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Receiving

Warehouse receiving for LTL shippers

Receiving is the moment a purchase order stops being a plan and becomes what actually showed up. LanePilot puts every inbound shipment in a working queue tied to the PO, checks it in line by line against what was ordered, and flags anything that does not match before it gets shelved. Built for small to mid-sized shippers who run their own inbound dock, not a paper process someone has to remember to reconcile later.

By Aaron Brown, Founder & CEO · Reviewed by Aaron Brown · Published · Updated

Before, during, after

The same three steps every time, so receiving is a working process rather than whatever the person at the dock happens to remember.

Before

The purchase order is the plan

A purchase order is created or CSV imported, with vendor, item, quantity and unit cost attached. If a preferred carrier is set for that vendor in the Receiving Guide, which comes with LanePilot Warehouse, an inbound shipment that shows up on a different carrier is flagged before anyone opens a box.

During

The dock queue is the work

Inbound shipments sit in a queue instead of a stack of paper on a clipboard. The receiver opens a PO, checks each line against what actually arrived, and records the quantity received. A line that matches moves on; a line that does not gets marked over, short or damaged with a reason, on the same screen rather than a separate form.

After

Good stock lands in inventory, honestly

What was verified as received posts to inventory with a bin location and a movement record showing where it came from. Anything held back for a discrepancy stays out of available stock until it is resolved, so the number on screen matches what is actually on the shelf.

A routine PO, worked through the queue

A purchase order for 60 units of a packaging item arrives on a pallet by LTL carrier. It shows up in the receiving queue tied to the PO. The receiver checks it in line by line: 58 units match, ready to post to inventory and get put away to a bin. 2 units arrived damaged, so that line gets marked Damaged with a reason instead of being shelved as though nothing happened. The 58 good units show up in inventory right away. The 2 damaged units go through the OS&D path from there, including the vendor chargeback letter LanePilot drafts once Warehouse is active.

What is built, what needs Warehouse, what is not built

A capability list is only useful if it says where the line actually is. Here is the line.

Built today

  • Included with Warehouse Essentials ($79/mo) or the 37-day free trial. None of it needs the full $119 Warehouse tier
  • Purchase orders created directly or CSV imported, with vendor, item, quantity and unit cost
  • A real dock queue: inbound shipments waiting to be received, worked one at a time against the PO
  • Line-by-line receiving against the PO, with full receive, undo, and a printable receiving sheet
  • OS&D capture built into the same check-in screen: over, short or damaged, each with a required reason
  • Received stock posts to inventory with a bin location and a reason-coded movement record

Needs Warehouse

  • Receiving Guide: preferred carriers set per vendor, with inbound carrier-mismatch flagging
  • The vendor chargeback letter drafted from a receiving discrepancy. LanePilot Warehouse is $119 a month, its own line item, additive to any freight plan and never a replacement for one
  • The visual warehouse map (a 3D view of your zones, racks and bins) for seeing where the good stock landed
  • LanePilot Warehouse carries no freight allowances of its own; quote credits and invoice audits still draw from whichever freight plan it is added to

Not built, do not assume it

  • LanePilot does not audit inbound freight invoices automatically. The audit engine runs on outbound freight; inbound cost is entered manually
  • LanePilot does not send, file or negotiate anything with a vendor or carrier. It drafts the chargeback letter; you send it

See the rest of the platform

OS&D receiving goes deep on the over, short and damaged exception path and the vendor chargeback letter it can lead to.

Inventory management covers what happens to a SKU after it is received: cycle counts, reorder points and movement history.

LTL TMS + WMS sees the whole platform, quoting and booking outbound freight in the same system that receives inbound freight at the dock.

Pricing has the full breakdown of LanePilot Warehouse, dock seats, and what receiving includes at each level.

Compare warehouse plans puts Warehouse Essentials and LanePilot Warehouse side by side, feature by feature.

Common questions

What is warehouse receiving software?

Software that turns receiving from a clipboard and a filing cabinet into a working process: a purchase order to check against, a queue of what is expected, and a record of what actually arrived, line by line, instead of a memory of what the driver dropped off.

Do I need LanePilot Warehouse to receive freight?

You need a LanePilot Warehouse subscription, but not the full $119 tier for receiving itself. Every warehouse account starts with a 37-day free trial, no card required. After that, purchase orders, the dock queue, line-by-line check-in against the PO, and OS&D capture with a required reason are included in Warehouse Essentials at $79 a month. LanePilot Warehouse, at $119 a month, is what turns a captured discrepancy into a drafted vendor chargeback letter and adds the visual warehouse map. Both sit additive to any freight plan, including Free, and never sold instead of one.

What happens when what arrived does not match the purchase order?

It gets marked over, short or damaged with a reason, on the same check-in screen used for every receipt. That is the OS&D path, and the detail on how it works, including the decision to make right at the dock and the vendor chargeback letter it can lead to, lives on the OS&D receiving page.

Does LanePilot audit invoices on freight I receive, the way it does on freight I ship?

Not automatically. The invoice audit engine runs on outbound freight today. On inbound freight, recovery runs through the discrepancy you capture at receiving and the vendor chargeback letter drafted from it, not an automated invoice comparison.

See LanePilot catch a billing error

Send a real outbound freight invoice and the original quote for that shipment, and LanePilot shows you what it finds. Free, no account needed. Receiving and the rest of Warehouse open up when sign-ups reopen at launch.

Run a free invoice audit

Want the receiving workflow first? See how it works or see LanePilot Warehouse pricing.