A dispatch is a planned shipment from a sales order. Each dispatch has its own date, its own share of the order's items, its own workflow status and, once shipped, its own invoice. This article covers creating, editing and emailing a dispatch, serial numbers, part shipments, dispatch dates, couriers and the dispatch documents.

Dispatches on the order page

Dispatches are listed under the order's line items, in number order, with an Add Dispatch button at the bottom. Before the first dispatch, use Add Dispatch in the action bar. The button disappears when every item is on a dispatch, and on cancelled or complete orders. Click a dispatch header to fold or unfold it. Shipped dispatches start folded. Each line card shows the item, Price, Total, Quantity and any Serial #; in the Compact view, only the item, Qty and any Serial #.

While the order is a Draft, you cannot change the dispatch status. Email, download or print the order first; unless it is a call-off order, these options appear only once every item is on a dispatch. See Sales orders. On a cancelled order every control is hidden.

Dispatches are numbered after the order: SO-1234-1, SO-1234-2 and so on. Once shipped, the dispatch also shows its Invoice #, for example INV-567.

Creating a dispatch

Open the sales order and click Add Dispatch. The Add New Dispatch form opens.
Choose the Dispatch Date. It cannot be in the past.
Enter the Qty of each line to include. The field shows how many are not yet on a dispatch, for example "of 10". Assembly lines take whole numbers only. A line that is already fully on other dispatches shows All items allocated instead of a box. Click Add All to fill every line to its maximum. At least one line must have a quantity, or nothing is created.

The Add New Dispatch form with quantities entered for each line.

Optionally enter a Serial Number per line. The box is greyed out until the line has a quantity. See Serial numbers below.
Optionally add Delivery Paperwork Notes and Invoice Paperwork Notes. Delivery notes print in an Additional Notes box on the delivery note; invoice notes in the same box on the invoice and the proforma invoice. The symbol buttons insert special characters set up in Settings → App → Symbols.
Click the tick to save.

Omono writes a note on the order. The dispatch carries the order's Customer Order #, which the Workflow board shows as Ref No. Repeat for part shipments. The Outstanding and Delivered figures on the order lines change only when a dispatch ships, not when you create one.

Serial numbers

Each dispatch line has one Serial Number box, shared by every unit on the line. To record several numbers, put a space between them, for example "SN1001, SN1002, SN1003".

Serial numbers show on the dispatch's line cards as Serial #. They print on the Certificate Of Conformity only, when that document is enabled, and not on the delivery note, invoice or proforma.

To find them, use the Serial # filter under Advanced on the Sales Orders screen. It matches from the start of each number, so "SN1001, SN1002, SN1003" is found by "SN1002" or by just "SN", but not by the middle of a number. Numbers joined by a comma with no space are found only from the first one. Search for one number at a time.

The dispatch header

Each dispatch shows Dispatch #, Dispatch Date, Dispatch Total and, once shipped, Invoice #. The controls along the header:

Control	What it does
Status dropdown	Moves the dispatch through your workflow statuses. Shown as text once shipped. See The Workflow board.
Traffic light and operator circles	Shown when your organisation has operators. See Operators and traffic lights.
Proforma dropdown	Proforma customers only, until shipped: Proforma Awaiting Payment or Proforma Payment Received. See Invoices and proforma invoices.
Picking icon	Opens the picking form. The icon shows whether there is still something to pick, stock is short, or everything is picked.
Mail icon	Opens the Dispatch Email form. See below.
Tracking icon	Opens the courier's tracking page. Shown only when the dispatch has a tracking number and a built-in courier with a tracking page.
Documents icon	Opens Documents : SO-1234-1 with the dispatch PDFs. See Dispatch documents below.
Edit icon	Opens Edit Dispatch : SO-1234-1.
Star	Click to cycle through six colours; a seventh click clears it. Use stars for whatever your team needs, such as priority or a quality hold. Omono writes a note and an Activity Feed entry for the colour you stop on. The star also shows on the Workflow board card, where you can change it and filter by Starred.

Emailing a dispatch

Click the mail icon to open the Dispatch Email form, addressed to the order's contact. Click the paperclip to attach the Delivery Note, the Proforma for proforma customers, the Invoice once shipped or the certificate of conformity when enabled. Only the delivery note and the certificate can be ticked in advance, in Settings → Templates → Dispatch Email. See Sending documents by email.

The Dispatch Email form, filled in from the template. Click the paperclip at the top right to choose the documents to attach.

Editing a dispatch

Click the edit icon on the dispatch header to open Edit Dispatch : SO-1234-1.

The Edit Dispatch form with the quantities, Add All and Delete Dispatch greyed out because the dispatch is no longer on Order Review.

To take an item off the dispatch, set its Qty to 0. If you set every line to 0, the dispatch is deleted.
To move items between dispatches, reduce the quantity on one and save, then add it to the other. The Qty field shows the most you can enter: the order line's quantity less whatever is on the other dispatches, so it includes the quantity already on this one.
Delete Dispatch removes the dispatch after you confirm. Its quantities become available for a new dispatch.
A new dispatch takes the next number after the highest one still on the order, so a gap in the numbers does not mean a dispatch has been lost. If you delete the highest-numbered dispatch, its number is used again.

Quantities, Add All and Delete Dispatch are only available while the dispatch is on Order Review, the unallocated status. On every other status, including On Hold, they are greyed out. Move the dispatch back to Order Review first; a shipped dispatch cannot move back. Omono warns that this unallocates and unpicks all its items and asks you to confirm. See The Workflow board.

You can change the dispatch date at any time before shipping. After shipping, the date and quantities are locked. You can still change the courier, tracking number, serial numbers and paperwork notes.

Shipping part of a dispatch

A dispatch can only ship when it is fully picked; never-diminishing items are never picked, so they do not hold it back. To ship fewer items than the dispatch holds:

Move the dispatch back to Order Review. Omono unpicks and unallocates its stock and asks you to confirm.
Click the edit icon on the dispatch and reduce the Qty of the line. Enter 0 to take the line off this dispatch.
Click the tick to save.
Click Add Dispatch to plan the remainder on a new dispatch with its own date.
Allocate, pick and ship the first dispatch as normal.

Changing the dispatch date

Click the edit icon on the dispatch, choose a new Dispatch Date and click the tick. The calendar does not offer dates before today. The dispatch moves to the new day on the Workflow board and Omono writes a note on the order.

If the new date is later than the old one, Omono emails the users on your organisation's dispatch date notification list. There is no settings page for this list; contact us through the chat with the names of the users to include.

Courier and tracking

You enter the Courier and Tracking # in the Good Job! form when you ship. After shipping, you can change them on the dispatch form, as Courier and Tracking Number.

An admin can switch on Allow early entry of courier and tracking details in Settings → App → Sales Order Settings. The fields then also appear on the dispatch form once the dispatch has left Order Review.

Couriers are chosen in Settings → App → Couriers. Tick Make Available against each courier you use in the Default Couriers list, or add your own under Custom Couriers.

The Couriers form with the built-in couriers and their Make Available ticks.

For most built-in couriers, such as DHL, DPD, Parcelforce, Royal Mail and UPS, Omono knows the tracking web page, so the tracking icon and the [Tracking Web Link] placeholder in emails work once a dispatch has a tracking number. Customer Collection and Drop Off have no tracking page, so the placeholder prints "No Tracking Link Available". Custom couriers show the name and number only. See Templates, paperwork and email templates to print tracking details on delivery notes and invoices.

Dispatch documents

Click the documents icon on the dispatch header to open Documents : SO-1234-1.

The Documents form for a dispatch, showing the Delivery Note.

Delivery Note – available at any time.
Proforma – proforma customers only.
Invoice – once the dispatch is shipped.
Certificate Of Conformity – when Show Certificate Of Conformity In Dispatch Documents is ticked in Settings → Templates → Certificate Of Conformity Paperwork.

What prints on the delivery note

The delivery note is headed Delivery Note #: SO-1234-1 and saved as DEL-1234-1.pdf.

Section	Content
Delivery Address	The order's delivery address, or Delivery: Customer Collection. Show Telephone Number Underneath Delivery Address in Settings → Templates → Delivery Note Paperwork adds the telephone number.
Right-hand block	Page, Date (the dispatch date), Account #, Order # and Reference # (the Customer Order #, or N/A). EORI numbers and Incoterm print when set.
Line table	Line, Part # / Description and Quantity, with no prices. Each line shows the part number, title, description, any Tag #, Commodity Code and Country Of Origin, and MPN: when Show Manufacturer Part Number On Line Items is ticked. Quantities are the dispatch quantities, and each line keeps its letter from the sales order.
Additional Notes	The dispatch's Delivery Paperwork Notes. Left out when empty.
Customer Signature and Courier Signature	Boxes with Name, Signature and Date lines. Switched on with Show Customer Signature Section and Show Courier Signature Section in the same settings.
Shipment Tracking	The courier and tracking number, with a link to the tracking page for built-in couriers. Switched on with Show Shipment Tracking Details in the same settings.

Serial numbers do not print on the delivery note. See What prints on your PDF documents for the shared header and footer.

Dispatches