Creating a BOL template

A BOL template (or bill of lading template) gives the system information about both the constraints and the organization of your packing operation.

The BOL template contains information about how sales order items should be combined into a bill of lading, as well as shipping contraints, such as the item types or amounts that can be shipped together. It also contains information about how items should be combined into individual packages, as well as packing constraints, such as the item types or amounts that can be packed together.

When you create a Pick/Pack Wave, you specify the BOL template. All the generated bills of lading are created based on the sales order items in your wave and the bill of lading template you select.

Remember that a BOL template is just a starting point. You can override any of the BOL template values on an individual basis each time you create bills of lading.

To create a BOL template:

1. Select Wave Fulfillment>BOL Templates. A list of BOL templates appears.
2. Select Add from the toolbar above the list.
3. Enter a Name for the BOL template. This must be unique in the warehouse.
4. Optionally, enter a Description for the BOL template.
5. Select the Warehouse to which this BOL template applies.
6. Optionally, fill in the rest of the header fields: Due Date, Priority, Assigned To. Generally, these fields provide default values for the bill of lading header fields of the same name. For example, if you set the Priority in the template to High, then all of the bills of lading created from this template will have a Priority of High.

   There are two exceptions:

   • If these fields are left blank, the bill of lading header fields of the same name get their values from the pack plan.
   • If you have an Items Sort-and-Break on these fields, then the value from the sales orders will be used instead. For example, if you include an Items Sort-and-Break on Priority, then all of the sales order items with Priority of High are put onto one bill of lading, and that bill of lading has a Priority of High (from the sales order); all of the sales order items with Priority of Medium are put onto another bill of lading, and that bill of lading has a Priority of Medium (from the sales order). See Step 7 for more details on the Items Sort-and-Break section.
7. Use the BOL tab to describe how sales order items should be combined onto bills of lading.
   1. Optionally, use the Items Sort-and-Break section to logically classify your bills of lading. All fields listed in this section have a 'break on change' property: all of the sales order items are sorted based on this field, and each time the value of this field changes, a new bill of lading is created. The properties available includes the sales order item fields and the sales order header fields. For example, if you add Ship To Address here, then each bill of lading will include only items that are being sent to the same address. If you additionally add Carrier Name and Code, then each bill of lading will include only items that are being sent to the same address with the same Carrier.

      Sales orders that are required to ship completely (the sales order header field Partial Shipment Allowed is not checked) are subject to special handling. They have an implied Sort-and-Break on SO #. Additionally, the sales order is removed from the wave if the Sort-and-Break fields would split the sales order items onto separate bills of lading. See BOL template field descriptions for details.

   • Select Add Sorting from the toolbar of the Items Sort-and-Break section.
   • Select the field from the Field drop-down.
   • Select whether the Order should be Ascending or Descending. Selecting Ascending means that the items whose Field value is smallest or alphabetically first will be on the first bill of lading, the next items will be on the second bill of lading, etc.

     Important Note for 3PLs: If you are a 3PL (3rd Party Logistic) provider and you want to bill for your packing operations, you must add Owner Name and Code to the Items Sort-and-Break section of your BOL templates. That way, each bill of lading will be billable to exactly one Owner. Note that breaking up your bills of lading by Owner may decrease your overal packing efficiency. For example, if you have customers that order goods from multiple Owners, using a Sort-and-Break on Owner Name and Code will always create multiple bills of lading for the items, even though it may be more efficient to pack them all together.

   1. Optionally, enter a Carrier Override. If the Carrier is not set in the sales order, or if sales orders with different Carriers are combined onto one bill of lading, the Carrier field on the generated bills of lading is set to this Carrier Override.
   2. Optionally, use the BOL Capacity section to describe the limits of each single bill of lading.

      Important: If you limit the size of each single bill of lading, the system may create two bills of lading for one sales order, if the sales order is large. This may or may not fit your business process.

   • Select a Capacity Sort to determine the order in which items should be considered as they are put onto bills of lading. In general, this should always match one of the Capacity Constraints.
   • Enter one or more Capacity Constraints. For each Capacity Constraint, check the checkbox to constrain based on this measurement, and then enter the maximum number. You can limit the size of your bills of lading based on Dim Wt, Cube, Eaches, Pallets, and # of Packages. The most limiting capacity constraint is enforced.
   • For example, suppose you have:
     • Capacity Constraints of Dim Wt 50 lbs and Cube 40 ft^3
     • Item #1, 30 lbs, 8 ft^3
     • Item #2, 20 lbs, 10 ft^3
     • Item #3, 10 lbs, 30 ft^3

     A Capacity Sort on Dim Wt will order the items: Item #1, Item #2, Item #3. Because Item #1 and Item #2 together weigh 50 lbs, the Dim Wt Capacity Constraint is reached first, and it is enforced. You will get one bill of lading with Item #1 and Item #2 and a second bill of lading with Item #3.

     A Capacity Sort on Cube will order the items: Item #3, Item #2, Item #1. Because Item #3 and Item #2 together have a cube of 40 ft^3, the Cube Capacity Constraint is reached first, and it is enforced. You will get one bill of lading with Item #3 and Item #2 and a second bill of lading with Item #1.

   1. Optionally, use the Items Sorting for BOLs section to sort all of the lines within a particular bill of lading. This determines, for each individual bill of lading, the order of the line items that the packer looks at (in Pack View). For example, after all of the Items Sort-and-Break and Capacity Sorts are applied, you may want each generated bill of lading to be sorted by Item #.
8. Use the Packages tab to describe how sales order items on each bill of lading should be combined into packages.
   1. Optionally, use the Items Sort-and-Break section to logically classify your packages. All fields listed in this section have a 'break on change' property: all of the sales order items are sorted based on this field, and each time the value of this field changes, a new package is created. For example, if you want to make sure that hazardous and non-hazardous goods are never in the same package, you would add Hazardous to this section.
   • Select Add Sorting from the toolbar of the Items Sort-and-Break section.
   • Select the field from the Field drop-down.
   • Select whether the Order should be Ascending or Descending. Selecting Ascending means that the items whose Field value is smallest or alphabetically first will be in the first package, the next items will be in the second package, etc.
   1. Optionally, use the Items Sorting section to sort the sales order items after they have been logically classified, based on the Items Sort-and-Break section, but before they have been distributed to different packages. (Note that you can have either an Items Sorting for packages or a Capacity Sort for packages, but not both.)
   • Although it is not listed in the template, all templates have an implicit Items Sorting (ascending) on Item # and Unit of Measure. In other words, all other things being equal, package #1 has the alphabetically first Item #, etc.
   1. Optionally, use the Package Capacity section to describe the limits of each single package. (Note that you can have either an Items Sorting for packages, or a Capacity Sort for packages, but not both.)
   • Select a Capacity Sort to determine the order in which items should be considered as they are put into packages. In general, this should always match one of the Capacity Constraints.
   • Enter one or more Capacity Constraints. For each Capacity Constraint, check the checkbox to constrain based on this measurement, and then enter the maximum number. You can limit the size of your packages based on Dim Wt, Cube, Eaches, Pallets, or # of Pack Lines. The most limiting capacity constraint is enforced. (If you enter a BOL Capacity Constraint, but no Package Capacity Constraint, your packages are automatically constrained to fit onto the BOL.)
   • Set the Allow Line Splitting checkbox. Checking this checkbox means that a single sales order line can be split into multiple packages. Leaving this checkbox unchecked means that it cannot.
9. Select OK to save your changes.

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