Receiving is where a purchase order pays off: the stock you ordered becomes stock you can sell. In Stockroom, receiving happens right on the purchase order - enter what arrived, and your Shopify inventory updates at the location you choose. Receive everything at once, or in as many partial deliveries as it takes. You can also record what each delivery actually cost, so your product costs stay accurate.
When a purchase order can be received
The Receive button appears on a purchase order once it's been marked as Ordered, and stays available while it's Partial (some items received, some still outstanding). Draft POs can't be received yet - mark them as ordered first.
1. Open the Receive stock card
Open the purchase order and click Receive. A Receive stock card opens right on the page:
Receive to location - where this stock is arriving. It defaults to the PO's destination, and you can pick any of your Shopify locations.
A line-by-line table showing Product, Ordered, Already received, Receive now, and Unit cost.
An Invoice # field for the supplier's invoice number on this delivery, and an optional Note (handy for "Box 2 of 3" or "2 units damaged").
On a purchase order that ships to more than one location, each line also shows a For {location} badge, so you receive the right items to the right place.
2. Enter what arrived
Receive now is pre-filled with each line's outstanding quantity - so if the full order arrived, there's nothing to change.
For a partial delivery, just lower the quantities to match what actually showed up. Lines you set to zero are skipped - you can receive them in a later delivery. Stockroom won't let you receive more than what's outstanding on a line, so quantities always stay honest against the PO.
3. Record true costs (optional)
Invoices don't always match the PO. As you receive, you can:
Edit each line's Unit cost to match the supplier invoice. This updates the receipt, not the PO - the PO stays your original agreement.
Enter the supplier Invoice # for this delivery.
If the PO has shipping or duty charges, a Landed / unit column shows what each unit truly costs once those are spread across the items. See Landed cost: what your stock really costs for the full picture.
4. Confirm
Click Receive stock. You'll see "Stock received!", and:
The purchase order's status updates - Partial if items are still outstanding, Received once everything's in.
Your Shopify inventory at the chosen location updates moments later (the update runs in the background, so give it a beat before checking the product page) - received units move from incoming to available.
The receipt is added to the Receiving history on the PO, with the date, units, location, invoice, and note.
If receiving at these costs would change a product's average cost, Stockroom offers to update your Shopify cost per item to the new weighted average - choose Receive & update costs or Receive only. (Cost updates aren't offered for POs in a different currency than your store.)
Receiving across multiple deliveries
Nothing special to set up - just repeat the flow as each delivery arrives. The Already received column keeps score, Receive now always pre-fills with what's still outstanding, and each delivery can go to a different location if needed. When the last item is received, the PO moves to Received automatically.
When the rest isn't coming
Suppliers short-ship. When you know the remaining items will never arrive, you have two ways to settle the order - both remove the missing units from the order's totals and stop them showing as incoming in Shopify:
Cancel remaining on one line - on an ordered or partially received PO, every line with items still outstanding shows a Cancel remaining button. The cancelled units drop out of the totals, the line keeps a "cancelled" note for your records, and the rest of the order stays open. Swapping in a substitute? Pair it with Add items.
Close the whole order - under More actions, click Close. Closing an order with outstanding items asks you to confirm, then cancels everything still unreceived the same way.
Stockroom also asks at the natural moment: when a delivery leaves items outstanding, an Items still on backorder prompt offers Keep open (another delivery is coming) or Close order (the supplier won't ship the rest).
Cancelling can't be undone - if the items do arrive later, add the product back with Add items and receive it. And if MyWorks Sync is connected, the reduced quantities sync to QuickBooks automatically.
Good to know
Print labels as you receive - from a receipt in the Receiving history, print one label per unit that arrived. See Print barcode and price labels.
After a PO is ordered, its lines are locked - you can still edit the Reference, Supplier invoice #, Notes, Expected arrival, and Payment due, but not the products or quantities. This keeps your receiving history accurate against what was actually ordered. You can still Add items to an ordered PO, and cancel a line's unreceived remainder with Cancel remaining.
Supplier didn't ship everything and never will? Receive what arrived, then cancel the rest - see When the rest isn't coming above. Cancelled items stop counting toward the order total and no longer show as incoming in Shopify.
Using MyWorks Sync? Receiving is the moment your purchase order becomes a real cost - connect MyWorks to send POs and bills to QuickBooks automatically.