Receiving to shipping, explained

The warehouse is where the system's planned movements become real physical handling. Purchasing decides what to buy and sales decides what to ship, but somebody still has to take material off a truck, find it a shelf, and pack it into a box. Workcell models that handling as a set of records, and every handling step writes an inventory transaction so the count always matches what is actually on the floor. This primer explains the flow; the how-to docs cover the clicks.

Two doors, plus the work in between

The warehouse runs two parallel tracks. Inbound brings material in the door and onto a shelf. Outbound takes finished orders out the door to the customer. Between them, transfers keep stock in the right place and cycle counts keep the recorded numbers honest.

Inbound: receiving and putaway

Receiving

Inbound starts at the dock. When a purchase order arrives, you receive it: you record what physically showed up, line by line, including any quantity that was bad. Posting the receipt is the moment it becomes real. It writes a receipt transaction that puts the stock into the location you received it to, usually a receiving dock or a QC hold, so it shows in inventory.

Putaway

Stock sitting on the dock is not yet where pickers can find it. Posting a receipt creates a putaway task: a piece of work to move that stock from the dock to the bin where it belongs. Completing the task writes a transfer transaction. Once the stock lands in a pickable location, it counts as available and is ready to fulfill an order.

Outbound: picking and shipping

Picking

Outbound starts from a released sales order, which becomes a shipment. First you pick it: you gather the goods, recording the quantity and the location (and lot, if the item is lot-tracked) you took them from. When every line is satisfied, the shipment is Picked and ready to go.

Shipping

Picking gathers the goods, but it does not relieve the stock. That happens when you ship. You set the carrier, service level, and tracking number, then mark the shipment shipped. This writes an issue transaction that removes the goods from inventory, records the tracking, and locks the shipment. Carriers are the shipping services you send with, set up ahead of time so they are ready to pick on the shipment. When the carrier confirms arrival, you mark it delivered.

Keeping stock in the right place

Transfers

Not every move ties to an order. A transfer moves stock from one location to another, between bins in one site or across sites. Posting it writes a transfer transaction that takes the quantity down at the source and up at the destination, so on-hand stays correct at both ends.

Cycle counts

Records drift from reality over time. A cycle count reconciles the two. You count what is physically on the shelf, the system compares it against a snapshot of what it expected, and a reviewer approves. For every line where the count differs, posting writes an adjustment transaction so the recorded quantity matches what you found.

Why every step posts a transaction

Each handling step has its own record, its own owner, and its own moment of truth. Receiving posts on receipt, putaway on completion, shipping on the mark-shipped, transfers and counts on the post. None of them silently change a number. They all write a dated inventory transaction, which means the on-hand figure is never a guess: you can always trace any quantity back to the physical action that moved it.

Ready to walk it? Start at the dock with Receive a purchase order, or jump to the outbound side with Pick and ship an order.