External Inbound Shipments

External Inbound Shipments are used to receive stock from external suppliers. Typically these will be based on a Purchase Order, however you can create a manual Inbound Shipment requesting stock from an external supplier in the same way that you would when requesting from an internal supplier. For details of external inbound shipments which are not linked to a purchase order, see the Inbound shipments page.

When an External Inbound Shipment is linked to a Purchase Order it provides additional features for tracking deliveries, managing foreign currencies, and optionally authorising individual lines before receiving goods.

Viewing External Inbound Shipments🔗

External Inbound Shipments appear alongside regular Inbound Shipments in the Inbound Shipment list.

Identifying External Inbound Shipments🔗

In the Inbound Shipment list, you can distinguish External Inbound Shipments from other types by the icon shown next to the supplier name:

A truck icon indicates an External Inbound Shipment (from a Purchase Order or external supplier)
A home icon indicates an internal shipment (from another store in your mSupply system)

Creating a new External Inbound Shipment🔗

To create an External Inbound Shipment, you need an existing Purchase Order in Sent status.

Go to Replenishment > Inbound Shipment
Click the dropdown arrow next to the New Shipment button
Select New External Shipment

New External Shipment button

Select a Purchase Order🔗

A window will appear showing all Purchase Orders with a Sent status. The list displays:

Column	Description
Supplier	Name of the supplier
Number	Purchase Order number
Ref	Your reference for the Purchase Order
Comment	Any comment on the Purchase Order

Select a Purchase Order from the list. You will then have two options:

Add with all lines: Creates the External Inbound Shipment and automatically populates it with all lines from the Purchase Order. This is the recommended option in most cases.
Add with no lines: Creates an empty External Inbound Shipment linked to the Purchase Order. You can then add lines manually.

Once created, the shipment will open in the detail view with the supplier name shown in the top left corner and a status of New.

You need the Add/edit goods received permission to create External Inbound Shipments.

External Inbound Shipment Detail View🔗

The detail view for an External Inbound Shipment has several additional tabs compared to a manual Inbound Shipment:

Details: The main shipment line view
Financial: Line-by-line pricing information
Currency: Foreign currency and charges management
Delivery: Delivery tracking against the Purchase Order
Documents: Upload and manage related documents
Activity Log: View the history of changes

Details Tab🔗

The Details tab shows the shipment lines. For External Inbound Shipments, lines are grouped by PO line number rather than item code. This lets you easily see which Purchase Order line each shipment line corresponds to.

The columns shown include:

Column	Description
PO Line	The line number from the linked Purchase Order
Code	Item code
Name	Item name
Batch	Batch number
Expiry	Expiry date of the batch
Pack Size	Number of units per pack
Packs	Number of packs received
Unit Qty	Total units received
Auth Status	Line authorisation status (if authorisation is enabled)

You can change the grouping and show or hide columns using the options at the top right of the table.

Financial Tab🔗

The Financial tab provides a detailed view of pricing for each line on the shipment. This tab is only available for External Inbound Shipments.

The columns include:

Column	Description
Item Name	Name of the item
PO Line	Purchase Order line number
Pack Qty	Number of packs
Pack Size	Units per pack
Unit	Unit of measure
PO Price	Price per pack from the Purchase Order
Local Cost Price	Cost price in local currency (shown if using foreign currency)
Sell Price	Sell price per pack
Line Total	Total value for the line
Adjusted Total	Total after adjustments

Currency Tab🔗

The Currency tab allows you to manage foreign currency settings and additional charges for the shipment.

Field	Description
PO Currency	The currency of the linked Purchase Order (read-only)
Currency Rate	Exchange rate between PO currency and local currency
Charges (PO Currency)	Additional charges (e.g. freight) in the Purchase Order currency
Charges (Local Currency)	Additional charges in your local currency

The tab also shows a summary with total values and the cost adjustment percentage applied across lines.

The currency rate can be edited if the PO currency differs from your home currency.

Delivery Tab🔗

The Delivery tab provides an overview of how much of each item on the Purchase Order has been delivered, both by this shipment and any previous deliveries. This helps you track outstanding quantities.

Column	Description
Item Name	Name of the item
Previous Deliveries	Quantity delivered in previous shipments
This Delivery	Quantity on this shipment
In Transit	Quantity currently in transit
Remaining	Quantity still to be delivered
PO Quantity	Total quantity ordered on the Purchase Order

The values shown in the Delivery tab change based on the shipment status. For example, once the shipment is marked as Delivered, the quantities move from "In Transit" to "This Delivery".

Information Panel🔗

Like manual Inbound Shipments, you can open the Information Panel by clicking the More button in the top right corner. This provides access to:

Additional Info: Creator, colour, comment
Related Documents: Links to the associated Purchase Order and any other related transactions
Invoice Details: Cost totals and service charges
Transport Details: Booking or tracking reference numbers

External Inbound Shipment Status Sequence🔗

The status sequence for External Inbound Shipments is:

Status	Description	Editable
New	Initial status when the shipment is created	Yes
Shipped	Goods have been shipped and are in transit	Yes
Delivered	You have confirmed that the goods have arrived at your facility	Yes
Received	Goods have been inspected and accepted into your inventory	Yes
Verified	Final verification is complete. The shipment can no longer be edited.	No

You can skip statuses if needed. For example, you can go directly from New to Delivered if the goods arrive before you have a chance to record the shipment as shipped.

Status Transitions🔗

The Confirm button at the bottom right of the screen allows you to advance the shipment to the next status. Use the dropdown arrow to skip to a later status.

Confirm...	Current Status	Next Status
Confirm Shipped	New	Shipped
Confirm Delivered	Shipped	Delivered
Confirm Received	Delivered	Received
Confirm Verified	Received	Verified

Confirming Verified requires the Finalise goods received permission.

Hold Checkbox🔗

Located at the bottom left corner of the screen, the Hold checkbox prevents the shipment from being updated to the next status while checked.

Adding Lines to an External Inbound Shipment🔗

Auto-populated Lines from a Purchase Order🔗

If you selected Add with all lines when creating the shipment, lines will be automatically populated from the Purchase Order. These lines include the item, quantity, and pricing information from the PO.

Adding Lines Manually🔗

You can also add lines manually by clicking the Add Item button. The process is the same as for a regular Inbound Shipment with the exception that only items on the purchase order are available for adding to the external inbound shipment.

Editing a Line🔗

To edit a line, click on it to open the edit window. You can adjust:

Batch and Expiry Date
Pack Size and Packs Received
Pricing (cost price and sell price per pack)
Location for storage
Auth Status (if line authorisation is enabled - see below)

Deleting Lines🔗

Select lines by checking the box on the left of the list
Click Delete in the footer bar

Lines can only be deleted if the shipment status is below Verified.

Other Line Actions🔗

When one or more lines are selected, the following actions are available in the footer bar:

Action	Description
Delete	Delete the selected lines
Change Campaign/Program	Associate selected lines with a campaign or program
Set quantities to 0	Set pack quantities to zero for selected lines
Return selected lines	Create a supplier return for the selected lines
Approve	Set line authorisation status to Passed (if authorisation enabled)
Reject	Set line authorisation status to Rejected (if authorisation enabled)
Pending	Set line authorisation status back to Pending (if authorisation enabled)

Line Authorisation🔗

External Inbound Shipments support an optional line-level authorisation workflow. When enabled, individual lines must be approved or rejected before the shipment can be received.

Enabling Line Authorisation🔗

Line authorisation is controlled by the store preference External inbound shipment lines must be authorised. This can be enabled in Manage > Stores.

When this preference is enabled:

Lines added from a Purchase Order will start with a Pending authorisation status
An Auth Status column appears in the line list
The authorisation status is also editable in the line edit window

Authorisation Statuses🔗

Status	Description
Pending	The line is awaiting review
Passed	The line has been approved and can proceed
Rejected	The line has been rejected

Authorising Lines🔗

To change the authorisation status of a line, you can either:

Select lines in the list and use the Approve, Reject, or Pending buttons in the footer bar
Edit a line and change the Auth Status dropdown in the line edit window

Changing a line's status to Passed or Rejected requires the Authorise goods received permission. Users without this permission can only see the current status.

Impact on Status Transitions🔗

When line authorisation is enabled, the shipment cannot be confirmed as Received or Verified while any lines are still in Pending status. All lines must be either Passed or Rejected before the shipment can progress.

Receiving Stock with an External Inbound Shipment🔗

The process for receiving stock follows the same general steps as for a regular Inbound Shipment:

1. Confirm Shipped (optional)🔗

If you know the goods have been dispatched, you can confirm the shipment as Shipped. This is optional - you can skip directly to Delivered.

2. Confirm Delivered🔗

Confirm that the goods have physically arrived at your facility by clicking Confirm Delivered.

Any unallocated lines with a 0 number of packs will automatically be removed when you confirm delivery.

3. Confirm Received🔗

After inspecting the goods, confirm the shipment as Received. At this point:

Items on the shipment are added to your stock on hand
Items become available for distribution

If line authorisation is enabled, all lines must be in Passed or Rejected status before you can confirm the shipment as Received.

4. Confirm Verified🔗

Verification is the final step. Check that all information is correct:

Batch numbers and expiry dates
Quantities and pack sizes
Pricing information
Storage locations

Once verified:

The shipment status is set to Verified
Shipment lines can no longer be edited
The shipment cannot be deleted

Permissions🔗

External Inbound Shipments use a separate set of permissions from regular Inbound Shipments:

Permission	Description
View goods received	View External Inbound Shipments
Add/edit goods received	Create, edit, and delete External Inbound Shipments
Authorise goods received	Approve or reject lines (when authorisation is enabled)
Finalise goods received	Confirm the shipment as Verified

These permissions can be configured for each user in the mSupply central server.

Returning Stock from an External Inbound Shipment🔗

You can return stock received via an External Inbound Shipment by creating a Supplier Return. The process is the same as returning stock from a regular Inbound Shipment:

Open the External Inbound Shipment
Ensure the status is at least Delivered
Select the line(s) you want to return
Click Return selected lines in the footer bar
Follow the prompts to specify quantities and reasons

Upload Documents🔗

The External Inbound Shipment includes a Documents tab where you can upload and manage related documents such as delivery notes, transport documents, or temperature records. Select Upload Document at the top of the screen and choose a file to upload.

You can download or delete previously uploaded documents by selecting a document in the list and choosing the appropriate action in the footer bar.