The Business Functions diagram shows the flow of information from the enterprise, or "Host," system and the Warehouse Management System. Sales orders, purchase orders and changes to orders are created on the Host and transmitted to the WMS. The WMS accepts and processes changes to active orders. The WMS notifies the Host when a sales order is packed in case changes on the Host should be restricted once orders are packed. The WMS reports line item detail for received inventory to the Host once the warehouse has completed reconciliation action against the stored purchase order information. The WMS can be set up to capture shipping data from an attached carrier system such as UPS or Federal Express. As soon as shipments are completed, either via the carrier system or directly from the WMS, the WMS transmits to the Host line item detail for shipments. If the carrier system reports an end-of-day shipment closeout, this is reported to the Host so that end-of-day invoicing can be initiated. If desired the Host can conduct invoicing immediately upon shipment notification without waiting for end of day. The Host notifies the WMS when invoicing is complete. Both the Host and the WMS then relieve inventory.