When combining multiple sales orders on a single warehouse shipment, the resulting posted sales shipments should always reference the external document number from the corresponding sales order.

I just went through a lengthy MSFT support case and was told the current state of the system was design intent and I am here to say that is either incorrect or the design intent is flawed. The case log is a travesty, and I am not sure the support agent ever fully grasped the issue.

To test this yourself, try these two scenarios:

Scenario A:

1. Create and release two or more sales orders with unique external document numbers.
2. From one of these sales orders, use the 'create warehouse shipment' feature to generate a warehouse shipment.
3. From the resulting warehouse shipment, use the 'get source documents' feature to add the other sales order(s).
4. Create a warehouse pick from the warehouse shipment.
5. Register the pick.
6. Post the warehouse shipment.
7. View or print the resulting posted sales shipments.
8. Note that all posted sales shipments refer to the same external document number from the sales order used to create the warehouse shipment.

Many companies use the Posted Sales Shipment as a 'packing list'. I can imagine no business scenario where the wrong purchase order number (external document number) on a packing list is beneficial. In my specific case, we had a shipment rejected and returned to us at significant cost because the packing list referred to the wrong PO#.

Scenario B (effective workaround):

1. As above, but instead of creating the warehouse shipment from the sales order page, navigate to the warehouse shipments list page and create a new empty warehouse shipment.
2. Use the 'get source documents' feature to add multiple sales orders to the shipment.
3. Proceed as above through posting the shipment and viewing/printing the posted sales shipments.
4. Note that the resulting posted sales shipments each refer to the correct and unique external document numbers from the corresponding sales orders.

Scenario B demonstrates that the system is capable of behaving as it should.

Scenario A is flawed and should never happen.

Every posted sales shipment should refer to the external document number from the originating sales order - without exception.