Receiving Variance
Use this page to catch supplier mistakes — things you ordered, were billed for, or received that don't line up — and see how much money is at stake.
Quick steps
- Click Reports in the top menu, then Receiving Variance (under Inventory & products).
- Set the Start date and End date (purchase orders created in that window), pick a Supplier if you like, and click Apply.
- Check the tiles across the top: Short-shipped, Over-shipped, Never ordered, Invoice disputes and Value at stake.
- Work down the table. Each row shows Ordered, Invoiced and Received side by side, and the At stake amount. Click the order number to open the purchase order.
- Click Export CSV to send the list to the supplier or your bookkeeper.
For example: you order 24, they bill you for 24, and 20 arrive. The report flags the missing 4 and what you paid for them.
Common questions
Why does every "At stake" figure start with ~? No supplier invoice is attached to those lines, so the amount is estimated from your order price. Attach the invoice through Smart Receiving to get the real figure.
A line I know is short says "Pending". Nothing has been received on that line yet. Read the Invoiced and Received columns — if you were billed and nothing came, that gap is still counted.
The report is empty. That's good news — nothing in the period disagrees. Tick Include matching lines to list every line anyway.
A supplier is missing from the dropdown. It only lists suppliers with rows in the current view. Widen the dates or tick Include matching lines.
More detail: what the report is and which orders appear
The Receiving Variance report puts three numbers side by side for every line on your purchase orders: ordered, invoiced and received. Where they disagree, you have a conversation to have with a supplier — and this report tells you which one, about which product, and for how much money.
Accessing the Report
- Click Reports in the top navigation.
- Click Receiving Variance.
- Set the date range and click Apply.
The card appears once your store has at least one purchase order (or uses scan to receive). The report opens on the current month to date.
The date range covers when the purchase order was created, not when the delivery arrived. Cancelled orders are left out entirely.
More detail: the three columns and the statuses
The Three Columns
| Column | What it is | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Ordered | How many you asked the supplier for. | The purchase order you created. |
| Invoiced | How many they billed you for. | A supplier invoice applied through Smart Receiving. Shows a dash if no invoice has been attached to that line. |
| Received | How many actually turned up and were counted in. | Receiving the order, or Scan to Receive. |
These are three different facts and the report deliberately does not merge them, because a gap between ordered and invoiced is an argument with the supplier's accounts department, while a gap between invoiced and received is an argument with their warehouse. Rolling them into one number hides both.
An example: you order 24, they bill you for 24, and 20 arrive. Ordered 24, invoiced 24, received 20 — you have paid for four units that never reached you.
Each order number links to the purchase order.
Statuses
Each row carries a status describing ordered versus received:
| Status | Meaning | Typical cause |
|---|---|---|
| Short | Some units arrived, but fewer than were ordered. | A partial shipment, a missing case, or a backorder. |
| Over | More units arrived than were ordered. | The supplier overshipped. |
| Not ordered | Something arrived that was on no line of the order. | A substitution, a sample, or a delivery meant for someone else. When you scan in an item that isn't on the order, it is added to the order as a new line with nothing ordered, so it does not vanish. The summary tile calls these Never ordered. |
| Pending | Nothing has been received against this line yet. | The delivery has not arrived, or has not been counted in. |
| Matches | Received exactly what was ordered. |
There is a situation the status column does not describe well on its own, and it is the expensive one: billed but never arrived. A line invoiced for 8 with 0 received still reads as Pending, because on the ordered-versus-received axis nothing has been received. But once an invoice names a quantity, a gap against it is a live billing dispute, so these rows are always included — read the Invoiced and Received columns, not just the status badge. For the same reason, a row can show Matches in the default view when the right amount arrived but the invoice billed a different amount.
More detail: summary tiles and value at stake
The Summary Tiles
Across the top:
| Tile | What it counts |
|---|---|
| Short-shipped | Rows with the Short status. |
| Over-shipped | Rows with the Over status. |
| Never ordered | Rows with the Not ordered status. |
| Invoice disputes | Rows where the quantity billed does not match the quantity ordered. |
| Value at stake | The At stake figures of every row in the report, added together. |
Value at Stake
The At stake column (and the Value at stake tile) is what the mismatch is worth in money.
A positive figure means the supplier owes you — you were billed for (or ordered) units that never arrived. A negative figure means more arrived than you were billed for (or ordered).
| How the row is priced | When |
|---|---|
| (Invoiced − Received) × the invoiced unit cost (or your order price if the invoice has no cost) | An invoice is attached to the line. This is the reconciled figure. |
(Ordered − Received) × the price on your purchase order, marked with a ~ | No invoice is attached. The best available estimate. |
~ means estimatedA figure shown with a tilde (for example ~$412.50) has no supplier invoice behind it. It is an estimate built from the price on your purchase order, not from anything the supplier has billed you. Attach the invoice through Smart Receiving and the number becomes real.
With no invoice attached, a line that simply hasn't been delivered yet is only listed when you tick Include matching lines — but when it is listed, its full ordered value shows as at stake, and that is added to the tile. Keep this in mind when you review an order that is still on its way.
More detail: filters and exporting
Filters
| Filter | What it does |
|---|---|
| Start date / End date | Limits to purchase orders created in that window. Defaults to the current month to date. |
| Supplier | Narrows to one supplier. The dropdown only lists suppliers who have rows in the current view. |
| Include matching lines | Off by default, so you only see rows that need attention: short, over and unexpected lines, plus any line where the invoiced quantity differs from what was received. Tick it to list every line on every order in the period. |
Click Apply after changing a filter.
The default view is an exception list — it shows you only what needs attention. Tick the box when you want a full audit of a period, or when you are checking that a specific order came in clean.
If nothing needs attention, the table says: "No variances in this period — everything ordered arrived as billed."
Exporting
Click Export CSV at the top of the page. The export follows the filters you currently have applied — date range, supplier and the include-matching-lines toggle.
The file contains one row per line with these columns:
| Column | |
|---|---|
| Order | The PO number. |
| Supplier | |
| Product | |
| Ordered | Quantity ordered. |
| Invoiced | Quantity billed. Blank where no invoice is attached. |
| Received | Quantity actually received. |
| Invoice Variance | Invoiced minus ordered. Blank where no invoice is attached. |
| Receiving Variance | Received minus invoiced. Blank where no invoice is attached. |
| Ordered vs Received | Received minus ordered. Always present. |
| Value At Stake | The money figure. The CSV does not carry the ~ marker — a row with a blank Invoiced column is an estimated value. |
| Status | short, over, unexpected, pending or ok. In the file, unexpected is a Not ordered row and ok is a Matches row. |
This is the file to send to a supplier's accounts department, or to hand to your bookkeeper at month end. See Exporting Reports for general export guidance.
More detail: using the report
Using the Report
Weekly, with a supplier on the phone. Filter to that supplier, leave the toggle off, and work down the short-shipped rows. Each one is an order number, a product and an amount.
At month end. Set the range to the whole month, export the CSV, and reconcile against the invoices you have paid. Anything with a positive value at stake is money to claim back.
When a count looks wrong. Filter to the product's supplier and look for Over and Not ordered rows — goods that came in without being on the order.
When the report is empty. That is the good outcome — nothing ordered in the period disagrees.
More detail: troubleshooting and best practices
Troubleshooting
Every "At stake" figure has a ~ in front of it.
No supplier invoices have been attached to those lines. Upload them through Smart Receiving, or the report can only ever estimate from the ordered price.
The Invoiced column is a dash for every row. Same reason. Without an invoice, Brother POS can compare ordered against received, but not against what you were charged.
A line I know is short shows as "Pending". Nothing has been received against it yet. Short only appears once some quantity has been received but less than ordered. A line invoiced for units that have not arrived at all still shows as Pending — the gap is in the Invoiced and Received columns, and in its value at stake.
Rows for an order I cancelled. Cancelled orders are excluded. If you can see it, the order is not cancelled.
A supplier is missing from the dropdown. The supplier list only contains suppliers with rows in the current date range and filter. Widen the date range or tick Include matching lines.
Best Practices
- Attach the invoice before receiving the delivery. Then all three columns are filled in from the start and the value at stake is a real figure rather than an estimate.
- Review weekly, not monthly. A short shipment is much easier to argue three days after it happened.
- Do not clear over-shipments by editing stock. The over-shipment is the record that you have goods you were not billed for. Deal with it with the supplier.
- Export before a supplier meeting. Filtered to that supplier, the CSV is the whole conversation on one page.
What's Next?
- Smart Receiving — get invoiced quantities into the system by uploading the supplier's paperwork.
- Purchase Orders — create and receive orders.
- Scan to Receive — scan the physical delivery in against an order.
- Exporting Reports — how exports work across the reporting section.
- Inventory — Turnover tab — how fast stock moves once it is on the shelf.