The supplier delivered extra units: decide what the tolerance actually permits

When a supplier sends more than ordered, the first task is to establish what arrived. Count the goods, confirm the item and unit of measure, and compare the shipment with the purchase order and earlier receipts. Preserve the excess in a controlled receiving record while the buyer decides its commercial treatment.

Do not force the physical count down to the ordered quantity to avoid an exception. That creates unrecorded goods in the warehouse. Equally, entering every delivered unit as an ordinary accepted purchase can imply an approval that nobody has given. Use the business's supported process to distinguish custody from accepted, available inventory while the discrepancy is resolved.

The extra units may be a packing error, an agreed production tolerance, an uncommunicated order change, a bonus or a duplicate shipment. Similar-looking differences can therefore require different actions. The supplier's packing slip identifies what it says it sent; it does not explain why the company should buy the excess.

Find any contract provision allowing more or fewer units, including its quantity basis, pricing and acceptance conditions. Check whether the buyer approved an amendment and whether that approval reached the receiving team. A commercial tolerance should be supported by the actual agreement rather than inferred from a percentage entered in software.

Microsoft's Dynamics 365 Commerce documentation describes over-receiving validation against purchase-order line settings. Its workflow can reject quantities when overdelivery is not configured or exceeds the configured tolerance. The documentation also warns against adding another line as a workaround for excess quantities on an existing line. These are product controls; they do not decide the supplier's contractual entitlement.

Determine whether a system setting represents a warning, a hard limit or another configured response in the application being used. Confirm which users may override it and what evidence the business requires. A successful receipt posting proves that the application accepted the transaction, not that purchasing approved the extra commitment.

Avoid changing a general item tolerance to resolve one delivery unless the authorized owner intends that policy change. A quick adjustment made for a single shipment can allow future overdeliveries across unrelated orders. A specific approved amendment or exception may be the more accurate record.

Evaluate the order as a whole, not only today's truck. Compare ordered quantity, approved changes, prior accepted receipts, prior returns and the new delivery. An overdelivery test applied separately to each partial shipment can permit more excess than the approved overall limit.

Suppose a hypothetical order is for 1,000 individual units and the agreed maximum is 2% above the order quantity. The upper quantity under that assumed term is 1,020. If 600 units were previously accepted and the next delivery contains 430, cumulative delivery is 1,030. The new shipment is 30 above the original remainder and ten above the assumed upper limit.

The fact that 430 is below the original 1,000-unit order does not make it a valid receipt without further review. The relevant comparison includes the earlier 600. Keep any returns visible rather than subtracting them automatically: the contract and system may treat a replacement obligation differently from unused tolerance.

Confirm pack size before calculating the percentage. An order for 100 cases of ten units and a delivery of 105 cases means 50 extra units, not five. If the supplier changed the pack size, resolve that identity and conversion issue before deciding whether the delivery is within an agreed tolerance.

The buyer should assess demand, storage, condition, expiry and cash commitment. A few excess units of a rapidly consumed component may be practical to keep; the same percentage of a short-life or customer-specific item may create avoidable waste. The arithmetic limit is only one part of the decision.

Confirm the price of accepted excess units. Do not assume they are free because they were not ordered, or that they qualify for the original unit price without agreement. If the supplier intended a bonus, obtain the relevant promotion or written confirmation and reconcile that arrangement separately.

For the illustrative order, assume the buyer approves keeping 1,020 units at $8 each and the supplier agrees to collect the remaining ten at no additional charge. Accepted purchase value is $8,160 before other applicable items. The goods physically on site may temporarily include the ten awaiting collection, but they should remain identifiable outside the accepted saleable population.

If the supplier instead invoices all 1,030 units at $8, the bill is $8,240 and the disputed difference is $80. That comparison depends on the assumed approval and collection agreement. It is not a general rule that a customer may unilaterally refuse payment whenever a system tolerance is exceeded.

Update the purchase record through the supported approval process. Preserve the original order, the excess-delivery evidence and the decision to accept or return. Receiving should reflect the actual accepted quantity and any separately controlled goods awaiting resolution, without erasing the initial discrepancy.

Give accounts payable the approved quantity and price, invoice reference and expected correction. If the invoice is posted before the dispute is resolved, have the accountant determine the appropriate treatment and payment handling. A receiving exception alone does not settle recognition, ownership or legal responsibility for the goods.

Track the agreed return until collection or delivery back to the supplier is evidenced. Link it to any credit or corrected invoice. Removing ten units from available stock does not prove the supplier collected them, and obtaining a collection signature does not prove the invoice was adjusted.

Check planning after the decision. The additional accepted quantity can affect reorder suggestions or another open purchase. Update forecasts and reservations through the normal process so the company does not keep the excess and then buy the same requirement again on the original plan.

Look for patterns by supplier, item and cause. The supplier may ship full packs while purchasing orders individual quantities, or production may regularly create a small overrun under terms that were never entered correctly. Fix the mismatch between commercial practice and the order data where the evidence supports it.

Do not treat every repeated exception as harmless. Frequent excess of a slow-moving item can transfer the supplier's inventory problem to the buyer. Purchasing should review whether the agreement still serves the business, including who bears transport and handling costs when excess goods are rejected.

Review overrides as decisions, with approver and reason. A log of tolerances changed after each arrival can reveal that staff are using configuration to clear work rather than operating an agreed rule. The correction may require clearer authority or better order confirmation, not a larger default percentage.

Provide the provider with cumulative receipt history, approved tolerance terms and the buyer's acceptance decision. A three-document match can still be misleading if the purchase order was changed solely to equal the invoice without approval. Ask the preparer to identify the amendment evidence as well as the matching total.

Use a sample with two partial deliveries and an excess awaiting collection. The provider should show the accepted payable, the separate physical holding and the unresolved credit or invoice correction. That demonstrates whether it understands the decision rather than simply treating all recorded receipts as approved purchases.

Close the exception when the kept quantity, returned quantity, supplier bill and stock availability agree with the approved outcome. Retain the history so the next delivery can be assessed against the actual remaining commitment, with neither hidden excess stock nor an unexplained supplier balance.