Overview

Receiving happens when an order is delivered to the retailer after being shipped from the vendor. In most cases an invoice will accompany the order. Depending on the retailer, in some cases the purchase order will already exist, e.g. in Rattail or the POS system.

Rattail considers the primary concerns for this phase to be:

• update inventory counts

• (optional) record costs from invoice

• (optional) request credits from vendor

• (optional) detect/highlight other anomalies

Note that recording costs is “optional” mostly because that can be handled in a separate third phase; see Accounting. Vendor credits are not always applicable but often will be. Anomalies refers to anything you want it to, e.g. if a product cost has increased too much.

Receiving is done by way of a batch; see Receiving Batches.

The batch may behave (or the user may use it) differently depending on the batch “workflow”; see Receiving Workflows.

When a receiving batch is executed, it should accomplish one or more of the “concerns” listed above. Details will vary by implementation.