Goods receiving: how to reconcile shortages, damage and supplier paperwork

Image: AI-generated illustration of goods-receiving checks and damage documentation.

Ten cartons arrive against an order for ten cartons. It looks complete, until one contains eight mugs instead of twelve. The difference is only four items, but it now matters to stock availability, the supplier claim and the invoice. Receiving is where the business establishes what it actually has. A signed delivery note alone cannot answer that question.

Give the receiving team the purchase order, expected products, quantities and agreed pack sizes. Identify any split deliveries so staff do not confuse a planned partial receipt with a shortage. Keep the supplier’s delivery note as a separate record: it describes what the supplier says it sent, while the purchase order describes what your business agreed to buy.

Count in the unit the order actually uses. Ten pieces, ten packs and ten cartons are different quantities. An order for ten cartons of twelve mugs is an order for 120 mugs, assuming that is the agreed pack. Where both carton and item counts matter, record both. Otherwise a small ambiguity at the goods-in desk can become a much larger one in sales and accounts.

Check the visible state of the delivery before it is mixed with other stock. Record carton damage, wet packaging, broken seals or an unexpected label. Photograph the identifying references as well as the problem, so someone reviewing the case can connect the evidence with the delivery. Follow the agreed supplier and carrier reporting process and deadlines.

Keep potentially damaged stock separate until its condition is assessed. An intact-looking product may still need checks after severe packaging damage. Equally, a marked outer carton does not prove every item inside is unusable. Record what has actually been inspected and avoid turning an initial observation into an unsupported claim about the whole shipment.

The count has to describe the goods

Check product identifiers, variants and quantities using the order record. A similar-looking item may have a different specification or retail use. If a substitution arrives, identify it explicitly and obtain the appropriate approval before releasing it as the ordered product. Do not silently rewrite the stock description to make the paperwork appear consistent.

In that ten-carton example, nine full cartons plus one holding eight mugs means 116 mugs received. Record the shortage of four against the correct order line. Do not enter 120 because that is what the purchase order says, or “ten” because that is what the delivery note says. Purchasing needs the discrepancy; sales needs the real quantity.

Separate accepted stock from stock awaiting inspection, clarification or return. Use statuses the team understands and assign an owner to each exception. A notes field saying “check later” is easy to overlook once goods have been moved to a normal picking location. The physical location and system status should support the same decision.

Tell purchasing what evidence is available and what response is required. Useful cases identify the purchase order, delivery reference, affected product, expected quantity, received quantity and condition. Add photographs and the date recorded. Avoid sending an unexplained image and expecting another team to reconstruct the order.

Accounts needs the accepted quantities and the agreed treatment of discrepancies. The invoice, purchase order and receipt should describe a consistent transaction, with unresolved differences visible. A supplier credit, replacement or later delivery should refer back to the original case so the business does not resolve the same shortage twice.

Where part of an invoice is disputed, follow your agreed payment and approval arrangements rather than improvising a rule at the receiving desk. Record who approved the commercial resolution and when it was applied. The warehouse should establish the physical facts; purchasing and accounts then use those facts to complete the transaction.

Track repeated errors by supplier, product and receiving step. Wrong pack quantities may reflect unclear catalogue data, while repeated missed cartons may require a change to dispatch checks or delivery handling. Review your own counting and entry process as well as the supplier’s performance.

Once the lorry leaves, there should be a clear handover rather than three versions of the delivery. The warehouse records the physical facts, purchasing owns the unresolved exceptions and accounts works from the agreed result. If a shortage comes up again on the next order, those records make it a conversation about evidence instead of competing memories.