Goods-in and receiving

Goods-in is the moment stock becomes your responsibility. Receipting it accurately, with the right condition recorded at intake, is what makes every downstream step, storage, kitting, picking, and transport, trustworthy. This guide explains how receiving works in Loaditude and how to handle the awkward cases: short deliveries, over-deliveries, and damaged stock.

Booking in a delivery

Receiving usually starts from an expected delivery: a client has told you stock is on its way, or a purchase order exists against a job. When the vehicle arrives, you open the receipt and confirm what physically turned up against what was expected. Loaditude supports two ways to receipt:

• Scan: scan a barcode on each carton or pallet to match it to the expected line. Scanning is fastest and least error-prone for volume inbound. Loaditude can resolve a scanned barcode to its SKU, and a single product can carry more than one barcode (for example a manufacturer code and your own label).
• Manual: enter quantities by hand for deliveries without usable barcodes, or where it is quicker to count.

Recording condition at intake

Condition is captured at the point of receipt, not after the fact. If a pallet arrives crushed or a carton is water-damaged, you record that as you book it in. This matters for two reasons: it protects you in any dispute with the carrier or supplier, and it stops damaged stock silently entering your sellable inventory. Where useful, attach a photo of the damage to the receipt so the evidence travels with the record.

Handling discrepancies

A discrepancy is any difference between what was expected and what arrived. The common cases are:

• Short delivery: fewer units than expected. Receipt the quantity that actually arrived; the shortfall is visible against the expected line.
• Over-delivery: more units than expected. Record what arrived so your stock figure is real.
• Damaged or wrong stock: record the condition or flag the mismatch rather than quietly accepting it as good stock.

When a receipt does not match expectations, Loaditude can notify the relevant managers so a discrepancy is dealt with while the vehicle and the evidence are still on site, rather than surfacing days later when it is too late to challenge. Catching it at the dock is the whole point.

Put-away to storage locations

Once stock is receipted it needs a home. Put-away moves received stock from the goods-in holding area to addressable storage locations, the bins and bays you set up during onboarding (see Getting started). Recording where stock is put away is what makes later picking efficient: the system can direct a picker to the right location instead of relying on someone remembering where it went.

Put-away can be done in full or in part. If a large receipt is put away across several locations or over a shift, Loaditude tracks what has and has not yet been put away so nothing is left stranded on the dock.

Good practice

• Receipt against the expected delivery rather than blind, so discrepancies surface automatically.
• Record condition and attach a photo at intake for anything that is not perfect.
• Put stock away to a real location promptly. Stock sitting unallocated in goods-in is stock you cannot reliably pick.

Where to go next

• Kitting and value-added services covers turning received components into finished kits.
• Troubleshooting and FAQ covers scanning and receiving issues.