Goods Received Note Format

What is a Goods Received Note?

A goods received note records what physically arrived at your door — quantity, condition, batch, date — against what the purchase order said would arrive. It is the middle document in the three-way match: the order says what you asked for, the invoice says what you are being billed for, and the goods received note is the only one of the three that is evidence of reality. Without it you are paying on the supplier's word.

Warehouse and stores staff raise it at the point of receipt; retail back-of-house, hospital and laboratory stores, restaurant kitchens and construction site material controllers all run a version. Accounts payable use it to release supplier invoices for payment, and buyers use it to close purchase orders and chase short deliveries. External auditors sample these notes around the year-end date to test whether stock and liabilities were recorded in the right period, which is why the date on it matters as much as the quantities.

The note is an internal control rather than a statutory form, but it feeds records that are governed. It underpins the cut-off testing external auditors perform under whichever framework applies to your accounts — IFRS, UK GAAP, US GAAP or Ind AS. In regulated sectors the receiving record itself is prescribed: food businesses operating HACCP-based controls record delivery temperature, pharmaceutical wholesalers under good distribution practice record batch and expiry, and some medical device and aerospace chains require certificate of conformity references. Check what your sector's regulator expects at goods-in.

It does not authorise payment by itself — that comes from matching it to the order and invoice and applying your approval limits. It is not a quality acceptance where a separate inspection follows; receiving a pallet is not the same as releasing it to production. It does not waive your right to reject defects you could not have seen at the gate. And it does not prove title, which matters where goods arrive on consignment or under a retention of title clause.

What to put in a Goods Received Note

These are the details this template asks for. Anything left blank is marked in red on the preview so you can see what is still missing.

How to write a Goods Received Note

1. Count before you sign the driver's paperwork

   Check the package count against the delivery note while the vehicle is still there. If you cannot open and check the contents in the time available, write ‘received unchecked, subject to inspection’ on the carrier's copy before signing, and note the number of packages you actually took. A clean signature is treated as acceptance, and carrier claim windows are short.

2. Record ordered, received, short and damaged separately

   Use four columns, not one. Quantity ordered comes from the purchase order, quantity received from the count, and shortages, over-deliveries and damaged units each get their own figure. Collapsing them into a single received quantity hides the discrepancy your buyer needs to raise with the supplier, and the invoice then matches something that never actually happened.

3. Capture batch, expiry, serial and temperature

   Where the goods carry them, record batch or lot numbers, expiry dates, serial numbers and the delivery temperature for chilled and frozen items, with the reading and the time. This is what makes a recall a targeted withdrawal of three batches instead of a quarantine of everything on the racks. Note the certificate of conformity reference where the specification requires one.

4. Photograph and describe damage at receipt

   Write what is wrong in specific words — ‘carton 7 crushed on one corner, 4 of 12 units with cracked casings’ — and take photographs before the pallet is broken down or moved. Note the seal number and whether it was intact. Damage reported two days later, with no pictures, is almost always refused by both the carrier and the supplier.

5. Number the note and link the documents

   Give the note its own sequential number and record the purchase order number, the supplier's delivery note number, the invoice number if it travelled with the goods, and the date and time of receipt. File the supplier's delivery note with it. Accounts payable cannot match what they cannot find, and unmatched receipts are where early-payment discounts quietly disappear.

Common mistakes

• Signing the carrier's delivery note clean and finding the damage at unpacking usually ends the claim, because the signature is treated as evidence the goods arrived in good order.
• Copying the ordered quantity into the received column because it is quicker lets the three-way match pass and pays the supplier for goods that never arrived.
• Raising the note days later from paperwork rather than at the point of receipt puts receipts in the wrong accounting period and produces exactly the cut-off errors auditors look for.
• Failing to capture batch and expiry on controlled stock turns a supplier recall into a full quarantine of everything that could possibly be affected.
• Recording a purchase order number that does not exist leaves the invoice unmatched, the supplier chasing, and the account on hold at the worst possible moment.

Frequently asked questions

This page explains general practice and is not legal advice. Requirements differ between countries and, in some cases, between states — check what applies where the document will be used.

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