Alright, everyone. I wanted to talk about something that doesn't get enough attention.
Receiving is the most overlooked part of operations. Mess it up there, and everything downstream gets messy. Here's how to do it right.
What happens at receiving sets the foundation for traceability, costing, and quality. Poor receiving—missing lot numbers, delayed data entry, unreconciled invoices—creates problems downstream. When a recall happens, you need to know which malt lot went into which batch. When a cost variance shows up, you need to know what you actually received and at what price. Receiving isn't clerical; it's a control point. Poor receiving practices—missing lot numbers, delayed data entry, unreconciled invoices—create problems downstream. When a recall occurs, you need to know which malt lot was used in which batch. When a cost variance appears, you need to know what you actually received and at what price. Receiving is not a clerical afterthought; it is a control point.
What Receiving Should Capture
When a shipment arrives, the receiving record should include:
- Supplier: Who sent it.
- Item: What was received—grain, hops, yeast, packaging, etc.
- Quantity: How much—bags, pounds, bales, cases.
- Lot number: If provided by the supplier. Malt, hops, and yeast often have lot codes on the COA or packaging.
- Receipt date: When it arrived.
- Location: Where it was put—grain room, cold storage, warehouse.
If the shipment includes a certificate of analysis (COA), that document should be filed and linked to the lot. The COA establishes quality parameters—alpha acids for hops, protein for malt—that may be needed later for recipe formulation or recall investigation.
The Cost of Delayed Data Entry
Many breweries receive shipments and enter them into the system hours or days later. In the meantime, that material may already be used in a batch. If the receiving record is not created until after the batch is brewed, the lot number and receipt date may be lost. The batch record will show "base malt" but not "Malt Lot X from Supplier Y, received on Date Z."
The solution is to log receiving at or near the moment of receipt. That may mean a mobile device at the dock, or a simple paper form that is transcribed within the same shift. The goal is to capture the data before it is overwritten by memory or lost in the shuffle.
Reconciling Receipts to Invoices
Suppliers send invoices. Those invoices should be reconciled to receiving records. Did you receive what you were billed for? Discrepancies—short shipments, wrong items, price errors—should be resolved before the invoice is paid. Unreconciled invoices create cost drift and inventory inaccuracy.
Reconciliation does not require complex software. A spreadsheet that matches invoice line items to receiving records can work. The critical part is the discipline: every invoice is checked against what was received.
Lot Traceability Downstream
Receiving establishes the lot. When that material is used in a batch, the batch record should reference the lot. That linkage—receipt to consumption to batch—creates the traceability chain. If a supplier alerts you to a problem with Malt Lot X, you can search your records for every batch that used that lot and every package or keg that came from those batches.
Without lot documentation at receiving, that chain is broken. You cannot trace backward from batch to receipt if the receipt never recorded the lot.
Storage Conditions and Shelf Life
For perishable or time-sensitive materials—hops, yeast, certain adjuncts—receiving should note storage conditions and, if relevant, expiration or "use by" dates. That information supports FIFO (first-in, first-out) and prevents use of degraded material. If hops are received with a COA showing alpha acids and a harvest date, that data belongs in the receiving record.
Supplier receiving and lot documentation are operational foundations. They are not glamorous, but they enable everything that follows—accurate costing, traceability, quality assurance, and compliance. The breweries that treat receiving as a control point, not a paperwork chore, will have an edge when it matters.
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How BrewLedger Supports Receiving and Lot Tracking
BrewLedger tracks items by location and quantity. Receiving can be logged as an inventory addition, with item, quantity, location, and receipt date. Lot numbers can be captured in item naming or in batch consumption records. Paired with batch tracking, you build the traceability chain from dock to package. See how it works when you are ready.