Epicor Prophet 21 Route Optimization with SuiteFleet

1. Start with the Epicor Prophet 21 sales order

Open the sales order 104882 for Redwood Mechanical Supply and inspect its delivery destination, line quantities, and configured SuiteFleet relationship. The example contains MEC-100 | Bearing assembly | 4 EA and MEC-200 | Drive belt | 6 EA.

Review Order Entry for customer, ship-to, location, item availability, and credit release. Select the warehouse-approved shipment quantities before passing the allocation to SuiteFleet.

Prophet 21 distribution workflows connect order entry, warehouse handling, and shipping. Keep pick-ticket and shipment references with the order lines so partial releases retain their own delivery history. Epicor distribution integration example.

2. Configure the planning mapping

Preserve this relationship before exporting delivery work:

Map the source location and ship-to ID to physical addresses. Preserve delivery-service requirements and agreed receiving hours independently of warehouse release dates.

3. Select eligible stops and available drivers

Open Workbench for the intended date and filters. Inspect task, driver, and hub layers; resolve tasks without a location before optimization. Use geographic selection to choose the intended area, then confirm the selected task set contains only released work.

Choose Plan & Optimize when assigning eligible tasks across drivers, or Optimize Existing Routes when retaining assignments and improving stop sequence. Review enabled drivers, shift windows, departure hubs, and the displayed task-capacity limits. Do not assume those limits represent weight or volume.

Prophet 21 distribution workflows connect order entry, warehouse handling, and shipping. Keep pick-ticket and shipment references with the order lines so partial releases retain their own delivery history.

4. Review objectives, constraints, and results

Choose the supported objective: Fastest Completion, Shortest Distance, Fewest Vehicles, or Balanced Workload. Review Respect Time Windows, Reassign Assigned Tasks, and Time Per Stop before running the preview. Select the objective that matches the dispatch plan and confirm which routing constraints are enabled.

Inspect the returned driver assignments, stop sequence, projected completion, and every unassigned task. Check stop times against driver shifts as well as customer windows; confirm that the proposed schedule is feasible. Missing locations and conflicting requirements need explicit resolution.

Review the Dallas–Fort Worth planning example, with distances in miles and local receiving times. Dispatchers should check stop sequence, road access, and unresolved work before applying a plan.

5. Execute the route and process actual outcomes

Keep assignment and planned arrival separate from customer delivery. Monitor failed, rescheduled, and completed stops during execution. A route application must not post inventory, close an order, or trigger billing by itself.

Keep a separate task for each dispatched allocation. If a product remains on backorder, receiving the first shipment must not consume or cancel the remaining quantity.

After a stop completes, match its task ID to the source shipment, review required proof, and reconcile accepted quantities. Record actual event time and a separate sync outcome. If the source changes after planning, compare the change with the dispatched allocation before overwriting operational data.

6. Verify the result in Epicor Prophet 21

Reconcile the shipping record and store customer receipt through the approved extension or related record. Preserve the account’s shipping and invoicing rules when recording the last-mile outcome. Epicor distribution integration example.

Read back the linked record and review every outstanding allocation before reporting the full delivery requirement complete. Test partial shipment, partial acceptance, failed delivery, duplicate completion, and delayed writeback. Keep inventory posting, receipt evidence, and payment reconciliation under their respective configured rules.