Issue Requests

This guide walks you through raising, approving, and handing over stock to a customer using an Issue Request — from creating it, to getting it approved, to actually giving the customer their goods.

What is an Issue Request?

An Issue Request is simply a documented, trackable way of saying: "we need to give this customer these products." It exists so that every time stock leaves the warehouse for a customer, there is a clear record of what was asked for, who approved it, and exactly how and when it was handed over.

Not every product line is handed over the same way. When you build an Issue Request, each product line can end up being fulfilled in one of three ways:

1. The stock is already on the shelf — someone simply issues it straight out of a warehouse to the customer.
2. The stock still needs to be made — a Manufacturing Order is raised first, and once the goods are produced, they're issued.
3. The customer owes you something back first — for returnable items like empty bottles or crates, the customer's returned item must be collected before (or alongside) giving them the new stock.

note

This is one of three related request types in the system. An Issue Request moves stock to a customer. A Transfer Request (its own guide) moves stock warehouse to warehouse. A Loading Request (its own guide) moves stock onto a vehicle for a delivery trip, and can only be created from a Trip.

note

An Issue Request can be created two ways: typed in manually by a warehouse user, or generated automatically from an already-approved Sales Order. Both paths are covered below.

Starting a request

There are two ways to get a new Issue Request going.

Create it manually

1. Go to Inventory → Issue Requests. This opens the list of every Issue Request in your organisation, with a search box and a date filter at the top.
2. Click the New button in the top right corner.

The Issue Requests list — Inventory → Issue Requests — showing the New button, search box, and date filter.

3. Fill in the New Issue Request form:
   • Customer — the customer the stock is going to. Required.
   • Customer Location — the specific delivery location for that customer, if they have more than one. Optional.
   • Warehouse manager — the person responsible for this request. Optional.
   • Notes — any extra context worth recording. Optional.
4. Click Create Request. Your new Issue Request is created with a DRAFT status and you're taken straight to it.

The "New Issue Request" form — Customer, Customer Location, Warehouse manager, Notes.

Generate one from a Sales Order

If a customer's stock request already exists as a Sales Order, you don't need to re-type everything — you can generate an Issue Request straight from it.

note

This option only shows up when the Sales Order has already been approved, it does not require delivery/dispatch (orders that need a vehicle go through the separate delivery/trip process instead), and there isn't already an unfinished Issue Request for that order.

1. Open the Sales Order's detail page.
2. Click Generate Issue Request.

The "Generate Issue Request" button on an approved Sales Order's detail page.

3. You'll see a table listing every product on the order, with its Ordered quantity, how much is still Outstanding (not yet issued), whether it Requires Return, and an editable Request Qty box pre-filled with the outstanding amount. Adjust the quantities if you don't want to request everything outstanding yet.
4. Click Generate Issue Request to submit.

The quantities table shown when generating an Issue Request from a Sales Order.

tip

An Issue Request generated this way skips straight to APPROVED — it doesn't sit in Draft or wait for a separate approval step, since the Sales Order itself was already approved. You can find it afterwards on the Sales Order's own "Issue Requests" tab, or in the main Issue Requests list.

Building the request (Draft)

A manually created request starts life as a DRAFT — an empty shell you now need to add product lines to. (Requests generated from a Sales Order already come with their lines filled in and are already APPROVED, so you can skip straight to Fulfilling the request.)

1. On the request's detail page, click Add items.
2. In the "Add issue request line" panel that slides in, fill in:
   • Product — search and select what the customer wants.
   • Quantity — how much of it.
   • Collect returnables — tick this if the customer needs to hand something back first (e.g. empty bottles or crates) before or alongside getting the new stock.
   • Notes — optional.
3. Click Add line.

The detail page while the request is still in Draft, showing the Add items, Submit, and Edit buttons.

The "Add issue request line" side panel.

Each product you add appears as its own card in the list, starting with a NOT STARTED badge. You can only add one line per product — if you need more of the same product, edit the existing line instead of adding a second one.

Product lines listed on the left, each showing a "NOT STARTED" status badge.

While still in Draft, you can click a line to select it and use Edit Line to change it, or Remove issue request line to delete it entirely.

note

You can also click Edit at any time while in Draft to change the Customer, Customer Location, Warehouse manager, or Notes on the request itself.

Sending it for approval

Once your lines are added, the request needs to move through two quick approval steps before anyone can start handing out stock.

You are here	You click	It becomes
DRAFT	Submit	READY
READY	Approve	APPROVED

Submit only appears once at least one line has been added. Clicking either button takes you to a simple confirmation screen showing your Current State and the New State it's moving to, with an optional Notes box for any comment you'd like on record. Click the coloured action button to confirm, or Go back to cancel.

The confirmation screen shown for every status change, here for "Start fulfilling issue request."

Detail page in READY status, showing the Approve button.

note

Only staff with approval permissions will see the Submit, Approve, Start Fulfillment, and Complete buttons. If you don't see one of them, you likely need to ask a supervisor to action that step — or, if a request needs to be called off entirely, ask a supervisor, since cancelling isn't available as a button in this screen.

Fulfilling the request

Once a request is APPROVED, click Start Fulfillment to move it to IN_PROGRESS. This is when the actual work of getting stock to the customer begins, one product line at a time.

Detail page in APPROVED status, showing the Start Fulfillment button.

Click a product line on the left, and up to three buttons appear for it on the right, depending on what that line needs:

The fulfillment action buttons and quantity summary shown for a selected line.

Important

Only one of these actions can be in progress per line at a time — if one is already running, the others grey out until it's finished. And if a line needs a returnable item collected first, the other two buttons stay disabled until that's done.

Collect Returnables

Shown whenever a line needs something returned by the customer (e.g. empty bottles) that hasn't been collected yet. You must do this before — or alongside — issuing the rest of that line.

1. Click Collect Returnables.
2. Fill in:
   • Destination Warehouse unit — where the returned item is being put away.
   • Product — the returnable item being collected (e.g. the empty bottle SKU, not the product you're issuing).
   • Quantity — pre-filled with the amount still owed.
3. Click Submit.

The "Fulfill request line" panel set up to collect a returnable item.

Fulfil via Goods Issue

Use this when the stock is already sitting in a warehouse, ready to hand over.

1. Click Fulfill via Goods Issue.
2. Fill in:
   • Source Warehouse unit — where the stock is being taken from.
   • Quantity — how much to issue now.
3. Click Submit.

The "Fulfill request line" panel set up for a direct Goods Issue.

Fulfil via Manufacturing Order

Use this when the product still needs to be produced before it can be handed over. See the Manufacturing guides for how Bills of Material and Manufacturing Orders work.

1. Click Fulfill via MO.
2. Fill in:
   • Bill of Materials (BOM) — the recipe used to make the product.
   • Manufacturing Warehouse Unit — where production happens.
   • Quantity — how much to produce.
   • Finished Goods Warehouse Unit — where the finished stock will be stored once produced.
3. Click Submit. This raises a Manufacturing Order — once production is complete and the goods are moved to the finished-goods warehouse, a normal Goods Issue still needs to be raised afterwards to actually get the stock to the customer.

The "Fulfill request line" panel set up to raise a Manufacturing Order.

Watching progress

Every line shows exactly how far along it is, and every action taken against it is recorded in a visual chain so nothing gets lost.

Badge	Meaning
NOT STARTED	Nothing has been issued, produced, or received against this line yet.
IN PROGRESS	Some, but not all, of the requested quantity has been handled.
DONE	The full requested quantity has been issued.

A line card mid-fulfillment, showing its progress bar and updated badge.

Below the fulfillment buttons, the Fulfillment Chain lays out every step taken on that line as a timeline — a grey dot means a step is still pending, blue means it's in transit or in progress, and a filled green circle with a checkmark means it's done. For a Manufacturing Order this includes the raw-material transfer in, the order itself, and the finished-goods transfer out; for a direct issue or a returnables collection it shows the single document and where the stock moved to.

The Fulfillment Chain timeline for a line, showing each linked document and its status.

The detail page also has a few other tabs worth knowing about:

Tab	What it shows
Items	The product lines and fulfillment workspace covered above.
Transactions	Every Goods Issue / Goods Receive document linked to this request.
Orders	Every Manufacturing Order raised from this request.
Activity	A log of who did what, and when, on this request.

Finishing the request

Once every line's badge reads DONE, the request is finished.

1. Most of the time you don't need to do anything — the system automatically marks the request COMPLETE the moment every line has been fully issued.
2. If it hasn't happened automatically, click Complete on the detail page yourself to confirm everything has been handed over, then confirm on the transition screen.

Detail page in IN_PROGRESS status, showing the Complete button.

A finished Issue Request, showing the green COMPLETE status.

tip

A completed request is the end of the road — there's nothing further to click. It stays on record exactly as it happened, for anyone to look back on later.

Quick reference

Status meanings

Status	What it means
DRAFT	Being built. Lines can still be added, edited, or removed.
READY	Submitted, waiting for someone to approve it.
APPROVED	Signed off. Waiting for fulfillment to start.
IN_PROGRESS	Actively being fulfilled — stock being issued, produced, or collected.
COMPLETE	Everything requested has been fully issued.

Glossary

Outstanding quantity

How much of a line is still left to issue — the requested amount minus what's already been issued.

Returnable item

Something the customer must give back before or alongside receiving new stock — most commonly empty bottles or crates.

Fulfillment

Any single action that moves a line towards being complete — an issue, a manufacturing order, or a returnables collection.

Bill of Materials (BOM)

The recipe of raw materials/components needed to manufacture a product.

Manufacturing Order (MO)

An instruction to produce a product using a BOM, raised when the stock a customer wants doesn't already exist.

Goods Issue Note

The document created automatically whenever stock is directly issued to a customer.

Goods Receive Note

The document created automatically whenever a returnable item is collected back from a customer.

Frequently asked questions

Why are the "Fulfill via Goods Issue" and "Fulfill via MO" buttons greyed out for my line?

Either a returnable item still needs to be collected first (look for the warning banner telling you to use Collect Returnables), or another fulfillment is already in progress on that line — you'll need to wait for it to finish before starting another.

Can I request more than what's still outstanding on a Sales Order?

No. When generating an Issue Request from a Sales Order, the Request Qty box is capped at the outstanding quantity for that line — you can request less, but not more.

Can I edit or delete a product line after I've clicked Submit?

No — lines can only be added, edited, or removed while the request is still in DRAFT. Once it's Submitted, Approved, or further along, the lines are locked as they are.

What if a customer asks for a product I already have a line for?

You can't add a second line for the same product on the same request — edit the existing line's quantity instead.

Can I cancel an Issue Request?

Cancelling is possible in the system, but there is currently no Cancel button on this screen for everyday users. If a request needs to be called off, speak to your supervisor or administrator.

I don't see the Submit / Approve / Start Fulfillment / Complete button — why?

These buttons only appear for staff with approval permissions on Issue Requests. If you need one of these steps actioned, ask a supervisor or your system administrator to check your access.