Creating a Location for Automatic Location Assignment

When you're ready to configure fulfillment locations for automatic location assignment, create the location records in your account. If you already have locations set up for your business, you can edit them and configure them instead. To find locations that need to be updated, you can use a saved search – see Editing Existing Location Records for Automatic Location Assignment.

To create a location for automatic location assignment:

  1. Go to Setup > Company > Classifications > Locations.

  2. Enter a name to identify the location.

  3. Select the type of location: blank, Store, or Warehouse.

    The location type for new records is set to blank by default. In automatic location assignment rules, you can select a blank location type as one of the rule attributes. See Automatic Location Assignment Rules.

  4. Ensure the Make Inventory Available box is checked.

  5. In the Address subtab, click Edit next to the address box and enter the full address details of the location, including the location’s postal code.

    Important:

    If you plan to create location assignment rules that use the closest location strategy, it is important to indicate the correct country and postal code in the address details of the location. When a rule uses the closest location strategy, NetSuite can only assign a location automatically if it has a postal code or you enter the precise latitude and longitude coordinates manually. The shipping address must also have a valid postal code.

  6. Click Save to save the record and then click Edit to continue creating the location.

  7. Click the Automatic Location Assignment subtab to enter automatic location assignment settings.

    1. Choose how you want to define the geographic coordinates of the location:

      • To use coordinates based on the location’s postal code, select Derive From Postal Code as the geolocation method. The default setting for all locations is Derive From Postal Code.

        Note:

        Make sure the postal code is specified in the address details of the location. If there is no postal code, NetSuite cannot assign the location automatically to a sales order line.

      • To use the exact geographic coordinates of the location:

        1. In the Latitude/longitude Coordinates fields, enter the latitude and longitude of the location in decimal format (for example, “37.536798”). The decimal symbol is dependent on the number format of your user preferences – see Formatting for Dates, Numbers, Phone Numbers, and Time for more information.

        2. In the Automatic Location Assignment subtab, select Use Lat/Long Coordinates as the geolocation method.

    2. In the Automatic Location Assignment field, choose to allow or disallow location assignment:

      • Disallow – Indicates that NetSuite does not take this location into account when assigning locations automatically.

      • Allow Worldwide – Indicates that this location can ship to any address worldwide.

      • Allow Worldwide Except Excluded Regions – NetSuite takes this location into account for all shipping addresses except addresses that are located in the excluded regions. You must specify at least one excluded region.

      • Allow Specified Regions Only – You must specify the regions to which shipments are allowed and the regions to which shipments are prohibited. You must specify at least one included region, and optionally, one or more excluded regions.

    3. If you allow automatic location assignment based on regions, make sure you specify the relevant regions in the Included Regions and Excluded Regions tables.

    4. In the Buffer Stock field, enter the buffer stock level for all items at the location.

    5. If you use the Fulfillment Request feature and you plan to use fulfillment workload distribution as a fulfillment strategy, define order capacity for the location:

      • In the Total Shipping Capacity field, enter the maximum number of shipping orders that can be allocated to the location regardless of when the orders are allocated. The total shipping capacity is typically higher than the daily shipping capacity and allows orders to accumulate at the location up to the specified number.

      For more information about fulfillment requests, see Fulfillment Requests. For more information about fulfillment workload distribution, see Choosing a Fulfillment Strategy.

      Note:

      The shipping capacity fields are only available when the Fulfillment Request feature is enabled.

  8. Click Save.

Editing Existing Location Records for Automatic Location Assignment

Location records in NetSuite are often used for various purposes. If you already use locations in your account, you might need to complete the following tasks to ensure the locations are configured correctly and assigned as expected by automatic location assignment:

  • Create a saved search for all locations with an empty postal code and those for which automatic location assignment is allowed. See Saved Searches for more information about saved searches.

  • Based on the results of the saved search, either update the postal code in the locations or specify the latitude and longitude manually.

  • Allow automatic location assignment for the locations.

Related Topics

General Notices