Order Processing

Orders can now be picked in advance for future despatch dates, allowing warehouse teams to balance workload across shifts and plan ahead for known busy periods or scheduled deliveries.

Operations now have better control over when courier validation checks occur during the shipment workflow, allowing validation timing to be configured for the most appropriate stage. Improved recovery options help resolve situations where shipments have entered unexpected states due to courier validation issues, providing clear paths to fix problems and preventing shipments from becoming stuck.

Shipment Batching

The new shipment batch screen has been completely reworked to deliver significantly faster performance when creating and managing pick batches. Loading times have been reduced, particularly noticeable when working with large batches containing hundreds of shipments.

Batch operations now support seamless switching between different picking and packing modes at various stages of the workflow. Warehouses can choose between individual picking with scanning verification and bulk picking without scanning, as well as between individual packing with scanning and bulk packing approaches. This flexibility allows operations to match the workflow to the specific requirements of each batch, switching modes as needed based on product characteristics, order urgency, or operational constraints.

System Performance

Various enhancements deliver significant performance improvements across search, page loading, login processes, and query execution.

Multiple search operations have been optimised to deliver faster results. Schedule execution searches now use more efficient handler-based filtering, whilst product and location searches benefit from new database indexes that accelerate stock change queries.

Search behaviour has also become more intelligent, automatically disabling slow wildcard searches when they would cause performance issues, ensuring the system remains responsive even when handling complex search criteria.

Behind-the-scenes optimisations have been added to reduce overall system resource consumption. Login and scheduled job execution processes now cache channels, organisations, and sites to reduce database queries during authentication. These changes reduce server load and database pressure, particularly beneficial during peak usage periods with many simultaneous users or frequent automated processes.

The system now prevents potentially slow text-based searches when date ranges haven’t been specified. This protection mechanism ensures that searches using partial text matches must include appropriate date restrictions, preventing database performance issues caused by unrestricted searches across large historical datasets.

Product and Inventory Management

For order lines where a specific product lot must be used, the system now automatically resets lot assignments when that stock becomes unavailable. The system can then reassign order lines to an available alternative lot, keeping orders moving through the warehouse without manual intervention.

Dangerous goods information is now displayed more prominently throughout the system, including specialised display during packing operations for custom quantity orders. This ensures warehouse staff have immediate visibility of hazardous material requirements when handling dangerous goods, supporting compliance with shipping regulations and safety requirements.

Order Entry

Manual order entry has been significantly enhanced to capture more shipment detail and provide greater flexibility during order creation. Users can now select product lots from a dropdown list rather than requiring barcode scanning—particularly useful when creating orders at a desktop or when barcodes aren’t immediately available.

The order entry screen now captures key shipment fields including third-party references, delivery time slots, and delivery instructions directly during order creation, eliminating the need to switch between screens or edit orders after creation.

Goods Receipt and Putaway

The goods receipt process now allows warehouse staff to upload and view the documentation received with incoming deliveries, eliminating the need for paper filing or external document storage.

During the booking-in process, the system now provides enhanced warnings to alert staff to important conditions or requirements before goods are processed.

When selecting putaway locations, the system actively validates storage location restrictions in real-time, preventing incorrect placement of stock and ensuring compliance with warehouse zoning rules (such as temperature zones, hazardous goods areas, or customer-specific storage requirements).

Temperature-controlled Despatch

Temperature-sensitive shipment handling has been significantly enhanced with intelligent postcode-based heat-hold controls.

Products can now have different temperature sensitivity settings for storage versus despatch, providing greater flexibility for items that require cold storage but can tolerate ambient temperatures during short delivery periods, or vice versa.

OrderFlow can now import UK weather information that give postcode level temperature data and hold the despatch of temperature-sensitive shipments when the target destinations are experiencing high temperatures.When shipments are held in this way, Customer Services teams can be automatically notified via email, enabling proactive customer communication about delivery delays.

Returns

The returns process has been enhanced to provide greater flexibility and efficiency when handling customer returns.

Warehouse staff can now process returns for items that were despatched as part of bundles or kits, even when those individual components weren’t sold separately – ensuring accurate inventory reconciliation regardless of how products were originally ordered.

During returns processing, staff can now specify exactly where returned stock should be placed as they’re processing each item, rather than having to make separate putaway decisions afterwards. This streamlines the workflow and ensures returned goods reach their correct destination immediately – whether that’s back to general picking stock, a quality inspection area, or a dedicated returns location.

For warehouses using pallet management systems, the returns process now fully integrates with pallet-based storage, making it seamless to return products that were originally picked or stored on pallets.