Cross Docking

Overview

In Flxpoint, Cross Docking is the act of consolidating multiple fulfillment requests going to the same source into a single purchase order. The shipment will be delivered to your facilities, where it will be repackaged and sent to the customer.

Cross Docking can be used to:

  • Reduce inventory holding costs by reduce storage times
  • Ship split orders in the same box
  • Use custom packaging, slips, and labels

Cross Docking Standard Flow

  • Set your internal warehouse as the To Source.
  • Input your internal warehouse's address into the Shipping Address field. If you have updated the address in your source settings, the shipping address will autopopulate.
  • Combine multiple fulfillment requests into a single Cross Dock Purchase Order.
  • Generate and process Cross Dock Purchase Order to Source.
  • Receive package(s) at your facilitates.
  • Repackage and ship to the end customer.

Navigating to Cross Docking

Navigating to Cross Docking

  • Go to the Orders section
  • At the top of screen, select the Cross Dock POs tab
  • Click New Cross Dock PO to get started
  •  


Reading the Cross Dock PO

  • Cross Dock PO #: is the purchase order number that will be sent to your source and can be used to reference the Cross Dock PO in Flxpoint
  • From Source: This is where you are sending the Cross Dock PO to be fulfilled (i.e. your vendor's warehouse)
  • To Source: This is where the Cross Dock PO is relabeled or repackaged. (i.e. your internal warehouse)
  • Shipping Address & Billing Address: This is the address where the Cross Dock PO will be shipped for repackaging


Instructions & Tutorial

To successfully manage a cross dock PO from beginning to end, you will need to go through three stages:

  1. Creation
  2. Generation
  3. Processing

To help guide you through this, we've broken down each stage into detailed steps below.

Requirements:

You must have at least one unprocessed fulfillment request previously routed to the From Source (i.e. your vendor's warehouse).

Once a fulfillment request has been processed, it is no longer eligible for cross docking.

Creating a Cross Dock PO

  • Add a Cross PO number
  • Select the From Source (i.e. your vendor's warehouse)
  • Select the To Source (i.e. your internal warehouse)
  • Choose the desired Shipping Method
  • Input your internal warehouse's Shipping and Billing Addresses if they do not auto-populate.
  • Click Add PO/FR
  • In the pop-up menu, select the desired Unprocessed POs to be cross docked. You can search your library of fulfillment requests using the PO # or order reference #.
  • Click Add PO/FR to add the selected Unproccessed POs to your Cross Dock PO.

This will take the line items from the unprocessed fulfillment requests and add them to the Cross Dock PO. The original fulfillment requests will now say Cross Docked.

Saving Your Progress

If you would like to pause and return to adding unprocessed fulfillment requests to your Cross Dock PO, you can click Update in the bottom right of the Cross Dock PO screen.

Clicking Update will save any changes you've made to the Cross Dock PO.

The Update button does not generate a PO/FR for the Cross Dock PO.


Generating a Cross Dock PO/FR

  • Once you have selected all the desired unprocessed fulfillment requests, scroll to the bottom of the page
  • Click Save and Generate PO/FRs in the right-hand corner.
  • Doing so will generate and create the Cross Dock PO at the top of the screen.

 

Next, let's Process the Cross Dock PO, so it can be sent to the source to be fulfilled.

Processing a Cross Dock PO

  • Once you have generated the Cross Dock PO, click the Actions drop down menu at the bottom right of the PO.
  • Click Process

This sets the Cross Dock PO's status to Processing so the next time Flxpoint runs a Send FR/FOs job to this source it will send the Cross Dock PO.

Using Committed Stock

When using Committed Stock, the fulfillment requests that were originally generated for the From Source will have their committed stock released when a Cross Dock PO is generated.

To release committed stock for the Cross Dock PO, make sure to add the shipment information to the Cross-Docked PO under Fulfillments.

Stub Purchase Orders

Flxpoint automatically sends a copy of your cross docked purchase orders to your internal warehouse and syncs shipping information back to your channels.

Due to this, you will see two purchase orders on each order that has been cross docked. The second PO is merely a copy and will not cause a duplicate order. This copy is known as the Stub Purchase Order.



Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do I send tracking back to the end customer?
You can import or manually add shipping information and associate it to the copy of your Cross Dock PO.
2. Is there a limit to the number of fulfillment requests that can be cross docked at once?
Yes. You may only cross dock 250 fulfillment requests at once.
3. Why do I see two purchase orders on my order?

Flxpoint automatically sends a copy of your cross docked purchase orders to your internal warehouse and syncs shipping information back to your channels.

Due to this, you will see two purchase orders on each order that has been cross docked. The second PO is merely a copy and will not cause duplicate order. This copy is known as the Stub Purchase Order.