Recording deliveries properly: why it matters
5 min read · Operations · Published by Stockt
Your stock take is only as accurate as the delivery data behind it. If you don't know exactly what came in, you can't know exactly what went out.
The delivery gap
Most hospitality businesses have a process for stock takes and a process for ordering. Very few have a reliable process for recording deliveries. Stock arrives, gets signed for and goes into the cellar or dry store. Whether it matches what was ordered and what was invoiced is rarely checked in any systematic way.
This creates a gap between your ordered stock, your received stock and your invoiced stock. That gap is where money disappears.
What happens when deliveries aren't recorded properly
Your stock take variance figures are meaningless
If you counted 10 bottles of gin last week, sold 3 and counted 6 this week, your variance is 1. But if a delivery of 2 bottles wasn't recorded, your actual variance is 3. Without accurate delivery records, variance analysis tells you nothing useful.
You can't hold suppliers accountable
Short deliveries happen. Incorrect items get sent. Without a record of what actually arrived, you have no basis for querying an invoice or chasing a supplier for missing stock.
Your suggested orders become unreliable
If your system thinks you have 8 bottles of house gin when you actually have 10 because a delivery wasn't logged, it will suggest an order you don't need. Over time, unrecorded deliveries lead to consistent over-ordering.
Discrepancies can't be investigated
When a manager asks why you're 20 bottles of wine down compared to last month, the answer is somewhere in the combination of sales, waste, spillage and delivery records. Without the delivery data, you can only answer part of the question.
What good delivery recording looks like
Every delivery is recorded against the original order at the time it arrives.
Quantities received are confirmed individually, not just the total.
Discrepancies between ordered and received quantities are flagged and noted.
Delivery records are stored against the supplier for reference.
Inventory updates automatically when a delivery is confirmed.
How Stockt handles deliveries
In Stockt, deliveries are recorded against the original order. Staff confirm what arrived, flag any discrepancies and the inventory updates automatically. Every delivery is logged against the supplier so you have a complete history of what came in, when it arrived and whether it matched what was ordered.
This closes the loop between ordering and receiving, and gives you the accurate data you need for stock takes, variance reporting and supplier accountability.
Close the loop on deliveries.
See how Stockt handles delivery recording for hospitality operators.