What Is ATP Type "P?" Which Shows Purchase Not Firm

What Is ATP Type "P?" Which Shows Purchase Not Firm

Release Date: 10/23/2025
Version: 8.x & Up

Q - I cannot remember -- what does the ATP Type (P?=Not Firm) stands for on the ATP (for Purchase order)?  Could you please remind me?  Is it Requisition?


A - In the Purchase Order Line Item screen, we have the following:
  1. 19. Request Date – this is the date you request your vendor.
  2. 20. Promise Date – this is the date your vendor promises delivery.
  3. 9. Date Firm?  - If yes, then it means the vendor is firm on the delivery by the promise date. Otherwise, it is just an estimated delivery day.

Why Is Date Firm Important?

When someone looks at the ATP, they need to know whether the promise date has been confirmed by the vendor again so that we can rely on that date. If it has not been confirmed, you should enter “N” in field 9. Date Firm?, which will corresponds to ATP Type “P?”

When you see “P?” on the ATP, it indicates that the scheduled receiving date is not to be depended on because it has not been confirmed by the vendor.  Therefore, you may not want to promise your customer based on that date.

Most of Netcellent’s customers do not have a formal process for confirming scheduled delivery dates with their vendors.

See sample screen below:


Here are the possible ATP type per legend in the ATP inquiry screen:

Use Pending Receiving for Accurate Receiving Dates in ATP

To implement the P? status in ATP, buyers or other responsible personnel must contact the vendor to confirm whether the “Promise Date” is firm as the delivery schedule approaches. Alternatively, an even better approach is to replace the P? status with RR or RW to project the scheduled receiving date more accurately.

Note: There is another ATP type, “R,” which stands for “Pending Receiving Transactions.”
Any pending receiving transaction that has not yet been posted will have an ATP type of “RR” or “RW.”  
  1. RR = Pending Receiving Transaction in Legacy Receiving
  2. RW = Pending Receiving Transaction in Warehouse Receiving

For example, some of our customers import goods from overseas. Their overseas vendors often provide a CSV spreadsheet—formatted according to Elliott’s specifications—listing the items in the container just loaded onto the ship. You can import that CSV file into Elliott Warehouse Receiving and flag those transactions as pending, then place them on hold to prevent posting.

After the container arrives at your warehouse, you can verify that the received items and quantities match and then release the hold status to allow receiving posting.

By following this procedure:

  1. You don’t need to manually enter receiving transactions, since Elliott provides a Warehouse Receiving CSV import utility.

  2. The RW ATP records will project a much more accurate scheduled receipt date than the P* ATP records.

This allows your customer service representatives or planners to have a much clearer and more reliable view of incoming shipment schedules.  If you'd like to explore further how to use the above procedure for import management, please speak to our support rep for more details.



EMK