The Scenario: "Wait… why did I just get 3 POs?"
You’re in the middle of an implementation and you are doing
extensive testing of user stories. You surprisingly try one of the older
accounting date Approved Purchase requisitions to consolidate with the one you
recently approved.
You’ve consolidated multiple approved purchase requisitions
from the same vendor earlier — expecting a single, neat purchase order.
Instead, D365 SCM creates three.
Same vendor. Same legal entity. Same user. No budget check
enabled. No split rules in purchasing policy.
So… what happened?
If this sounds familiar — you’re not alone.
The Frustration: Everything's Right… Except It Isn’t
This exact situation was raised in a scenario where a fellow
consultant, despite checking all standard settings, kept seeing multiple POs
created during consolidation.
The culprit? The Accounting Date on the
purchase requisition lines.
Even if all other criteria match, different accounting
dates will force D365 to create separate POs — even if they consolidate in
every other logical way.
The Fix: Policy for Purchase order creation and demand
consolidation rule
Procurement and sourcing > Policies > Purchase
order creation and demand consolidation rules
The parameter? ✅ Ignore Accounting Date while
consolidating purchase requisitions
Once enabled, this setting allows consolidation across
different accounting dates — so long as all other policy and vendor
criteria match.
Setup Configuration for Consolidation by accounting date.
Why This Matters
It’s a classic D365 moment:
- You know
the system can do better
- You check
every setup
- You search
forums for hours
- The
answer’s buried… but under the purchasing policy setup
This is why keeping track of functions and features is
critical — even for seasoned consultants and end-users. Microsoft ships
powerful toggles every month that can flip frustration into automation.
Important Consideration: Budget Control Setting
There's one crucial scenario you must keep in mind:
If Budget Control is turned ON in your
Dynamics 365 setup, enabling the Ignore Accounting Date while consolidating
purchase requisitions checkbox will not work as expected. Even if
this checkbox is activated, the system will still generate multiple Purchase
Orders due to budget check constraints.
Why does this happen? With budget control enabled,
Dynamics 365 strictly validates available budgets based on accounting dates.
Therefore, the system inherently separates requisitions into individual
Purchase Orders to ensure accurate budget tracking and compliance—even if consolidation
settings indicate otherwise.
Recommendation:
- If
consolidation across accounting dates is essential for your process, you
must first evaluate and potentially adjust your budget control settings.
- Ensure
stakeholders understand this limitation clearly, as this impacts your
procurement and budget management strategy.
In short, always verify your budget control configuration
first, as it directly influences how consolidation settings behave in Dynamics
365 SCM.
Small Toggle, Big Win
This wasn’t a bug. It wasn’t even a misconfiguration. It was
a missing parameter toggle — one that quietly solved a very loud pain.
So next time D365 feels “wrong,” ask: Did Microsoft
already solve this, and I just haven’t enabled it yet?
All views in this post are personal and not affiliated
with Microsoft or any employer.
