Goods receipts can be used for quantitative tracking of inventory items purchased from defined suppliers. Goods receipts are created following instructions in another Guide. Read it first.
Goods receipts can separate the financial aspect of purchasing inventory items from a supplier from their quantitative addition to inventory and receipt from the supplier. But this separation is not automatic. It must be chosen independently for each individual inventory item. To make the election for an inventory item, go to the Inventory Items tab and Edit the inventory item:
Near the bottom of the screen, check the box to Track quantity to receive:
Then click Update. Now, whenever the inventory item is purchased from a defined supplier, a goods receipt is required to complete the transaction.
Example
Brilliant Industries defined one of its inventory items, a table lamp, to include the option to track the quantity to receive. The Inventory Items tab listing shows 10 table lamps to receive:
Drilling down on the quantity, Brilliant sees that all 10 await reception from ACME Distributing:
Drilling further, Brilliant sees the pending deliveries all originate from the same purchase invoice:
Brilliant copies that purchase invoice to a goods receipt:
The Inventory Items tab list is automatically adjusted:
Note, however, that while quantities on hand and to receive are adjusted, the quantity owned, average cost, and total value of inventory remain unchanged. That is because those figures were adjusted by the purchase invoice.
In the preceding example, quantity to receive was tracked because ACME Distributing was a defined supplier from the Suppliers tab. But if the purchase had been from someone other than a defined supplier, the quantity to receive would not have been tracked.
Example
After completing receipt of the lamps in the example above, Brilliant Industries buys another table lamp from another source who is not a defined supplier, recording the purchase only with a payment form:
The quantities on hand and owned are immediately increased, but the quantity to receive remains zero, despite no goods receipt having been created:
Notes
Prior to Version 21.4.58, Manager required a goods receipt to complete the purchase of every inventory item recorded on a purchase invoice if the Goods Receipts tab was enabled. With that version, the choice became optional. Additionally, goods receipts became applicable to all purchases from defined suppliers, even if recorded via payments. Prior to Version 21.4.58, purchase via payments were always assumed to be received simultaneously.
The Batch Update function can be used to make bulk changes to the goods receipt option for inventory items.
The decision on whether to track quantity to receive—and therefore use goods receipts—for a particular inventory item depends on several factors, including stocking practices, purchase or production lead times, volume of credit versus cash purchases, and your need for inventory planning and documentation.
Caution
Once you decide to track quantity to receive, you must follow through. If you do not create the necessary goods receipts, your accounting records will show expenses related to purchases, but your inventory counts will never be increased.