Purchase order
The commercial anchor a deduction will reference. Carry it on every line, not just a cover sheet.
Reference · Shortage evidence
Shortage chargeback evidence, assembled at the door.
A shortage claim is only as good as the record behind it. This is the field guide to assembling that record: what to identify, what to compare, what to timestamp, and what to photograph, in the order the work already happens.
The paper trail around a shortage, and what makes a receiving record strong enough to settle one, is covered on the receiving record page. The receiving record.
The failure mode
Why shortage evidence breaks down.
The argument never happens on the day it happens. The count is short, someone keys a number, the load moves. Weeks later the supplier says the load was complete, and the only thing between the two accounts is whatever your team wrote down. Records thin out in the same three places: identity kept at the load level instead of the pallet, quantity entered once from memory with no time behind it, and no image behind any of it. None of that is carelessness, it is throughput, but the cost is invisible until money is withheld, and by then the evidence either exists or it does not.
The identity block
Identify the load down to the pallet.
Every field below narrows the claim from "the shipment" to "this unit," and narrow claims are the ones that survive review.
Trailer and carrier
Trailer, carrier, and seal as read at arrival. It separates a shortage that happened before your door from one alleged to have happened after it.
Handling unit and SSCC
A pallet identifier plus the supplier's own SSCC, scanned as read. One pallet, one SKU, one countable quantity, quoted back in the supplier's own number.
Lot and SKU
Recorded per unit, so a shortage can be matched against the supplier's own production and pick records.
The comparison and the clock
Compare it, and let scans carry the time.
A shortage record is a comparison: expected quantity from the purchase order and advance ship notice, received quantity from the floor, both written at the same level of detail, per handling unit rather than per load. Roll the variances up to a total only after; a total built that direction is always defensible, because every number inside it points at something specific.
A scan event fixes the weakest part of most records: the time. Each scan gives the label as read, the moment it was read, and the door, three fields that put a pallet in a specific place at a specific minute, in the order it came off the trailer. Keep that sequence intact: an unbroken run of reads with one unit missing from the middle is stronger evidence than a final count that came up short.
The condition record
Photograph the condition, not just the count.
An image is the one artifact nobody argues with.
Seal
Photograph it before it is cut, number legible, checked against the bill of lading.
Label
Capture the license plate as read. A damaged or duplicated label separates "missing" from "unreadable."
Pallet
One frame per handling unit as it came off the trailer, taken at the moment of the read, not later in staging.
The corrections
Preserve corrections instead of hiding them.
Counts get corrected: a recount finds the fourth case, a keying error turns 48 into 84. Keep the original entry, the corrected entry, who made the change, when, and why. A record that shows a correction reads as controlled; a record with one tidy number and no history reads as whatever the reviewer already suspects. The capture time always comes from the capture, never from the correction.
This is the record Flowtally builds while the receive happens: each scan read at a covered door triggers the photo, and the fields above are already filled in before the deduction letter arrives. Questions go to contact@industrialnative.com.
Common questions about shortage evidence.
What evidence supports a shortage chargeback?
The purchase order and the advance ship notice establish what was expected. The bill of lading and the delivery receipt establish what the carrier moved and handed over. The receiving record establishes what physically came off the trailer, and it carries the weight when the two sides disagree, provided it is written per handling unit, timestamped at capture, and backed by images.
Is a final receiving count enough to document a shortage?
Usually not. A single total says a difference exists but not where it occurred, so it can only be answered with another total. A per unit record shows which pallet was missing or short, at what time, at which door, next to an intact sequence of every other unit received, which a supplier can verify against their own pick and load records.
How do SSCC scans strengthen shortage evidence?
The SSCC in the GS1-128 label is the supplier's own unique number for that pallet, so a scanned SSCC is their identifier, read from their label, recorded on your dock. It ties directly to the advance ship notice line, and captured as a scan rather than a retyped figure it carries no transcription risk.