Deliveries

How Deliveries Work in Helm

A delivery is the receiving record. It is what your warehouse team works against when goods physically arrive, and it is the only thing that puts stock into a location. A purchase order records what you asked for and what it costs; a delivery records what turned up.

Deliveries live under Purchasing > Deliveries, and there are two types:

• Purchase Order: linked to one or more purchase orders. Items and expected quantities come from the order, and receiving against it updates that order's received figures.

• Inventory: not linked to a purchase order. Use it for stock arriving without one, such as a return from a repairer, a sample, or a transfer you did not raise an order for.

A delivery reports its own progress separately from the purchase order:

• Due In: created, nothing received yet.

• Partially Received: some quantity booked in. Helm shows Percentage Received against it.

• Received: everything expected has been booked in or cancelled.

Example scenario: a pallet arrives against a purchase order for 300 units, but only 250 are on it and the paperwork says the rest follows next week. You book in 250, leave the delivery Partially Received, and book the remaining 50 onto the same delivery when they arrive. The purchase order tracks the shortfall for you.

Before You Start

• Decide where stock is going. A delivery has a Default delivery location, and every line needs a location before its quantity can be published. Setting the default saves doing it line by line.

• Have the delivery reference to hand. The supplier's despatch note or consignment number goes in Delivery reference, and it is what you will search on later when something is queried.

• For batch-tracked or date-coded stock, know the batch numbers and expiry dates before you start, because they are captured while receiving rather than afterwards.

• You need purchasing permissions. If Deliveries is missing from your Purchasing menu, ask whoever administers Helm for your business to check your permission group.

How to Create a Delivery in Helm

There are two routes in, and which you use depends on whether the stock was ordered.

From a Purchase Order

1. Open the purchase order, select the lines that have arrived, and choose Create Delivery.

2. Choose Go to Delivery to open the new record. The items and expected quantities are already on it.

Directly Under Deliveries

1. Go to Purchasing > Deliveries and choose Create Delivery.

2. Set the Delivery type to Purchase Order or Inventory.

3. Fill in the Delivery reference, the Supplier, and the Delivery number if you use your own numbering.

4. Set the Default delivery location and the Expected delivery date.

5. Choose Create Delivery.

6. Add your items. Use Add Items and search by item name, code, barcode or purchase order number. On a Purchase Order delivery you can search by purchase order number to pull expected lines in.

Booking Goods In

The Delivery Items panel is where receiving happens. Each line shows Item Name, Purchase Order No, Location, Received Qty and Action Qty.

The distinction between those last two columns is the thing to understand:

• Received Qty is what has already been booked in and committed to stock.

• Action Qty is what you are booking in right now, and it has not touched stock yet.

1. Enter the quantity that has arrived in Action Qty for each line. To fill every selected line at once, use Fill Action Qty, and Clear Action Qty to start again.

2. If everything on the delivery arrived complete, use Mark as all received in full rather than typing each line.

3. Set a Location on any line that does not have one. Lines without a location cannot be published.

4. Publish the delivery. This is the step that moves stock into the locations you set.

Once a quantity has been published to a location, that line's location is fixed and cannot be edited. Move the stock with a movement instead.

Receiving Batches & Expiry Dates

When one line arrives as several batches, or with different expiry dates, split it rather than receiving it as one lump.

1. Select the line and choose Split Lines.

2. Use Add Split Line to create a row per batch, and set the Batch Number, Expiry Date and Qty for each.

3. Confirm with Split Lines, then receive and publish as normal.

Getting this right at goods-in is what makes date-based picking work later, because Helm can only pick the oldest stock first if it knows which batch sits in which location.

Handling Shortfalls & Cancellations

When the supplier is not going to send the rest, close the outstanding quantity off rather than leaving it expected.

1. For one line, use Cancel Item, choose a Reason and adjust the quantity.

2. For a whole delivery, use Cancel All Outstanding, which cancels every undelivered quantity on it.

3. In both cases, tick the option to cancel the quantity in the linked purchase order as well. If you skip it, the delivery closes but the purchase order still expects the stock.

Recording What Physically Arrived

Two panels capture the things you will be glad of during a supplier dispute.

Delivery Size

Delivery Size records how the goods turned up, as a Delivery Unit and a Qty. Units are Box, Pallet and Container. Recording that a purchase order arrived as two pallets rather than the three on the paperwork is often the fastest way to settle a shortage claim.

Attached Files

Attached Files holds the paperwork: despatch notes, photographs of damage, weight tickets. Use Associate Attachment to link a file to a specific product on the delivery, so a photograph of one damaged item is attached to that item rather than to the delivery in general.

Helm can also read a delivery note for you and populate the lines from it. Look for Add items from photo (AI) on the Delivery Items panel; it is covered in its own article.

Example: A Damaged Part-Delivery

1. A delivery arrives against a purchase order for 300 units. The paperwork says 300, the pallet holds 250, and 10 of those are water damaged.

2. You open the delivery and record Delivery Size as one Pallet.

3. You photograph the damage and attach it, associating the file with the affected product.

4. You enter an Action Qty of 240 for the good stock, set the location, and Publish. Stock goes up by 240.

5. You use Cancel Item on the remaining 60 with a reason, ticking the option to cancel the quantity in the linked purchase order too.

6. The delivery closes as Received, the purchase order no longer expects 60 units, and the evidence for your claim is attached to the record.

Best Practices & Notes

Publish in Sensible Batches

Publish as you work through a large delivery rather than saving it all to the end. Published quantities are safe; unpublished Action Qty is lost if the delivery is left.

Set the Default Delivery Location

Setting it once on the delivery beats setting a location on every line, and it removes the most common reason a publish fails.

Always Cancel in Both Places

A shortfall cancelled on the delivery but not on the purchase order leaves stock that will never arrive sitting in your expected figures. That error then feeds reordering.

Record the Reference Even for Inventory Deliveries

An Inventory delivery has no purchase order behind it, so the Delivery reference is the only thread back to where the stock came from. Fill it in.

Deleting a Delivery Does Not Touch the Purchase Order

If you delete a delivery, the purchase orders linked to it are unaffected. A delivery that already contains delivered products cannot be deleted at all, which protects your stock history.

FAQ

What is the difference between Received Qty and Action Qty?

Received Qty is already in stock. Action Qty is what you are about to book in and has not affected stock until you Publish.

Why can't I change the location on a line?

A quantity has already been published to that location, so it is fixed. Use a movement to move the stock somewhere else.

Can I receive stock without a purchase order?

Yes. Create a delivery with the Delivery type set to Inventory.

Can one delivery cover several purchase orders?

Yes. Add items by purchase order number and each line keeps its own Purchase Order No, so a consolidated shipment can be booked in once.

Why is my purchase order still expecting stock I cancelled?

The cancellation was applied to the delivery only. Cancel the quantity in the linked purchase order as well, using the option in the cancel dialog.

What happens if more arrives than expected?

Book in what actually arrived. Helm records the excess against the line rather than hiding it, so the discrepancy is visible when you reconcile with the supplier.

If a delivery is not updating your stock, check first that it has been published and that every line has a location. If you are still stuck, contact support with the Delivery Reference to hand.