How to receive a delivery

Receiving happens on each order in What are suppliers and purchase orders? (Buying › Purchase orders, then open an order). It books what arrived into your live Shopify stock, so every step shows you what will change before anything does.

Before you start

You need two rows in Settings › Permissions: Edit purchase orders and the buying calendar and Change stock, receiving and store settings. Both start at lead, per How to set who can do what, and without the second one the Receive shipment button does not show.

Your Shopify store has to be connected, per How to connect your Shopify store. If it was connected before Tideswell asked for permission to change stock, the receive window opens with an amber Shopify stock won't update warning. The delivery is still recorded, and an admin reconnects the store in Settings › Integrations to fix it, per How to manage integrations, your workspace name and the audit log.

How do you receive a shipment?

Press Receive shipment at the top of the order, check each line, then confirm. The window lists every product with Expected, Received (so far), Received now, Damaged and Unit cost.

1. Open the order and press Receive shipment.
2. Type what arrived into Received now on each line, or scan it in, and anything broken into Damaged.
3. Change Unit cost on any line where the invoice price differs, and add Freight and Duty if you have them.
4. Open Vendor invoice if the supplier's invoice came with the goods, and fill it in.
5. Press Receive. A red Update Shopify stock? window lists exactly what will change.
6. Press Yes, update Shopify stock.

Quantities must be whole numbers. A mistyped "12.5" is highlighted and stops Receive until you fix it, so no units quietly go missing.

If you sorted the order's product table by a column, the receive window lists the lines in the same order. On a long delivery, sort by product name to match the packing list.

What does each line start at?

That depends on Settings › Receiving › Fill in quantities before receiving, which is on unless an admin turns it off. On, every line starts at the full amount still owed, so a complete delivery takes one click.

Off, every box starts empty, and a product goes into Shopify only if someone types a number for it. We recommend turning it off when several people receive and a short delivery should never count itself in.

Either way, numbers typed into the order's Receive qty column carry into the window. Switch the column on with Customize columns, per How to add products and choose your columns, and work down the packing list in the table first.

How do you scan products in?

Scan each item into the Scan a barcode or SKU box above the products. Each scan adds one to that product's Received now, shows a line such as Tour polo · Medium: +1 under the box, and plays a short tone.

The box is ready as soon as the receive window opens. A handheld scanner that types like a keyboard works as it is, or type a barcode or SKU and press Enter.

Tideswell looks for the barcode first, then the SKU. A code made only of digits matches with or without its leading zeros, so a 12-digit UPC finds a product whose barcode is the 13-digit EAN.

We recommend an admin turns off Settings › Receiving › Fill in quantities before receiving if your team scans deliveries in. With it on, each line already starts at the full amount owed and every scan adds on top, so 12 polos from Kaimen Knitwear scanned in read 24. Otherwise, clear the Received now boxes before you scan.

When a scan cannot be added, a message appears under the box with Dismiss and a low tone plays:

• FG-POLO-NVY-M isn't on this order. No line carries that code.
• More than one line carries FG-POLO-NVY-M. Count it by hand. Type that quantity yourself.
• Fix the quantity for Tour polo · Medium first. That line's Received now holds something that is not a whole number.

What to do about each one is in How to fix receiving, stock corrections and imports that fail.

What does "+2 entered" on a line mean?

Those units are already on a delivery that has not reached Shopify yet. The line starts that much lower so you do not book the same boxes twice.

Open Receipt history below the products and press Retry on the failed delivery instead of typing the units again.

How do you record damaged units?

Type the broken units into Damaged. They come straight out of Received now, are never added to your Shopify stock, and stay owed by the supplier.

Kaimen Knitwear sends 12 polos and 2 are torn. Type 2 into Damaged and Received now drops from 12 to 10. The line under the table reads 12 arrived · 10 going into stock · 2 damaged, still owed by the supplier, and Shopify goes up by 10.

How do you change what a product cost?

Type what you actually paid into Unit cost. On a product linked to Shopify, this changes its cost in Shopify too, across the whole shop.

When a cost changes, the confirm window reads Update Shopify stock and cost? and shows each old and new cost. Press Yes, update stock and cost.

To correct a cost when nothing has arrived, leave Received now empty on every line and change only Unit cost. The window then reads Update Shopify cost? with Yes, update the cost.

Check every figure before you confirm, because a cost change cannot be undone. The previous cost is kept on the receipt, so you can see what it replaced.

On an order written in a different currency from your store, receive without changing Unit cost, and change the cost in Shopify itself.

Can receiving work out the cost for you?

Yes. An admin with Change stock, receiving and store settings chooses it under Settings › Receiving › Cost written to Shopify when a delivery arrives. The choice applies to every delivery, on the web and on the phone.

• Off: receiving writes only a cost you type at the bench, one agreed on the order, or one for a product Shopify has no cost for.
• Last cost: each delivery sets the product's cost to what this delivery cost to land: goods plus its share of freight and duty.
• Weighted average: each delivery blends its landed cost with the stock you already own. 10 owned at $10 plus 10 arriving at $20 makes the cost $15.

Only lines with a cost on the order, or a cost typed at the bench, change Shopify's cost. Every other product keeps the cost Shopify has.

Choose deliberately, because Last cost and Weighted average overwrite whatever cost Shopify holds, including one somebody typed by hand. Shopify keeps one cost per product, and your margin reports use it.

Weighted average needs your own stock locations confirmed first, on Buying › Data feeds, covered in How to send your open-to-buy file to a buying planner. Until they are, choosing it is refused with the reason.

What does the confirm window say about worked-out costs?

With Last cost or Weighted average on, each costed line is listed with its old cost and an estimate, such as 13.50 → about 14.20, and the words "cost of goods in Shopify, set to this delivery's landed cost (goods, freight and duty), once the stock lands".

For Weighted average the words read "averaged with the stock you own at this delivery's landed cost". The cost is written only once Shopify confirms the stock, so units that never arrived are never averaged in. When a cost will not change, the window's text ends "Costs:" and says why.

How do you record freight and duty?

Type them into Freight and Duty under the table, in the order's currency. Both are shared across the lines of this delivery by value, and they turn unit cost into Landed cost.

Have the freight and duty bills to hand before you confirm. These two figures are fixed once the delivery is booked, and the window says so beside the boxes.

The freight and duty you put in Order costs are an estimate. What you record here replaces that estimate once goods arrive, per How to add products and choose your columns.

How do you add the supplier's invoice?

Press Vendor invoice (it reads optional until you start) and fill in Invoice number, Invoice date, Terms, Due, Tax and Invoice total. Tideswell checks it against what arrived.

Terms starts with the supplier's payment terms, and Due works itself out from them until you type a date of your own. The invoice then appears in Buying › Bills, per How to check, record and pay supplier bills.

Fill in at least the number, date and total, or clear the section. A half-filled invoice stops Receive and names what is missing, while a delivery with no paperwork at all still goes in.

What if a product is not linked to Shopify?

The line shows an amber Link to Shopify button, and the window warns how many lines will not reach Shopify. Press the button, find the product, and the line joins the delivery properly.

Lines you leave unlinked are recorded in Tideswell only. Afterwards, Tideswell tells you how many lines that applied to, and you adjust those products in Shopify yourself.

What if more arrived than you ordered?

The line shows an amber over badge, and the confirm window states how many units are more than the order still owes.

Accept it only if the extra really turned up. If someone else may already have entered this delivery, cancel and check Receipt history first.

Where does the stock go?

To the Shopify location set as Receive to in the order's Properties panel. Left unset, it goes to the first location that ships inventory.

Set it when you have more than one warehouse. The Receive to row appears whenever Shopify has a location that ships inventory.

Does receiving move the order's stage?

Yes. The first delivery moves an order that is not yet placed to Order placed, and receiving everything moves it to Closed.

The order stays open for a late box or a correction. Your workspace can rename these stages in Settings › Stages, covered in How to move a purchase order through its stages.

What is the receipt history?

A table under the products listing every delivery: when, who, how many units, what it cost, and its status. A Landed total sits above it.

• Applied: the stock reached Shopify.
• Pending: Tideswell is still sending it.
• Failed: it did not reach Shopify, and the error shows beside it.
• Voided: someone took it back, with their reason beside it.

Pressing Receive twice, or retrying a delivery, never counts the stock twice. Tideswell recognises the same delivery and tells you it was already recorded.

How do you retry a failed delivery?

Press Retry on the row within 23 hours of the attempt, then Yes, update Shopify stock. After that the row reads Too old to retry, so check that product's stock in Shopify and correct it there.

Retry resends the stock. A worked-out cost that was waiting on that stock is written once it lands, and the confirm window lists it. Any other cost change that failed the first time is not re-sent, so change it in Shopify by hand.

Retry and Void appear only while the order is open. On a closed order, press Reopen first.

How do you void a delivery?

Press Void on an Applied or Failed delivery, for one entered twice or against the wrong order. The delivery stays in the history with your reason, and its units stop counting as received.

1. Press Void, and type a reason under Why is this being voided?
2. For an applied delivery, tick The shop is already right. only if someone has already corrected Shopify by hand. Leave it unticked to give the units back.
3. Press Void delivery. If you are giving stock back, the button reads Continue instead: press it, then Yes, give the stock back on Give this stock back to Shopify?

The row then reads Voided, followed by stock given back to Shopify or Tideswell only, no stock changed. The order's received count and landed cost go back to what they were.

How do you close an order short?

Open the order's More actions menu (⋯) and press Close short, then Yes, close short. Use it when the rest of a partly received order is never coming.

It writes off the remainder in Tideswell only and leaves Shopify stock alone, because goods that never arrived were never in your stock. Reopen in the same menu reverses it.

An order closed short still counts in the supplier's delivery record, per How to record new terms and read a supplier's performance. To cancel some products or keep the rest on order with a new date, see How to handle a backorder.

Where else can you work with deliveries?

• Track containers before they land on the order's Shipments panel, per How to track a shipment on its way.
• Count a delivery in at the bench with the iPhone app, per How to receive a delivery on your phone.
• Fix a stock count that is simply wrong with Correct stock, per How to work out a restock cost and correct a stock count.