Customizing Lot Numbers in NetSuite
One of our US-based clients is a leader in the organic dry fruit industry. They wanted a custom “Purchase Order receive page” in NetSuite.
A custom receive page provides the user with more authority over their business processes. This case study explains how our developers confronted the issue and offered a tailored solution for the client.
Background
Standard NetSuite provides a default PO receive page. Here the user has to manually update the lot numbers. This leads to duplication of numbers or other errors.
Our customer wanted to avoid this scenario. They wanted a custom page that allows them to receive the purchase orders with auto-generated lot numbers.
Jobin & Jismi worked closely with the client to figure out the most viable solution. Our developers created a custom page to help users select purchase orders. They come with auto-generated lot numbers attached to it for the entire quantity.
Additional Requirement
Our client also wanted certain parameters in the lot number naming convention. They wanted a custom format for their lot number to ensure there were no duplicates in the inventory.
The client asked for the following parameters:
- The eight-digit lot number is a combination of – Julian date (5 digits) and an alphanumeric (3 digits).
- The 3 digit number has to be sequential in nature.
For e.g – 15025A01 for the first item in a day and 15025A02 for the next item and so on till the end of the day.
However, there was a challenge. The client wanted the alphanumeric to be reset the next day. This means it goes back to Julian date + A01 rather than continuing on the last day’s lot number.
Solution
The client primarily wanted a custom page allowing them to receive the purchase orders with auto-generated lot numbers.
Our developers first created a suitelet form having the Purchase Orders. They then provided a link to the transaction menu. It takes one the Custom Receive Orders Page.
They also added a checkbox in the custom page allowing users to select the Purchase Orders. When a user submits the chosen orders on button click, it generates the item receipts of all the received orders. The system generates them in the background with the unique lot number.
Further the end-user lands on the results page that reveals the list of item receipts created with a link to the corresponding record.
Our developers also stored the recently created lot number in a customer record. They did this to address the additional requirements.
This preserves the uniqueness of the lot number.
Consider the following example to get a grip on the concept.
Think of a scenario where the purchase orders of a particular day starts with Julian date + A01. It follows the sequential order and goes on till B55 for that day.
Our client wanted to reset the alphanumeric back to A01 the following day. So our developers proposed a solution using the custom record. It stores the value of the last record (B55). They also used a schedule script to reset this last record to A01 the next day.
By doing so, the purchase orders from the following day begin with Julian date of that day along with + A01.
Result
The client was satisfied with the custom page and the generation of unique lot numbers. Our developers also enabled the reception of multiple purchase orders to generate item receipts.
