Rule sets and versions

A rule set is your organisation's routing configuration: an ordered list of rules, a fallback site, and the single-source preference.

One is active at a time

Your organisation has exactly one active rule set. That is the one the engine uses.

Editing creates a new version

Changing a rule set does not modify it in place. It creates a new version, and that version becomes the active one. The previous version is kept.

It is kept for a specific reason, and it is not archival tidiness.

Orders remember which version routed them

The first time an order is routed, it records the rule set version in force. That record is never re-evaluated.

So an order routed under version 3 stays routed as version 3 decided, even after version 4 becomes active. Editing your rules never re-routes work already in flight — no order that is being picked suddenly moves site because someone adjusted a rule.

This is what makes routing safe to tune. Without it, every edit would be a live intervention in the warehouse, and nobody would touch the rules.

Orders with no recorded version

Not every order is routed by the engine. A till sale or a manual draft has its site chosen directly, so there is no rule set version against it. That absence is normal and means the engine was never involved, not that something went wrong.

What a version contains

The rules and their order, the fallback site, and whether single-source preference is on. Changing any of them makes a new version.

Tuning over time

Because in-flight orders are protected, the sensible way to work is to change one thing, watch what the next orders do, and adjust. The routing exceptions queue is the feedback: it records where your rules disagreed with a channel's choice, so a queue trending down means your rules are converging on what actually happens.

See set up a rule set.