliveryFlow does not create new database tables and does not persist calculated values. Everything is computed live when you open the page.
Can I customize which columns are shown?
Yes. Use the standard Business Central Personalize feature to add, remove, or rearrange columns on both pages to match your workflow.
Does the supply linking work automatically?
Yes. DeliveryFlow detects hard links (drop shipments, special orders, reservations) and automatically matches remaining demand against purchase orders, production orders, assembly orders, and transfer orders by item, variant, and location — no manual configuration needed.
Which supply sources are evaluated?
DeliveryFlow evaluates purchase orders, production orders (Premium only), assembly orders, and transfer orders. Drop shipments, special orders, and reservations are detected as hard links and always take priority.
Which countries and languages are supported?
DeliveryFlow is country-agnostic and works with all Business Central localizations. The interface is available in English, German, Danish, Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish, and Swedish.
What happens if expected receipt dates are not maintained?
Lines without an expected receipt date appear in gray on the purchase page. More importantly, the supply analysis for sales lines cannot factor in undated purchase orders, which may lead to incorrect “Not Covered” assessments. Maintaining accurate dates is essential for reliable results.
Does DeliveryFlow work on Business Central Essentials?
Yes. DeliveryFlow works on both Essentials and Premium editions. On Essentials, the production order columns and analysis are hidden automatically since manufacturing is not available. All other features work identically.
Support & Feedback
We are here to help
Whether you have technical questions, need guidance during your rollout, or want to share feature requests — our dedicated Dynamics 365 Business Central team is ready to assist you. Drop us a message, and we'll ensure you get the absolute most out of our apps.