Fast Receiving for Inbound Orders with Many Items
Table of Contents
- 1. What This Scenario Is
- 2. How to Set It Up in the System
- 3. What Daily Operations Look Like
- 4. Boundaries and Related Features
1. What This Scenario Is
An inbound order can easily carry hundreds of items (for example, e-commerce replenishment or stocking a new store). When the goods arrive, most items match the order exactly; only a few really need checking on site — products whose batch, expiration date, or serial numbers must be recorded, or items whose actual quantity doesn't match the order. If every item has to be opened and submitted one row at a time in Inbound Acceptance, the receiving dock gets stuck on repetitive clicks while the truck waits to unload and other orders queue up.
The system's approach is to accept all the items that arrived as planned and need no on-site input in one go, and keep staff time for the items that truly need individual checks. The key is the order of work: handle the items with conditions or discrepancies one by one first, then accept the rest at once.
| Business situation | Problem to solve | Feature used |
|---|---|---|
| Many items, most arrived as planned | Opening and submitting each row is too slow | "Verify all remaining" on Inbound Acceptance |
| A few items need batch / expiration / serial numbers recorded, or quantities differ | These items can't be accepted straight from the order | Handle them item by item first, then accept the rest at once |
2. How to Set It Up in the System
Quick jump: Decide which items need individual acceptance ｜ Handle items with conditions or discrepancies ｜ Accept the remaining items at once
2.1 Decide Which Items Need Individual Acceptance
What keeps an item out of accepting all at once is the product and merchant settings, not whether the order carries a value:
- The product requires a batch or manufacturing date, or its "Validity Days" is above 0 — set in Edit Product.
- The product requires serial numbers and the merchant's "Serial Tracking Policy" is "Full lifecycle" — set in Merchant Details; merchants on "Outbound only" don't collect serial numbers at inbound and aren't affected.
- The merchant has a required inventory custom attribute.
Even if the inbound order already carries the batch or expiration date, an item whose product makes it required still needs individual confirmation. This is deliberate: these fields decide how inventory is split into batches, so staff must confirm them against the physical goods rather than copy them from the order.
2.2 Handle Items with Conditions or Discrepancies Item by Item
On Inbound Acceptance, the status bar shows next to the button how many items need individual acceptance; hover over it to see which items and which fields. Submit those items one by one following Count and Fill Item by Item. Items whose actual quantity differs from the order, or that you confirm didn't arrive (accepted as 0), are also entered as they are in this step.
2.3 Accept the Remaining Items at Once
Once the items with conditions are done, the button becomes available. After you press it, a confirmation dialog states how many items will be accepted; once confirmed, the remaining items are accepted at their planned quantities, with batch, expiration date, and similar values taken from the order. See Accept All Remaining Items at Once for the details.
3. What Daily Operations Look Like
Quick jump: Accepted items are left untouched ｜ All or nothing ｜ Processed in the background ｜ How it relates to closing
3.1 Accepted Items Are Left Untouched
Accepting all remaining items only covers items with no receiving record yet. Items already submitted one by one, accepted as 0, or received in an earlier round that was closed stay as they are — they are neither topped up nor reset to the planned quantity. So the "individual first, then all at once" order never double-counts; to change an item's number later, open that item and use "Edit Receipt".
3.2 All or Nothing
If any item fails after submitting (for example the product master is missing a product attribute the merchant made required, the product lacks data needed for billing, or the product is deactivated), no item is accepted this time, and the screen lists each failed item with its reason. Fix them where indicated and press the button again. This avoids a "half received" order: staff never have to guess which items made it in and which didn't.
3.3 Processed in the Background
With many items, processing takes a while, so after you submit, the system handles it in the background: the button changes to "Verifying all remaining items" and can't be pressed again for now, and you can check the result under "Background Tasks"; if you stay on this order, the screen shows the result when it finishes and refreshes automatically.
While it runs, this order is locked: don't accept items one by one or close this order at the same time — those actions wait in line until it finishes, and on orders with many items they may wait a long time or even time out. Other inbound orders aren't affected and can be worked on as usual.
3.4 How It Relates to Closing
Accepting all remaining items only records what was received; it doesn't close anything. Afterwards, use "Finalize" as usual and choose "Finalize This Receipt" or "Close Entire Inbound" (see Close This Round / the Whole Order); when every planned item is fully received, the completion prompt still appears. In dynamic-location warehouses the goods go to the receiving staging area first, and other warehouses still don't put away automatically — the putaway flow afterwards is the same as for item-by-item acceptance (see Putaway After Closing).
4. Boundaries and Related Features
4.1 Scope Boundaries
- Available only on the Inbound Acceptance page of the warehouse operations system; the handheld App has no accept-all feature.
- Items can only be accepted at their planned quantities. Items with a different actual quantity must be entered individually first; they can't be adjusted while accepting all at once.
- The button appears only when the inbound order status is Pending or Receiving and there are still unaccepted items; edit permission for inbound orders is required.
- If the same order is open in another tab or on another device, that screen won't update automatically — refresh it before continuing.
4.2 Related Features
| Feature | Purpose | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Inbound Acceptance | Accept item by item, accept all remaining items, and close | Go |
| Edit Product | Set required batch and manufacturing date, and validity days | Go |
| Merchant Details | Set the serial tracking scope | Go |
| Inventory Custom Attributes | Set the merchant's required inventory attributes | Go |
| Inbound Operation | The overall inbound flow from order creation to putaway | Go |