The Enhanced Planning Worksheet can exclude inventory that will expire before it can reasonably be used when running Calculate Purchase Plan. Introduced in version 3.10.9687.1, this behavior applies only to the Enhanced Purchase Plan calculation and does not change how standard Business Central regenerative, net change, or production plans are calculated.

This prevents near-expiry inventory from reducing the quantity suggested by Calculate Purchase Plan. It is useful for food, pharmaceutical, chemical, and other lot-tracked items where inventory may still be on hand but will not remain usable long enough to meet future requirements.

How the expiration cutoff works

Enhanced Planning Worksheet calculates an inventory cutoff date using:

Work Date + Expired Inventory Lead Time

When Expired Inventory Handling is set to Exclude Expired, positive inventory with an expiration date before the cutoff date is not treated as available by Calculate Purchase Plan.

For example:

• Work Date: January 15, 2026
• Expired Inventory Lead Time: 7D
• Inventory cutoff date: January 22, 2026

A positive lot expiring January 20, 2026 is excluded from planning availability. A lot expiring February 15, 2026 remains available.

Inventory expiring on the cutoff date is not considered to expire before the cutoff and therefore remains available.

Note: This setting affects the Enhanced Planning Worksheet Calculate Purchase Plan calculation. It does not change the physical inventory quantity or prevent the inventory from being used in other Business Central transactions.

Prerequisites

To evaluate expiration dates, the item must use item tracking that records expiration dates.

On the Item Tracking Code, configure the appropriate lot or serial tracking options, including:

• Lot Specific Tracking, when using lots
• Use Expiration Dates
• “Man. Expir. Date Entry Reqd.”, when users must enter an expiration date during item tracking

The item must also have the planning setup required by Calculate Purchase Plan, such as:

• Replenishment System
• Reordering Policy
• Safety Stock Quantity or other applicable reorder values
• Vendor or transfer-from location, when required
• A Stockkeeping Unit for each applicable item, variant, and location combination

Configure expired inventory handling

1. Search for Enhanced Planning Worksheet Setup.
2. Expand Extended Purchase Planning.
3. In Expired Inventory Handling, select Exclude Expired.
4. In Expired Inventory Lead Time, enter the date formula used to calculate how long inventory must remain usable.

Examples include:

• 7D to exclude inventory expiring within seven days of the Work Date.
• 1M to exclude inventory expiring within one month of the Work Date.
• Blank to use the Work Date itself as the cutoff

The lead time should represent the period during which the inventory must remain usable. Depending on the business, this may include purchasing, production, warehouse handling, shipping, or customer shelf-life requirements.

Changes to these settings are used the next time Calculate Purchase Plan is run. No additional update or initialization process is required.

Run the purchase plan

1. Open the Enhanced Planning Worksheet.
2. Select the appropriate worksheet batch.
3. Select Calculate Purchase Plan.
4. Apply filters for the stockkeeping units to be planned, such as:
   • Item No.
   • Location Code
   • Vendor No.
5. Complete the remaining purchase-plan options.
6. Select OK.
7. Review the generated planning lines.

The calculation evaluates the inventory using the expiration settings that are active when the plan is run.

Example

An item has the following setup:

• Safety Stock Quantity: 20 PCS
• Work Date: January 15, 2026
• Expired Inventory Lead Time: 7D
• Cutoff date: January 22, 2026
• Expired Inventory Handling: Exclude Expired

The item has one lot:

Lot	Quantity	Expiration date	Planning treatment
LOT-OLD	15	January 20, 2026	Excluded

Because all 15 units expire before the cutoff date, Calculate Purchase Plan treats the usable inventory as zero.

The suggested replenishment quantity is therefore:

20 safety stock – 0 usable inventory = 20 PCS

Compare Include Expired and Exclude Expired

The Expired Inventory Handling setting provides two behaviors.

Exclude Expired

Positive inventory expiring before the cutoff date is excluded from planning availability.

Using the previous example:

• Safety stock: 20
• Inventory expiring before cutoff: 15
• Usable inventory: 0
• Suggested quantity: 20

Include Expired

The stockkeeping unit inventory quantity is used without filtering it by expiration date.

Using the same example:

• Safety stock: 20
• Inventory counted as available: 15
• Suggested quantity: 5

Changing this setting does not modify the inventory. It only changes how Calculate Purchase Plan determines available inventory.

Inventory with different expiration dates

Suppose the item later has these two lots:

Lot	Quantity	Expiration date	Planning treatment
LOT-OLD	15	January 20, 2026	Excluded
LOT-GOOD	10	February 15, 2026	Included

With a cutoff date of January 22, 2026:

• The 15 units in LOT-OLD are ignored.
• The 10 units in LOT-GOOD are counted.
• Usable inventory is 10.
• Safety stock is 20.

The resulting replenishment suggestion is:

20 safety stock – 10 usable inventory = 10 PCS

Additional calculation details

When Exclude Expired is enabled:

• Positive remaining quantities that expire before the cutoff date are excluded.
• Positive quantities without an expiration date are not excluded solely because the expiration date is blank.
• Negative remaining quantities continue to affect availability.
• Open item ledger entries posted after the calculated cutoff date are not included in the expiration-filtered inventory calculation.
• Item, variant, and location filters continue to apply.

Retaining negative quantities ensures that expiration filtering does not hide shortages or negative inventory adjustments.

Choosing the lead time

Do not automatically use the item’s purchasing lead time as the expiration lead time. The appropriate value depends on when the inventory must still be usable.

Consider:

• Time required before the inventory will be consumed
• Manufacturing and quality-control time
• Warehouse and shipping time
• Minimum remaining shelf life promised to customers
• Safety margins required by company policy

For example, inventory may arrive in time operationally but still be unsuitable if it will expire before production or customer delivery.

Troubleshooting

Expiring inventory is still reducing the suggestion

Verify that:

• Expired Inventory Handling is set to Exclude Expired.
• Expired Inventory Lead Time produces the expected cutoff date.
• The Business Central Work Date is correct.
• The inventory has a recorded expiration date.
• The lot or serial number was posted through item tracking.
• The calculation was run using Calculate Purchase Plan.
• The item, location, and variant filters match the inventory being reviewed.

The calculated cutoff date is unexpected

The cutoff is based on the Business Central Work Date, not necessarily the current calendar date.

Confirm the Work Date under My Settings, then apply the configured date formula to that date.

A lot expiring on the cutoff date is included

This is expected. The calculation excludes positive quantities with expiration dates before the cutoff date. Inventory expiring on the cutoff date is retained.

Changing the setup does not change an existing worksheet line

The setup is evaluated when Calculate Purchase Plan runs. Delete or otherwise manage the previous worksheet lines as appropriate, then run the calculation again using the new setting.

Important considerations

This feature changes planning availability only. It does not:

• Mark inventory as expired
• Block picking, consumption, shipment, or posting
• Change item ledger entries
• Modify lot expiration dates
• Replace warehouse or quality procedures for controlling expired inventory
• Change the standard Business Central regenerative or net change planning engine

Use Business Central item tracking, warehouse controls, and company procedures to prevent expired inventory from being physically used or shipped.

Related planning information
Expiration filtering changes the inventory quantity considered available by Calculate Purchase Plan. The resulting replenishment quantity is then calculated using the SKU’s reordering policy and planning parameters. See How Reordering Policies Affect the Enhanced Planning Worksheet and How does the Planning Worksheet Purchase Plan calculate the amount to purchase? for more information.