The warehouse receiving process, step by step

What a good receiving process achieves

A receipt is done when four things are true: every unit is identified as the right SKU, counted in the right unit of measure, recorded with its lot, serial or expiry where tracked, and sitting in a known location with the right stock status. Anything less creates work downstream. A lot captured wrong breaks traceability. A case counted as an each overstates stock by a factor of twelve. A pallet left on the dock without a location is invisible to pickers.

The second goal is speed. Stock on the dock is stock you paid for and cannot sell. The process below is built so that problems get set aside and resolved without holding up the rest of the delivery.

Before the truck arrives: purchase orders and ASNs

Good receiving starts in the office. Every inbound delivery should match an expected document: a purchase order for goods you bought, a transfer for stock moving between your own warehouses, or an inbound notice from a client if you are a 3PL. Receiving without a document turns the dock into a data-entry desk.

An advance shipping notice (ASN) goes further. It tells you what is actually on this truck: which SKUs, how many, in which cartons or pallets, and often lot and expiry. A purchase order says what you ordered; an ASN says what was shipped. When a supplier splits a PO across two deliveries, each delivery gets its own ASN and the receiving team checks against that, not against the full order.

• Confirm the supplier's item codes and pack sizes map to your SKUs before the first delivery.
• Ask suppliers for ASNs with lot and expiry for any tracked product.
• Flag products that must be received into quarantine for inspection.
• Make sure new SKUs exist in the catalog with barcodes before the goods arrive.

Dock scheduling basics

Unscheduled deliveries create peaks: three trucks at 10:00 and none after lunch. A basic appointment system fixes most of this. Give suppliers fixed slots, size each slot by load type (a floor-loaded container of mixed cartons takes far longer than four single-SKU pallets), and keep a buffer slot each day for late arrivals.

You do not need specialist software to start. A shared calendar per door, a rule that unannounced trucks wait for the next free slot, and a daily look at tomorrow's arrivals are enough for most small and mid-sized sites. Use the schedule to plan labor: who unloads, who receives, and whether putaway staff will be free when the pallets are ready.

Unloading and first checks at the dock

Before anything is scanned, check the shipment as a whole. This is the moment to note problems on the carrier's paperwork, because once the driver leaves, a missing pallet becomes your word against theirs.

• Check the seal number against the paperwork if the trailer or container was sealed.
• Count pallets or cartons against the bill of lading or delivery note.
• Look for crushed, wet or leaning pallets and photograph them before unloading.
• For temperature-sensitive goods, record product or trailer temperature on arrival.
• Sign the delivery document with exceptions written on it, not a clean signature.
• Stage the delivery in a marked receiving lane, one lane per delivery, so goods from two suppliers never mix.

Identifying items and capturing lot, serial and expiry

Scan, do not type. Every unit, case or pallet should be identified by a barcode that maps to one SKU and one pack level. A case barcode that the system reads as an each is one of the most common receiving errors, so each pack level (each, inner, case, pallet) needs its own barcode.

GS1 barcodes make this faster because one scan can carry several facts. A GS1-128 or GS1 DataMatrix code uses application identifiers (AIs): (01) is the GTIN, (10) the batch or lot, (17) the expiry date as YYMMDD, (21) the serial number and (00) the SSCC of a whole pallet or carton. For example, a case of olive oil might carry (01) its GTIN, (10) LOT-0826 and (17) 270831. A scanner that parses these fills the lot and expiry fields in one step, which removes the typing errors that break traceability.

When the supplier's labels lack these details, capture them manually from the carton print and check them against the ASN. Serialized products need each serial scanned; do not accept a range written on a carton as proof. Items with no barcode, or a barcode the system does not know, should be set aside with a provisional record rather than guessed at.

Handling variances: over, short, damaged and short-dated

A variance is any difference between what was expected and what arrived. The rule is to record the truth and route the difference to the person who can decide, rather than letting the receiver quietly fix it.

For a shortage, receive what is physically there and leave the rest open on the PO or ASN, or close it short if the supplier confirms it will not follow. For an overage, receive the extra units only if your policy allows, often a small tolerance, and flag anything beyond that for a buyer to accept or refuse. Damaged units are received into a damaged status, not into available stock, and photographed. Wrong items are received as what they actually are, never as the SKU that was expected.

Shelf life is a variance too. If your customers require a minimum remaining shelf life, say 180 days, a lot arriving with 90 days left should be flagged before it enters available stock, even if the count is perfect.

• Short: receive actual quantity, keep the balance open or close short with a reason.
• Over: accept within tolerance, route the rest for approval.
• Damaged: separate status and location, photos attached, supplier claim raised.
• Wrong item: receive as the actual SKU and notify purchasing.
• Short-dated: hold for a decision before it becomes allocatable.

Quarantine and inspection

Some stock should not be sellable the moment it is counted: food and supplements that need a quality release, electronics that are sample-tested, returns from a supplier with a history of defects. Receive these directly into a quarantine status. Quarantined stock is on the books, so it counts toward what you own, but allocation cannot touch it.

Keep inspection rules simple and written down: which products or suppliers go to quarantine, what the inspector checks, who can release, and what happens to failed stock. Release changes the status to available; failure moves the stock to damaged or to a supplier return. Physically separate quarantined goods too. A status in the system does not stop someone from grabbing the nearest carton.

Putaway: moving stock to its storage location

Putaway is the last step of receiving, not the first step of storage. Until stock is scanned into its location, it is not really available. Directed putaway, where the system suggests a location and the operator confirms with a location scan, beats free putaway because it keeps like stock together and respects rules such as one lot per bin.

Good putaway rules come from your slotting decisions: fast movers go to or near their pick faces, bulk goes to reserve, heavy goods low. The warehouse slotting guide covers how to set those rules. Put away pallets as license-plated units where you can, so a full pallet can later be moved or picked with one scan.

Measuring receiving: dock-to-stock time and accuracy

Dock-to-stock time is the time from receipt start to stock being available at its storage location. Example: a delivery is checked in at 07:45, the last pallet is put away at 11:15, so dock-to-stock is 3 hours 30 minutes. Track the average and the slowest receipts, and tag each slow one with a reason: missing PO, unknown item, waiting for inspection, no putaway space. Those reasons tell you what to fix.

Pair speed with accuracy. Receiving accuracy is receipts with no correction afterwards divided by receipts. If receipts later need adjustments during cycle counts or picking, the dock is moving fast by skipping checks.

How NextStock handles receiving

In NextStock, deliveries are received against purchase orders or ASNs on the mobile-browser floor app, with keyboard-wedge or camera scanning. GS1 barcodes are parsed at receiving, so GTIN, lot, expiry and serial fill in from one scan, and license plates (LPNs) can be captured for pallets. Over, short, damage and shelf-life variances are recorded with a reason and routed for approval. Stock can be received straight into quarantine, and directed putaway suggests where each item goes. Unknown items are captured on the floor as provisional items for the office to activate later. NextStock does not schedule dock appointments. See receiving and putaway for the full workflow.