Receiving stock

Overview

Receiving is the process of recording what physically arrives from your suppliers and bringing it into WMS inventory. When you complete a receipt, WMS:

Records the quantities, batch numbers, serial numbers or expiry dates (where applicable).
Adds the stock to your chosen location.
Updates Incoming and On hand figures on the inventory dashboard.
Writes a stock movement record for full audit history.

Receiving is tied to a purchase order. This lets WMS compare what you ordered against what actually arrived, flagging shortages or over-deliveries.

Before you start

You need a purchase order with status CREATED or PARTIALLY_RECEIVED. See Suppliers and purchase orders if you have not yet created one.
Know which location(s) you will receive into — either a staging dock or a final storage location.

Starting a receiving session

On desktop:

Open the Receive goods screen via the dashboard or the Purchase Orders section.
Select a PO with status CREATED or PARTIALLY_RECEIVED.
Review the list of PO lines and expected quantities.

On mobile:

Open Actions > Receive PO in the WMS mobile app.
Select the PO you want to receive against.
Select a PO line by searching or scanning a barcode.

Entering received quantities

For each line on the PO, enter the actual received quantity. This can be less than or more than the ordered quantity — WMS records what you actually received.

For Batch-tracked products:

Enter the batch or lot number.
Optionally record an expiry date.

For Serial-tracked products:

Enter one serial number per unit received.
Receiving a quantity higher than the number of serials entered will raise a warning — WMS requires a serial for every unit.

For Standard-tracked products:

Enter the quantity received. No additional identifiers are required.

WMS validates that all required tracking information is provided before you can complete the receipt.

Recording inbound cartons

When receiving a PO, you can record the number of inbound cartons received per line. This data is captured on the receipt and included in the PO Receipt Report CSV export, useful for reconciling freight invoices or tracking carton accuracy.

Choosing a destination

For each line, choose where the received stock should go:

A final storage location (pick face, bulk storage) — WMS adds the stock directly there. No separate putaway job is created. This is called direct putaway.
A staging dock — WMS creates a putaway job so you can move the stock to its final location later.

The receiving screen shows a default receiving location, which is set in your location settings. If the wrong location is pre-selected, update the default in settings before receiving again.

See Putaway for how staged stock is moved to final locations.

Receiving on mobile

The WMS mobile app supports full PO receiving from the warehouse floor, including barcode scanning for PO lines and locations:

Open Actions > Receive PO.
Select the PO.
Select the PO line (by search or barcode scan).
Select the receiving location.
Enter received quantity and any required tracking details (batch, serial, expiry).
Enter cartons received.
Submit the receipt.

This gives the same result as desktop receiving, reducing paper and avoiding walk-backs to a workstation.

After receiving

Once a receipt is submitted:

Direct putaway: Stock is immediately available at the destination location and can be allocated to orders.
Staged receiving: Stock appears in the staging location. You will need to complete the putaway job before the stock is in a pick-face or bulk location available for picking.

You can verify the receipt using:

The Inventory dashboard — to see updated on-hand quantities.
Location view — to confirm which products are at each location.
Stock movement logs — to see the RECEIVE movement recorded against the PO.

FAQ

Using POs is strongly recommended. POs make it easier to reconcile ordered vs received quantities and keep Incoming figures accurate. If you receive ad-hoc stock without a PO, use a manual stock adjustment to bring it into inventory — but note this creates less traceability than a proper receipt.

WMS records the extra quantity. You can decide whether to amend the PO to reflect the over-delivery or treat it as an unplanned receipt. The PO status will move to RECEIVED once you mark it as complete.

The PO status stays PARTIALLY_RECEIVED until the remaining quantity arrives. If you decide not to receive the outstanding quantity, you can mark the outstanding lines as missing or force-complete the PO. See Suppliers and purchase orders.

Yes — receive into a Staging Dock location. WMS will create a putaway job so you can move stock to final locations later. This is useful for large or mixed deliveries where you want to log everything quickly and sort it afterwards.