How BUZ works out dates

For production and dispatch managers · ~6 min read

When you process an order, BUZ gives the order a dispatch date and gives each product’s job a production date. It starts at the dispatch end and works backwards. This page walks through each step, the settings that change the result, and the ones that don’t.

Download the dates calculator (Excel) — three tabs: How it works (this page, printable), Where to set it (every setting, and whether it changes dates) and Try it (type in your own capacities, lead days and bookings, and see the dates BUZ would give). It comes filled in with the example further down this page.

The short version

BUZ finds the first day your installer has room, steps back to that installer’s pick-up day, then looks for a production day before the pick-up with enough free minutes on the product’s Job Tracking Line. If the factory is too full to make it in time, the pick-up and dispatch move later instead.

Step by step

1. Dispatch type — the dispatch type with the lowest Seq No among the products on the order.
2. Installer — for an Installation type, the installer whose Area covers the order’s address (suburb or postcode) and whose skills cover every product. For a Delivery or Pickup type, Areas are not used: BUZ takes the branch’s default installer, otherwise the first suitable installer by Seq No.
3. Install minutes — each order line’s Install Standard Time, plus the installer’s Time Between Jobs once for the order.
4. Dispatch date — the first day from tomorrow on which the installer has that many minutes free. A completely empty day takes any size job, and days set to -1 are skipped. If a dispatch date was typed on the order, BUZ looks for the latest day on or before it with room, otherwise the first one after it. Users with the Administrator role keep the date they typed, even when the installer is full; everyone else gets the day BUZ found.
5. Pick-up day — the nearest day on or before the dispatch date that the installer is ticked to pick up.
6. Production date — for each product’s Job Tracking Line, BUZ counts back the lead days from the pick-up day and takes the latest day that has enough free minutes, still finishes before the pick-up, and leaves enough “before production” days from today. This is why a quick product can start later than a slow one on the same order.
7. Factory too full — if no day fits, BUZ searches forward and takes the first day with room. If production then finishes on or after the pick-up day, the pick-up and the dispatch date move to after production finishes.
8. Saved — the dispatch date from step 4 (or the date typed) is saved on the order when it is placed. Processing the order books each job on its production day (Job Tracking › Scheduling) and puts the dispatch job on the order’s dispatch date, without changing it. If no day with room is found within 6 months of today, BUZ refuses the order.
9. Check measure — only when a product on the order has a dispatch type with the Check Measure function. BUZ books a check-measure visit on the same installer: the first day on or after today plus Check-Measure Lead Days (calendar days here) that the installer is working and not already over-booked. Its length is Check-Measure Standard Time × quantity, plus Time Between Jobs.

Lead days — two separate gaps

Gap	Made up of	Example
Before production — from today to the production day	Tracking Lead Time (Job Tracking Line) + Check-Measure Lead Days (product group), only when the order has a check measure	Tracking Lead Time 3 and Days to Complete 1, order processed on a Monday: the earliest production day is Thursday.
Production to pick-up — from the production day to ready for pick-up	Days to Complete (Job Tracking Line) + Production Extra Days (the product’s group, plus the groups of its components on the same order line) + Dispatch Lead Days (dispatch type)	3 days: production starts Monday, finishes Wednesday, the earliest pick-up is Thursday.

Lead days are counted on the production line’s working days only: days set to -1, or closed by a holiday exception, are skipped. The production day itself counts as day 1.

Rules worth knowing

Rule	What it means
Capacity is minutes	Each Job Tracking Line has minutes per weekday. BUZ compares the minutes this order needs with the minutes of jobs already booked on that line that day.
Minutes this order needs	Production Standard Time + the item’s Extra Production Minutes, counted once per order line (not times the quantity) when choosing the day. The job then books Production Standard Time × quantity + Extra Production Minutes, which is what later orders see. An order needing 0 minutes fits any open day.
Empty days	A day with nothing booked takes an order of any size, even one bigger than the day’s capacity.
-1 and 0	-1 = closed: no production, and the day is not counted as a lead day. 0 = open with no minutes: it takes one order, only when nothing else is booked that day, and it still counts as a lead day.
Holidays	A date exception on a Job Tracking Line replaces that day’s capacity (-1 closes the day). An exception of 0 is ignored. Load them with Settings › Job Tracking › Workflow Import / Export.
Finished jobs	Jobs in a Completed or Made type of status stop counting on future days. Cancelled jobs never count. Every other status keeps holding its day.
Cut-off times	Set per product group and customer group. If production would finish today and it is already past the cut-off time, BUZ moves it a day.
Changing the dispatch date	Confirming or changing an order’s dispatch date later does not move its production dates.
Production date baseline	The production date saved when an order is processed is always worked out from tomorrow, not from a dispatch date typed on the order.
Several products	Products are scheduled one at a time against a shared pick-up day, the one with the most Tracking Lead Time + Days to Complete first. If one pushes the pick-up later, the rest work back from the new day; products already scheduled keep their production dates.

Settings that change dates

Setting	Where	What it does
Capacity Monday – Sunday	Job Tracking Lines	Minutes of room on the line each day (-1 closed). The highest value the field takes is 32,767.
Days to Complete	Job Tracking Lines	Part of the production-to-pick-up gap.
Tracking Lead Time	Job Tracking Lines	The gap before production can start — for example, time to get fabric or parts in.
Date exceptions (holidays)	Settings › Job Tracking › Workflow Import / Export	Replaces the weekday capacity on that date.
Job Tracking Line, Production Standard Time, Production Extra Days, Install Standard Time, Check-Measure Lead Days	Settings › Inventory › Inventory Groups	Which line the product is made on, its minutes, and its extra lead days. Install Standard Time of -1 means no dispatch job for that product.
Extra Production Minutes	Settings › Inventory › Inventory Items	Added to the minutes the order needs, once per order line.
Function, Seq No, Dispatch Lead Days	Dispatch types	Which dispatch type an order gets, how its installer is chosen, and extra lead days.
Minutes Monday – Sunday, Picks up, Time Between Jobs, Skills	Installers	Installer room each day, the days production works back from, and who can be chosen.
Installer leave and exceptions	Settings › Dispatch › Leave & Availability	Hours above 0 replace the installer’s weekday minutes on that date.
Areas	Settings › Dispatch › Areas	Picks the installer from the order’s address — Installation dispatch types only.
Default installer	Branch settings	Used for Delivery and Pickup types, and when no Area matches.

Not used for dates: Job Tracking Processes (their lead time and capacity).

Don’t change the order’s own dates: “multiply install time by square metres”, items’ Extra Install Minutes and Check-Measure Standard Time. They only lengthen jobs on the installer’s calendar — which later orders do see as less room.

Worked example

This is the example the spreadsheet comes filled in with. A roller-blind line makes 100 blinds a day: 500 minutes Monday to Friday at 5 minutes a blind. Fabric takes 3 days to arrive (Tracking Lead Time 3), a blind is made in a day (Days to Complete 1), and the order has a check measure (Check-Measure Lead Days 2). The installer works 480 minutes a day and picks up every weekday.

An order of 4 blinds, each on its own order line (so it needs 4 × 5 = 20 minutes), is processed on Monday 2 November:

1. Check measure — Wednesday 4 November, two days on.
2. First dispatch try — the installer is full for the rest of the week, so Monday 9 November, which is also the pick-up day.
3. Before production — 3 + 2 = 5 working days, so production can’t start before Monday 9 November, and it has to finish before the pick-up. That can’t be done, so BUZ searches forward.
4. Production — the line is nearly full for two weeks, so the first day with room is Monday 16 November. It finishes the same day.
5. Dispatch — the pick-up and dispatch move to Tuesday 17 November.

Change the bookings on the spreadsheet’s Try it tab and watch the dates move.

Common questions

Question	Answer
A small order started later than a big one	BUZ takes the latest day that still makes the pick-up, so a product with fewer lead days starts closer to it.
I changed the dispatch date and the production date didn’t move	That’s by design — production dates are set when the order is processed. Move the job on Job Tracking › Scheduling.
My delivery days are set up as Areas but BUZ ignores them	Areas are only used for dispatch types with the Installation function. Delivery and Pickup types use the branch’s default installer, otherwise the first suitable one by Seq No.
Cannot calculate a dispatch date, or The Installation Date is out of range	BUZ found no day with room within 6 months — on the installer, or on a Job Tracking Line. Check their minutes, days set to -1 and holidays, and that your Job Tracking Lines and dispatch types are active.
A day set to 0 is taking orders	0 means open, one order on an otherwise empty day. Use -1 for a day you don’t work.
Orders are booked on our shutdown days	Add the dates as Job Tracking Line exceptions of -1 through Workflow Import / Export.

To see how full each line or run is before you promise a date, use Capacity.