Receiving software for small business
Start by working out whether you need to buy anything.
Plenty of companies taking five to fifty deliveries a week do not need receiving software, and the ones that do usually need much less than they are being sold. Here is where the line is, what it costs on either side of it, and what to check before you spend anything.
Worth knowing who is telling you this. We make DockCount, so one of the vendors wrote this page. The first section below is the one on when you should not buy it.
When you should not buy this
Nothing has gone wrong in two years
Four deliveries a week from two suppliers you have used for a decade, no invoice ever wrong. Print the log template and carry on.
You already pay for a receiving module
Many inventory and ERP systems include one that nobody switched on. Open it first. If it works on a phone, you are finished.
One person knows how it all works
That is a training and cover problem. Software will document it rather than fix it, and you will still have the problem plus a subscription.
The moment a spreadsheet stops working
It is not a volume, which is what everybody expects it to be. Plenty of companies run two hundred deliveries a month out of one shared sheet perfectly well.
The moment is when ordering and receiving stop being done by the same person. Until then somebody holds the whole picture in their head and the sheet is a memory aid. After it, nobody does, and the whole picture is exactly what the sheet was quietly relying on.
The second signal is somebody asking about a delivery from four months ago and the answer taking an afternoon, or depending on one particular person being in that day. At that point the cost is already being paid. It is simply not on an invoice.
A spreadsheet records what somebody typed, and nothing about when they typed it. A row added three weeks late looks identical to one written at the pallet.
What it costs
| Plan | Month | Users | Deliveries |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 1 | 25 a month |
| Starter | $29 | 3 | Unlimited |
| Business | $79 | 25 | Unlimited |
| Pro | $149 | 100 | Unlimited |
No setup fee, no minimum term, no sales call, and the free tier takes no card. The detail of what each plan includes is on the pricing page.
What to check before you buy anything, from anyone
- 01Does it work one-handed on a phone, standing up? Receiving does not happen at a desk, and anything needing a keyboard gets done later from memory.
- 02Does it hold your purchase orders? Recording what arrived without comparing it to what was ordered is a log, not a check.
- 03Can you get your data out yourself, in a format something else can read? Ask before you buy, not after.
- 04Is it cheap enough to abandon? Under about fifty dollars a month a wrong decision costs you a month. With an implementation fee it costs you a year of pretending it was right.
The longer version, including the two competitors worth looking at and the cases where buying nothing is correct, is in choosing receiving software when you are too small for a WMS.
Questions
- Is there free receiving software?
- Yes, including this one. DockCount is free for 25 deliveries a month with one user and one receiving location, with no card and no expiry. Free tiers in this category usually cap deliveries or users rather than removing features, so the question to ask is what happens at the cap: whether it stops working or simply stops adding.
- What does receiving software cost for a small business?
- Typically nothing to around $150 a month at this size. Anything quoting an implementation fee or requiring a sales call before it will show you the product is selling a warehouse management system, and the implementation is usually the real cost.
- When should a small business stop using a spreadsheet?
- Not at a volume. The moment is when ordering and receiving stop being done by the same person, because from then on nobody holds the whole picture in their head, and the whole picture is what the spreadsheet was quietly relying on. The second signal is somebody needing to answer a question about a delivery from four months ago.
- Do I need this if I already have QuickBooks or an inventory system?
- Check what you already pay for first. Many inventory and ERP systems include a receiving module that companies never switch on, and if it works on a phone at the bay you are done. The usual reason it fails is not features but posture: it was designed for a desk, and receiving does not happen at one.
- How long does it take to set up?
- One purchase order. There is no import, no configuration project and no onboarding call. Put in an order you are actually expecting, then receive against it when the truck turns up. If it does not fit how you work you will know that afternoon rather than after a quarter.
25 deliveries a month, free, no card. That is a real workload for a small shop rather than a demo, which is deliberate: you should be able to decide with your own deliveries.