Skip to main content

Receiving deliveries

Receiving records what physically arrived at a site. A goods receipt does not need a purchase order behind it — it can cover an ad-hoc delivery, one or more purchase orders, inbound transfers, or a mix of these, all on the same document.

Posting is the valuation event​

Posting a goods receipt is the moment stock goes on hand. It also updates the variant's weighted average cost — the price on the purchase order or the supplier price list is only ever an estimate until a receipt actually posts.

One delivery, several documents​

A single delivery can cover more than one purchase order and inbound transfer at once — a supplier's lorry rarely arrives with only one order's worth of stock on it. You choose which documents the delivery covers when you start receiving it.

Good quantity and damaged quantity​

Each line on a receipt records a good quantity and a damaged quantity separately.

  • Good stock lands in the variant's usual location on a site using simple locations, or in the site's receiving location on a site using advanced locations — where it waits for putaway.
  • Damaged units go to quarantine, and are never put away.

See the stock quantities reference for what each on-hand bucket means. Damaged units at receipt sit in the Quarantine bucket, not the Damaged bucket — the Damaged bucket is reached a different way, through a stock adjustment.

Only the good quantity counts against the order​

Only the good quantity advances what has been received against a purchase order line. Damaged units do not reduce what is still outstanding — as far as the order is concerned, damaged stock hasn't arrived yet.

Damaged units are still valued​

Damaged units are not written off automatically at receipt. They are still part of what you owe the supplier, so their value is included in the amount accrued when the receipt posts.

Lot, expiry and traceability​

Where a variant is tracked, a lot number and expiry date are captured per line. An expiry date is required wherever the variant rotates by earliest expiry.

A posted receipt is final​

A posted goods receipt cannot be reversed, corrected or edited. There is no undo. If the cost turns out to be wrong, a later supplier invoice adjusts the value of the stock. If the quantity was wrong, correct it with a stock adjustment. The receipt itself stands as the record of what was posted.

Putaway​

On a site using advanced locations, posting a receipt also raises a putaway task for the good quantity that landed in the receiving location — except for any line received onto a licence plate, which is excluded from the task and moved later as a whole plate instead. See how putaway works for the full mechanism, and location types and behaviour for how the receiving location fits into the wider warehouse model.