Use cases by role
If you run the warehouse
Everything later argued about comes through your door, and nearly always at the worst moment of the day.
The warehouse is where everything comes in and goes out, and therefore where half the documentation someone later demands is generated. With one peculiarity: it is generated with a lorry waiting, a driver in a hurry and often first thing in the morning.
What to capture at the door
| Moment | What is recorded | If not done now |
|---|---|---|
| Intake | What arrives, in what condition and from which batch | It cannot be reconstructed: the lorry has gone |
| Incident | Photo and description before moving anything | You argue with the supplier with no evidence |
| Rejection | What is returned and why, and who brought it | You have neither the goods nor the proof |
| Dispatch | What leaves, with what paperwork and to where | Forward traceability breaks |
Important
All four share one enemy: **the time it takes to reach the office**. A delivery note stacked to "process later" is one processed two days later, when nobody remembers whether the box arrived dented. Everything on this list is solved by doing it from a phone at the unloading, and is not solved any other way.
What makes your life easier
- 1
Photograph the delivery note on receipt, always
Even if the paper gets filed later: the photo is already linked to the day and the supplier.
- 2
The batch as the thread, not the order
It is what later answers any backwards question.
- 3
Record rejections exactly like acceptances
It is the evidence that defends you, and the one hardly anyone has.
- 4
And say what does not add up on the spot
A discrepancy raised at unloading gets clarified; raised at invoicing, it gets argued.
Watch out
The most underestimated point is who receives when you are not there. A seven-in-the-morning, Saturday or holiday delivery is taken by whoever is present — and if that person has no two-minute route to leave a record, nothing remains. **It is not a discipline problem, it is an access problem**: if recording requires an office computer, it will not be recorded.
What you will be asked months later
All four are answered in seconds if captured at the door, and not answered if left for the office. There is no middle ground, because what is missing is not the paper: it is the moment.
Worth knowing
If you also receive subcontractor or service visits, apply the same: who came, what they did and what documentation they brought. That is the information an insurer or an inspector asks for later, and that nobody records because "they only came to look".
›What if the supplier will not wait while I record?
A photo of the note and the pallet: ten seconds and it needs no permission.
›Is the weighbridge ticket enough?
As weight yes; as origin no, unless it links to the batch and the supplier.
›Must I record what I reject even though it never enters?
That above all: it is the only proof of what arrived and what you sent back.
A real case
The situation
A warehouse stacks delivery notes to take to the office at day's end.
What you do
- Photographs each note and any incident at the unloading
- Records rejections too
What you get
Quantity differences get resolved the same day and stop appearing on invoices.
The situation
Goods arrive and the delivery note is signed in a rush.
What you do
- Captures the note on receipt
What you get
The record is not lost at the bay.
The situation
There is a dispute about the condition something arrived in.
What you do
- Captures the condition on receipt
What you get
The dispute closes on the record.
The situation
Nobody knows what came in last week.
What you do
- Checks the goods-in record
What you get
The question has an answer.
The situation
A supplier delivers with no documentation.
What you do
- Puts on record what is missing the same day
What you get
The claim goes out while it is easy.
The situation
Material is put away and nobody records it.
What you do
- Records the location on unloading
What you get
It is located without walking the warehouse.
This article answers
- warehouse documentary control
- goods-in what to check
- rejecting a delivery documentation
- warehouse manager paperwork