A customer who ships the same lane every weekday should not cost anyone a morning of order entry. Recurring orders did that job before, but setting one up took four separate windows, nothing showed what it would actually create, and an order that was skipped or made twice was only noticed after the fact.
Recurring orders now has one setup page that shows the orders before you save, a choice between creating orders on their own and waiting for a dispatcher to approve them, a list that tells you which recurring orders need a look, and a schedule you can change one date at a time.
Set it up on one page
Open Planning > Recurring Orders and choose New. Pick the customer or the broker, then add the order templates and how many orders each one creates on each day. Choose how it repeats: Every week, Every 2 weeks, Monthly by date, Monthly by weekday (for example the 1st and 3rd Monday, or the last Friday) or Specific dates picked on a calendar. The template picker searches by name, city or lane and shows each template's stops, pickup time and equipment, with a check that says whether it can create orders. A template that cannot is warned about, and its stop type, appointment and times can be fixed right there, without opening the order form.
Under Appointment times, switch to By weekday to give a template's first stop its own time on each day, for example an earlier pickup on Fridays. A time that differs from the template is highlighted. For a lane that comes back, Add return leg next to a template's days links its return: choose the return template, the Return pickup (same day, next day or +2 days) and its time. Each outbound order then also creates its return, and skipping or moving the outbound date does the same to the return.
When orders are created: straight into dispatch, held for a dispatcher to approve each date, or a reminder only. A recurring order can also follow the company default.
When orders are created decides what happens when a date is due. Create orders sends the orders straight into dispatch. Create for review holds each date until a dispatcher approves it, and Remind only sends a reminder so someone creates the orders or skips the date. A new recurring order follows the company default unless you pick another.
What this will create sits next to the form and uses the same rules as the scheduled runs: how many orders saving creates, when the next ones are made, and a calendar of the next 2, 4 or 13 weeks. Click a day to see why it has the orders it has: the schedule line with the first-stop time, a holiday or a pause, when the order is created and the template check.
Approve the dates that wait
A recurring order with a date waiting shows a banner with the soonest one, with Approve (or Create now for a reminder) and Skip. The list gets a To review view with every waiting date: the pickup, the recurring order, how many orders, the truck and when they would have been created, with Approve and Skip on each row or for several at once. A date nobody approves is never created on its own: it shows as Not reviewed under Needs attention.
Make an order recurring
In an order's details, Make recurring sits next to Clone. It saves the order as a template named after its lane and opens setup with the customer, the template and the pickup weekday already filled in.
Recurring orders also notices the lanes you keep booking by hand. A lane shows up under Suggestions after 6 orders in 8 weeks, or 3 in 3 weeks, with its rhythm (for example Mon-Fri, about one a day) and how many orders it had. Make recurring on a suggestion opens setup on those weekdays and quantities. The new order form points it out too, once the customer and the stops match a suggested lane, and you can hide that hint for 30 days.
The list says what needs you
The list: saved views, the summary tiles, and the Needs attention strip naming what keeps a recurring order from creating orders.
The list opens with summary tiles: active recurring orders, orders created in the last 30 days, orders coming in the next 7 days, how many of those have no truck or carrier yet, and what needs attention. Saved views split the list into Needs attention, To review, Active, Paused, Ended, Unassigned for the next 7 days and Suggestions.
Needs attention names the problem for each recurring order: failing, needs setup, not reviewed, ending soon or a high cancel rate. Review narrows the list to that one problem. Unassigned · 7 days lists the booked orders from recurring orders with a pickup in the next week and no truck or carrier yet, soonest first.
Tick several recurring orders to act on them together. Skip a date (or create those orders the day before instead) shows how many orders will not be created or will move, and how many already exist and stay, before anything is saved. Pause stops them between two dates with a note, and Delete removes them after one confirmation. Each recurring order succeeds or is refused on its own, and a refusal names the order.
Change one date, or the whole schedule
A recurring order has Overview, Orders, Results, Schedule, Runs and Activity tabs. The Overview calendar has a menu on every day: skip or move the date, change the quantity, add orders, create them now, or undo a one-date change. Orders lists every date with its order and the reason it was or was not created, in words.
The Schedule tab: how it repeats, orders per template on each weekday, the return leg button next to a template, and first-stop times by weekday.
Schedule is the same grid you set up, with each template's check next to it. When a template has a problem, Template checks below lists what each check found (stops and appointments, client, equipment type, load type or rate), what it means for the orders, and a Fix button. A warning does not stop orders; a blocking issue holds only that template's dates. While you edit, an effect card shows the orders added, removed, moved and kept over the next four weeks, and saving asks you to review the change first. Orders that already exist are kept. Runs lists each scheduled run, and Activity keeps every saved version of the schedule.
Results shows how its orders went over the last 12 weeks, the last 30 days or this year: delivered, deleted or canceled, on time at pickup and invoiced revenue, with a bar for each weekday. When a weekday loses half its orders to deletes and cancels, a hint offers to stop creating orders on it, through the same change review, or you can dismiss it.
To set up the same pattern for another customer or lane, choose Duplicate in a recurring order's menu. Name the copy, pick the customer, choose which of their templates replaces each one (or New from an order… to make one from one of their orders), and whether to copy the settings and the upcoming one-date changes. Setup then opens filled in for you to check and create. The original stays as it is.
Company defaults, customer rules and holidays
Settings > Recurring orders: the company defaults and when orders are created.
Settings > Recurring orders sets what every recurring order follows unless it sets its own: the time zone, the hour orders are created, how many days ahead, what happens on a holiday, and When orders are created. Turn on US federal holidays, or add your own closed days. In a recurring order's own settings, an empty field says which company value it follows.
Orders created: the reference number pattern and a note on every order a recurring order creates.
Under Orders created, choose how the created orders are numbered. In Reference number, type a pattern such as {id}-{yyMMdd}-{n}: {id} is the recurring order's number, {yyMMdd} or {yyyyMMdd} the pickup date, and {n} the order's number that day. A pattern needs both {id} and {n}. Leave it empty to keep each template's own reference. Turn on Note on created orders to add a note to every order naming the recurring order, template and date it came from.
Customer rules: one customer's recurring orders are created at 6:00 AM, two days ahead, and the day before a holiday.
Under Customer rules, choose Add customer rule to give one customer its own run time, days ahead, holiday handling, reference number or when orders are created. That customer's recurring orders follow the rule instead of the company defaults, and a recurring order's own settings still come first. In Holidays, each date shows which orders it skips, moves or holds.
Recurring Orders is in the Planning menu for everyone with View Recurring Orders. Creating and changing recurring orders takes Manage Recurring Orders, approving or skipping waiting dates takes Approve Recurring Orders, and the settings take Manage Recurring Order Settings. Without one, the button is off and says who to ask.
