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Part 4 of 7 · Packing slip checker series ~5 min read

What happens to over and under shipments

The two directions are not symmetrical. A shortage is a claim you have to make quickly with evidence; an over-shipment is a liability that arrives looking like a bonus.

Key takeaways

  • A shortage is reported to the supplier the same day, in writing, with the photographs.
  • An over-shipment is reported too. Quietly keeping it is a decision somebody will regret.
  • Nothing is auto-rejected. Refusing a delivery has commercial consequences.
  • The receipt record drives the invoice match, so a shortage cannot be quietly paid for.
  • Both directions produce the same record type, so both show up in the pattern analysis.

Shortages: the same day

How a recorded shortage is escalated to the supplierA vertical chain of five steps entered by a box labelled A shortage recorded, counted and photographed. Step one asks whether the delivery note was annotated and signed subject to it; if not it exits to Weaker position, still report it today. Step two notifies the supplier the same day, in writing. Step three attaches the evidence, both photographs. Step four holds the invoice line, not the whole invoice. Step five tracks it to resolution, either a credit or a redelivery. A note says the same day matters more than perfect wording, because most supplier terms are short.AWS ACCOUNTA shortage recordedcounted, photographedAnnotated note?signed subject to itWeaker positionstill report it, todaynoNotify the suppliersame day, in writingAttach the evidenceboth photographsHold the invoice linenot the whole invoiceTrack to resolutioncredit, or a redeliverySame day matters more than perfect wording. Most supplier terms are short.
Fig 1. What follows a recorded shortage. The fourth box is the one that keeps a shortage from being silently paid for three weeks later.
  • App integration
  • Machine learning
  • Management
  • Analytics
  • Front-end & mobile

Hold the line, not the invoice

Holding an entire invoice because one line was short is a common response and it makes an enemy of the supplier’s accounts department, who did not send the wrong quantity and cannot fix it. Holding the disputed line and paying the rest keeps the argument where it belongs.

This requires the receipt record to feed the invoice match, which is the main integration in this system and is worth doing properly. If the receipt says forty and the invoice says sixty, that should be a flag rather than something somebody notices.

Over-shipments

Goods you did not order, in your building

  • You do not own them. In most jurisdictions and most supplier terms, they are still the supplier’s goods.
  • Tell them the same day, exactly as with a shortage, with a photograph.
  • Do not use them. Consuming goods you were sent by mistake makes a conversation into a liability.
  • Store them separately and mark them, so they cannot be picked into an order.
  • Ask what they want done: collection, return, or an invoice you can accept.
  • Set a limit beyond which nobody has to store them indefinitely, and say so in the notification.

The temptation to say nothing is real and the arithmetic is against it. Free stock is worth its value once; a supplier discovering a pattern of unreported over-shipments costs the relationship, and stock that appears in the system without a receipt makes every subsequent stock count harder to trust.

Why they happen

Over-shipments cluster around the same causes as shortages — a picking error, a unit-of-measure confusion, a duplicated line — and treating them as the same record type means both show up in the pattern analysis. A supplier who is over-shipping twice a month is making the same kind of mistake as one who is under-shipping, and it is the same conversation.

Why nothing is auto-rejected

Why a short delivery is never automatically rejectedA horizontal row of five boxes. Twenty per cent short: a rule could reject it. But is it urgent, with a line stopping without it? But does a partial delivery help, which it usually does? But what do returns cost, in money and goodwill? A person decides, in about a minute. A note says the rule would be right sometimes and expensive the rest of the time.WHY THERE IS NO AUTO-REJECT20% shorta rule could rejectBut: is it urgent?a line stops without itBut: partial helps?usually yesBut: return costs?and goodwillA person decidesin about a minuteThe rule would be right sometimes and expensive the rest of the time.
Fig 2. The reasoning behind another deliberately missing feature. Every question in the middle three boxes is commercial and none of them are in the delivery data.
  • App integration
  • Analytics
  • People

The receiving person is also the wrong person to make that call, which is why the interface never offers a reject button. They record what arrived; somebody with the commercial context decides what to do about it, usually within the hour and with the photographs in front of them.

The one exception

Goods that are obviously unsafe or wrong — the wrong chemical, a broken pallet that cannot be moved safely — are refused at the door on the person’s judgement, and the system’s job is to record that quickly rather than to have an opinion about it.

Next: what the discrepancies add up to.

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