Order Fulfillment Worksheet only allocates inventory that is physically available in the warehouse today. It does not take into account quantities expected on an incoming purchase order, even if that purchase order shows an arrival date of today or in the near future.
Why Only Physical Inventory Counts
The worksheet is designed to answer a very specific and practical question, which is what can actually be picked and shipped right now. Anything still on a purchase order, regardless of how soon it is expected, has not yet been received into inventory and therefore cannot be physically picked. Including expected purchase order quantities in the allocation calculation would risk telling a warehouse team that something is available to ship when it is not yet sitting on a shelf, which would undermine the reliability of the tool.
What Happens When a PO Arrives
Once a purchase order is received and posted, increasing physical inventory, that new quantity becomes visible to the worksheet immediately on the next calculation, just like any other inventory increase. If there are open sales orders or transfer orders waiting on that item, particularly ones on backorder, the worksheet will automatically allocate the newly received inventory to those waiting orders based on whatever sort order is active, typically earliest shipment date first. This is part of what makes the tool effective for backorder management, since incoming receipts flow directly into fulfillment decisions as soon as they are physically received, without needing anyone to manually match receipts against backorders.
Planning for Incoming Supply Separately
Because the worksheet intentionally does not look ahead to expected purchase order receipts, any forward looking view of what will be available once inbound supply arrives needs to come from a separate planning or purchasing tool rather than from the worksheet itself. Purchasing and planning tools are built to project future availability based on expected receipts, and that is the appropriate place to look when the goal is to understand upcoming supply rather than what is fulfillable today.
Why This Distinction Matters Operationally
This separation between planning tools that look forward and fulfillment tools that look at what is physically on hand keeps each tool focused and reliable for its intended purpose. A warehouse team relying on the worksheet to decide what to pick today can trust that anything shown as available is truly sitting in inventory and ready to be picked, without needing to second guess whether the number includes optimistic assumptions about inbound receipts that have not yet arrived.
Related Tools
Order Fulfillment Worksheet calculates allocation strictly from physical inventory on hand and automatically allocates new receipts to waiting orders once they are posted. Enhanced Planning Worksheet is built for forward looking purchasing and planning decisions that do account for expected incoming supply.
In short, incoming purchase order quantities are excluded from Order Fulfillment Worksheet calculations entirely, and only inventory that has actually been received and posted becomes available for allocation.