A printable receiving inspection checklist that fits on one page
Eighteen checks in the order you actually do them, from the truck arriving to the record being filed, on a single printable sheet.
In short
- Order matters more than completeness. Everything in stage one has to happen while the driver is still standing there, and nothing in stage one takes more than a minute.
- Most checklists in this trade are too long to use. If it does not fit on one page it gets laminated, hung up, and ignored.
A checklist earns its place by being short enough that somebody genuinely runs it with a driver waiting. The one below is built around that constraint: three stages, eighteen checks, and the stage that has a stopwatch on it comes first.
Receiving inspection checklist
One delivery per sheet.
Date and time
Supplier
PO no.
Carrier / vehicle
Stage 1, before you sign anything
- Delivery address and company name are ours
- Purchase order number on the paperwork matches an order we placed
- Carton or pallet count matches the delivery note
- Outer condition: crushed corners, torn wrap, water marks, leaning pallet
- Seal or tape intact where the shipment had one
- Photographs taken of anything not perfect, before it comes off the vehicle
- Any damage or shortage written on the driver's paperwork, on both copies
- Temperature or handling requirements met, if the goods have any
Stage 2, while you count
- Counted against our purchase order, not against the packing slip
- Units of measure checked: cases against eaches, not case count against unit count
- Part numbers read, not recognised by shape
- Inner cartons opened where the outer showed damage
- Batch, lot or serial numbers recorded where they apply
- Expiry or use-by dates within our acceptance window
Stage 3, after the driver has gone
- Quantities and condition written into the receiving record
- Discrepancy reported to purchasing the same day
- Goods in dispute held and labelled, not put away
- Record filed against the purchase order and findable by date
Checked by
Signature
Why the stages are in that order
Stage one is the only part with a deadline attached to somebody else’s schedule. Once the vehicle has gone, every check in it becomes an argument instead of an observation. Stage two can be done at your own pace as long as it happens before the goods disperse into the building. Stage three has no time pressure at all, which is precisely why it is the stage most often skipped, and why an unfiled record is the most common reason a legitimate claim fails.
Worth knowing
The two checks people drop first are counting independently of the packing slip and looking at the outside before signing. Both cost about thirty seconds. Both are the only chance to catch the two most expensive kinds of problem cheaply.
The reasoning behind counting without looking at the expected figure is worth reading once: why hiding the number improves the count.
DockCount does this job on a phone at the bay: count a delivery against the order it was placed on, photograph anything wrong, and the record writes itself. warehouse receiving software.