NetSuite Estimated and Actual Ship Date

NetSuite’s estimated ship date is a field that isautomatically set when a sales order is created. On the standard Sales , it is under the “Shipping” subtab.

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The way the field is set depends on how you configure you shipping settings. To review your shipping settings, navigate to: Setup > Accounting >Shipping.

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Here is a breakdown of the fields that are relevant to the estimated ship date calculation:

• Number of Days to Shipment: The number of business days added to the date a sales order is entered to calculate the estimated ship date. For example, if an order is created on Thursday and I have value of 3 in Number of Days to Shipment, the Estimated Ship Date would be Monday. If this field is blank, no estimated ship date will appear on your sales orders.
• Cutoff Time for Shipment: If an order is entered after this time, the current day does not count as one of the number of days to shipment. For example, if my Cutoff Time for Shipments is 5:00 pm and I enter an order Thursday at 7:00 pm (and have a value of 3 in the Number of Days to Shipment), the Estimated Ship Date would be Tuesday. If left blank, the current day is always counted in the Estimated Ship Date calculation. Be aware, the time formatting here must match your company time format (can check in Setup> Company > General Preferences). For example, if you use 24-hour time formatting, you need to enter in the time in this field in that format.
• Ship on Saturday/Ship on Sunday: If these boxes are checked, Saturday and Sunday will be counted as business days in the Estimated Ship Date calculation. For example, if I enter an order on Thursday at 9:00 AM, Ship on Saturday is checked, and I have a value of 3 in the Number of Days to Shipment, the estimated ship date would be Saturday (rather than Monday).
• Holiday Dates: Under the subtab of Preferences in shipping settings, you can enter specific calendar dates to be skipped in the estimated ship date calculation as well.

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A user can also manually update this date by hitting edit on the sales order and selecting or typing a new date in the field.

The actual ship date gets set when the sales order moves to a fulfilled or pending billing status and is equal to the transaction date listed on the last item fulfillment tied to that order (i.e. the order has been FULLY shipped). An order that has been partially shipped, has a blank actual ship date. The actual ship date cannot be edited from the sales order screen, but can be edited by changing the transaction date on the last item fulfillment tied to that sales order.

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Sources:

1. Sales Order Ship Date Overview: SuiteId 33839
2. Time Formatting: SuiteId 21304, 67997