Clients often ask me what the various document date fields across transactional documents mean and how they interact with other dates. Or I come across some very creative uses of existing date fields. Whilst it might be tempting to adopt the use of one of the “other” date fields you may not currently be utilizing, I can assure you they all serve a unique purpose.

Over the coming months I will be releasing a series of articles around the Dynamics 365 Business Central Document Dates, starting with Purchase Orders. I hope to dispel some of the ambiguity of the date fields across all documents. In the next installment we’ll take a look at Sales Order dates.

Purchase Order Dates

Posting Date

Specifies the date that will be attributed to ledger entries when order postings occur.

Order Date

Specifies the date the order is created and is the basis for pricing calculations.

Document Date

Specifies the vendor invoice date or the start date of payment terms.

Due Date

Specifies the due date of the vendor invoice.

Document Date + Due Date calculation = Due Date

Requested Receipt Date

Specifies the date you have requested the vendor to deliver the order.

This is an optional date field. Setting a requested receipt date will calculate backwards to set the date you should place the order.

Requested Receipt Date – Lead Time Calculation = Order Date
Requested Receipt Date + Inbound Whse. Handling Time + Safety Lead Time = Expected Receipt Date

Promised Receipt Date

Specifies the date the vendor has promised to deliver the order.

The date promised by your vendor that you would receive the goods at your location. By default, it is blank. When you update the date, the system will update Planned Receipt Date = Promised Delivery Date and will lock Requested Receipt Date so that vendor performance can be measured.

Planned Receipt Date

Specifies the date when the item is planned to arrive in inventory (not necessarily available in the warehouse depending on inbound warehouse handling setup).

If you do not set a requested receipt date the planned receipt date will be calculated forward from the order date.

Order Date + Lead Time Calculation = Planned Receipt Date
Planned Receipt Date + Inbound Whse. Handline Time + Safety Lead Time = Expected Receipt Date

Expected Receipt Date

Specifies the date that you expect the items to be available in your warehouse.

This field is used by Business Central to calculate the availability of an item.

Planned Receipt Date + Safety Lead Time + Inbound Whse. Handling Time = Expected Receipt Date