Purchasing and receiving

An approved purchase order is a supplier commitment, while a goods receipt is evidence of an arrival. Keep those decisions separate. The warehouse and entity on the receipt determine where accepted goods belong. Purchasing Manager works from the supplier commitment, promised date and order lines. Warehouse Manager records the physical arrival at the named warehouse. The receipt separates received, accepted and rejected quantities, so the team can see both what the supplier still owes and what stock may become usable. An approved purchase order alone does not change an inventory position.

• Approve the commitment. Review supplier, entity, product, quantity and unit cost on the purchase order.
• Record the arrival. Use the goods receipt and its lines for the packing slip and actual received amounts.
• Separate accepted stock. Keep rejected amounts on the receipt and post only accepted quantities as stock movements.

Agree who may approve supplier orders and who records arrivals at each warehouse. Choose how the receiving team identifies the purchase order from the packing slip. Rehearse an arrival with fewer units than ordered and another with rejected units. Compare the receipt line to the purchase order line before updating received progress, then check the stock position after any posted movement.

Give the receiving team a supplier order with a promised date and a matching packing slip. They should be able to tell which lines arrived, which were accepted and which remain outstanding. Purchasing Manager should review the rejected line before the warehouse posts any stock receipt.

A supplier sends fewer units than promised. The receiving team records the arrival and each line’s received and accepted quantity; the Purchasing Manager sees the remaining commitment on the purchase order. Rejected units remain visible on the receipt rather than being silently added to usable stock.

The Warehouse Manager should see the receipt’s warehouse and accepted quantities. Purchasing Manager should still see the outstanding supplier quantity on the order. If the received and accepted amounts differ, keep the exception on the receipt for review rather than treating the whole arrival as usable.

• Open purchase orders — The main queue for supplier delivery, with its status and source context.
• Receiving exceptions — Related follow-up work that needs a second check.

• Follow this handoff: Check the linked stages and exception path.
• Review the data model before importing open records.