Goods receiving process map

A swimlane map of goods-in from the carrier arriving to the goods receipt note reaching finance, across the carrier and supplier, the goods-in clerk, the warehouse, purchasing and finance. It is a short process that carries a lot of weight: everything downstream in payables depends on what happens on this loading bay.

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What is in this map

20 steps across 5 swimlanes and 5 phases, with 4 decision points.

Swimlanes (who does the work): Carrier / supplier, Goods-in clerk, Warehouse, Purchasing and Finance
Phases (left to right): Booking in, Paperwork check, Count and condition, Goods receipt and Put-away and handover

Why map this process

Goods receiving is where the physical world meets the ledger, and it is usually staffed by whoever is nearest the door. The consequences land elsewhere: an unrecorded receipt becomes an invoice that cannot be matched, a receipt recorded against the wrong PO becomes a stock discrepancy nobody can trace, a damaged pallet signed for clean becomes a claim you cannot make. None of that is visible from the bay.

So the value of this map is that it shows the receiving clerk what their four decisions cause. Check the paperwork, count, inspect condition, record the receipt: each has a branch, and each branch has a consequence in a lane the clerk cannot see. That is an argument for care that a work instruction cannot make.

Every step in the map

This is the spreadsheet behind the diagram. The numbers in “Goes to” are row numbers, which is exactly what the editor’s “Line to” column holds — so you can read the flow here and retype any part of it.

Every step in the Goods receiving process (goods-in to GRN) process map, in the order the editor numbers them.
#	Step	Shape	Swimlane	Phase	Goes to
1	Book the delivery slot	Start	Carrier / supplier	Booking in	2
2	Arrive at the goods-in dock	Process	Carrier / supplier	Booking in	3
3	Arrived in the booked slot?	Decision	Goods-in clerk	Booking in	5 (In slot), 4 (Off slot)
4	Hold for the next free slot	Delay	Goods-in clerk	Booking in	3 (Slotted)
5	Unload and stage the delivery	Process	Warehouse	Booking in	6
6	Check paperwork against the PO	Process	Goods-in clerk	Paperwork check	7
7	PO matches delivery?	Decision	Goods-in clerk	Paperwork check	11 (Match), 8 (Mismatch)
8	Accept the delivery?	Decision	Purchasing	Paperwork check	11 (Accept), 9 (Query), 10 (Refuse)
9	Resolve the discrepancy with the supplier	Process	Purchasing	Paperwork check	8 (Answered)
10	Delivery refused and returned	Reject	Carrier / supplier	Paperwork check	End
11	Count and check for damage	Process	Warehouse	Count and condition	12
12	Damage or shortage found?	Decision	Goods-in clerk	Count and condition	13 (Yes), 16 (No)
13	Record damage on the delivery note	Process	Goods-in clerk	Count and condition	14
14	Quarantine the affected goods	Process	Warehouse	Count and condition	15
15	Raise a claim with the carrier	Process	Purchasing	Count and condition	16
16	Raise the goods receipt note	Document	Goods-in clerk	Goods receipt	17
17	Put away to a stock location	Process	Warehouse	Put-away and handover	18
18	Update the stock record	Registry	Warehouse	Put-away and handover	19
19	Release the GRN to finance	Process	Goods-in clerk	Put-away and handover	20
20	GRN posted for invoice matching	End	Finance	Put-away and handover	End

The decision points

Every branch in the map, with the label on each outgoing line. These are the questions the process has to be able to answer.

3. Arrived in the booked slot?

Owned by Goods-in clerk · Booking in
- In slot → step 5
- Off slot → step 4
7. **PO** matches delivery?

Owned by Goods-in clerk · Paperwork check
- Match → step 11
- Mismatch → step 8
8. Accept the delivery?

Owned by Purchasing · Paperwork check
- Accept → step 11
- Query → step 9
- Refuse → step 10
12. **Damage or shortage** found?

Owned by Goods-in clerk · Count and condition
- Yes → step 13
- No → step 16

Notes on specific steps

These notes travel with the map. In the editor they live in the Notes column and appear when you open a box.

6. Check paperwork against the **PO**: Match the delivery note to an open PO line: PO number, part code, quantity and unit of measure. A pallet accepted with no PO reference is the one that goes missing between the dock and the ledger.
8. Accept the delivery?: Decide this while the vehicle is still on site. Over-deliveries, early deliveries and unordered lines each need a rule, and the decision belongs against the PO rather than in an email thread.
13. Record damage on the delivery note: Sign as damaged or unexamined rather than clean, and photograph the pallet before it is broken down. Carriage terms allow only a short notification window, usually shorter for visible damage than for concealed damage, so check the window in the terms you actually trade on.
16. Raise the **goods receipt note**: Book the quantity **actually accepted**, not the quantity printed on the delivery note. The GRN figure is what the invoice is later matched against, so an optimistic receipt becomes an overpayment.

Making it yours

The four checks are the map. Adapt them to your own bay (some sites count everything, some sample, some accept supplier counts for trusted vendors) and put the rule in the branch labels so the map states your policy rather than a generic one. If you use a scanner or WMS, put the transaction name in the Notes column next to the recording step; it makes the map usable as a work instruction rather than only as a diagram.

What to watch out for

A delivery with no matching purchase order is common and needs a mapped route. Without one, the informal answer is 'accept it and sort it out later', which is the origin of most unmatched invoices.
Short deliveries and damaged deliveries are different branches. One is a quantity problem that purchasing resolves with the supplier; the other is a condition problem that may involve a carrier claim with a deadline measured in hours.
Put-away is a separate step from receipt for a reason: stock that has been received but not put away is real, findable-nowhere inventory. Merging them makes that state impossible to represent.

Frequently asked questions

What is a GRN and why does it get its own step?

A goods receipt note is the record that says what physically arrived, created by the people who saw it. It gets its own step because it is one of the three documents in a three-way match: without it, an invoice can only be checked against a purchase order, which proves what you asked for and not what you got.

How does this map connect to purchasing and payables?

Through the goods receipt. This map ends by handing the GRN to finance, and the invoice approval and purchase order maps pick it up from there as one of the documents they match against. Drawing that handoff explicitly is what stops each team thinking receiving is someone else's paperwork.

Can I use this for returns coming back in from customers?

Not directly. Inbound returns need an authorisation check that supplier deliveries do not: the first question is whether this return was approved, not whether the paperwork matches. Use the returns map for that; it has the disposition branches that inbound goods do not need.

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