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All shortages of shipments ordered from outside vendors should be reported back through purchasing and to the original inside sales person who placed the order to your firm regardless of how late the date of discovery. All shortages are potentially worth money and reimbursement to your company. Shortages need to be told to vendors even if it is past their time of notice because they pay attention to a customer’s complaint especially if the volume is high enough. Even if the date may have expired, that inside sales representative who wants to make your company happy may throw in extra items free of charge on the next order or may give your company more items or a better price on the next purchase. It is always necessary to report shortages regardless when found.
Questions to ask every receiving person concerning incoming shipments:
- Do you know how to report receiving shortages on the day received while the truck is still in the dock? If you do not, who does?
- How often do you let the trucks leave and then count items later (even though you approved the shipping manifest and all of its counts)? Who authorized you to do this?
- Do you know how to report receiving shortages several weeks after the load has been accepted? Teach receiving people how to independently verify what was supposedly received. Make sure you got what your company ordered. Count products that are delivered to your company separately from shipping manifests that the driver brings with the load. You do not know if everything is there just because it is written down on a piece of paper created by someone anxious to go home.
