Excess deliveries, sales returns, material out for job-work, samples, rented crates, urgent goods with no bill. Generic inventory tools force you to fudge these; Fast Inventory has a clean document for each one, and every posting lands on the same immutable stock ledger.
Whatever the situation — receipt, return, job-work or returnable — the pattern is identical. Pick the right document, reference the source, verify before committing, and let the stock movement engine post it to the ledger.
Most stock errors start at the gate. Fast Inventory opens a goods receipt (GRN) against the purchase order and checks every line before it posts: right item, right quantity, right rate, right specification. Over-supply is flagged and segregated instead of quietly inflating on-hand, and genuinely urgent material with no bill yet can still be received on a gate-pass reference so it is never invisible while the paperwork catches up.
A return is where physical stock and the ledger drift apart in most systems — the goods come back but the account never moves, or the account is credited but the shelf is never updated. Book a customer sales return against the original invoice and Fast Inventory does both at once: the material returns to stock as a material return, and the customer is debited for the same value. Books and shelves stay in agreement, and dairy, food and distribution teams get the recurring returns-and-claims pain handled cleanly.
When raw material goes out to a subcontractor, it is still your stock — and it can come back in three different shapes. Fast Inventory issues it on an outward gate pass and tracks the quantity as outstanding, then accepts whatever returns: finished goods against the job-work reference, unprocessed excess raw material back to its own store, or a general return for partial and mixed loads. Consumed-versus-sent always reconciles, so nothing is quietly written off at the subcontractor.
Some material moves without ever being a sale. Samples given to a customer or received on a sample basis belong on a dedicated sample account, visible and valued but never mixed into saleable stock. Crates, ladders, moulds and fixtures go out on a returnable basis expecting to come back — so Fast Inventory tracks them as outstanding with whoever holds them, and closes the loop against the original outward document when they return. Overdue returnables stay on the radar instead of walking off the books.
If you run a store, you have met most of these. Here is each one, and the clean document Fast Inventory uses to handle it — no fudged adjustments, no off-book spreadsheets.
Pain: goods arrive, someone signs, quantities and rates never checked against the order. Handled: a goods receipt (GRN) opens against the PO and verifies each line before it posts stock and writes a ledger row.
Pain: returned goods and the customer account drift apart. Handled: a return against the original invoice puts stock back in and debits the customer for the same value in one step.
Pain: the supplier ships more than ordered and the surplus quietly enters stock. Handled: the GRN compares received against ordered, flags the excess, and segregates it to a hold store.
Pain: material leaves the gate for job-work and is forgotten until it doesn't come back. Handled: an outward gate pass tracks the quantity out at the subcontractor until it returns.
Pain: what went out as raw material comes back a different, finished item. Handled: the return is booked as finished goods against the job-work reference, closing out what was sent.
Pain: the subcontractor returns leftover raw material with the finished pieces. Handled: the unused balance returns to its raw-material store as a separate line, reconciling consumed against sent.
Pain: partial or mixed returns from a subcontractor have nowhere clean to land. Handled: a general job-work return slip accepts whatever comes back and keeps the outstanding balance accurate.
Pain: samples given or received sit off-book and skew stock. Handled: a dedicated sample account records material given or received on a sample basis, visible and valued, never mixed in.
Pain: crates, ladders and fixtures go out expecting to return, and no one holds the count. Handled: returnable items are issued on a returnable basis and tracked as outstanding with whoever holds them.
Pain: the return leg of a returnable never gets recorded. Handled: when the item comes back, the return closes the cycle against the original outward document; overdue returnables stay visible.
Pain: urgent material arrives with no PO or invoice, so it never enters the system on time. Handled: a receipt without a bill brings stock on-hand immediately on a gate-pass reference; paperwork reconciles later.
Pain: rejected units go back, good units come in, and the PO becomes a mess. Handled: replacement good units are received against the same PO, keeping order quantity, valuation and supplier record consistent.
A spreadsheet or a bare Tally ledger can hold a number, but it can't hold a scenario. Here is the difference — and for the wider picture, read what is inventory management software?
When you book a customer sales return against the original invoice, Fast Inventory brings the returned material back on stock as a material return and debits the customer account for the same value in one step — so your physical stock and the customer's ledger move together instead of drifting apart.
At goods receipt the GRN compares the received quantity against the ordered quantity line by line. Any excess is flagged rather than silently added to on-hand, and can be segregated to a separate hold store so you decide whether to accept, return or adjust the surplus before it inflates your stock.
Material issued to a subcontractor or customer for job-work leaves on an outward gate pass or issue and stays tracked as outstanding until it returns. It can come back as finished goods, as unprocessed excess raw material, or as a general return — each booked against the original job-work reference so consumed-versus-sent always reconciles. See the subcontractor inventory solution.
Yes. Returnable items are issued on a returnable basis and tracked as outstanding with whoever holds them. When they come back, the return closes the cycle against the original outward document, and anything overdue stays visible so nothing quietly disappears.
A receipt without a bill brings the stock on-hand immediately against a gate-pass reference, so urgent material is never invisible while the paperwork catches up. The invoice and purchase order are reconciled later against the same receipt, keeping the ledger honest throughout.
Yes — every inbound scenario has an outbound twin: a dispatch against an order, a return to a supplier, an excess or short dispatch, samples and returnables going out. Fast Inventory handles both sides on the same immutable stock ledger; heavy, directed dispatch with picklists and scan-confirm belongs to Fast WMS.
Book a live demo and we'll run your hardest case — an excess receipt, a job-work return, a returnable cycle — on the real engine. No generic slideshow.
