Delivery Schedules and Availability Schedules

Calculate the first available delivery date for each order based on customer delivery days, cut-off times, product availability and exceptions. Delivery and availability schedules work together to account for production or preparation time and show customers when they can receive their order.

For example, if a product is ready on Tuesday but the customer only receives deliveries on Wednesday, the first available delivery date is Wednesday.

Use case

A food wholesaler delivers to some customers only on Mondays and Wednesdays. Customers near the depot have daily delivery options with an 11:00 PM order cut-off. Made-to-order products, such as fresh salads, require two production days.

Delivery and availability schedules combine these requirements to calculate the first available delivery date for each order. Available stock can bypass production time, while exceptions account for public holidays and other changes to the regular schedule.

Which delivery schedule applies?

The system uses the customer's delivery schedule. If the customer has no delivery schedule, it uses the webshop delivery schedule configured for the relevant country.

You can also block specific days on the customer using Not Delivery Days. A delivery schedule with Overrule Customer working-days enabled ignores those blocked days and follows the schedule instead.

How it works

1. The system selects the customer's delivery schedule. If no schedule is assigned, it uses the webshop delivery schedule for the relevant country. The customer's blocked delivery days also apply, unless the schedule is configured to override them.
2. The product's availability schedule determines the production or preparation time required before it can ship. If stock checking is enabled and enough stock is available for the ordered quantity, the system skips this lead time.
3. The system finds the earliest delivery date that meets the applicable schedules, cut-off times and exceptions. For example, if a product is ready on Tuesday but the customer only receives deliveries on Wednesday, the first available delivery date is Wednesday.

When basket items have different delivery dates, the webshop can group them by date and split the order. The customer places one order, and the system sends a separate order to the ERP for each delivery date.

Key capabilities

• Set delivery days and cut-off times per customer, route or webshop.
• Use a single cut-off time or configure different cut-off times and lead times per day.
• Fall back to the webshop's country-specific schedule when no customer schedule is assigned.
• Account for production and preparation time in working days.
• Skip production time when enough stock is available for the ordered quantity.
• Block or change specific dates with delivery and availability exceptions.
• Let a delivery schedule take priority over a customer's blocked delivery days.
• Split orders by delivery date while keeping one checkout for the customer.
• Preview and verify delivery dates with the Delivery Schedule Checker.