The quick answer
Go to Transactions > Order Management > Allocate Orders, choose the Subsidiary, the Item and, when the item sits in more than one place, the Location, check only the order lines you want reconsidered, and click Submit. NetSuite opens Process Status with an Allocate Orders submission. Click Refresh until it's Complete, then open Allocate Orders again and read Quantity Allocated, Quantity Committed and Expected Ship Date on each line you submitted. The run serves the checked lines in the order the Sorting Options give, so a higher-priority line can take stock that a non-firm lower-priority line was holding. Complete only says the run finished. The lines tell you what it did.
The screenshots show sample data. Person and operating-company names are fictional. Use your own records and values when following the steps.
Before you start
You need the Supply Allocation feature turned on and a role that can open Allocate Orders and the sales orders on it. Exact permission names, field names and defaults vary by account, form and role, so check each point against the account you'll run this in. Four things decide whether the run does anything useful.
The lines need an applicable Allocation Strategy, an Order Priority and a Supply Required By Date. Some of those can come from defaults on the customer, the channel or the form, so check the values on the lines themselves. The strategy in this example is named ACAP-Available-Reserved. That's an example configuration, not a required name: Future Inventory is checked with Purchase Order among its future order types, the Allocation Method is As Close As Possible To Supply Required By Date, the quantities are Available Quantity and the type is Reserved Allocation. Reserved matters. A Reserved Allocation can be reallocated by a later allocation run. A Firm Allocation generally can't. Commitment Confirmed protects a line only when the strategy has Commitment Confirmed Stops Allocation on Order Line checked.
The supply has to be eligible. A purchase order is one kind of future supply, and the strategy's Future Inventory Order Types decide which kinds count. For a purchase order, the item, location, subsidiary, status, quantity and Expected Receipt Date all have to fit what the strategy allows.
You have to pick the right lines. The run reconsiders the lines you check. Supply that other lines hold counts as taken, so they normally keep it. They can still change later through real-time allocation, another run or a supply change.
Saving a sales order doesn't do this for you. With real-time allocation on, saving an order recalculates that order using supply no other line already holds. An order entered earlier can keep stock that a higher-priority order needs until something reconsiders both.
In this example, BV-32-BR has 80 on hand at Spokane Warehouse and one open purchase order, PO7218 from Northline Fittings, for 120 units arriving 12/01/2026. SO5102 for Cedar Ridge Plumbing (Order Priority 2, 80 units, Supply Required By Date 11/04/2026) was entered first and holds the 80 on hand. SO5107 for Alder Creek Builders (Order Priority 1, 80 units, same required date) was saved later and is allocated to PO7218. SO5111 for Pinecrest Mechanical (Order Priority 3, 40 units, required 12/20/2026) is also on PO7218. The numbers below assume all three lines are open, use the same item, location and strategy, are not firm, and that nothing else competes for BV-32-BR. Treat them as the result for this data, not a guarantee for every account.
01. Read the current allocation
Go to Transactions > Order Management > Allocate Orders. Choose Brightwater US in Subsidiary and BV-32-BR in Item. The Orders grid lists the item's open lines in the order the Sorting Options give: SO5107, SO5102 and SO5111.
SO5107 has Order Priority 1, but its Quantity Committed is 0 and its Expected Ship Date is 12/01/2026, the day PO7218 arrives. SO5102 has Order Priority 2 and holds the stock: Quantity Committed 80 and Expected Ship Date 11/04/2026.
Click the Quantity Allocated value, 80, on SO5107. The Allocated Supply popup lists one row: Purchase Order PO7218, Pending Receipt, Northline Fittings, Supply Quantity 120, Supply Receipt Date 12/01/2026, Allocated 80 and Days Late 27. Days Late compares the supply's receipt date with the line's Supply Required By Date, so PO7218 on 12/01/2026 against 11/04/2026 is 27. It's a planning gap in the allocation, not proof that a shipment is already late. Close the popup.
02. Check how the run will sequence the lines
Under Sorting Options, read Sort By Order Priority, Then By Supply Required By Date and Then By Order Quantity with Descending checked. The run serves the lines you submit in that order, and only the box beside Order Quantity is checked, so Order Priority counts up: priority 1 comes before priority 2. Under Orders, Allocation Processing Option is Using Sorting Options Only. Leave Set Order Line to Firm unchecked. Checking it marks the allocation the run creates on the submitted lines as firm, which keeps later allocation runs from moving it. That's different from Commitment Confirmed. Do it only when the business has approved the result.
03. Select the lines and submit
In the grid, check the Select box on SO5107 and on SO5102. Leave SO5111 unchecked, because it isn't part of the decision.
Click Submit. Process Status opens with submission 22641: Process Type Allocate Orders, Submission Status In Progress, Percent Complete 0.0%.
Click Refresh. The submission is Complete at 100.0% with 0 Errors. A busy account can take longer, so keep refreshing until the status changes, and the labels and layout can differ in your account. If Message shows errors, open it to see which lines failed before you read the orders. Complete tells you the run finished. It doesn't tell you whether the allocation changed the way you wanted.
04. Read both lines again
Go to Transactions > Order Management > Allocate Orders again. In this example the page kept the Subsidiary and Item from the last visit, so the three lines were already listed. If yours doesn't, choose them again.
SO5107 now has Quantity Committed 80 and Expected Ship Date 11/04/2026, which is its Supply Required By Date. (Expected Ship Date is a date NetSuite calculates from the Supply Required By Date and the dates of the supply the line uses, and depending on the strategy it can include ATP lead time, so it won't always equal the purchase order's receipt date.) SO5102 has Quantity Committed 0 and Expected Ship Date 12/01/2026. SO5111, which you didn't check, still shows Quantity Allocated 40, Quantity Committed 0 and Expected Ship Date 12/20/2026.
Click the Quantity Allocated value, 80, on SO5102. The popup lists PO7218 with Supply Receipt Date 12/01/2026, Allocated 80 and Days Late 27. The lower-priority order now waits for the purchase order. Close the popup.
Check the result
- Each line you submitted shows the Quantity Committed and Expected Ship Date you expected, and the lines you left unchecked are unchanged.
- The line that gave up the stock lists the purchase order in its Allocated Supply popup, with its Supply Receipt Date and Days Late.
- Process Status shows the submission Complete with 0 Errors, and any error message has been opened and understood.
The 80 units on hand moved from SO5102 to SO5107, so Quantity Committed moved with them. Future supply such as a purchase order adds to Quantity Allocated but not to Quantity Committed, and it doesn't mean the goods have arrived. The run doesn't receive the purchase order or ship either order. With other strategies, allocation periods or quantities, or with firm lines in the mix, the run can land somewhere else. Review the order that gives up stock, its backorder and its new Expected Ship Date against what you've promised the customer before you submit.
Common questions
How do I run Supply Allocation manually for a few sales orders in NetSuite?
Open Allocate Orders under Transactions > Order Management, choose a Subsidiary and narrow the list with Item, Location or the other filters, check the lines you want reconsidered and click Submit. The lines are served in the order of the Sorting Options, using each line's Allocation Strategy. Refresh Process Status until the submission is Complete, then read the lines again, including the order that may have lost its supply.
Why does my higher-priority sales order show a later Expected Ship Date than a lower-priority one?
One common cause is the order things happened in. Real-time allocation allocates the order you save using supply that no other line already holds, so a lower-priority order saved first can hold the stock while the higher-priority order gets later supply such as a purchase order. Expected Ship Date also depends on the strategy, the Supply Required By Date, the dates of the supply the line uses and any ATP lead time. In this example SO5107 had Order Priority 1 and an Expected Ship Date of 12/01/2026 until the run gave it the stock on hand.
Does Process Status Complete mean the allocation changed the way I wanted?
No. It means the submission finished and shows how many errors it reported. Read Quantity Allocated, Quantity Committed and Expected Ship Date on each line you submitted, and open the Allocated Supply popup to see the supply source.
What do Allocation Processing Option and Set Order Line to Firm do?
Allocation Processing Option chooses how the run prioritizes. Using Sorting Options Only follows the Sorting Options and applies each line's strategy. The other options are Using Fill Rate Optimization, Using Revenue Optimization on Sales Orders and Using Gross Profit Optimization on Sales Orders, and they can give a different result than simple sorting. Set Order Line to Firm marks the allocation the run creates on the submitted lines as firm, so later allocation runs keep it. It isn't the same as Commitment Confirmed. Leave it unchecked unless the business has approved the result.
Why did Quantity Committed move to another order after the run?
Quantity Committed is the part of a line's allocation that comes from stock on hand. When the run moved the 80 units on hand from one line to another, the commitment moved with them. Allocating a purchase order doesn't commit anything, so the line that moved to PO7218 shows Quantity Committed 0.
Which lines does an Allocate Orders run submit, and can other lines change?
It submits the lines you check. Supply that other lines hold counts as taken, so in this example SO5111 stayed on PO7218. Real-time allocation, another run or a supply change can still change a line you left out, so reread it if it matters.
Can the run take supply from a firm or Commitment Confirmed line?
A standard run doesn't normally reallocate a Firm Allocation. Commitment Confirmed protects a line only when the strategy is set to stop allocation for those lines. Check the line's allocation type and the strategy before you rely on either, and leave firm lines out of the run.
Does Allocate Orders receive the purchase order or ship the order?
No. It links supply to demand. The purchase order stays Pending Receipt until you receive it, and the sales order still needs to be fulfilled. A purchase order row in Allocated Supply is a plan, not an item receipt.
What's the difference between Allocate Orders and Reallocate Items?
Allocate Orders reruns Supply Allocation for the lines you check, using the Sorting Options and each line's strategy. Reallocate Items, also under Order Management, moves committed stock on hand between order lines for one item at one location by hand. Use Allocate Orders when the question is which supply, current or future, each line gets under your priority rules.