Order Entry for JOP Extension for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
Overview
The JOP Extension builds on the standard sales module of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, which is described in detail in the official documentation:
Manage Sales in Business Central
While retaining full compatibility with the standard sales process, the JOP Extension introduces additional functionality tailored to support customer-specific, service-oriented production workflows. These enhancements integrate pricing, process control, and order settlement more tightly with production execution.
These extensions ensure that the sales order becomes a central document not only for sales administration, but also for managing technical, financial, and operational aspects of order fulfillment in a service-oriented production environment.
Key Enhancements in Sales Orders
- Invoicing Method per Customer — Supports different invoice generation strategies, including:
- Shipment-based invoicing
- Order-based invoicing
- Collective invoicing (based on a shared grouping code)
- Minimum Order Amount — Automatically enforces a defined minimum order value. If the threshold is not met, a charge can be applied based on predefined rules.
- Minimum Invoice Amount — Similar to the order-based threshold, this ensures that the final invoice meets a minimum amount requirement. If not, a surcharge may be applied during invoicing. This is useful to maintain profitability and reduce small-amount billing efforts.
- Surcharges — Multiple surcharge types can be defined and automatically applied based on item or order context, including:
- Energy surcharge
- Express surcharge
- Packaging costs
- Customs clearance fees
- Shipping costs
- New Sales Line Types — In addition to standard item lines, the JOP extension introduces:
- Service — Links the line to a JOP service (e.g., hardening, coating)
- Charge — Represents additional cost lines (e.g., flat surcharges)
- Production Integration — Sales orders are directly connected to process orders, enabling:
- Automatic creation of process orders based on sales lines
- Tracking of production status within the sales order context
- Linkage to inspection and test plans
- Customer-Specific Configuration — Sales orders inherit center-specific and customer-specific defaults via the JOP Item and Customer Center Settings, ensuring consistent behavior in multi-center environments.
Process Overview
When a sales order is created in a JOP environment, the system evaluates:
- Customer-specific settings (e.g., invoicing, surcharges, defaults)
- JOP Item configurations (e.g., service, product, material)
- Applicable price lists and rules
Once the order is released, the system can automatically generate linked Process Orders, apply pricing logic, and prepare the flow for production, documentation, and invoicing.
When production is completed and quality inspection has taken place, the Fill Qty. to Ship function is used to prepare the sales order for shipping. This action automatically populates the Qty. to Ship field on the order lines and triggers the generation of Inspection Certificates for the corresponding items.
Enhancements to the Sales Order Header
As part of the JOP extension, the standard sales order in Business Central is enhanced with additional fields that support more complex invoicing and production-integrated workflows. These fields provide greater control over how orders are processed, grouped, and billed—particularly in service-oriented manufacturing scenarios. The following section outlines the key extensions added to the FastTabs of the sales order.
Invoicing Details
-
Invoicing Method — Specifies how the sales order should be invoiced. Supported methods may include:
- Shipment — One invoice per shipment is created.
- Order — One invoice per sales order.
- Collective — Multiple orders or shipments can be grouped into one invoice based on shared criteria.
- Collective Invoice Code — A user-defined key used to group sales shipments or orders into a single invoice when the Invoicing Method is set to Collective. This code has no effect for other invoicing methods.
- JOP Non-Chargeable — Indicates whether the current order is non-chargeable. When enabled, no monetary values are posted or invoiced, but full documentation and process tracking still occur. This is typically used for warranty orders or test runs.
- JOP Extra Cost Code — Specifies the code representing additional costs associated with non-chargeable orders. This allows you to register and track operational expenses (e.g., energy, packaging, or logistics) even if no revenue is generated from the order itself.
Charges
The Charges FastTab on the Sales Order includes fields introduced by the JOP extension to support surcharge and minimum value logic. These values are typically applied during invoicing.
- Energy Surcharge Code — Refers to a predefined code that determines if and how energy-related surcharges apply to the order.
- Express Code — Indicates any additional fees for expedited or priority handling.
- Shipment Method Code — Standard Business Central field used to specify the delivery method. This may influence surcharge logic in JOP.
- Shipment Cost Amount — Represents the calculated or manually entered shipping cost that will be added to the invoice.
- Packaging Code — Defines the type of packaging and the associated cost rules for the order.
- Packaging Cost Amount — Packaging cost that is charged in addition to the service price.
- Customs Clearance Code — Indicates the handling method for customs-related processing and associated charges.
- Customs Cost Amount — Customs or clearance costs to be invoiced separately or included in pricing.
- Min. Order Amount Code — Determines logic and thresholds for enforcing a minimum order value. The code may be linked to rule-based processing.
- Min. Order Amount — The actual minimum order amount that must be met. If the sales order total is below this value, a surcharge may be applied.
- Min. Invoice Amount Code — Similar to Min. Order Amount Code, but applied at invoice level.
- Min. Invoice Amount — Defines the minimum invoice value that must be achieved. A surcharge may be added if this amount is not reached.
Enhancements to the Sales Order Lines
The JOP extension enhances the standard sales order line by introducing fields that link to production, pricing, material classification, and order-specific properties. These fields enable advanced automation and traceability within the JOP production flow.
These additional fields allow the sales line to fully participate in the JOP production logic. By referencing a JOP Item or setting specific product, material, and property values, the system can determine routings, apply correct pricing rules, calculate surcharges, and control inspection requirements. This ensures consistency, automation, and traceability across order processing, production, and invoicing.
- JOP Item Code — References a predefined JOP Item which bundles product, material, service, and property defaults for recurring customer orders.
- Product Code — Identifies the specific product or component to be processed.
- Material Code — Describes the material the product is made of (e.g., tool steel, carbide).
- No. of Items per Unit — Specifies how many physical items are included per unit of measure.
- No. of Items per Unit Fixed — If enabled, prevents the number of items per unit from being changed manually.
- No. of Items — Total number of items processed in this sales line. This may affect routing, batching, and inspection behavior.
- Process Folder Class Code — Determines how this line is grouped into a process folder. Only lines with the same code are combined.
- JOP Shortcut Property Code 1-8 — Up to 8 center-defined shortcut property fields for capturing product-specific characteristics (e.g., dimensions, geometry, tolerances).
- Next Inspection Cert. No. — Previews the number that will be assigned to the inspection certificate generated from this line.
- Min. Position Amount Code — Refers to a code that enforces a minimum chargeable amount for the position, even if quantity or value is low.
-
Valid for Surcharges — These fields indicate whether the sales line is eligible for specific surcharges during pricing and invoicing. The following surcharge types are supported:
- Energy
- Express
- Shipping Costs
- Packaging
- Customs Clearance
- Min. Temperature — Technical lower temperature boundary for processing the item.
- Max. Temperature — Technical upper temperature boundary for processing the item.
- Price List No. — Indicates the price list from which the price was determined. This can be helpful for traceability and audits.
Additional Actions in the Sales Order page
The JOP Extension introduces several additional actions on the Sales Order page to support enhanced production integration, process tracking, shipping preparation, and quality management. These enhancements are available both on the Sales Order Header and within each Sales Order Line, and are grouped under the History, Functions, and Related Information menus.
Header Actions
- Fill Qty. to Ship — Automatically fills the Quantity to Ship field based on completed production and inspection results. It also creates linked inspection certificates for eligible lines, preparing them for shipping.
- JOP Entries — Opens a list of process-related entries created during the production and quality steps of the order.
- Quarantine Entries — Displays any entries where output or process steps were flagged for quarantine handling.
-
Process Output Entries — Displays detailed production outcomes generated when the Finish step of the process order is posted.
These entries include:
- Process Order No. — Reference to the originating process order
- Batch No. — If the last process order step is batch-related, this field identifies the associated batch.
- Outcome Type — Indicates the type of output (e.g., Good, Non-Conformance, Scrap)
- Non-Conformance Code — If applicable, specifies the type of issue encountered
-
Extra Cost Code — Contains additional information about the issue including:
- Type of issue or deviation
- Suggested or required action
- Responsible department or process area
- Defect description
- Defect source (e.g., customer, supplier, internal)
Note: These entries significantly enhance traceability between production outcomes and sales shipments. They provide a clear link between the manufacturing process and what is ultimately delivered to the customer.
Line Actions
- Finish Positions — When the Finish Positions action is executed on a sales order line, the system performs several important validations and process preparation steps. This function ensures data completeness and prepares the line for production processing.
The function can be executed for:
- A single line — Only the current sales line is processed.
- Multiple lines — If multiple lines are selected, the operation is applied to all marked lines.
The following operations are carried out automatically:
- General validation — Ensures that all required fields are filled, including Service, Product, Material, Quantity, and all mandatory Properties.
- Formula-based property calculation — Properties marked as System-calculated are evaluated based on their formula definitions.
- Price list evaluation — The system queries the applicable price list based on line context and determines the Unit Price and any applicable Discounts.
- Process order creation — One or more Process Orders are generated based on the sales line data, including all routing and quality requirements.
- Process folder assignment (optional) — If the settings and grouping rules allow, the created process orders are automatically combined into Process Folders to optimize production handling.
This step is required for any line that needs to enter production and ensures that all technical, commercial, and quality-related data is finalized before the next phase begins.
- Create Process Order — Initiates the creation of a JOP process order based on the data in the current line.
Line — Related Information
- Properties — Opens a list of properties associated with the selected line. These may include item-specific dimensions, tolerances, or other quality-related values.
- Process Orders — Displays all process orders created for the current line.
- JOP Entries — Shows only those output entries related to the current line. This includes records of good quantities, non-conformances, and scrap from production.
- Quarantine Entries — Lists any non-conforming items related to the line that have been placed in quarantine for further action.
- Process Output Entries — Filters and displays production output entries for this specific line, improving traceability back to the production batch.