How to receive inventory in Shopify, step by step

First, the inventory states that matter

Shopify tracks several quantities per product per location. When you receive stock you're changing On hand, the physical count at that location. Shopify's help center describes On hand as the total of Committed (sold but not yet fulfilled), Unavailable (for example damaged or safety stock) and Available (what can be sold). Purchase orders and transfers on their way show as Incoming until received.

So when 24 bags of coffee arrive and you receive them, On hand and Available both go up by 24. Committed doesn't change.

Method 1: Receive against a purchase order

If you created a native purchase order, receive on its transfer:

1. Open the purchase order under Products › Purchase orders. If it doesn't have a transfer yet, click Create transfer, choose the destination location and save.
2. Go to Products › Transfers and open the transfer.
3. Click Receive items.
4. For each line choose Accept, Reject or Cancel and enter the quantity received. Enter a lower number for a short delivery.
5. Click Save.

Accepted stock becomes available at the destination. Rejected stock is recorded on the transfer but not added to any location, which is how you record damaged goods. Full details are in our purchase order guide.

Best for: shops that already raise purchase orders, and anyone who wants a record of ordered versus received.

Method 2: Adjust quantities by hand

For a delivery of a handful of products, adjusting directly is quickest:

1. Go to Products › Inventory and, if you have several locations, pick the receiving location.
2. Find the product (search by name, SKU or barcode).
3. Click the On hand or Available quantity and use Adjust by to add the received amount. (Use Set to only when you've counted the whole shelf.)
4. Choose a reason. Use Received for a supplier delivery where your admin offers it; if you don't choose one, Shopify records Correction.
5. Save.

The reason matters later. When stock looks wrong, the adjustment history is the first place you'll look, and "Received" next to a staff name and date tells you exactly what happened.

Best for: small deliveries, top-ups and corrections.

Method 3: Import an inventory CSV

For a large delivery, export your inventory, edit it in a spreadsheet and import it back:

1. Go to Products › Inventory and click Export. Choose the location and the variants.
2. In the file, for each product received, put the new total in On hand (new): the current on-hand quantity plus what arrived.
3. Leave On hand (new) blank for every product you aren't changing.
4. Back in Products › Inventory, click Import, add the file, click Upload file, review the summary and click Start import.

The inventory CSV sets quantities rather than adding to them, which is the most common source of mistakes. If anything sells between your export and your import, the totals you calculated are out of date. Shopify uses the On hand (current) column to validate the import. Our inventory CSV guide covers the columns and traps.

Best for: big deliveries, opening stock, and stocktakes.

Which method should you use?

	Purchase order transfer	Manual adjustment	Inventory CSV
Lines per delivery	Any	1 to 10	20+
Records ordered vs received	Yes	No	No
Handles short or damaged lines	Yes (reject, partial)	By hand	By hand
Risk of overwriting sales	Low	Low with Adjust by	Medium (it sets totals)
Updates cost per item	Not as part of receiving. Update costs separately.

A receiving checklist that prevents most errors

1. Count against the invoice or delivery note, not the purchase order. Suppliers substitute, short-ship and split deliveries.
2. Check units. If the supplier invoices in cases and you sell singles, multiply before you receive. See case and pack pricing.
3. Receive at the right location. Moving stock afterwards needs a transfer.
4. Record damaged items as rejected or unavailable, not as received.
5. Update cost per item for any line whose price changed, so profit reports stay right.
6. Keep the document. File the invoice where you can find it from the date in the adjustment history.

Where Box to Shelf helps

All three methods start with someone reading the supplier's document and typing numbers. Box to Shelf does that part: upload the invoice or delivery note (PDF, scan, phone photo, CSV or Excel) or forward the supplier's email, and each line is matched to your products by SKU, barcode or name. You see the quantity to receive, any cost change and its margin impact. Uncertain lines wait for you. When you press Apply, stock is added at the location you choose using Shopify's Received reason, costs are updated at the same time, and you can undo the last apply if something was wrong.

Questions

What is the difference between On hand and Available in Shopify?

On hand is everything physically at a location. Available is the part you can sell, after committed and unavailable units are taken out.

Which adjustment reason should I use for a delivery?

Use Received when you add stock from a supplier delivery, so your adjustment history and reports show why the quantity changed.

Sources

• Shopify Help Center: Creating inventory transfers from purchase orders
• Shopify Help Center: Inventory CSV
• Shopify Help Center: Viewing inventory adjustment history
• Shopify developer docs: Inventory quantities and states

Shopify changes its admin often. Steps were checked against the Shopify Help Center in November 2026; if a menu has moved, the help center links above have the current version.