How to Allocate Incoming Purchase Stock to Specific Sales Orders in Zoho Inventory?

How to Allocate Incoming Purchase Stock to Specific Sales Orders in Zoho Inventory?

Hi all,

We are using Zoho One Enterprise and need guidance on managing sales order–wise allocation of incoming stock in Zoho Inventory.

Our workflow is:

  1. A customer order is received, and the Sales Order is confirmed.
  2. The sales team immediately creates a Picklist.
  3. If sufficient stock is unavailable, the purchasing team creates a Purchase Order.
  4. While purchasing is in progress, the customer may increase or reduce the quantity, add or remove items, or change the delivery priority.
  5. The Sales Order and Purchase Order are adjusted accordingly.
  6. If the PO quantity cannot be reduced, the excess incoming quantity is treated as general stock.
  7. The purchase team creates the Purchase Receive/GRN.
  8. Stores physically verifies the material, completes QC and packs it according to the quantity allocated to each customer/Sales Order.

Our main requirement is to allocate incoming PO quantities to specific Sales Orders before the material is received.

So that the sales team should be able to see which customer’s material has been ordered, the expected receipt date, the allocated quantity, and the remaining pending quantity.

For example:

  • PO incoming quantity: 20 pcs
  • Allocated to SO-001: 12 pcs
  • Allocated to SO-002: 5 pcs
  • General stock: 3 pcs


We also need to move an allocation from one Sales Order to another if shipment priority changes, provided the material has not already been picked, packed or shipped.

We tried using Backorders, but the Sales Order becomes restricted, which is unsuitable because customers frequently change quantities or items while purchasing is in progress.

Could anyone please guide us on the following?

  1. Can incoming PO quantities be allocated to specific Sales Orders before receipt?
  2. Can allocations be moved between Sales Orders based on priority?
  3. Can this be managed using normal Purchase Orders instead of Backorders?
  4. Can the Purchase Receive/GRN show the SO-wise allocation for Stores?
  5. Can a Picklist be updated automatically when its Sales Order is changed?
  6. Is there any report connecting Sales Orders, Purchase Orders, Purchase Receives and Picklists?
  7. If this is not available natively, can it be achieved through a custom function, widget, API or Zoho Creator?
  8. Is Stock Allocation available for Zoho One Enterprise organisations, or only for the standalone Zoho Inventory Enterprise plan?

We want to manage this process inside Zoho with minimum manual work and without maintaining a separate allocation sheet.