Inventory Deliveries

An Inventory delivery is how you tell CifraHQ that goods have left your warehouse. Posting it does two things simultaneously: your Inventory balance decreases and an Accounting entry is created — so your cost of goods is recognized the moment you ship, not when you invoice. From there, generating the customer invoice takes a single click.

How to create an Inventory Delivery

From a Sales Order (recommended):

1. Open a confirmed Sales Order.
2. Click Delivery — CifraHQ creates a delivery with all order lines pre-filled.
3. Adjust quantities if you are shipping a partial order.
4. Post the delivery.

Manually:

1. Go to Sales > Deliveries.
2. Click the + Data Entry button and select New.
3. Select the Customer and the Warehouse goods are shipping from.
4. Set the Posting Date (defaults to today).
5. Click Add SO Line to pull quantities from an open sales order — or add lines manually.
6. Review quantities and prices for each line.
7. CifraHQ assigns a delivery number automatically on save.

Field reference

• Customer — locked after creation; determines which sales order lines are available to add.
• Warehouse — where Inventory is reduced on posting; locked after creation.
• Posting Date — the date your Inventory balance is updated and the Accounting entry is recorded. Back-date this if goods shipped yesterday and you want the cost recognized in that period.
• Reference Number — optional; enter a tracking number, packing slip reference, or carrier code so the delivery can be traced back to the physical shipment.

Document lifecycle

What happens next

After posting, click Generate Invoice on the delivery to create a Customer Invoice automatically. CifraHQ copies all lines, amounts, customer, and terms — no re-entry needed.

Taking goods back against a delivery

If a customer sends goods back, click Return on a posted delivery to create a Customer Return. Use this when the goods come back before you have invoiced them — there is no invoice to return against yet.

CifraHQ fills the return with the quantities that have not already come back. If part of the shipment was returned earlier, only the balance is offered, whether that earlier return was raised against this delivery or against its invoice. The same goods can never be credited twice.

• Goods return to the delivery's own warehouse, so there is nothing to choose.
• Prices come from the sales order the delivery was picked from. A delivery entered directly, with no sales order behind it, has no price to inherit — those lines arrive at zero for you to price before releasing the return.
• If the delivery already has a return that is still open, CifraHQ asks you to finish that one first rather than starting a second.
• Once every line has been returned, the button Reports that there is nothing left to take back.

You can still return against the invoice instead — see Customer Returns. Use whichever document the customer is referring to; the quantities stay in step either way.

Tips

• For pack-size items, enter the number of packs shipped. CifraHQ calculates the unit quantity automatically — so if you ship 5 cases of 24, your Inventory drops by 120 units.
• You can ship partial quantities against a sales order. The order stays open for the remaining amount, so you can create another delivery when the balance ships.
• For lot-, serial-, or expiry-controlled Products, enter tracking details per line before posting — these cannot be added after the delivery is posted.
• If a customer's order ships in multiple runs, create a separate delivery for each shipment against the same sales order. Each posts independently with its own date and Accounting entry.

Related: Sales Orders · Invoices · Customers · Products · Inventory by Location · Warehouses · Audit Trail