Defining modification rules

Most documents flow through a pipeline without requiring any intervention by a customer service representative.

However, there are times when modifications are required, such as changing credit card information or quantity. Sterling Order Management System supports modification through the Console and APIs. It is critical for you to decide which modifications are allowed for each modification type, modification level, and status combination.

Note: Contemplate business and system integration implications before allowing a modification that is disallowed as part of the system defaults. For example, adding instructions to a document type is disallowed after the release has been sent to the node. If you change the modification to be allowed, the system has no way of communicating the new instruction to the node center because the release has already been sent.

The modification type indicates the type of modification carried out on a document. Sterling Order Management System provides the ability to perform modifications on specific attributes. An example of a modification type is adding an order line to an order.

Modification level indicates the level at which a particular modification type is carried out. These include the following levels:

  • Header
  • Line
  • Release
  • Release Line
  • Negotiation
  • Negotiation Line
  • Shipment
  • Receipt

For a complete list of the system modification types and their modification levels, see Order modification types.

Modifications are applied to a particular level and a particular processing status. For example, if modifications are requested for a document at the header level or at the line level, then the order lines, as well as the order release lines, are picked up for validating whether or not modifications are allowed for those order statuses. If modifications are requested at the release or release line level, then order release lines are picked up for validating whether or not modifications are allowed for those order statuses.

You can group modifications in the Modification Rules tab of the Status Modification Group Details window by modification type, modification level, or status, by selecting the corresponding grouping from Group By. The Modification Rules tab then displays the grouping you have chosen in a hierarchical structure.

All modification rules operate within a certain system-defined range. For instance, for Sales Orders, the Cancel modification on the order entity is always defined to be between the statuses 1000 (Draft Order Created) and 3350 (Included In Shipment). The system never allows a Cancel modification at a status of 3701 (Return Created). On the other hand, you are able to allow modifications between the statuses 1000 and 3350. If an entity is in multiple statuses, the modification is allowed, provided that at least one of the statuses is within the system-defined range.

If you make modifications such as changing a Bill To address after an order has shipped or a return has been created, the changed Bill To address will not be propagated to the shipment, the return order, and so forth.

The following table defines the different settings you can apply to modifications:

Table 1. Order document type rule modifications
Field Description
Status Indicates each status that is applicable to a modification level and type.
Allow Indicates whether or not modifications may be made at this modification level and type for the specified status.
Disallow Indicates that no modifications may be made at this modification level and type for the specified status.
Ignore Indicates that modifications are ignored at this modification level and type for the specified status.
Within a status modification group, there are several scenarios to consider for the Allow, Disallow, and Ignore settings:
  • If one line is in status 1 and another line is in status 2 - and both statuses are set to Allow, the modification is allowed.
  • If one line is in status 1, another line is in status 2, and another is in status 3 - and the 1 and 2 statuses are set to Allow, but the 3 status is set to Disallow, all modifications are disallowed, because one of the currently applied statuses is disallowed.
  • If one line is in status 1 and one is in the extended status 2 - If the 1 status is set to Allow, but the extended status is set to Ignore (all extended statuses are defaulted to ignore, so that they pick up their base status settings unless you have explicitly overridden the setting) then all modifications are allowed only if the base status is set to allow. If the base status is set to disallow, then all modifications are disallowed.

If all lines are set to Ignore, then all modifications are disallowed, regardless of the base status settings.

Application Console users can be granted permission to override the modification rules through user group permissions. When a user has been granted this permission, the user can perform a modification that has been disallowed within the Application Consoles.