B2B Order Release

If you want to prioritize fulfilling certain B2B account's orders over other B2B or B2C orders with the same items, you can enable "order release." When there are orders in the Pending Shipment status for multiple customers or accounts, orders will move out of this state and proceed to fulfillment based on the account priorities that you set. 

Enable Order Release

First, contact Kibo Support to have this feature enabled in your tenant settings. Then, update site settings to configure your order release method using the B2B Order Rules toggle.

1. Go to System > Settings > General > Site.
2. Scroll down to Fulfillment Settings and toggle on Enable configurable shipment release. This is what allows orders to be held in a Pending Shipment state before being released for fulfillment.
3. Enter an integer between 1-7200 in Release orders _ mins after order submit. This is required whenever configurable shipment release is enabled.
4. Ensure that Reserve inventory when order status is PendingShipment is disabled, otherwise B2B order rules will not be available.
5. Enable B2B Order Rules.
6. Select whether you want to Manually release orders (the default behavior that requires Admin users to initiate release of orders for fulfillment) or Automatically release orders every _ mins and enter a value (in which orders will be released for fulfillment at the configured interval). This will be the method in which orders are released based on account priority. Any orders that are not released as part of B2B Order Rules will be released according to the Release orders _ mins after order submit setting instead.
7. Click Save.

Set Account Priority

Account priority determines which orders get released first, in numerical order and in entirety before moving to the next account. This means that if Company A has a priority of 1 and Company B has a priority of 3, and there are 10 orders from Company A and 1 from Company B, then all 10 Company A orders will be released before Company B's single order.

While configuring the B2B account, enter an integer as shown below to set the priority of the account as shown below. Multiple accounts can share the same priority number. 

Manual Order Release

If you chose to manually release B2B orders, you can do so from the Orders UI. Click Manual Order Release in the top right and select the site you want to release all Pending Shipment orders for, which will then prompt you to confirm. This requires the Manual Order Release and Order Read user behaviors. 

Example Case

This example will release orders for the following four B2B accounts. It is the same for both manual and automatic order release.

• Veliora Construction and Sterma Auto Parts: Priority 1
• Harven Logistics: Priority 2
• Xumora Office Supplies: Priority 3

These accounts submitted orders in the following sequence, which are put in the Pending Shipment status. 

1. Sterma Auto Parts Order 1
2. Xumora Office Supplies Order 1
3. Xumora Office Supplies Order 2
4. Sterma Auto Parts Order 2
5. Sterma Auto Parts Order 3
6. Harven Logistics Order 1
7. Harven Logistics Order 2
8. Veliora Construction Order 1
9. Sterma Auto Parts Order 4
10. Veliora Construction Order 2
11. Harven Logistics Order 3

The orders will be released as follows, from the highest account priority to lowest. When two accounts have the same priority, the system will alternate releasing their orders in a round robin.

1. Sterma Auto Parts Order 1
2. Veliora Construction Order 1
3. Sterma Auto Parts Order 2
4. Veliora Construction Order 2
5. Sterma Auto Parts Order 3
6. Sterma Auto Parts Order 4
7. Harven Logistics Order 1
8. Harven Logistics Order 2
9. Harven Logistics Order 3
10. Xumora Office Supplies Order 1
11. Xumora Office Supplies Order 2