OESHIH.SHIDATE

Where is this date pulled from?

The shipment header date

I'm an accountant not a programmer so please assume I know almost nothing.
"The shipment header" - Is this the O/E Shipment entry screen, Shipment tab, upper portion? If so there are 3 dates here, which one is steering the ship? Additionally there is the date that the post button is clicked which can be different than all 3 of the above. In auditing inventory movements I cannot find a consistent controlling date for when the inventory is moved out in the I/C subledger. 

Assuming you're on a recent version, it's the Posting Date:

This is identical to the screen I have. However, I am looking at example right now with a posting date of 3/1 that was moved from inventory on 2/23. How can this be?

You're making a simple mistake somewhere.  Trust me, I've supported this product for 22 years, and it's passed many, many audits, it does costing correctly.  

I double checked.  The Posting date is for the GL batch and fiscal period.  The Shipment Date is for the IC History table, hence inventory movement.

What simple mistake could I be making? Also, fwiw, I'm not interested in costing at the moment, simply inventory quantities and movements. I'm not questioning your credentials whatsoever but I am quite sure what I have told you is true as it's right in front of my face at this very moment. Posting date is 3/1 from the identical screen that you copied above but I/C Transaction History Inquiry-detail shows the inventory being shipped out on 2/23.

Ok, but the shipment date on this screen also is 3/1. We have the same problem.

IC History uses the SHIP DATE as Jay said.  POST date affects the costing journals

ACTUALLY..... it's posting to the IC HISTORY on the background date that is the actual date the shipment was created.  I just checked our own data and the IC table is showing 03/31 but all the dates on the shipment screen say 04/01.  so if you post something today but change the date to whatever you want, the IC Transaction table is still going to say today's date.

Thank you Mike that is very helpful. This controlling background date is the date the shipment was initially created or when the "post" button was clicked?

it will be your session date when you click POST.  in our case it was a branch transfer and the shippers clicked "SHIP" on 03/31 night after picking but they knew it wasn't shipping until the next day so they changed the ship date to 04/01.

I believe these 2 dates can be different as you can create a shipment and save it without posting it (I think) and I need to verify which is the controlling date.

Perfect. Thank you very much Mike.

no, you can only "save" ic transactions such as adjustments or assemblies.  anything in OE and PO is POST only

You are right again Mike. Thank you for your help.