Promotional Merchandise - Managing a Garment Shortfall

Check quantities against the purchase order on receipt. Record exact units received per size, colour, and decoration variant. Mark as a partial receipt.

Update the job record to reflect the shortfall. Add an internal note detailing what arrived, what is missing, and the original confirmed delivery date.

Contact the supplier on the same day with the PO number, exact quantities missing, and a request for written confirmation of the balance delivery date.

Inform the client before the end of the same business day. Do not wait for the supplier's response first. State what has been received and what remains outstanding.

If the supplier cannot meet the client's deadline, raise an RFQ to an alternative decorator or blank goods supplier for the outstanding quantity.

Record balance receipt against the original PO, or raise a supplier credit note for undelivered units. Adjust the client invoice accordingly and close the job.

The supplier delivers 38 units of a 60-unit branded polo order with no advance warning, and we only discover the shortfall when we go to dispatch on the morning of the client's collection day.

We have no clear record of exactly which sizes and colours arrived versus what was ordered, making it impossible to chase the supplier with accurate figures or communicate a specific shortfall to the client.

The client has an event deadline that cannot move, and by the time we discover the shortfall there may not be time to re-source from an alternative decorator - but we don't know that until we have already lost a day.