Configure and work with call center order holds

This article describes the order hold features that Dynamics 365 Commerce has for call center orders.

Configuring call center order holds

To use the call center order hold features, you must first define hold codes. To create a set of user-defined hold codes, based on your business requirements, go to Sales and marketing > Setup > Sales orders > Order hold codes. You can optionally flag one of the hold codes as the default hold code by setting the Default for sales order option to Yes for it. This hold code will be used any time that a sales order is put on hold. If a sales order has reserved inventory, and the reservations must be automatically removed if the order is put on hold for a particular reason, set the Remove inventory reservations option to Yes for the reason codes.

To specify the type of note that will be captured when users who put a sales order on hold enter optional notes, go to Accounts receivable > Setup > Accounts receivable parameters, and then, on the Sales setup FastTab, on the General tab, set the Note type field. Use the On Hold sales order status field to define the color that will be used to highlight sales orders that are on hold when they are viewed on the Customer service page.

To create an optional set of hold reason codes, go to Retail and Commerce > Channel setup > Info codes. These info codes can be used as a secondary reason code to further define the main hold code. Select New to create a reason code set, and then select Subcodes to define the list of additional reasons. To link any info codes that you define to the call center channel, go to Retail and Commerce > Channels > Call centers > All call centers. On the General FastTab, set the Hold code field.

Putting orders on hold

Orders that call center users create in the back-office Commerce program can be manually put on hold manually or automatically in specific situations.

During order entry, but before order submission and confirmation, call center users might want to manually put an order on hold to prevent it from being released to the warehouse for further processing. For example, the customer who is placing the order might not be ready to commit to it, or critical data that is required in order to process the order might be missing.

On the order entry page, the call center user can put an order on hold by using the Order holds option on the Sales order tab of the order entry menu. Alternatively, the user can select the Hold menu item on the Sales order summary page that appears when the user selects Complete on a call center sales order.

In both cases, the Order holds page appears. The user can then select New to create a hold for the order. In the Hold code field, the user should select the code that best describes the reason for the hold. In the Reason code field, the user can optionally select an additional code to provide a second level of description of the hold.

On the Notes FastTab, in the Hold Notes field, the user can enter additional, free-form notes to provide additional context or information about the hold. These notes can help other users who review or work with the hold order later.

After the hold information is entered and saved, the user can close the Order holds page. The user is then returned to the sales order entry page. If no further actions are required on the sales order, the user can close the sales order entry page.

If the Enable order completion flag is turned on in the call center channel, payment doesn't have to applied to an order that is put on hold. By contrast, for a sales order that isn't put on hold, users can't leave the sales order entry page until payment is applied. Of course, payment will be required before the order hold is released.

Additionally, call center users can put a manual fraud hold on orders that are suspicious for some reason. Orders can also be put on hold automatically when they match active fraud criteria and rules. For more information on about this type of order hold, see Set up fraud alerts.

Viewing and managing orders that are on hold

Viewing hold information for a single sales order

On the Customer service page, users can visually identify orders that are on hold, because the order lines are highlighted in a specific color. This color is defined by the On Hold sales order status field on the Accounts receivable parameters page.

Note

If the line is selected on the page, the highlight color isn't visible.

Users can also view detailed status information for a sales order to learn whether the order is on hold. The detailed status information can be accessed from the All sales orders or Customer service page. If an order is on hold, the Do not process flag is set for it, and the Detailed status field shows a status of either On Hold or Fraud Hold, depending on the scenario.

To view the details of an individual order hold, users can open a detailed view of the Order hold page from the Customer service page, by using the Options menu for the selected order. Users can also access this view from the All sales order page, by selecting the Order holds menu item on the Sales order tab.

Viewing all orders that are on hold

To view all orders that have been put on manual or automatic hold, go to Retail and Commerce > Customers > Order holds.

The Order holds workbench provides a list view of all orders that are on hold because of manual or fraud-related hold actions. By taking advantage of the standard filtering and sorting options on the page, users can create views that let them work with or manage specific hold codes that they are responsible for reviewing. The Order holds workbench also indicates the number of days that an order has been on hold. This information can help users prioritize the queue.

To get a more detailed view of the orders that are on hold, users can click the Order hold option on the menu. This view providing information about the customer, any notes that have been applied to the order, customer, or hold action. The view also provides details about the reason for an automatic hold, if the order was put on hold because it matched a fraud rule.

From both the list view and the detailed view of the Order holds page, users can view or edit additional order-related information, such as payments, totals, and notes.

The options on the Hold checkout tab might be useful if multiple users in your company work on the hold queue at the same time. By selecting the Check out option, users can indicate that they are working to review and investigate the order hold. In this way, other users don't waste time by trying to do the same work. From the detailed view of the Order holds page, users can view information about the checkout date and time, and the user who checked out the hold record.

After a hold record is checked out, only the user who checked it out can clear the checkout. This restriction is intended to prevent users from taking records that other users are already working on. To release an order back to the queue so that other users can work on it, the user who checked out the record selects the Clear checkout option.

Note

The hold isn't released when the checkout is cleared.

In some situations, such as when a user is out sick or has left the company, records that are checked out to that user might have to be reassigned to another user. A manager can reassign records by using the Override checkout option.

Releasing orders that are on hold

In both the list view and the detailed view of the Order holds page, the Clear hold tab contains the options that are used to release an order hold. Use the Clear holds option to release an order from the selected hold code.

Call center orders require payment. Therefore, a hold can't be fully cleared if payment hasn't been applied to the order. On the Call center parameters page, on the Holds tab, make sure that the Submit when cleared parameter is turned on. This setting helps guarantee that a cleared hold order goes through the correct order submission logic to validate and authorize payments. If payments are missing, the user receives an error, and the hold code isn't cleared.

If the Submit when cleared parameter hasn't been set, users should select the Clear and submit option on the Clear hold menu to help guarantee that the order goes through all the required payment validations. If order submission fails when the Enable order completion flag is turned on in the call center channel, the order is released from its hold status, but the Do not process flag remains set. Therefore, the order isn't released to the warehouse until correct payments have been applied and validated.

If users want to clear a hold but make additional changes to the order before it's released for further processing, they can select the Clear and modify option. This option removes the hold code and opens the sales order details so that users can make additional changes to the order. Users can also apply payment and submit the sales order through payment validation logic when the Enable order completion flag is turned on in the call center channel.

Reporting options

Go to Retail and Commerce > Inquiries and reports > Call center reports > Order holds report to run a report about order holds by date range, hold code, or other related criteria.