How to process inbound and outbound warehousing orders in Infor LN
how to process inbound and outbound warehousing orders in Infor LN
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- infor ln purchase order intake warehousing
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Short answer
Infor LN Warehousing splits every physical movement into inbound (goods arriving, mainly from purchase orders) and outbound (goods leaving, mainly for sales orders), each driven by its own warehouse order type. Inbound runs through intake, inspection if required, and put-away; outbound runs through order release, picking, packing and shipment confirmation, with each stage updating the order status other modules watch.
Applies to: Infor LN Enterprise Edition, Warehousing module
Run an inbound receipt and an outbound shipment in Warehousing
- 1Inbound: Warehousing > Inbound > Inbound Order Lines is generated automatically when a purchase order is approved and released to the warehouse.
- 2Warehousing > Inbound > Receipts: confirm the physical receipt against the inbound order line, recording quantity and, if applicable, lot or serial number.
- 3If the item or item group requires inspection, the receipt routes to a quality hold status before it is available for put-away; approve or reject through the quality session before continuing.
- 4Confirm put-away to move the received quantity from the receiving location to its storage location, which updates on-hand inventory.
- 5Outbound: Warehousing > Outbound > Outbound Order Lines is generated when a sales order is released, or manually for a warehousing-only order type.
- 6Warehousing > Outbound > Picking: generate and print (or send to RF) the pick list, then confirm picked quantity against the pick list lines.
- 7Confirm packing if the order type requires a packing step, assigning items to shipping units or license plates.
- 8Warehousing > Outbound > Shipments: confirm the shipment once goods physically leave, which closes the outbound order line and updates the linked sales order status to Delivered.
- 9Reconcile any short-picked or backordered lines, which remain open on the outbound order for the next pick run once stock is available.
Order types drive the process, not the item
Whether a receipt requires inspection, whether picking is a separate confirmed step or combined with shipment, and whether put-away is directed to a fixed location or determined by warehousing logic, are all controlled by the warehouse order type and its linked parameters, not by the item itself. Two sites can run the same item through very different inbound flows because their order types differ.
When training new warehouse staff or troubleshooting a step that seems to be missing, check the order type configuration before assuming the item master is wrong.
Location and lot/serial control
LN tracks inventory at the warehouse-location-lot/serial level, so put-away and picking both depend on location logic (fixed, dynamic, or directed by warehousing rules) configured per warehouse. Items under lot or serial control add a mandatory selection step at both receipt and pick confirmation that cannot be skipped.
Getting locations wrong at put-away is one of the more common causes of inventory looking correct in total but a pick failing because the system-recorded location does not match reality; a cycle count against the specific location, not just the item, is usually the fastest way to confirm and correct this.
How this connects to Purchasing and Sales
Inbound orders exist because a purchase order was approved and released; outbound orders exist because a sales order (or a warehousing transfer order) was released. Neither side can be worked around independently: cancelling or changing quantity on the source purchase or sales order after the warehouse order is generated requires the warehouse order to be updated too, and LN does not always propagate every change automatically depending on how far the warehouse process has progressed.
For high-volume sites, check whether warehousing orders are generated automatically on release or require a manual planning run; a delay here is a frequent, easy-to-miss cause of orders appearing stuck.
Common pitfalls
- !Assuming an item change on the sales or purchase order automatically updates an already-generated warehouse order line.
- !Skipping quality inspection confirmation and wondering why received stock is not available to pick.
- !Confirming a pick without confirming the shipment, leaving the sales order line stuck at Picked instead of Delivered.
- !Ignoring backordered outbound lines that silently wait for the next planning run instead of being actively worked.
- !Not reconciling put-away location against physical location, which causes future pick failures that look like data errors.
- !Running manual warehouse order generation inconsistently across sites, so orders sit unprocessed at one site while another runs smoothly.
How an ERP-grounded AI assistant handles this
ERPray can be asked which inbound or outbound orders are stuck and at which stage (received but not put away, picked but not shipped, short-picked and waiting for stock) across a whole warehouse in one query, instead of a supervisor scanning multiple Warehousing sessions line by line. It grounds the answer in the actual order and location data rather than guessing from a status report someone ran an hour ago.
Frequently asked questions
Why is a received item not available to pick even though the receipt is confirmed?
Check whether the item or item group requires quality inspection; a receipt on quality hold is confirmed but not yet available inventory. Also confirm put-away was completed, since a receipt sitting in the receiving location may not be considered a pickable storage location.
Can I ship a partial quantity from an outbound order line?
Yes, partial picking and shipment are standard; the unshipped remainder stays open on the outbound order line and is picked up in the next pick run once available, consistent with how the linked sales order handles partial delivery.
How do I handle a receipt against the wrong purchase order line?
Do not force it through; reverse or correct the receipt against the correct line using the receipt correction functionality, since a mismatched receipt will cause purchase order matching and cost issues downstream in Financials.
What controls whether picking and packing are separate confirmed steps?
The warehouse order type parameters. Some sites combine picking and packing into a single confirmation for simplicity; others separate them to support license-plate-based packing and shipping unit tracking.
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