Stop Overselling: Sales Order Availability Check [2026]

The small sales-order signal that can prevent a big customer problem

A customer wants 24 units. Your salesperson sees 18 on hand, remembers a supplier delivery is due soon, and says, "Yes, we can do that." Then the supplier moves the date, another order ships first, or the 18 units are sitting at a different location. What sounded like a quick answer becomes a late shipment, a difficult email, and a customer wondering whether your team knows what it is selling.

This is why a sales order needs more than a product name, quantity, and price. It needs a stock availability check at the moment the promise is being made.

VNDLY places a small colored dot beside the quantity on each sales-order line. Hover over it and you can see whether the requested quantity is currently covered, partly short, or out of stock. If there is an open incoming purchase order, the tooltip also shows the incoming quantity, purchase-order number, and expected date. It is deliberately simple. The point is to surface the right question before an order becomes a customer commitment.

That approach mirrors the broader purpose of availability checking in order systems: compare current inventory with expected incoming supply before making a sales promise. Microsoft describes availability as a combination of current inventory and scheduled receipts such as purchase orders, while SAP describes the check as information about when and in what quantity a sales-order requirement can be fulfilled. Microsoft Learn and SAP Learning explain the same basic principle.

Why teams still promise stock they do not have

Most overselling does not happen because somebody is careless. It happens because the information is split across too many places.

Someone checks a spreadsheet. Someone else looks at a warehouse count. Purchasing knows there is an inbound shipment but has not told sales which products are on it. The customer is waiting on the phone, so the tempting answer is, "It should be fine."

That workflow has three predictable failures:

1. On-hand stock gets confused with available-to-sell stock. A total can look healthy while the order quantity is higher than the quantity actually available at that moment.
2. Incoming stock is remembered, not connected. A buyer may know there is a purchase order on the way, but the person entering the sales order cannot see its expected date or remaining quantity.
3. A partial shortage is treated like an all-or-nothing answer. If 18 of 24 units are available, the next decision is not "yes" or "no." It is whether to ship 18 now, wait, offer an alternative, or change the customer promise.

You can reduce the risk earlier with demand planning and reorder points. Our guide to planning reports that prevent stockouts explains that longer-term side of the job. But even a well-planned business needs a reliable check at order entry, because stock changes all day.

How VNDLY checks stock on a sales-order line

In VNDLY, the check starts with the product variant on the line. The system totals that variant's inventory events to calculate the current available quantity. It also looks for remaining units on purchase-order lines whose purchase orders are Confirmed or Partly received. Fully received PO lines are excluded from the incoming list because they are no longer incoming supply.

That gives each line two useful pieces of information:

• Available now: the current quantity calculated from inventory movements.
• Incoming supply: the remaining quantity on relevant open purchase orders, including the PO number and its Expected delivery date where one has been recorded.

The line indicator has three states:

For a partial shortage, the tooltip can read like this: "18 available, 6 short - ETA Aug 14, 2026 (PO-1042)." When nothing is incoming, it says that plainly rather than inventing a date.

VNDLY sorts incoming purchase orders by expected date and shows the earliest one first. If no date has been set on that PO, the tooltip calls the ETA unknown. That is a useful nudge for purchasing: an expected delivery date is not admin decoration. It is the information sales needs to set an honest expectation.

The default check is across all locations, and the tooltip notes that. The underlying stock check can also accept a location filter when a workflow needs the view scoped to a specific location. If you run more than one warehouse, make sure the team understands which view they are looking at. For the broader operating model, see VNDLY's warehouse inventory software page.

What the indicator does not do

Accuracy beats a bigger feature list here, so it is worth being clear about the boundary.

The sales-order availability indicator does not automatically reserve inventory, allocate an incoming purchase order to a particular customer, or create a new purchase order. It reads the current inventory-event balance and relevant confirmed or partly received purchase-order lines, then makes the situation visible on the line.

That is different from a full available-to-promise or allocation engine. It also means availability can change after you look at it. A stock receipt, fulfillment, adjustment, or another order can alter the picture. For high-priority or tight-stock orders, use the indicator to trigger the right conversation and record the final decision in your order process.

This limitation is not a flaw hidden behind a green dot. It is the honest difference between a quick operational warning and a system that formally assigns supply. Teams should not confuse the two.

A practical VNDLY workflow, from product to customer promise

Here is a simple way to use the feature without making sales entry feel like a supply-chain meeting.

1. Keep the stock record honest

The availability check uses inventory events. That means receiving purchase orders, fulfillment, stocktakes, and stock adjustments need to be recorded as they happen. If the on-hand record is wrong, the dot will be wrong too.

If you are cleaning up a mismatch, start with a controlled count and document the adjustment. Our guide to manual stock adjustments in VNDLY covers the practical process.

2. Put an expected delivery date on open purchase orders

On a new or existing purchase order, enter the Expected delivery date. VNDLY keeps that date with the PO and can show it on a shortage tooltip when the item is needed on a sales order.

A supplier's estimate is still an estimate. Update it when the supplier changes it. A stale ETA is often worse than no ETA because it creates a false customer promise.

3. Create the sales order and add real product variants

Go to Sales orders and select New sales order. Add the customer, then add catalog products or enter the variant on each line. The availability indicator appears beside the Quantity field once VNDLY has stock data for the selected variant.

There is a short loading state while VNDLY checks the line. After that, hover the dot before you confirm the order. No separate inventory tab. No hunting for the purchase-order number.

4. Decide what to promise when stock is short

If the dot is green, you have a straightforward fulfillment decision. If it is yellow, decide whether a partial shipment makes sense and whether the customer wants the remainder later. If it is red, use the PO number and ETA as a starting point for purchasing, then give the customer a date only after you are confident it is credible.

This is also where a clean partial-fulfillment process matters. Read how to manage partial shipments and backorders for the customer-facing follow-through once the line cannot ship in full.

5. Use the same context when you send the order PDF

If your workspace has stock notices enabled for sales-order PDFs, VNDLY can include shortage notices beneath affected line items. The PDF uses the same basic logic: it compares ordered quantity with available stock, then shows a partial shortage or out-of-stock notice. Where incoming supply exists, it includes the earliest PO ETA and PO number.

That can be useful as an internal review aid. It is not a substitute for deciding what you want a customer to see, so keep customer communication intentional.

From the Founder: the worst answer is a confident guess

The feature is intentionally modest. A colored dot will not fix poor receiving discipline, late supplier updates, or unrealistic delivery promises. But it can stop a familiar failure: treating an assumption as an answer because nobody had the right information in front of them.

See the wider VNDLY order workflow

Sales-order availability works best alongside purchase orders, inventory movements, fulfillment, and customer communication. This short VNDLY overview shows how those pieces fit together.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does the green stock dot mean in VNDLY?

A green dot means the current available quantity is equal to or greater than the quantity on that sales-order line. Hover over it to see the available quantity. By default, the tooltip notes that the check is across all locations.

What does a yellow stock dot mean on a sales order?

Yellow means some stock is available, but not enough to cover the requested line quantity. The tooltip shows the available quantity and shortage. If VNDLY finds an incoming confirmed or partly received purchase order, it also shows the earliest expected delivery date and PO number.

Why does VNDLY show an ETA from a purchase order?

When a sales-order line is short, VNDLY looks for remaining quantities on confirmed or partly received purchase orders for that product variant. The earliest expected delivery date gives the team useful context before they decide what to promise the customer.

Does the sales-order availability check reserve inventory?

No. The indicator shows current inventory-event availability and incoming purchase-order context. It does not automatically reserve stock or allocate an incoming purchase order to a specific sales order.

Can I use the stock availability check for multiple locations?

Yes. Without a location filter, the indicator uses stock across all locations and says so in the tooltip. The underlying stock check also supports a location-specific view when a workflow passes a location.