A manifest, not an ASN.
The load was announced by your own system, so both sides read the same expected quantity. That is exactly why the two counts have to be captured separately.
Reference · Returns intake
Receiving returns and internal transfers: counting what your own network sent.
When the shipper is another site in your own operation, there is no supplier to invoice and no vendor label to scan. The load arrives on an internal manifest, in totes and gaylords packed by hand, and the argument that follows is between two parts of the same company. The evidence still has to be built at the door.
The difference
How a returns intake differs from a supplier receive.
The receiving motion looks familiar. Four things underneath it are not.
Your label, not a GS1-128.
Returns and transfers carry an internal tote tag, asset tag, or route label. The barcode reads fine, but it resolves against your numbering rather than a published standard.
A handling unit, not a pallet.
The counted thing is a tote, gaylord, bin, or mixed pallet built by hand at the sending site. Its contents are not implied by its label.
Condition is the cargo.
Whether an item arrived intact is often the whole reason the unit is moving, so the picture matters as much as the count.
The symbologies are mostly the same ones on inbound freight. See the barcode and label cheat sheet for what each encodes.
The anchors
Tying an internal load to a record.
A returns intake has no purchase order and no advance ship notice. These identifiers do that work instead.
Transfer or return number.
The internal document the load moves under. Later questions get answered against this number, not a memory of which week it arrived.
Sending site and route.
Which plant, store, kiosk, or processing center released it. A shortfall that started at origin is a different conversation than one that started at your door.
Trailer, seal, door, and time.
The seal read and photographed before it is cut, which door, and when the unload started and finished. Door and time are what tie one read to one load.
Handling unit identity.
The tote, gaylord, or pallet tag naming one physical unit, read from the label rather than typed in from a clipboard.
Record the received count before it is reconciled. The original, the correction, and the reason are three separate facts.
The intake
Counting and condition-checking mixed inbound.
A gaylord of returned material is a container of unknowns until someone opens it. The order of operations is what keeps the record standing up.
Count the units first.
Read every handling unit off the trailer before anything is opened. A missing unit is cheapest to catch here.
Then count inside.
A mixed tote is counted at the item level against what the manifest says it holds. Expected, counted, and the difference are three values, not one net figure.
Condition-check as you go.
Photograph the unit as it arrived, then the damage, then the label. Name the affected quantity rather than writing off the whole unit.
A label that will not read is a finding.
An unreadable internal tag is its own discrepancy. Document it at the door with a picture, keyed in by hand and flagged.
Camera inspection of material condition as it comes off the trailer is what Trainsight does.
The record
What an intake record holds when it is questioned.
Weeks later the question is rarely how many arrived. It is which unit, from where, and in what condition.
The identifiers. Transfer or return number, sending site, trailer, seal, dock door, and the tag on each handling unit.
The two counts. Manifest and received, unit level and item level, with the difference stated plainly rather than netted out.
The pictures. The unit as it arrived, the label, the seal, and the damage where there is any, each carrying the time it was taken.
The condition call. Refused, accepted with an exception, or accepted clean, with the affected quantity named.
The people and the history. Who counted, who verified, and any correction kept alongside the original value.
The way back in. Findable by transfer number, unit tag, door, or time, without a search through three systems.
The same argument, on the supplier side, is laid out in the receiving record.
Common questions about returns and transfer intake.
What is reverse logistics receiving?
Receiving material that is moving back through your network rather than forward from a supplier: customer returns, retailer returns, kiosk pickups, and transfers between your own sites. The load arrives on an internal manifest instead of an advance ship notice, and the counterparty is another part of the same operation.
How do you receive a load that has no supplier label?
Against the tag your own network printed. A tote tag, asset tag, or route label identifies one handling unit the way an SSCC identifies a pallet, and it resolves against your numbering rather than a published standard. What matters for the record is that the identifier is read from the label rather than typed in from a clipboard.
What should a returns intake record include?
The transfer or return number, the sending site, the trailer, seal, dock door, and time, and the tag on each handling unit. Then the manifest count and the received count with the difference stated plainly, pictures of the unit, label, and any damage with their capture times, the condition call, and who counted and verified.
How should a mixed tote or gaylord be counted at intake?
In two passes. Count the handling units against the manifest before anything is opened, since that is the cheapest place to catch a missing unit. Then count the contents at the item level against what the manifest says that unit holds, recording expected, counted, and the difference as three separate values.
How is damage on returned material documented?
Photograph the unit as it arrived, then the specific damage, then the label, before the unit moves anywhere in the building. Name the affected quantity rather than writing off the whole unit, and record whether it was refused, accepted with an exception, or accepted clean.
What settles a count dispute with another site in your own network?
A per unit record rather than a total. One total can only be answered with another total, while a record showing which unit was short, at what time, at which door, next to an intact sequence of every other unit received, can be checked against the sending site pack and load records.
The intake record, built while the unit is still on the dock.
Every scan is saved with its photo and the exact time it crossed, so the unit tag, the count, and the picture are already together when a sending site reads the number differently than you do.