Receiving, explained
How goods receiving actually works.
The documents, the count, and what to do when a pallet turns up short. Written for the person at the bay rather than for a procurement textbook, and useful whether or not you ever use DockCount.
The documents
Which piece of paper says what, and which one settles an argument.
Purchase order, packing slip, invoice: which is which
Three documents describe one delivery, they are written by different people at different times, and only one of them is a request for money.
What a goods received note is, and what it must contain
The document that records what actually arrived. It is what lets finance pay an invoice, and it is usually the weakest piece of paper in the building.
Advance shipping notices, and how much to trust one
A message that tells you a delivery is coming and what should be on it. Useful for planning the day. Still a claim by the supplier.
Doing the check
What good receiving looks like when there is a driver waiting.
The receiving process, step by step
Seven steps from the truck arriving to the record being filed, and the two places where nearly every mistake gets made.
Blind receiving: why hiding the number improves the count
Show somebody the expected quantity and they tick it. Hide it and they count it. That is the entire technique.
A receiving inspection checklist you can actually use
Fourteen checks, in the order you would do them, from the vehicle pulling in to the record being filed.
Cases, eaches and the shortage that is not real
The order is in cases, the delivery note is in units, and the system now says you are a hundred and ninety short. Nobody is wrong and everybody is annoyed.
When it goes wrong
Short, over, damaged, or something nobody ordered.
The four ways a delivery goes wrong
Short, over, damaged and not on the order. Four different problems, four different people to tell, and one habit that fixes all of them.
Damaged or short on arrival: what to do before you sign
Almost everything that decides whether you get paid back happens in the two minutes before the driver leaves.
Short shipments: back order or short close
Less arrived than you ordered. The only question that matters on the day is whether the rest is still coming.
Over shipments: the problem that looks like a bonus
More arrived than you ordered. It is easier to wave through than a shortage, and that is exactly why it is worth stopping for.
Paying for it
How the record you make at the bay decides what gets paid.
Three-way matching, explained without the accounting
Three documents have to agree before an invoice gets paid. The one that stops fraud and mistakes is the one written at the loading bay.
What to keep in a receiving log, and for how long
A log is not a list of deliveries. It is the thing three different people will search, months apart, for three different reasons.
Something here you would explain differently?
These pages are written by people who build receiving software, which is not the same as running a bay every day. If something is wrong, or true everywhere except your industry, we would rather hear it than leave it up.