Receive the Goods Against the Order

When the delivery arrives, you receive it. A goods receipt (often called a GRN, for goods received note) records what physically turned up against a purchase order: the items, the quantities, and their batch and expiry. This is the first step in the buying chain that touches the general ledger — and it is the step the supplier’s invoice will later be matched against, so it matters that it is accurate.

The goods receipt is part of the Stock module, not Procurement — receiving is an inventory action, because it creates the stock lots you will then issue and dispense from. This page explains where it sits and what it posts; the full receiving walkthrough lives in the Stock guides.

Who / when: the store manager (storekeeper) receives every delivery as it arrives at the store, checking it against the order before accepting it. We will follow Sade the store manager, booking in a delivery against its purchase order.

1. Store manager — open Stock → Goods Receipt. Receive the delivery against its purchase order, recording the received quantity, batch and expiry for each line. (For the full step-by-step, follow the Stock journey — start at Keep a Signed Stock Movement Ledger.)
2. Store manager — on saving, two things happen at once. Veona creates the stock lots — the batches are now on hand and available for issue and dispensing (by First-Expire-First-Out). And it posts the accrual to the general ledger: Dr Stock-in-Hand / Cr GRNI, for the received quantity × its cost. In words: the value of the goods has entered inventory, and you now owe for goods received that you have not yet been invoiced for.

Note

GRNI stands for goods received not invoiced. It is the hinge account of the whole buying chain: the goods receipt credits it (you have the goods, the bill has not arrived), and the purchase invoice later debits it to clear it. Once a purchase order has been fully received and fully invoiced, GRNI for that order nets back to roughly zero — which is exactly how you know the receipt and the bill agree.

Caution

A goods receipt can be posted without a purchase order — a direct receipt, for goods that arrived without a formal order behind them. It still creates the lots and the GRNI accrual, but it has no PO to compare against, so when you later invoice it the three-way match will always flag (there is no “ordered” side to match). Receive against a PO wherever you can; keep PO-less receipts for genuine exceptions.

What happens next

The goods are on the shelf and the GRNI accrual is sitting on the books waiting to be cleared. The supplier’s bill is what clears it. Raise a purchase invoice from this goods receipt, let Veona match ordered against received against invoiced, and post it — the act that turns “goods received not invoiced” into a real payable. Continue with Three-Way Match and Post a Purchase Invoice.

Tip

If the delivery was capital equipment rather than consumable stock — an analyser, a generator, a vehicle — it should not stay in inventory; it belongs on the asset register where depreciation runs. Veona can capitalise a received equipment line into a fixed asset (posting Dr Fixed-Asset / Cr Stock-in-Hand). See the Assets & Maintenance journey for how an asset is registered and depreciated.

Follow the trail

• Previous: Convert an Approved Requisition Into a Purchase Order
• Next: Three-Way Match and Post a Purchase Invoice
• Related: Keep a Signed Stock Movement Ledger · Apply Landed Costs and Process a Goods Return