Recording what arrived against a purchase order is the least discussed step in the whole buying cycle and the one everything downstream depends on. It is performed by whoever takes the delivery, who works for neither purchasing nor finance, and its absence is the commonest single cause of an invoice that cannot be paid.
What a receipt records
What arrived, how much of it, against which order line, and when. Not what was expected: what actually turned up. Short deliveries, substitutions and over-shipments are all normal, and recording them accurately is what allows an invoice to be checked against reality rather than against the order's optimism.
Why it gets skipped
Because it is done under time pressure by somebody with other priorities, often on paper that then travels to an office, and because nobody has explicitly made it their job. Batched into finance a week later it is recorded from a docket rather than from observation, which loses both accuracy and the days that made it useful.
How to make it happen
Make it take seconds on whatever device is to hand at the delivery point, give it a named owner, and explain why it matters, which is that it stops suppliers being paid for goods that never arrived. Photographing a signed docket with handwritten annotations at the same time preserves evidence that otherwise disappears.
Questions people ask about purchase order receipt
Who should record receipts?
Whoever physically takes the delivery, at the time. Any arrangement that moves it later loses accuracy and adds days.
What about services?
The equivalent is a confirmation from whoever commissioned the work that it was delivered, recorded against the order.
What if a delivery is short?
Record what actually arrived. The invoice will then mismatch, which is the system working, and a credit note conversation follows.