How to track shipments and receive inventory
There are two ways to receive items into inventory:
Via a shipment record (preferred method)
Directly from a Purchase Order
To receive items via a shipment record:
It's common for vendors to partially ship POs, so we recommend getting into the habit of tracking shipments. This has 2 benefits: it allows you to track the true landed cost of your goods and the true margin of every sale, and it can help you plan staffing to receive shipments since shipments will show up on your Calendar. If you receive a shipping notification prior to items arriving, you can create the shipment record ahead of time and receive items into inventory with a single click when they arrive. If the shipment arrives without prior notice, you can create the shipment record using the packing list afterward.
Create a new shipment.
Add items to the shipment. You can search by many criteria, including Product Name, PO number, Acknowledgment Number, or Customer using the "Add filter" button.
Add the date the shipment arrived or is expected to arrive.
Change the status of the shipment to "Received". This updates all items in the shipment to have a Fulfillment Status of "Received" (i.e. in inventory) and an Inventory Status of "Processing". This allows you to inspect any items before changing the Inventory Status to "Ready". It will also update the item location to the location from the item's PO.
5. After you've received the items, you can print inventory tags and add manufacturer or carrier bills for the items.
To receive items via a Purchase Order:
Open the relevant Purchase Order.
Click on the "Inventory" tab.
Change the Fulfillment Status of the item to "Received" and the Inventory Status of the item to the correct status.
Note that in this case the location of the item is not updated. To update the location, click on the Product name, find the correct item, and update the location using the "Edit" button in the Action Menu.
Changing a Purchase Order status to "Received" using the status dropdown will NOT receive the items into inventory
Via a shipment record (preferred method)
Directly from a Purchase Order
To receive items via a shipment record:
It's common for vendors to partially ship POs, so we recommend getting into the habit of tracking shipments. This has 2 benefits: it allows you to track the true landed cost of your goods and the true margin of every sale, and it can help you plan staffing to receive shipments since shipments will show up on your Calendar. If you receive a shipping notification prior to items arriving, you can create the shipment record ahead of time and receive items into inventory with a single click when they arrive. If the shipment arrives without prior notice, you can create the shipment record using the packing list afterward.
Create a new shipment.
Add items to the shipment. You can search by many criteria, including Product Name, PO number, Acknowledgment Number, or Customer using the "Add filter" button.
Add the date the shipment arrived or is expected to arrive.
Change the status of the shipment to "Received". This updates all items in the shipment to have a Fulfillment Status of "Received" (i.e. in inventory) and an Inventory Status of "Processing". This allows you to inspect any items before changing the Inventory Status to "Ready". It will also update the item location to the location from the item's PO.
5. After you've received the items, you can print inventory tags and add manufacturer or carrier bills for the items.To receive items via a Purchase Order:
Open the relevant Purchase Order.
Click on the "Inventory" tab.
Change the Fulfillment Status of the item to "Received" and the Inventory Status of the item to the correct status.
Note that in this case the location of the item is not updated. To update the location, click on the Product name, find the correct item, and update the location using the "Edit" button in the Action Menu.
Changing a Purchase Order status to "Received" using the status dropdown will NOT receive the items into inventory
Updated on: 05/04/2025
Thank you!