I am trying to split the time of a purchase from the date of ordering to the vendor till the goods arrive to the company. Is there any standard way to do so? I want to have separate times indicating the production time at the vendor’s, for two types of transportation and for customs formalities (e.g. if the goods travel first by sea, and then by road, and they spend some time in the customs, and some time is needed to produce them also …). The objective is to be able to calculate the expected dates for finishing production (so as to make logistics for the prepared goods), for arriving at the harbor (so as to be warned when to start prepare inland transport and customs clearance) and for receiving the purchase at the main warehouse (so as to be able to tell customers when you can sell them).
Although there is a bunch of different dates related to shipping in PO, standart Navision doesn’t offer such many steps scenario as you described.
There is only the first step available Lead time calculation - in your schema Vendor’s production time. Other “pit-stops” - harbour, customs etc and times between them must be programmed as modifications (you may wish to link these to Shipment methods).
A friendly warning - take into consideration, it will NOT be a easy task - all standart dates are in every PO line, not only in header, so added ones must be there, too.
Besides, the mod must be designed so, that you do not break the existing logics, especially if you use any planning functionality, as Navision itself calculates (future) availability in rather complicated way. Your new added fields can easily break this completely, if poorly designed.
At first I was nervous, that I was spending much time to clarify the overall scheme the client wants. I tried to map some of the standard fields, but as you say it is better not to mix these.
I shall spend as much time as needed so as not to break the built-in features.
Thanks again for your precious advice. It is not something you can find in textbooks. [:)]