How to use a barcode scanner to manage your deliveries
Stock management · 26 May 2026 · 5 min read
Why delivery management matters more than most people think
Every time a delivery comes in and gets counted wrong, you're working with inaccurate stock levels for days or weeks until someone notices. That inaccuracy flows into your briefings, your reorder decisions, and your waste tracking.
The good news: booking in deliveries accurately doesn't have to be slow. With a barcode scanner and the right process, most deliveries can be logged in 5–10 minutes — faster than counting by hand, and significantly more accurate.
The basic scanning workflow
When a delivery arrives, open the scanner in INV3NTORY and switch to "Book in delivery" mode. Scan each item as you unpack it from the box. For each product, the system looks up the barcode and adds one unit to your stock. If the same barcode is on a case of 24, you scan the case barcode and specify the unit count.
When you're done scanning, you'll see a summary: every product scanned, the quantity added, and the new stock level. Confirm and the adjustment is logged — with a timestamp and your name attached.
Handling supplier invoices
The most powerful workflow is matching a delivery against a supplier invoice. Upload the invoice PDF or CSV from your supplier, and INV3NTORY matches the line items to your product range.
For items that match, it pre-fills the expected quantities. You scan to confirm (or adjust if the actual delivery is short). For items that don't match — either because they're new products or because the product name differs — you can add them or skip and resolve later.
This is particularly useful for catching short deliveries. If a supplier invoices you for 12 units but only delivered 10, the discrepancy gets flagged during scanning, not discovered three days later when you run out sooner than expected.
What to do with unknown barcodes
Unknown barcodes — products not yet in your system — come up regularly when you're stocking new lines or receiving seasonal items for the first time.
The right approach: when an unknown barcode is scanned, add the product on the spot. Name it, set the category, add the cost and sell price, and continue scanning. The new product is created and the delivery quantity is added in one step. Don't skip unknown items to handle later — that's how stock gaps accumulate.
Multipacks and case packs
One of the more common sources of confusion is case packs. You might receive a case of 24 cans with its own barcode, but you're selling individual cans. When you set up the product, create a mapping: the case barcode = 24 units of the individual product. Next time you scan that case barcode, 24 units are added automatically.
This works for anything sold in multipacks: a shelf-ready pack of 6 bags of crisps, a tray of 48 chocolate bars, a crate of 12 bottles. Set it up once per product and it works every time.