Product documentation
The sales process is often disturbed by corrupt address data. Due to the missing or invalid address data, the order cannot be delivered. The invalid address data is not recognized at order entry, which causes issue further down the line in other processes, like creating a load or shipment. Some steps must be undone to fix the issue and order needs to be released again. So, there is need to validate the address before releasing the sale order.
The following assumptions, constraints and principles will be applied:
The first provider that also has been used to build this feature is PostNL. All tables, forms and overview of this feature is built in a generic way, with the idea to extant the number of providers based on the customer requirement. Currently the following providers are available out of the box:
Organization administration > Global address book > Addresses > Address validation provider
| Field | Description |
| Provider | The provider, short name (code), this is the primary key of this table |
IMPORTANT
Address validation provider will be a global table, like the rest of the standard Microsoft address tables and address setup. That means that the records are visible from all LE`s (Legal entities).
Organization administration > Global address book > Addresses > Address setup > Fast tab Country/region
| Field | Description |
|
Provider |
Address validation provider
|
This field Provider is added to the Address setup, to link the provider to the certain country/region. This is the way to determine which provider is used for which countries. Once linked and ‘Active’, the Adress validation logic will be applied to all addresses of the concerning countries/regions.
Since house number (street number) is a mandatory field (component) for the addresses in the Netherlands and Finance and Operation default address setup is without the component street number, a piece of logic has been added here. If the component Street number is used according the setup of that address format, Street number must be specified by the user. If not, and the street number is filled in combined with the street in the field Street, the street number will be extracted from that field with a regular expression. This is only the case for country NLD (Netherlands)
IMPORTANT
Address validation provider and Address setup will be applied to all legal entities (LE). This due to the fact that addresses are shared tables, that is why it is called “Global address book”.
The address validation status field is added to the Party form on the tab Addresses.
Organization administration > Global address book > Global address book
The packaging balance of a customer or vendor can be adjusted via packaging transaction form. This option is necessary, due to lost or broken packaging material. When performing those corrections, reason code is a mandatory field. Reason codes can be pre-defined in this table.
| Field | Description |
| Address validation status |
The validation status of the concerning address. Not validated yet, result based of the check at the provider (Validated/Failed) or the manually set status (Overruled, Not validated). Statuses:
|
Address validation status is only displayed on the tab Addresses, it cannot be edit or validate from the Part form. Address can be validate on the forms ‘Edit address’ and ‘New address’ via the button ‘Validate address’, this will trigger directly an API call to the concerning provider. In case of successful validation, the status will be updated to "Validated". In case of unsuccessful validation, the status will be updated to "Failed". Infolog will be shown with the response from the provider. On those two forms the field Address validation status can be overruled manually. Address validation status can be switched manually to ‘Overruled’ or ‘Not validated’.
Organization administration > Periodic > Address validation batch
Addresses can be validated in batch, based on following filters:
Organization administration > Inquiries and reports > Address validation overview
Address validation overview provides an overview of all the addresses including the Address validation status and the related Party. Address validation statuses are integrated as a filter, for easy filtering on one or more statuses.
‘Validate’ action is also available from this overview, addresses can be validated in bulk based on the selection.
Address validation overview contains the following fields
| Field | Description |
| Name | Concerning Party ID |
| Location | Name or description of the address |
| Validation status | Address validation status |
| Address fields |
|
The concerning provider(s) are setup in the Address validation provider table. The Address validation provider is linked to the countries (Address setup > Country/region) that must be validated by that provider.
Once address is added, the default Address validation status will be “Not validated”. The validation can be done via the Validate address button, Address validation overview or via the Address validation batch job. After the check, the status will be adjusted based on the results.
Address validation status can be adjusted manually to “Overruled” or “Not validated”.
Order complete logic is extended with the check on address validation status. Only orders with addresses with Address validation status “Validated” and “Overruled” can be marked as Complete. This applies for countries with address validation setup and active validation provider. Due to all other checks and calculations on order complete, it is not desired to validate the address here, that is why this is done via Address validation status. Address validation status has been built in as the first check of order complete, to avoid all other checks and calculation being done unnecessary, because if Address validation status is not correct, the order won’t be complete anyway.
The same address validation check has been built in the Release to warehouse function and in the Automatic release of sales orders as well. This to ensure the address validation check can be used, by customers that don't use Order complete functionality. It is also an additional check if the address is changed after the order has been set to complete.
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