One Carton Short and One Carton Crushed: Receiving a Saturday Delivery
A kirana-cum-provisions store in Pune receives its weekly delivery on Saturday at 12:30 pm, when the billing queue is nine customers deep. The vehicle brings 40 cartons of biscuits, 12 cases of detergent and 8 cartons of butter. The delivery person is in a hurry. The challan shows 40 biscuit cartons but the physical count is 39. One butter carton is crushed at the corner and the packs inside feel soft. The storeroom already holds 6 cartons of biscuits from the previous lot with a nearer best-before date, and those older cartons are stacked behind the new ones. The salesman asks the store assistant to sign the challan as received in good condition and to settle the one-carton difference later, saying the distributor will adjust it in the next delivery.
1. Describe, step by step, what you do from the moment the vehicle arrives until the delivery person leaves, including what you write on the challan and why.
Read the worked answer
Count before you sign. Nothing on the challan is signed until the count is done.
- Park the vehicle at the receiving point, not at the shop front. Ask the delivery person to wait; if he refuses, note the time and inform the manager.
- Count carton by carton against the challan and the purchase order - 39 biscuit cartons, not 40.
- Segregate the crushed butter carton. Open it and check the packs; soft butter means temperature abuse and possible quality loss.
- Write on both copies of the challan, in ink: Received 39 of 40 biscuit cartons - 1 short; 1 butter carton crushed, contents soft - not accepted for sale. Get the delivery person's signature and note his name and vehicle number.
- Do not sign received in good condition. A clean signature converts the loss into the store's problem, because the distributor's credit note will depend on the store's own remark.
- Accept only what is in good condition, or accept the damaged carton against a written credit note.
- Enter the receipt in the stock register or inward book the same day and file the challan copy.
The queue is not a reason to skip the count; a two-minute count prevents a month of argument. If staffing is short, call the manager to the counter rather than rush the receiving.
2. How will you store the two lots of biscuits and the butter so that expiry losses and quality problems are avoided?
Read the worked answer
Use FEFO - first expiry, first out - not merely FIFO.
- Biscuits: the older lot with the nearer best-before date goes in front and on the more accessible shelf; the new lot goes behind. Write the best-before date on the shelf edge or carton so the next person does not have to open every carton. Check the older lot for damage and near-expiry before stacking.
- Butter: cold chain. Move it to the refrigerator or chiller immediately, not to the ambient storeroom. Keep it off the floor, away from the door and away from strong-smelling goods. Record the temperature if the store keeps a log. If the chiller is full, that is a manager decision before the delivery is accepted, not after.
- Both: off the floor on pallets, 10-15 cm away from walls, not under a leaking ceiling or near cleaning chemicals. Stack by date, with the oldest at the front.
- Record locations and quantities on a bin card or stock register, so the next physical count matches the system.
Reasoning: the two lots will otherwise be mixed, the older lot will expire, and the loss will appear as unexplained shrinkage.
3. The salesman says: sign the challan as received in good condition and settle the one-carton difference later. Explain the risks of doing this and what you would tell him.
Read the worked answer
Refusing to sign clean is not rudeness; it is the only evidence the store will have.
If the assistant signs as received in good condition:
- The shortage of one carton becomes an unexplained stock loss in the store's books, and the store bears the cost.
- The crushed butter cannot be claimed if the packs later turn out to be spoiled, because the store accepted them.
- The promised adjustment in the next delivery is verbal. The next salesman may know nothing about it, and there is no debit note to match.
- The GST invoice and the physical stock will not reconcile, which becomes an audit and stock-control problem.
Correct approach: record the discrepancy at the door, obtain the delivery person's signature, raise a short/damaged receipt note, inform the manager, and follow up with a written debit note or credit note. If the distributor disputes it, the signed remark is the store's protection. Tell the salesman politely that a later adjustment is acceptable only when it is documented now.