Track a partial shipment by keeping one balance for the purchase requirement and a separate record for each physical delivery. Link supplier promises, shipment notices, warehouse receipts, and quality dispositions to those records. A shipment notice is expected supply; the quantity the warehouse receives and the quantity released for use can both be different.
The partial shipment reconciliation worksheet (Excel) gives you a shipment register, quantity checks, and a balance review. Use it alongside the order record when one PO line arrives in several lots or one load contains several POs.
Choose the unit of control
Use the PO line and delivery schedule as the purchasing reference, then assign each shipment a unique reference. Preserve the supplier packing slip, ASN, carrier reference, and receipt number as separate identifiers. They refer to related events, but they are not always interchangeable.
For every shipment, retain the item, specification revision, quantity and unit, origin, destination, promised dispatch, expected receipt, and actual events. Add batch, lot, or serial information where your material process requires it. A lot number alone may not identify a unique shipment if the lot travels in two loads.
Microsoft documents delivery schedules as a way to split an ordered quantity across multiple shipments. Use the schedule facilities your system provides, then ensure each supplier update maps to the appropriate schedule. Microsoft delivery schedules.
Avoid creating a new purchase requirement every time a supplier announces a partial delivery. If the original line orders 1,000 units, a notice for 300 usually consumes part of that requirement. Verify the relationship before adding quantities.
Keep five quantity concepts separate
Define the fields with receiving and planning before using the tracker:
- Current authorized requirement: the ordered quantity after approved quantity changes and cancellations, recorded without deleting the original baseline.
- Supplier scheduled quantity: the quantity covered by the current accepted delivery schedules, including material not yet shipped.
- Dispatched quantity: material supported by the agreed shipment evidence, still subject to actual receipt reconciliation.
- Physically received quantity: what receiving counted, with corrections and reversals retained.
- Usable quantity: the portion available for the intended operation after required acceptance, inspection, and allocation checks.
Keep returns, rejected material, and replacement obligations explicit. Depending on the approved process, a rejected receipt may lead to replacement supply, a credit, rework, or cancellation. The tracker cannot decide which outcome applies just by subtracting the rejected quantity.
Microsoft’s receipt documentation distinguishes ASN information, registration, and product receipt, including quantity differences. Those product-specific states reinforce why an expected shipment should not be treated as warehouse evidence. Microsoft product receipts.
Reconcile promises before following the trucks
Compare the sum of current schedules with the authorized requirement. If the supplier has committed only 700 of 1,000 units, the remaining 300 need a quantity and date, even if all existing shipments are moving on time.
For a revised schedule, ask whether it replaces the previous promise or adds a new lot. A message saying “another 200 Friday” is unclear if the supplier already promised 200 Friday. Resolve the identity rather than increasing expected supply automatically.
Record the minimum quantity needed by each usable-material date. A line that will eventually be complete can still cause an earlier shortage. Use the date tracking guide to preserve requested and promised dates and the recovery plan when the dated quantities do not cover demand.
Match each arrival to the expected shipment
Receiving should record the actual item, quantity, unit, condition, and relevant identifiers from the arrival. Compare that evidence with the packing slip and expected schedule. Keep unexplained differences open while the supplier and receiving team investigate.
For consolidated loads, allocate the counted quantities to the correct PO lines and schedules. Do not apply the entire load quantity to each referenced PO. If the packing slip cannot support allocation, obtain the breakdown before treating the purchase balances as reconciled.
For multiple warehouse receipts against one shipment, retain each receipt reference and its portion of the quantity. If a second receipt is a correction to the first, link the correction; do not count it as additional supply. Receiving owns the receipt transaction and any correction through the authorized process.
If an arrival goes directly to another plant or a customer, obtain the evidence required by that receiving arrangement. A carrier’s delivery scan may locate the load without proving the accepted line quantities. Identify the receiving owner who can confirm them.
Worked example: a 1,000-unit order in three shipments
This illustrative example assumes a 1,000-unit requirement, no approved cancellations, and one unit of measure. The supplier schedules 300, 400, and 300 units. Planning needs 650 usable units by October 9 and all 1,000 by October 14.
Shipment A arrives October 5. Its packing slip says 300, but receiving counts 290. Quality releases all 290. The shortage of ten remains an open discrepancy against A; it does not become an accepted quantity reduction.
Shipment B arrives October 8 with 400 counted. Quality releases 380 and holds 20 for review. Shipment C has 300 dispatched with expected receipt October 12.
At the October 8 review, the record reads:
Authorized requirement: 1,000
Physical receipts: 290 + 400 = 690
Usable receipts: 290 + 380 = 670
Received but not released: 20
Shipment C in transit: 300
Short receipt on shipment A: 10
The immediate October 9 need of 650 is covered by 670 usable units, assuming no other allocation. The final requirement is not covered by simply adding 690 received and 300 in transit. The team still needs a disposition for the ten short units and the 20 under review.
The supplier agrees to replace A’s ten short units in shipment D for October 13. Quality later rejects B’s 20 and the buyer obtains an approved replacement commitment for October 14. Those are recorded as replacement obligations linked to the original discrepancies, not hidden increases in the original demand.
When C’s 300 and the 30 replacement units arrive and are released, cumulative usable supply reaches 1,000. Physical arrivals total 1,020 because 20 rejected units also arrived. Record the rejected quantity’s return or other authorized disposition separately. A physical-receipt total above the order quantity is therefore a signal to reconcile, not automatic evidence of an unauthorized overdelivery.
This example excludes later consumption. In a live planning view, usable receipts contribute supply, while stock on hand also reflects demand, transfers, and other allocations. Do not confuse lifetime accepted receipt quantity with today’s available inventory.
Handle the common difficult branches
The ASN is revised after departure. Keep the original and corrected notice, identify what changed, and compare both with carrier and receiving evidence. A corrected document does not itself prove more goods moved.
More arrives than ordered. Receiving records the actual count and follows the established disposition process. The buyer decides whether an extra quantity can be accepted commercially; quality still decides material acceptance. Do not enlarge the PO merely to make an overdelivery disappear.
The supplier says the balance is cancelled. Ask which quantity and why, then obtain the authorized purchasing decision. Preserve the supplier’s statement as a proposal until the order has a documented disposition.
A partial lot lacks its required certificate. Link the missing document to the affected shipment and lot. The buyer can collect evidence while quality determines whether the material can be released. Use the missing certificate workflow.
An invoice covers the whole order before all deliveries arrive. Provide finance the shipment and receipt allocation, including unresolved quantities. Finance applies its invoice and payment process. The buyer should not mark undelivered material received to make the invoice match.
Assign the remaining work by discrepancy
The buyer owns supplier commitments and the current balance explanation. Logistics owns shipment tracking and transport actions within its authority. Receiving owns counts and receipt corrections. Quality owns acceptance and release. Planning owns the need profile and allocation assumptions.
Each unresolved quantity needs one next action, owner, due time, and expected evidence. “Balance pending” is insufficient: record “supplier to confirm replacement of ten short units by noon Thursday” or “quality to determine disposition of lot B by Friday review.”
When several people investigate the same shortage, keep a shared discrepancy reference. Otherwise, the supplier can receive duplicate replacement requests or one team can close a record while another is still expecting supply.
Measure completeness at a defined cutoff
Use separate measures for receipt reconciliation and demand coverage. A receipt-reconciliation measure can be shipments with counted quantities matched to the intended PO schedules and all differences documented, divided by shipments received in the period. Documented differences may remain open; report their quantity and age separately.
For demand coverage, use requirement events met with usable quantity by their stated need time divided by all due requirement events. Define the event as item, site, quantity, and time. The example has two due events; meeting the first does not mean the full PO was delivered on time.
Track unmatched receipt quantity, unconfirmed balance quantity, and aged replacement obligations alongside percentages. Explain exclusions such as approved cancellations or returns that close through credit. Do not improve the result by silently removing difficult partials from the denominator.
Close the delivery balance with evidence
Close the partial-delivery work when the authorized requirement has been satisfied or explicitly reduced, each physical shipment reconciles to receipt and disposition evidence, and no unexplained supplier balance remains. Finance can still have an open invoice or credit task after delivery work is complete.
Mandel’s purchase order management work follows these quantities and commitments across supplier responses and order records. The useful outcome is a buyer who knows exactly what remains, why it remains, and who is taking the next action.
