Receiving inbound inventory into your warehouse is a crucial function of your warehouse management system due to its importance in keeping accurate records of available inventory items and quantities. There are two general ways of doing this in PVX: Receive and Register.

Receive versus Register

Both the Receive and Register functions are used to process inventory items entering your warehouse. In general Receive is recommended where you want to reconcile the goods a PO and Register where you want a quick way of adding items to stock without detailed records.

The table below compares the Receive and Register functions:

You can register items with or without a register reason for reporting purposes. These register reasons are set up in the web app. Simply scan one of the items you are registering, enter the quantity and then scan the location into which they are being registered.

You can receive items in isolation or under a purchase order (if you record your purchase orders in PVX). If a purchase order is used then you can choose to receive items without having to scan them.

If you register inventory into the warehouse, you can then use the Receive function later to create a record of the delivery that can be reconciled with the purchase order.

Options for receiving inventory

The Receive function in the PVX mobile app can operate in a number of different ways, mostly concerning how the order is identified by the system. However, the general workflow of the function is shown in the flowchart below.

There are several ways of identifying the order in the system, depending on the Receive option you select. Two options are available in PVX by default:

• If receiving by purchase order, enter or scan the PO number. You can then enter the number of items and location. Swipe right in the app to view more details about the purchase order under Receive Details.

• If receiving by item, scan the item barcode and then enter the number received.

There are several other Receive options that can be added to your PVX account:

• Receive by purchase order with scanning items: When you scan a received item, PVX either automatically assigns the delivery to the correct purchase order, or allows you to select from a list of possible purchase orders if the item appears in more than one. This can be useful if you receive items without the purchase order being identified. Refer to this article for more information, and raise a ticket with the PVX helpdesk to have this option added to your account free of charge.

• Receive without scan: A list of outstanding purchase orders is displayed. Select the one associated with your delivery and then enter the receiving location as normal. This allows you to skip the scanning of items completely if you are confident that your supplier delivers the correct items to each purchase order. A GRN will automatically be created when using this option.

• Receive and print: This option is designed for receiving deliveries where all the items received need to be barcode-labelled. After reconciling the delivery quantities, you can print the exact number of item labels needed in one print job (see below).

Reconciling purchase orders

For both of the default receive options above (Receive by purchase order and Receive by item), you can associate the delivery with a Goods In Reference number if one has already been created in the web app; this is then used to reconcile the delivery with the purchase order. We recommend this workflow because it reduces the number of GRNs generated in the system, which makes it easier to monitor and report on Goods In operations. However, it does mean that all receivers must enter the correct GRN and synchronise their devices with the web app before the GRN can be reconciled.

Alternatively, you can allow PVX to create a GRN automatically for each set of items received. You can then add the option to automatically reconcile purchase orders with the goods received and enter the results into the inventory immediately; this is recommended if all goods are being checked and counted during receiving. (If spot checks are being done then we recommend using manual reconciliation as this gives a chance to catch errors and incorrect deliveries.) See below for more details on GRNs, and refer to this article for further information on configuration options for the PVX goods-in process.

Printing item labels

You can print labels for received items from the web app or, if you have the Receive and print option enabled on your account, as part of the receiving workflow in the mobile app.

In the web app:

1. Go to the Items tab in the Warehouse module.

2. Find the item you want to label in the index of groups on the left.

3. Tick the Print checkbox for the item. You can print more than one label at a time, or select Print all to print labels for every item displayed.

4. Click Print.

5. In the Select a printer dialog, choose a printer from those available on your system and select a template from the drop-down list. You can tick Remember the printer selection at the top right of the dialog to save these settings.

6. Click OK and the item label will be printed.

When receiving goods using the mobile app, you can tap PRINT and select the printer and item label template you want to use from the options set up on your system, then tap PRINT again. The required number of barcode labels will be printed for the items you've just received.

Using Goods In References (GRNs)

A Goods In Reference is a reference number assigned to a delivery of items to the warehouse. The term ‘GRN’ is often used as an abbreviation. Typically a GRN is created to link together a delivery containing items that have been purchased under different purchase orders, or items that have been purchased with no known purchase order. The linking of the orders into one GRN enables them to be more easily reconciled.

You can create a GRN in the web app. Alternatively, when you are receiving items using the mobile app, you can enter a unique number in the Delivery Note/Reference section. If you leave this section blank, PVX will automatically create a GRN.

To create a GRN:

1. Go to the Goods In tab in the Warehouse module of the web app.

2. Click Create.

3. In the Create Goods In dialog, assign a number to the GRN or leave it blank for a number to be generated automatically.

4. Optionally, enter the relevant delivery note number or the assigned carrier.

5. Click the relevant purchase order(s) in the list of outstanding orders for your site and click Add. The order is displayed under Selected Items on the right of the dialog. If necessary, click a selected order and then click Remove to undo this action.

6. Click Create. The new GRN is displayed in the tab.

To reconcile a GRN using the web app:

1. Click the GRN in the Goods In tab and click View.

2. Click Reconcile.

3. Review the quantities of each item received and outstanding. You can switch between a consolidated view or a detailed view which splits the items into their respective purchase orders.

4. If all items have been received, click Reconcile.

To reconcile a GRN using the mobile app:

1. Tap and select Stock Control from the menu of actions.

2. Tap Reconcile.

3. Tap the GRN from the list displayed. You can remove the GRN at this stage by tapping REJECT.

4. If required, tap the item(s) displayed to view the number received against the number outstanding. If required, you can tap ADD PO to add a quantity of items from a separate purchase order. Select the purchase order and then tap SAVE.

5. If all the expected items have been received, tap ACCEPT to reconcile the order.

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