The pallet arrived, but the purchase order is not resolved. Some units are usable, some are damaged, and some may still be coming. A single received flag cannot explain all three conditions.
Shopify now documents receiving through an inventory transfer linked to the purchase order. The purchase order holds the commercial agreement; the transfer handles physical receiving. Accepted units become available at the destination, rejected units do not add to available inventory, and quantities still outstanding keep the transfer in progress. Shopify linked receiving workflow.
Reconcile a small shipment before scaling the workflow
We constructed one hypothetical 120-unit purchase order. The warehouse physically counts 90 units: 84 usable and six damaged. Thirty units are absent. The arithmetic is deliberately simple so the unresolved decision remains visible.
| Observation | Units | Decision still needed |
|---|---|---|
| Usable units counted | 84 | Confirm inspection and destination quantity |
| Damaged units counted | 6 | Record disposition and supporting evidence |
| Units not present | 30 | Confirm whether cancelled, backordered or unaccounted for |
The counted total is 90, not 120. The usable total is 84, not 90. And “not present” is an observation, not proof that the supplier cancelled the balance.
In this example, accept 84 units if inspection supports acceptance and record the six damaged units separately. Keep the thirty absent units unresolved while checking whether they were shipped. Shopify provides a cancel action for items never shipped by the supplier; absence alone does not establish that condition. Do not reject or cancel the thirty merely to close the record.
Give every unresolved quantity an owner
For the six damaged units, record the physical location, evidence and proposed disposition. For the thirty missing units, record the supplier question and the date an answer is needed. Keep these as separate issues even when they share one purchase order.
The brand should decide who may close the balance. A receiving operator can report what was counted without being authorized to cancel a commercial expectation. Conversely, a buyer can arrange a replacement without instructing the system how that replacement should be received.
Use a short handoff: quantity, physical observation, system action, commercial decision and next owner. This makes the gap visible without forcing the warehouse note to become a purchasing contract.
Validate the correction path
Propose a controlled test in a nonproduction environment: accept a small quantity, reject one unit, leave another unresolved, then correct a mistaken acceptance. Observe each system's on-hand, available and incoming totals after every step. Do not assume the integration mirrors a manual Shopify action.
The linked transfer and purchase order can be updated independently; changing one does not automatically change the other. Include that separation in the test. Ask the integration owner how a replacement, cancellation or mistaken receipt is reconciled across both records, and document the supported correction procedure before using it in production.
Close the issue when both the physical quantities and the remaining commercial expectation reconcile. Arrival is an event. Resolution requires an explicit decision about what is still owed.
Related reading
- A short inbound shipment: trace the discrepancy before adjusting stock
- Why Shopify and your 3PL show different inventory numbers
Sources
Accessed September 30, 2026. Recheck time-sensitive terms before publication.
- https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/products/inventory/purchase-orders/creating-inventory-transfers