Receive purchase orders by scanning in Shopify

How receiving by scan works#

1. Open the purchase order and press Receive delivery.
2. Press Receive by scan. Every line starts at zero, because a scanner counts up from nothing.
3. Scan the barcode on each unit. Each scan adds one to the matching line and plays a short tone. A different tone means a miss.
4. Fix anything that needs fixing. You can type a quantity on any line, enter rejected units, or use Accept all pending to fill in everything still owed.
5. Confirm. Binly adds the received quantities to Shopify inventory and writes each item's cost.

Until you press confirm, Shopify has not changed. Enter moves through the fields and never submits, so a hand counting down a pallet cannot send half a delivery by accident.

What each scan does#

Binly looks for the code as a barcode first, then as a SKU, the same rule it uses in a stocktake. A match adds one to that line, up to what the order still owes. Anything else leaves your numbers alone and tells you why under the scan box:

• The code is not on this order.
• The code fits more than one line, so Binly asks instead of guessing.
• The item is not stocked in Shopify, so there is nothing to receive against.
• Every outstanding unit on that line is already scanned.

Partial deliveries#

Receive what is in the box. The order shows ordered, received and outstanding for each line, and a delivery that falls short leaves the order marked as partial. When the rest arrives, open the same order and receive again. Each receipt is recorded with its date.

Damaged, wrong and extra units#

• Rejected units. Enter them in the Rejected column. Binly records them on the delivery but never adds them to stock, and they stay owed by the supplier, so you can chase a replacement or a credit.
• Extra units. Scanning stops at what the order owes. If the supplier sent more, type the larger number. Binly adds the extra to stock and tells you how many units went beyond the order, so you can check the delivery note.
• No purchase order. For a box with no order behind it, the receive card tallies scans into a list and writes the new on-hand quantities in one step.

What gets written to Shopify#

Confirming adds the received units to inventory with the reason received, and writes the item's cost. If you added freight and duty to the order, the cost written is the landed cost, as set out in our landed cost guide. Each confirm carries a one-time token, so a network retry cannot receive the same delivery twice.

You can print labels for the items you just received. Binly exports Dymo labels, one row per label, and it can write a scannable EAN-13 to Shopify for items that have no barcode. It never touches a barcode that already exists.

Scanner types#

The receive dialog takes input from a USB or Bluetooth scanner that types the code and presses Enter, or from a SKU you type. It runs in your browser on a computer or tablet. The phone camera scanner in Binly is part of stocktakes, and it is not in the receive dialog today.

Plans#

Purchase orders and receiving start on Starter, $12 a month for up to 4,000 products, with a 14-day trial. On Pro, $25 a month, the delivery dates you record also feed each supplier's real lead time and an order-by date. See Binly on the Shopify App Store.

Keep reading#

• Receive a purchase order in Shopify: short, damaged, late
• Binly as a Shopify purchase order app
• Working out supplier lead time from PO dates
• Barcode and price labels
• Supplier management in Shopify