How to Receive Purchase Orders

When a purchase order (PO) is delivered to a warehouse, it is essential to be able to add stock to inventory, accurately track the progress, and report any issues as needed. ShipHero makes receiving purchase orders easy! In this article, we will cover:

Navigating the Purchase Order Receiving Page

Receiving Best Practices

How to Receive a Purchase Order

Receive by Scanning Products (Recommended) 

Receive As Expected

Handling Exceptions During Receiving

How to  Reject Units

Receiving Items Not on a Purchase Order

How to Print Barcodes on the Receiving Page 

For more information on how to create a purchase order, please click here.

Navigating the Purchase Order Receiving Page

• From Shipping.ShipHero.com click on Purchase Orders in the left hand nav menu.

• This will open the purchase orders page at purchase-orders.ShipHero.com. Find the Purchase Order you will be receiving from the list below and click on the PO#.

• You are now on the page for the specific PO. This page will show you:
  • Expected arrival date
  • Number of items ordered
  • Number of items for sell ahead
  • PO status

• To begin receiving the order click in the button in the upper right hand corner that says Receiving Page. 

• On the Receiving Page, you can easily monitor the activity, and keep track of how many items from this specific PO have been received.

• Begin to receive items by scanning the item barcode. Once you begin scanning, you'll see the unreceived. number in the upper left hand corner begin to change.

NOTE: The item line turns green to signal that it has been successfully scanned and received.

Receiving Best Practices

The receiving team is the first line of defense to ensure inventory and product information is correct from inception! We've listed a few best practices to consider adding to the receiving process. Adding these features will improve the data, increase workforce efficiency, and reduce cost and loss potential. 

• First Article Inspection - FAI is a feature that allows receiving teams to receive a product in a purchase order. If the product does not have the dimension and weight information, the system will provide an option to enter the information or opt-out. 
• Product Cases - If using product cases within the warehouse, the article explains how to receive the product case. 
• Lots and Expiration - This is a feature that is used for perishable items or items that have an expiration date. The article will explain how to add the feature to a product and also how to receive this type of item.
• Label all of your products; barcodes provide unique, scannable identifiers for every item, enabling efficient and accurate tracking of inventory through receiving, storage, picking, and shipping. If products come in without labels/barcodes, add them during the receiving process. 

How to Receive a Purchase Order

Receiving inventory is simple with ShipHero. In this section, learn how to receive a purchase one of two ways: scanning or updating products manually one by one and using the "receive as expected" feature. 

Receive by Scanning Products (Recommended)

Receiving a purchase order by scanning the products can guarantee that barcodes work for the product. The system will jump to the product after scanning. 

1. Go to shipping.shiphero.com > open the Left Menu panel > select Purchase Orders. Click on the hyperlinked Order to open the purchase order.
2. On the purchase order page, click on the Receiving Page button.
   
3. Scan or select the Location where the inventory is being received. By default, ShipHero assigns the Receiving location. 
4. Scan the product barcode. The system will jump to that line item on the purchase order and increment the accepted quantity as the products are scanned. Continue until all items are scanned.

   NOTE: The option to change the number manually after verifying the count is also available while receiving; just enter the amount received into the accepted field.

   
5. Hit Save.  

NOTE: If an error is made during the receiving process adjsutments can still be made. Check out the following article for more infortaion on How to Adjust a Purchase Order.

Receive As Expected

Receiving as expected will receive an individual product or the entire order simultaneously. As a best practice, verifying the products and the counts is still essential to ensure your initial inventory is correct. 

1. Go to shipping.shiphero.com > open the Left Menu panel > select Purchase Orders. Click on the hyperlinked Order to open the purchase order.
2. On the purchase order page, click on the Receiving Page button.
   
3. Scan or select the Location where the inventory is being received. By default, ShipHero assigns the Receiving location. 
4. Check the box next to each Product being received. Then, click on Receive as Expected.
   
   
5. A pop-up will appear indicating the amounts for each product selected and the expected amounts. Click Confirm. 
   
   

   NOTE: If an error is made during the receiving process adjsutments can still be made. Check out the following article for more infortaion on How to Adjust a Purchase Order.

Handling Exceptions During Receiving

When receiving a purchase order, there are bound to be items that were damaged in the shipment or products that were supposed to be part of the shipment. This section covers how to handle each of these scenarios while receiving a purchase order.  

How to Rejected Units

Sometimes, a product is damaged in transit, but the products still need to be accounted for. In this section, learn how to receive damaged/rejected items.

1. To mark an item as damaged, click the hyperlinked number under the Rejected column.
   
2. Enter the Quantity, Reason, and Note (optional) for the items that is being rejected. 
   
3. Hit Save.

Receiving Items Not on a Purchase Order

Receiving a PO and notice that a Product is not a part of the PO, the following options are available. 

1. Scan the product, and a pop-up will appear asking to transfer this product from another PO on which the product exists. If yes is selected, the product will be added to the current PO and removed from the previous PO. 
   
   
2. Closing out "X" of the pop-up, setting the product aside and adding it to the PO later, or creating a new PO for this unexpected item.

How to Print Barcodes on the Receiving Page

In this section, learn how to print a barcode from the receiving page. 

1. 1. Once on the receiving page, select one or all the products.
   2. Click on the Print Barcode option.
      
   3. A pop-up will appear to print one barcode for each line item, a product barcode per ordered product, or a product barcode per received product. Hit confirm once you have chosen the option.