Receive a vendor shipment

how-to ⏱ 5 min read Clinician Admin Updated 2026-08-28

Every shipment a tethered vendor sends you shows up in your Receiving queue pre-staged with lot, expiration, and quantity — you don't type any of it. Check-in is match-and-confirm, from either the facility's central Receiving page or straight out of a provider's inventory view.

Before you start

Any provider at your facility can receive a shipment; you don't need the inventory_manager role.
Have the physical boxes on hand and a camera ready — discrepancy photos are how you flag exceptions back to the vendor.

Where check-in lives

Two surfaces write through the same edge function — pick whichever is faster for your workflow.

Surface	Best for	Where
Receiving page (facility-wide)	Inventory admins working through the day's arrivals in one place	Sidebar → Receiving
Provider inventory view	Providers checking in a graft that arrived just before their next visit	Patient Management → Inventory tab, Pending Vendor Shipments section

Both surfaces list the same pending shipments and both save through clinic-receive-shipment. Records are identical — check in from wherever you already are.

The Receiving page

Sidebar → Receiving opens a facility-scoped view with four KPI tiles across the top:

Tile	What it counts
Expected today	Pending shipments with a delivery date in today's window
Awaiting check-in	Any shipment marked shipped or in transit
Open discrepancies	Line-level flags raised on prior receipts that the vendor hasn't resolved
Received this week	Shipments fully checked in over the last 7 days

Below the tiles, the All shipments table lists every shipment tied to your facility with vendor name, shipment number, line count, expected delivery, and status badge (in transit, checking in, received).

Check in a shipment

Open the shipment (click the row on the Receiving page, or Check in from the Provider inventory view). The check-in modal opens with: - Vendor name and shipment number. - Every line the vendor shipped — SKU, product name, lot, expiration, and expected quantity.
Confirm each line. For each row: - Compare the vendor's expected quantity against the physical count. - If it matches, leave Received quantity at the pre-filled value. - If it doesn't, edit the number and check the discrepancy option (short, damaged, wrong SKU, expired).
Photograph any discrepancy. The modal accepts one photo per flagged line. This becomes the evidence attached to the exception on the vendor's side.
Add notes (optional). Anything the vendor's ops team needs to know to reconcile — "outer box crushed but inner sterile packs intact", "lot A vs lot B mixed".
Confirm receipt. The shipment moves to received (perfect match) or flagged (any line has a discrepancy). Line-level status is preserved even for a flagged shipment — the accepted quantities stock immediately, only the flagged units wait.

What lands in inventory

Accepted lines create inventory_product_batches_v2 rows and become on-hand stock in Main Inventory → In Stock the moment you confirm.
Flagged lines land in Receiving History → Needs review so an inventory admin can reconcile before those units stock.
Consignment lots are stocked with ownership_model = consignment so they show on the vendor's consignment position report but count against your on-hand for wizard availability.

Provider quick-receive

The Provider inventory view (Patient Management → Inventory tab) surfaces pending shipments in a Pending Vendor Shipments card:

Shows the same shipment list as the facility Receiving page, filtered to shipments where you are on the delivery list.
Check in opens the same modal as the Receiving page — no context switch required.
Useful when a graft was just-in-time couriered for a patient you're about to see; you receive it 30 seconds before you use it, no walk to the supply room.

Discrepancies and the vendor response

Once you flag a line, the vendor's shipment moves to flagged on their side and lands in their Requests inbox with your photo and note. They resolve one of three ways:

Reship — a fresh draft shipment for the missing quantity lands in your queue.
Short-ship accepted — the balance is written off; the shipment closes.
Dispute — opens a message thread with you for reconciliation.

You're notified in either the bell or Messages whenever the vendor responds.

Aging and nudges

Pending shipments that stay uncheck-in for over 24 hours after their expected delivery date send an escalating nudge:

Day 1 overdue → notification to the facility inventory admin.
Day 3 overdue → notification to the vendor plus a red flag on the shipment.
Day 5 overdue → escalated to your facility admin.

Overdue shipments do not auto-close; someone has to check in or void them.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	What to do
Shipment not in queue	Vendor hasn't marked it shipped yet	Confirm the tracking number with the vendor; ask them to update status
Cannot open the check-in modal	Another provider is checking in the same shipment	Refresh the page; if the shipment is now `received`, someone beat you to it
Photo won't attach	File over 10 MB or unsupported format	Reshoot at lower resolution; PNG/JPG only
Received quantity doesn't decrement in Main Inventory	Stocking write failed; line landed in Needs Review	Open Receiving History → Needs review and complete the reconcile
Provider view doesn't show a shipment	You are not on the delivery list for that shipment	Use the facility Receiving page — any provider can check in from there

Create and track shipments — the vendor-side flow that fed this queue.
Main Inventory — where received stock lands.
Bulk inventory workflows — receiving without a vendor shipment (manual receive, non-vendor sources).

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