Goods receiving in a warehouse: checks, discrepancies and putaway

Short answer: warehouse receiving is the process of unloading goods, checking them against the advance notice, labelling them and recording them before they go to a location. Good receiving has seven steps: advance notice, unloading, checking against the order, handling discrepancies, quality control, labelling and putaway. In NG WMS what was announced and what was received sit on the same order, so a shortage or overage shows while the driver is still at the dock, and lot, serial number and expiry date are recorded on the line straight away.

Why is receiving the most important point in the warehouse?

Everything the warehouse does later relies on data created at receiving. Record the wrong quantity and the next stock count shows a discrepancy nobody can explain. Skip the lot and it cannot be found when a complaint arrives. Leave a pallet “to one side for now” and the picker will not find it.

So the rule is simple: an error is cheapest to fix at the dock, while the goods, the driver and the paperwork are all in one place.

What are the steps of the receiving process?

1. Advance notice — the supplier, production or the ERP announces what is coming, before the goods arrive.
2. Unloading and visual check — number of pallets and packages, condition of the packaging, seals.
3. Check against the order — item, quantity, lot, expiry date and serial numbers.
4. Discrepancies — shortage, overage, wrong item or damage, recorded while the driver is there.
5. Quality — goods awaiting a decision are separated and must not reach a customer.
6. Labelling — an LPN or EAN label, so every unit can be scanned.
7. Putaway — goods move from the receiving area to a location that matches their purpose.

1. Advance notice: know what is coming before it arrives

An advance shipping notice (ASN) lists the goods a supplier is sending. It tells the warehouse in advance how much space and how many people it needs, and gives it something to check the delivery against. In NG WMS the notice is a receipt order: entered by hand, imported from Excel, copied from an earlier order or received from the ERP through the API. The order carries the goods owner, supplier, expected date and a priority from low to urgent, plus a subtype — from a supplier, from production, packaging, spare parts, internal locations, returns from production or goods for customs clearance.

In the Excel import, rows with the same external order number become one order, with lot, production date, expiry date, quality status and serial numbers. When there is no notice, the goods can still be received: a separate order type lets lines be entered directly as received, with the same lot, serial and expiry data.

2. Unloading and visual check

Before counting, check what you can see: pallets and packages against the delivery paperwork, the packaging, the seals and, for temperature-sensitive goods, the transport conditions. Damage that is not recorded at unloading is hard to prove later — to the supplier and to the carrier. For goods under customs supervision, NG WMS records the warehouse and customs reference, the number of packages and the gross weight on the order, and the country of origin on each line.

3. Check against the order

This is where received is compared with announced: item, quantity, lot, expiry date and serial numbers. The biggest trap is confirming “on trust” — the operative sees the announced quantity and simply copies it. Better practice is to record what was counted and let the system show the difference. In NG WMS received quantities are entered per line, with lot, serial number and expiry date, and receiving has its own serial number view.

Shelf-life rules should not depend on who is on shift. Per item you set whether a lot is mandatory, the serial number format and the minimum remaining shelf life goods must have at receipt. The rule lives in one place rather than in someone’s head.

4. Discrepancies: shortages, overages and wrong items

In NG WMS the summary on the order shows announced and received quantity per line, so a shortage or overage is visible before the order is closed — while the driver is still there, not at the next stock count when nobody remembers where it came from. A setting can prevent receiving more than the announced quantity. What happens next — a claim, a follow-up delivery or acceptance — is a business decision, but one made on an accurate record. The confirmed receipt goes back to the ERP as a webhook event.

5. Quality: goods on hold must not reach a customer

Goods of doubtful quality, damaged goods or goods missing their paperwork should not sit “a bit to one side”; they should be clearly separated — physically and in the system. In NG WMS the quality status is entered at receipt or arrives with the Excel order import, and goods are blocked with a document that has lines and a reason from a code list. The quality status carries a flag saying whether release is required to continue. Blocked goods and goods awaiting a quality decision are not offered in manual reservation, and the warehouse model has a sub-area purpose for quarantine.

6. Labelling

Goods without a barcode cannot be scanned, and what is not scanned gets retyped. So labels go on at receiving: an LPN on the pallet or carton, an EAN on any item that lacks one. From an NG WMS receipt order you print the receipt document, declarations — including for lines that are only announced — and EAN labels. LPN labels for a shift can be printed in advance as a range, so at the dock they are simply applied and scanned. The difference between barcodes, LPNs and SSCCs is explained in Barcodes, SSCC and LPN in the warehouse, and the templates on the Labels page.

7. Putaway: from the dock to the right location

Goods left in the receiving area block the dock and do not exist for pickers. The right location depends on three things: the purpose of the sub-area (reserve, picking, quarantine), the rules on what may be stored together, and the capacity of the location. In NG WMS the warehouse model holds all three: sub-area purpose, mixing rules by item, lot, owner, block status or receipt order, and the maximum number of handling units per location.

Reports show goods still on the dock or at a receiving location, and every deviation of the actual location from the suggested one — with the reason, device and user. NG Copilot points out goods that have waited too long for putaway, so nothing is left forgotten at the dock.

What does a receipt look like in NG WMS, from order to close?

A receipt order moves through clear states, each with its own permitted actions:

An order that should not be executed is cancelled, not deleted, so the trail remains. The office prepares and verifies the order, and the floor receives the goods by scanning in the scanner app. The full flow is on the Inbound page.

A receiving checklist for the dock

• A notice or receipt order exists before the vehicle arrives.
• The number of pallets and packages matches the paperwork; damage is recorded before signing.
• The counted quantity is recorded, not the announced one copied.
• Lot, expiry date and serial numbers are entered for items where they are mandatory.
• Remaining shelf life is checked against the item’s rule.
• Doubtful goods are separated and blocked with a reason.
• Every pallet or carton has a readable label.
• At the end of the shift nothing stays in the receiving area without a reason.

Receiving is also where traceability begins: how a lot is followed through the warehouse is covered in Traceability from goods-in to dispatch.