Placing a Sales Order on Hold in Dynamics AX 2012: Part 1 – Setting Up Functionality

By Tammy Plowman | October 11, 2016

The ability to place an order on hold is a feature of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3. This feature is available through activation of Retail/Full feature set from license configuration.

Reasons to place an order on hold may vary widely. The most common reason might be to obtain approval for an order which exceeds a customer credit limit. Other uses may include special orders, pricing exceptions, or even rebate evaluation. Any scenario regarding an order that may require follow-up before confirming to the customer may be a reason to place the order on hold.

Setting up Sales Order Hold Functionality

Reasons for an order to be on hold may be identified through the assignment of the Order hold code. Alternately, a single code may be applied to all orders on hold.

To establish Order hold codes, follow these steps:

  1. Click Sales and marketing/Setup/Sales orders/Order hold codes. The form is displayed.
  2. In the Order hold codes form, click the New button. In the Hold code field, enter the desired name or numeric value for the code.
  3. In the Description field, add a description or explanation of the code.
  4. Optionally, a security role may be assigned exclusive use of an order hold code. This may be defined on the General fast tab, in the Role field, through drop down selection as appropriate.
  5. If this hold code should be automatically assigned to all new sales order holds, mark the Default for sales order check box. Only one code may be marked as the default. This saves the user a step in the process if only a single code is established or if the most frequently used code is marked as default. It is not required that any code be marked as a default.
  6. If desired, a color may be assigned to an Order hold code to provide a visual cue to the user. To create this relationship, select a color to be applied to the hold code from the Hold code color field.
  7. If inventory reservations on a sales order should be removed when the hold code is applied, mark the Remove inventory reservations check box.

The following example codes have been established.

Other Inquiry

Figure 1

Other set up may be needed in Accounts receivable/Setup in the Accounts receivable parameter form:

1.       On the General tab, a default color may be assigned to held orders. This color is applied to the background of held orders when the order has been opened to edit (see Figure 4). This is a visual cue to the user if they have overlooked the indicators from the list page (see Figure 3).

2.       Also, if notes are desired to be maintained to support held order communication, the type of note must be specified here.

On Hold Sales Order status

Figure 2

All Sales Orders

Figure 3

Birch Company

Figure 4

For more, check out part 2 of this blog series! Learn about placing orders on hold, tracking held orders, overriding and releasing held orders.


Under the terms of this license, you are authorized to share and redistribute the content across various mediums, subject to adherence to the specified conditions: you must provide proper attribution to Stoneridge as the original creator in a manner that does not imply their endorsement of your use, the material is to be utilized solely for non-commercial purposes, and alterations, modifications, or derivative works based on the original material are strictly prohibited.

Responsibility rests with the licensee to ensure that their use of the material does not violate any other rights.

Start the Conversation

It’s our mission to help clients win. We’d love to talk to you about the right business solutions to help you achieve your goals.

Subscribe To Our Blog

Sign up to get periodic updates on the latest posts.

Thank you for subscribing!