You placed the order. The supplier confirmed. The delivery arrived on time.
But is what arrived actually what you ordered? Is it the right quantity? The right specification? Is it fit to go straight into production or onto the shelf?
For UK manufacturers, food and beverage businesses, and distributors, the goods-in stage is where purchasing and quality management meet. It is also where a lot of businesses have a gap in their process.
The purchase order is in one system. The quality check happens on a clipboard or a spreadsheet. The stock gets booked in before anyone has confirmed it passed inspection. And if something is wrong, tracing it back to the original order takes time nobody has.
Business Central connects purchasing and quality management in one place. What you ordered, what arrived, and whether it met your standards are all visible in the same system.
Where Most Businesses Have a Problem
The purchasing process in most businesses is reasonably well controlled up to the point of delivery.
You raise a purchase order. You get approval. The order goes to the supplier. So far so good.
The problem starts when the goods arrive. At that point, the purchasing process and the quality process often diverge.
Someone books the delivery in against the purchase order. Someone else carries out a goods-in inspection, possibly on paper. If the inspection finds a problem, it gets flagged informally. The stock might already be in the system as available. The supplier might already have been marked for payment.
Untangling that is time-consuming. And if the substandard goods have already moved into production or been shipped to a customer, the consequences are more serious than an admin headache.
How Business Central Handles Goods Receipt
When a delivery arrives, your warehouse team posts a goods receipt against the open purchase order in Business Central. The system checks what was ordered, what was expected, and what has been received.
Quantities are matched against the original order. If the supplier has delivered short, over, or with the wrong items, that is visible immediately. You are not relying on someone to notice and raise it manually.
The goods receipt also triggers the next step in your process, whether that is put-away, inspection, or both. Business Central does not assume the goods are ready to use just because they have arrived.
Bringing Quality Management into the Goods-In Process
Business Central’s Quality Management functionality lets you build inspection requirements directly into your purchasing process.
You can set up quality checks that trigger automatically when goods are received from specific suppliers, for specific items, or above certain quantities. When the trigger condition is met, an inspection is required before the stock is released.
This means your warehouse team cannot book goods straight into available stock without the inspection step being completed. The process enforces the check rather than relying on someone to remember it.
What you can define for each inspection:
- The tests or checks that need to be carried out
- The acceptable results or tolerances for each test
- Who is responsible for completing the inspection
- What happens if the goods fail, whether that is rejection, quarantine, or a concession process
Results are recorded in Business Central against the goods receipt. Pass or fail, there is a permanent record linked to the original purchase order.
What Happens When Goods Fail Inspection
If an inspection finds a problem, Business Central gives you the tools to handle it properly.
Failed goods can be quarantined in a specific bin location so they cannot be picked or used in production while the situation is resolved. A non-conformance record is raised against the supplier, linked to the purchase order and the inspection result.
From there, you have options. You can return the goods to the supplier and raise a purchase return. You can negotiate a credit or a replacement. You can apply a concession if the goods are acceptable at a reduced standard.
All of this is handled within Business Central. Your purchasing team, quality team, and finance team can all see the same information without chasing each other for updates.
Supplier Performance Over Time
Individual inspection results are useful. Patterns across multiple deliveries are more useful.
Business Central records every goods receipt and every inspection result against the supplier. Over time, you build a picture of how each supplier is performing. Delivery accuracy, quality pass rates, and non-conformance frequency are all visible.
For businesses that need to demonstrate supplier qualification, whether for ISO standards, food safety certification, or pharmaceutical compliance, that data is already in the system. You are not compiling it from spreadsheets at audit time.
For purchasing decisions, supplier performance data gives you something concrete to work with. If one supplier consistently fails inspection or delivers short, you have the evidence to renegotiate terms or switch to an alternative.
Who This Is For
If your business receives goods that go into a product or a process before reaching your customer, the connection between purchasing and quality management matters.
This is particularly relevant for:
- Food and beverage businesses managing ingredient quality, shelf life, and food safety compliance
- Manufacturers receiving components or raw materials that go directly into production
- Life sciences businesses handling regulated materials with strict goods-in requirements
- Distributors managing supplier quality as part of their own service commitments to customers
In each case, what arrives from your supplier directly affects what you deliver to your customer. Business Central makes sure the connection between those two points is controlled and recorded.
FAQs
For anything not covered here, get in touch directly. We’re happy to answer questions specific to your business and your ERP requirements.
Business Central lets you set up quality inspections that trigger automatically when goods are received against a purchase order. The inspection must be completed before stock is released, linking your purchasing process and quality checks in one system.
Yes. Failed goods can be moved to a quarantine bin location in Business Central, preventing them from being picked or used in production while the issue is resolved.
Yes. Inspection results are recorded against each supplier and goods receipt. Over time, you can review delivery accuracy, quality pass rates, and non-conformance history for each supplier.
Yes. If goods fail inspection and need to be returned, you can raise a purchase return directly in Business Central linked to the original purchase order and inspection record.
Yes. Business Central supports the inspection, traceability, and supplier management requirements that underpin food safety standards. For businesses needing more advanced functionality, specialist extensions are available.
Yes. You can define inspection requirements at the item level, the supplier level, or a combination of both. This means high-risk items or suppliers with a history of quality issues can have more rigorous checks applied automatically.
Because inspection results, non-conformances, and supplier performance data are all recorded in Business Central, you have a complete, searchable audit trail. You are not compiling evidence from paper records or spreadsheets when an audit is due..
