# Goods received note

> A goods received note is your own record of what a delivery actually contained, written by the person who counted it.

- Source: https://storestandards.com/glossary/goods-received-note/
- Also called: GRN
- Updated: 2026-08-14
- Author: Marcus Ilori, Support lead, Store Standards

---

The supplier writes the delivery note. You write this one.

## What goes on it

- The [purchase order](https://storestandards.com/glossary/purchase-order/) number it belongs to
- What you counted, line by line
- Anything short, over or damaged, in numbers
- The date, and who counted it

That last line is not bureaucracy. Three weeks later, the only useful question
about a missing carton is who had eyes on the pallet.

## Why it beats the delivery note

A delivery note says what the supplier believes they sent. A GRN says what you
found. When those two disagree, the one written at your end by a named person
on a dated record is the one that settles it.

Suppliers usually give you a few days to raise a shortage. After that the
claim is yours to absorb.

## Where it goes wrong

The GRN is created by copying the delivery note and ticking it. That is not a
record, it is agreement with the supplier's paperwork, and it makes a short
delivery impossible to prove.

The other fault is one GRN per [part delivery](https://storestandards.com/glossary/part-delivery/) going
missing. Three vans, three notes, and only the last one gets filed. Every drop
gets its own, or [receiving](https://storestandards.com/glossary/receiving/) has a hole in it.

## Related terms

- [Purchase order](https://storestandards.com/glossary/purchase-order/): A purchase order is the document you send a supplier to order stock. It lists what you want, how many, and what you agreed to pay.
- [Receiving](https://storestandards.com/glossary/receiving/): Receiving is checking a delivery against what you ordered, then telling your system what actually arrived.
- [Part delivery](https://storestandards.com/glossary/part-delivery/): A part delivery is when a supplier sends some of an order now and the rest later, against the same purchase order.