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When half the order arrives: purchase orders and part deliveries

A short delivery is normal. What causes trouble is having no record of what is still owed to you, so the shortfall lives in somebody's memory.

6 min read

A purchase order received in two partsPO 118 · Sharma DistributorsOrdered120cartonsArrived 12 Aug80stock updatedStill open40nobody has to remember80 received40 to comeThe order stays open until the rest arrives

In short

  • Receive what actually arrived, not what the order said. The difference stays open by itself.
  • A short delivery you did not record becomes stock you paid for and never got.
  • Check the delivery against the order before the driver leaves, not that evening.
  • Separate the person who raises an order from the person who approves it, once your shop is big enough for that to be possible.

You ordered 120 cartons. Eighty arrived. The driver said the rest would come next week, and everybody nodded, and now that fact exists in exactly one place: the memory of whoever happened to be at the door.

This is one of the most reliable ways for a shop to lose money, and it does not require anybody to be dishonest. It only requires that the person who took the delivery is busy on the day the invoice is paid.

The forty is the whole point. Recorded, it stays open on its own; unrecorded, it depends on somebody remembering a conversation at a doorway.A purchase order showing 120 ordered, 80 arrived and 40 still open, with a progress bar underneath.PO 118 · Sharma DistributorsOrdered120cartonsArrived 12 Aug80stock updatedStill open40nobody has to remember80 received40 to comeThe order stays open until the rest arrives
The forty is the whole point. Recorded, it stays open on its own; unrecorded, it depends on somebody remembering a conversation at a doorway.

Receive what came, not what you ordered

The temptation, when eighty of a hundred and twenty arrive, is to mark the order received and adjust later. It saves thirty seconds and it breaks two things at once: your stock now says you have forty cartons you do not have, and the outstanding quantity has disappeared from the system entirely.

Receiving the actual quantity keeps both correct without any further effort. Stock reflects the shelf. The order stays open for the balance. Nobody has to remember anything.

The three states, and why they are separate

StateWhat it meansWhat has happened to money
DraftYou are still deciding. Quantities and prices can change freely.Nothing. No commitment yet.
ApprovedSomebody with the authority has agreed to buy this.You are committed to the supplier, but nothing has arrived.
Received (fully or partly)Goods are physically here. Stock goes up by what actually came.You owe for what arrived. The rest stays open.

In a one-person shop, draft and approved happen in the same instant and the distinction is meaningless — do not add ceremony for its own sake. In a shop where somebody else raises orders, that middle row is the only thing standing between you and an enthusiastic manager's idea of a good stock level.

The two minutes at the door

  1. 1

    Open the order before you start unloading

    You are checking against what you asked for. Checking against the delivery note only tells you the delivery matches itself.

  2. 2

    Count the lines that matter

    Not every carton of every item. The expensive lines and the ones this supplier has been short on before. That is where the money is.

  3. 3

    Enter what actually arrived, at the door

    While the driver is still there. A discrepancy raised now is a conversation; the same discrepancy raised tomorrow is a claim.

  4. 4

    Note the reason for the shortfall

    Out of stock at their end, damaged, or simply missing. Three months of these notes tell you something useful about a supplier that no single delivery can.

The order says what you asked for. The receipt says what turned up. A shop that only records the second one can never see the difference.

Common questions

What happens if only part of my order arrives?

Receive the quantity that actually came. The outstanding quantity stays open against the purchase order until the rest arrives, so the shortfall is recorded rather than remembered. Your stock goes up by what you actually got, not by what you ordered.

Should I record a purchase order before the goods arrive?

Yes, and that is the point of raising one. The order is a record of what you asked for and at what price; the receipt is a record of what turned up. Having both is what lets you see the gap. Recording only the delivery gives you no way to notice a shortfall at all.

Does receiving stock update my inventory automatically?

Yes. Receiving against a purchase order increases the stock for those items by the quantity received, and the movement is recorded so the change has a reason and a trail rather than appearing to have happened on its own.

What is the point of an approval step on a purchase order?

It separates asking for something from committing the money. In a shop where a manager raises orders and the owner authorises them, that separation is the whole control. In a one-person shop it is unnecessary ceremony and you can skip it.

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