Partial Shipments: Allocating What Arrived, Re-Planning What Didn't

The order total is not the supply available today

Stores can still expect the quantities assigned before an order arrived short. Repeating that planned allocation creates promises that the warehouse cannot fulfil. The immediate question is what was physically received, accepted and usable in each size, not how many units remain on the purchase order.

Beacon supports supplier notices and order context; physical receipt is a separate operational fact. Core Plus supports the allocation response. Keep the original commitment, declaration, receipt and proposed destination quantities distinct so a short arrival does not become an unexplained double count.

Reconcile the notice with the physical result

The worked order contains 800 units. A supplier notice declares 500, but the recorded usable receipt is 480. That leaves 320 against the original order: twenty declared but not received and 300 not included in the notice. These are components of the same outstanding total, not additional stock.

The example assumes all 480 received units are usable. A real receipt may include inspection holds or damage, which must be excluded as appropriate. Confirm the operational status before treating a carton count or declaration as current supply.

Keep the size-level outstanding balance visible

The order was 160 small, 320 medium, 240 large and eighty extra-large. Usable receipt is 120, 160, 160 and forty, totalling 480. Outstanding quantities are therefore forty, 160, eighty and forty, or 320 overall.

The medium shortage is the largest in units, but that alone does not select the best destination split. Check each store’s demand and sizes. The remaining 320 are still a commitment requiring supplier follow-up; they are not available units to include in today’s release.

Rebuild the destination proposal from the usable source

The earlier plan assigned 400 units each to A and B. A current proposal instead sends 280 to A and 200 to B from the received 480. At assumed rates of seventy and forty per week, those quantities represent four and five weeks of cover.

The proposed size split is A sixty/100/100/twenty and B sixty/sixty/sixty/twenty. Together they exactly reconcile to the received 120/160/160/forty. This is a worked proposal, not a recommendation to prefer A without checking its actual customer opportunity, existing stock and capacity.

A separate receiving sensitivity illustrates the importance of usable status. If twenty of the physical 480 units were held for inspection, usable source would be 460, and the 480-unit destination proposal would no longer be feasible. The size of the held units would determine the necessary revision; do not subtract ten from each store without checking.

Do not allocate the same future balance twice

When the remaining supplier quantity becomes usable, reassess store need from the current position. Do not add the original 400-per-store allocation to the new 280/200 proposal as if both were required. Existing releases and movements must remain part of the next calculation.

Core Plus provides the relevant allocation and replenishment context. The future supplier balance needs its own confirmed size and date basis. A new notice or estimated arrival still does not prove receipt, and a plan that includes it should identify its future status clearly.

Give the supplier follow-up a precise scope

Beacon keeps the discussion tied to the order and affected quantities. For this example, establish the status of the twenty missing from the declaration and the other 300 still undeclared, together with the medium-heavy size exposure. The questions differ even though the outstanding total is shared.

A quantity or date amendment requires the applicable authorised workflow. Do not treat a supplier explanation as a completed cancellation or an accepted substitute. The allocation owner needs the recorded result and usable arrival, not simply a reassuring update that the balance will follow.

Resolve the declaration discrepancy and the later supplier balance as separate follow-ups, but reconcile both to the same order. An explanation that twenty units were not in the received cartons does not authorise adding twenty to the 320 outstanding again. The stock equation and the operational status must agree.

Close today’s release and tomorrow’s intake separately

Today’s proposal uses 480 units and reconciles every size. The remaining 320 stay outside that source until their operational status supports another decision. Neither allocation approval nor a supplier declaration is represented as a completed store receipt in the animation.

Merchmix Beacon and Core Plus connect the inbound evidence and the stock response without collapsing them into one total. A useful partial-delivery review leaves the team clear about what can serve customers now, what remains promised and what evidence must arrive before another allocation.

Common questions