Acumatica has added available-to-promise (ATP) dates, a redesigned carrier comparison, and warehouse picking strategies to Acumatica Distribution Edition in its 2026 R2 cloud ERP release, which became generally available on October 1.
Acumatica says the additions help distributors promise accurate delivery dates, make shipping decisions with more information, and run warehouses efficiently.
Distribution is among the industry editions that received their own additions in the release, alongside construction and manufacturing. The distribution updates follow an order from the quoted delivery date through carrier selection to the warehouse pick.
ATP Dates Calculate the Earliest Full Ship Date
ATP dates are calculated on a sales order line or across an entire order. Instead of checking only stock on hand, the calculation looks ahead at incoming supply, including purchase orders, lead times, transfers, receipts, and production, and weighs it against open sales orders, allocations, and backorders. The result is the earliest date the full quantity can ship.
Customer service representatives can see which documents drive each date and test alternatives. High-volume teams can calculate dates in bulk across a batch of orders, such as overnight electronic data interchange or ecommerce orders, without opening each one.
Calculation rules define what counts as supply and demand and attach to item classes, and ATP is switched on for the order types that need it. The system looks 90 days ahead for supply by default, and teams choose whether safety stock is protected or included.
Rate Shopping Adds Ship and Request Dates to Carrier Comparison
The redesigned shop-for-rates screen lists the lowest-cost services first and lets users filter to the carriers they want to compare. The expected ship date and the customer’s requested date now appear in the comparison, with delivery dates that meet the request in green and late ones in red.
Through the EasyPost integration, address verification now runs before a label is purchased. Valid addresses proceed automatically, and when a correction is recommended, users see the original and suggested addresses side by side and choose one.
The same integration adds alternate low-cost carriers Veho, SmartCargo, and UniUni, which appear beside traditional carriers in rate comparison. Authorized users can also create, update, and retire EasyPost service mappings themselves instead of waiting on a metadata update, and the ShipStation API integration now offers Parcel Guard for shipping insurance.
Picking Strategies Set Warehouse Rules Once
New warehouse management system capabilities start with handling units, which describe how each unit of measure is stored and moved, such as a pallet, a case, or a single unit. Warehouse zones group locations to mirror the floor plan, up to six levels deep.
Picking strategies pair each handling unit with a zone. In Acumatica’s example, pallets come from a storage zone, cases from a case-picking zone, and single units from an each-picking zone. Strategies can be assigned to item classes or individual items and apply automatically each time a shipment is created.
Supervisors can also clear a picker from a pick list in progress with one click. On single-shipment and wave lists, the next picker scans totes already holding picked items and continues with the rest.
The manufacturing additions in 2026 R2 pair a finite or infinite scheduling setting for each work center with an AI Assistant that answers from the same kiosk and scheduling records.
What This Means for ERP Insiders
Delivery promises now draw on supply records. ATP calculates a ship date from purchase orders, transfers, receipts, and production, so the date a customer hears reflects how well those records are maintained. Sales commitments become tied to purchasing and receiving discipline.
Carrier selection becomes a delivery-date decision. Rate shopping places the requested date and expected ship date beside carrier options, with low-cost carriers listed next to traditional ones. Cost and delivery commitments are judged on the same screen, tying shipping spend to the customer’s requested date.
Warehouse rules become ERP configuration. Handling units, zones, and picking strategies record how a floor physically operates, and the system applies them to every shipment. Small and midsized distributors, the audience Acumatica names for Distribution Edition, set that structure once, with no rerouting on the floor.
