A goods receive note (GRN) records goods arriving from a supplier. In one document it takes the stock into a location and records what you now owe the supplier, so a single GRN both increases your inventory and raises the payable. The storekeeper, the purchasing clerk, or the owner usually enters GRNs when a delivery comes in.
A GRN posts to your accounts the moment you save it, unlike a purchase order, which only records intent. You can receive against a purchase order, which pre-fills the GRN with the outstanding ordered lines, or receive standalone with no order behind the goods. A purchase order is optional: the GRN is what actually books the stock and the debt.
A GRN records the payable by itself, so it is never followed by a Bill for the same goods. A Bill is the separate path for supplier costs that do not arrive as goods, such as services, utilities, or expenses. Receive goods on a GRN; record a non-goods cost on a Bill. Entering both for the same purchase would count the payable twice. A GRN does not take any money either: you pay the supplier later with a separate Supplier Payment.
Find GRNs under Purchase & Supplier → Goods Received Note.
Before you start
- The supplier you are receiving from must exist in Suppliers. Picking the supplier pulls in its billing and shipping addresses and its default AP account.
- An Accounts Payable account must exist in your Chart of Accounts. The GRN credits this account, and it must be of type Accounts Payable. The supplier's default AP account prefills it.
- Each line receives a product. Stock-tracked products (of inventory type Inventory) take stock in and post to their inventory account; Service and Non-Inventory products post to their expense account and move no stock. At least one product line is required to save.
- Every line needs a location (the warehouse the goods go into). The header location, if you set one, prefills each line.
- To add tax to a line, a tax payable account must be configured under Tax settings, since the tax posts there.
- You need the Create GRNs permission, granted per user under Permissions. List GRNs lets you open the screen, and Edit, Delete, View, and Print GRNs cover the rest. See Users, seats & permissions.
Receive goods on a GRN
Open a new GRN
Go to Purchase & Supplier → Goods Received Note and select New GRN. The GRN form opens full screen.
Check the template
The Template picker sits in the toolbar at the top of the form. ZyncLedger pre-selects your default GRN template, so you can usually leave it. The template decides which fields the form shows and how the printed note looks; switch it here if you keep more than one layout. See Print templates for how these are set up.
Choose the supplier
Select the Supplier (required). ZyncLedger fills the Billing Address and the Delivery Address from the supplier's record, and sets the AP Account to the supplier's default. The supplier's current Balance shows below the field for reference.
If the supplier has open purchase orders, a Select items from open Purchase Orders dialog opens so you can pull the outstanding lines onto the GRN (see Receive against a purchase order below). Close the dialog to receive standalone instead.
Confirm the AP account
Check the AP Account (required). This is the Accounts Payable account the GRN credits, that is, the account that carries what you owe the supplier. It prefills from the supplier, and the list only offers accounts of type Accounts Payable.
Set the GRN date
Enter the GRN Date (required). This is the date the receipt posts to the ledger, so it decides which period the stock and the payable fall in.
Set the transaction number
The Transaction Number identifies the GRN. How you fill it depends on the number mode for GRNs:
- Automatic (the default): the field shows Auto-generated and ZyncLedger assigns the next number when you save. Leave it alone.
- Manual: you type the number yourself. It is required and must be unique across all transactions.
See Document numbering to change the mode or set up a multi-series numbering scheme.
Add a reference and location (optional)
Fill either of these if they help:
Field What it does GRN Reference Your own reference, such as the supplier's delivery-note or invoice number. Location The warehouse the goods are received into. It prefills the location on each line, which you can still change per line. Each line must have a location before you can save. You can also edit the Billing Address and Delivery Address that prefilled from the supplier; both are optional.
Add the received lines
For each item you received, fill a row in the items table:
Column What it does Product (required) The item received. Selecting it fills the description and its last-known cost. Description The line text, prefilled from the product. Edit it for this receipt if needed. Location (required) The warehouse this line's goods go into. Defaults from the header location. Quantity (required) How many units you actually received. This is the received quantity. Cost (required) The unit cost you are charged. Use the lookup beside the field to pull a recent or agreed cost for this product and supplier. Tax % / Tax Amount A tax to add to the line, entered either way. Tax Inclusive Whether the cost already includes the tax (Inclusive) or the tax is added on top (Exclusive). Total The line value, calculated for you. A blank row waits at the bottom of the table, so a new line appears as you start filling the last one. To remove a line, select the trash icon at the end of its row. The Summary on the right totals the Subtotal, tax, and Total as you type.
Save
Select Save & New to save and start another GRN, or Save & Print to save and print this one. Use Print to print without saving and Reset to clear the form. The GRN saves with a status of Open and posts immediately.
Receive against a purchase order
If the goods were ordered on a purchase order, you can pull its outstanding lines onto the GRN instead of typing them. There are two ways in:
- From the GRN form: choose the supplier, and the Select items from open Purchase Orders dialog lists every open PO line for that supplier, with its Ordered Qty, Received Qty, and Remaining Qty. Tick the lines you are receiving, set the GRN Qty on each (it cannot exceed the remaining quantity), and select Add Selected Items.
- From the purchase order list: tick the orders and select Create GRN, which opens the GRN pre-filled with the supplier and the outstanding lines.
You do not have to receive an order in one go. Receive part now and the rest on a later GRN, and each receipt fills in the Received Quantity on the matching purchase order line and moves that order to Partial or Closed. You cannot receive more than the quantity still outstanding on a line.
What it posts
A GRN records goods coming in on credit, so it credits (increases) the Accounts Payable account in the header by the GRN total, which is what you now owe the supplier. Against that, it debits:
- Each line's inventory account for its value before tax, when the product is of inventory type Inventory. For a Service or Non-Inventory product, the line debits the product's expense account instead.
- Any tax on a line to your tax payable account.
The credit to Accounts Payable always equals the debited lines and their tax, so the entry balances. It flows through to the Trial Balance, the General Ledger, and the Balance Sheet (and the Profit & Loss for any expense-account lines).
For a stock-tracked product the GRN also receives the stock: on-hand quantity rises at each line's location, valued at the cost you entered before tax, which updates the item's moving average cost. The value sits in inventory on your balance sheet until the goods are later sold or issued, so there is no cost of goods sold at this point: you are buying, not selling.
Saving a GRN also increases the supplier's balance by the total, adding to what you owe them. That open balance is what a Supplier Payment later settles.
The GRN is saved with a status of Open, and its status then tracks how much of it you have settled:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Open | The GRN is posted and nothing has been settled against it yet. This is the status of every new GRN. |
| Partial | A Supplier Payment has settled part of the GRN, applying cash or an open GRN Credit against it, but not all of it. |
| Closed | The GRN is fully settled. |
| Deleted | The GRN has been deleted (see below). It is kept for the record but its amounts are zeroed. |
A GRN's status is about settlement, not receiving
The status above is not a receiving stage. A GRN records goods you have already received, so it starts Open and moves to Partial or Closed only as a Supplier Payment settles it, applying cash or an open GRN Credit against it. Raising a GRN Credit on its own lowers your overall balance with the supplier but does not settle a specific GRN until it is applied on a Supplier Payment. It is the linked purchase order, not the GRN, whose status tracks how much has been received.
Tips & gotchas
GRN or Bill?
Use a GRN when goods physically arrive and you want them in stock. Use a Bill for a supplier cost that never arrives as goods, such as a service, a utility, or an expense. Each records the payable on its own, so never enter both for the same purchase. A purchase order does not turn into a Bill either.
The latest cost updates the product
Saving a GRN sets the product's cost to the line cost before tax, for inventory-type products. The next time you pick that product, the new cost prefills the line.
A settled or credited GRN is locked
Once a Supplier Payment or a GRN Credit has been applied to a GRN, ZyncLedger will not let you delete it, reduce a line below its credited quantity, or change the supplier or AP account. Reverse the payment or credit first. You also cannot reduce a line's quantity below what has already been credited against it.
Deleting a GRN removes its postings
There is no reversing entry. Deleting a GRN sets its status to Deleted, removes its lines from the ledger, reverses the stock it received, lowers the supplier's balance, and rolls back the received quantity on any linked purchase order. ZyncLedger blocks the deletion if the GRN has any payment or credit applied, if any of its lines have been reconciled on a bank reconciliation, or if its date falls in a period closed by the Ledger close date, so settled and locked history stays intact.
Related
- Suppliers are the parties you receive from, and carry the addresses and default AP account the GRN uses.
- Products & Items are the lines you receive; their inventory type decides whether a line takes stock in or posts to an expense account.
- Warehouses & Locations are where the goods are received.
- Chart of Accounts holds the Accounts Payable, inventory, expense, and tax accounts a GRN posts to.
- Purchase Order is the optional order you receive against. Receiving a GRN moves its status forward.
- GRN Credit returns received goods or credits a GRN.
- Bill is the separate path for supplier costs that do not arrive as goods, such as services or expenses. It is not a follow-up to a GRN.
- Supplier Payment pays the supplier and settles their open GRNs and bills.
- Purchasing reports list your GRNs and what is still outstanding.
- Document numbering controls the GRN's transaction number.
