The delivery note says one thing. The crate on the counter says another. A case ordered at ten units arrives at eight, a supplier substitutes a similar item without a call, or the price on the invoice — arriving days after the truck — has quietly drifted from what was quoted at order time. None of this is theft; most of it is human error moving in the supplier's favor, because nobody on either side is checking closely.
Where the gap actually opens
- Short deliveries — the case says twelve, the crate holds ten, and the invoice bills for twelve anyway
- Silent substitutions — a different cut, brand, or grade arrives with no note attached and no price adjustment
- Price drift — the invoice total doesn't match what was quoted or last paid, and nobody compares the two documents side by side
- Delivery-note-only errors — the note is right, the invoice (often generated separately, days later) isn't
A five-minute receiving ritual
Check the crate against the delivery note before it goes into the walk-in, not after — once it's put away, nobody remembers what was actually in the box. Count what matters (the expensive lines, not every garnish), check for substitutions against what was ordered, and sign only what's true. When the invoice arrives, hold it against the delivery note it belongs to, not against a general sense of what usually gets billed.
When they disagree
Note it on the delivery note itself, in writing, at the moment you notice — not from memory a week later. Photograph the crate if the count is short or the item is wrong. And deduct it: a credit note for what was actually short, not a mental note to "mention it next time." Suppliers correct patterns they see costing them money; they rarely correct patterns nobody ever raised.
The pattern only becomes visible over weeks, which is exactly why a price list that's actually kept current matters — a one-off drift is an error, a repeated one is where you renegotiate. Scanning invoices instead of re-keying them catches the drift automatically, line by line, against what was actually delivered — the full receiving method is in the supplier management guide.
