Goods-in inspection · Incoming inspection · UK
Goods-in inspection software records what you checked when a delivery arrived and what you decided about it. A usable one holds the count against the order, the certificate of conformity and cast number, the measurements with the limits they were judged against, the gauge that took them and whether it was in calibration, the disposition and the name against it.
Most small manufacturers keep three of those in three places. The count is in the ERP, the certificate is in a lever arch file and the measurements are on a receiver sheet in a tray. It works right up until a customer asks you to produce eight months of it for one supplier.
Send me the sheet you use now and I will tell you in writing what it would take to replace it, free.
See it working
A made-up machine shop taking in 250 stainless brackets. Count them, record the certificate, measure three characteristics off the drawing, pick the gauge, decide what happens to the delivery, sign it. The demo is live with example data, there is nothing to sign up for and nothing is saved.
It opens with a short delivery and a dimension out of tolerance on purpose, because that is the version worth seeing.
The record itself
Not a feature list. These are the specific things an auditor or a customer asks for and the ones a receiver sheet usually cannot produce.
The honest explanation
I want to be fair to the spreadsheet, because plenty of software marketing is not. For a firm taking in two deliveries a week, a sheet with a row per delivery is genuinely the right answer and replacing it would be a waste of money. What follows is about what happens when the volume rises and several people start touching it.
The sheet has a column that says the cert was received. The cert is a PDF in a folder, or paper in a file, named by whoever saved it. Producing a specific one two years later means knowing where that person filed things.
A spreadsheet cannot refuse. Somebody types 250 in the received column because 250 was ordered and the two that were missing surface a fortnight later as a stock discrepancy nobody can explain.
Most receiver sheets have a box for the reading and no box for what took it. If that gauge later turns out to have been overdue, there is no practical way to find out which deliveries it touched.
Material goes into quarantine and stays there because the row that says so is only visible to somebody who opens the file and scrolls. Nothing makes waiting visible.
Read this before you spend anything
This is the first thing to settle. Settling it might save you the whole cost of this page.
Booking a delivery in is a stock transaction. Your ERP or MRP records that 250 arrived against a purchase order, updates the stock figure and lines the receipt up against the invoice. That is a different job from recording that three characteristics were measured, which gauge took them, whether that gauge was in date and who accepted the material. Some systems hold both. Plenty hold only the first.
So ask your ERP supplier first. Ask whether there is an inspection module, what it actually holds, whether it charges per seat for someone who only needs to look and how long it takes to turn on. If it does the job at a sensible price, buy it. It will be cheaper than hiring me and I would rather tell you that now than halfway through a build.
Where firms end up talking to me is one of three answers. The module does not exist. It exists but is quoted per user, so putting it in front of a storeman doubles the licence. Or it exists and is part of an upgrade priced and timetabled like a new system, when the problem you have is one sheet on a clipboard.
Why the gauge matters here
ISO 9001:2015 deals with measurement traceability at clause 7.1.5.2. In practice what that means at goods-in is simple. If you record a bore at 8.02mm, the record is worth something only if you can also show what measured it and that the gauge was in calibration on the day.
Almost nobody joins those two records up. The calibration schedule is its own spreadsheet, kept by one person, turning a cell red only for whoever opens it. The inspection record is somewhere else entirely. Nothing connects them, so the awkward question after a gauge is found overdue is impossible to answer: which deliveries did we accept using it?
Built as one thing, the gauge is picked from the register at the point of measurement and the record carries its calibration status. An out of date gauge stops the sign-off rather than being found later. That is the part the demo shows most clearly and it is the reason a goods-in record and a calibration register belong in the same application rather than in two.
Calibration can be built as its own part of the same job, quoted separately. It is not included in the starting price and I would rather say so here than in a proposal.
How the job runs
The spreadsheet, a photograph of the receiver sheet, or a description if it is neither. I work from copies and your originals are never touched.
Free, in writing, covering what would be built, what would not and your actual price. Read it and decide against it. You have lost nothing.
Two weeks from sign-off for a normal job. Same fields you use now, same numbering, with the history brought across.
Thirty days of fixes included. Small changes get made in that time, which is where a plan gets corrected cheaply.
What it costs
Build, one payment split in twoFrom £1,950
A goods-in record with a count, a certificate field and a signature is not the same job as one with sampling plans, supplier scorecards, linked non-conformances and a calibration register behind it. Quoting one price for both would mean either promising a number I cannot build to, or charging the simple jobs to cover the hard ones.
So the blueprint comes first and it is free. You get the real figure in writing before you commit anything and it is fixed once you accept it. It does not move because the work turned out harder than I expected. Quotes hold for 30 days.
One caveat, stated plainly. Historic data comes across as it is. If four years of typing has left three spellings of the same supplier name, those three spellings arrive with it. I will tell you what I spot, but I cannot warrant data I did not enter.
Where the line is
None of it is off the table. It is simply more work, so it costs more and takes longer. You should hear that before you spend anything.
Who builds it
I am a working quality inspector. I have spent my career inside job card systems where everything signed off has to be traceable and where somebody can come back years later and ask who did it, when, against what criteria and with what evidence. Goods-in is a job I have done rather than a workflow I have read about.
That is the whole reason to pick me over a developer who has never stood at a goods-in bay. It also means I will tell you when the answer is to keep what you have, which is a thing an agency has no reason to say.
I work alone. There is no account manager and no ticket number and if that is a problem for the size of job you have in mind, better to know now.
Questions
Goods-in inspection software, also called incoming inspection software, records what you checked when a delivery arrived and what you decided about it. A usable one holds the quantity counted against the order, the certificate of conformity and cast or batch number, any measurements taken with the limits they were judged against, the gauge used and whether it was in calibration, the disposition and who signed it. It replaces a spreadsheet or a paper receiver sheet.
ISO 9001:2015 does not name goods-in inspection or prescribe a form. Clause 8.4 asks you to control externally provided products and to make sure they meet your requirements before use and to keep the evidence of that. How you verify is your decision, based on the risk you judge each supplier and part to carry.
What an auditor actually does is ask you to show how you manage it, then ask to see the records for one specific delivery. The software does not make you compliant. It makes the second question quick to answer.
Possibly not and that is worth settling before you spend anything. Your ERP or MRP books in a stock transaction, which records that 250 arrived against a purchase order. That is a different job from recording that three characteristics were measured, which gauge took them, whether that gauge was in calibration on the day and who accepted the material.
Ask your ERP supplier whether they have an inspection module and what it holds. If it does the job, buy it. It will be cheaper than hiring me.
Yes. The certificate of conformity and the material certificate are photographed or uploaded at the bay and held against that delivery, with the certificate number and the cast or heat number typed in as searchable fields. That is what turns a request for the cert two years later into a search rather than a hunt through a cabinet.
Yes. It runs in a browser, so it works on a phone, a tablet or the office computer, with nothing to install and no app store. The inspection is meant to be done standing at the pallet rather than written on paper and typed up later, because the second version is where detail goes missing.
From £1,950 depending on the size of the job, paid half on start and half on delivery, with no VAT to add and no per-user fees. A goods-in record with a handful of check fields sits at the bottom of that bracket. Sampling plans, supplier scorecards, linked non-conformances and a calibration register are more work, so they cost more.
The free written blueprint carries your actual figure before you commit anything and that figure is fixed once you accept it.
Nothing. They are the same check under two names. "Goods-in" is what most UK shop floors say, "incoming inspection" is what most written procedures and software vendors say and "receiving inspection" is the American term for it. A goods received note or GRN is a different thing again: that is the stock receipt confirming what arrived, not the quality check on it.
Yes. The application, the code and the data are yours, with no licence fee and no charge per user however many people use it. A full export is free on request whenever you ask, whether or not you are paying for support.
Related
Next step
Whatever it is. A spreadsheet, a photograph of the receiver pad, or a paragraph describing how it works if it is neither. I will write back with what it would take to replace it and what it would cost, in writing, free, with no call needed unless you want one.
Sole trader, ICO registered, based in the UK. I reply to my own email.