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ASN (advance shipping notice)

Last updated 2026-10-14

Build an ASN from an approved PO, send it, and let it create or link the WMS inbound receipt. Or release the PO straight to WMS without an ASN.

An ASN (advance shipping notice) is the "the goods are on the way" notice you give the warehouse before they arrive: what products, how much, which carrier, when. The warehouse uses it to plan dock space and staff. Send it, and the system turns it into (or links it to) a WMS inbound receipt — the document WMS receiving runs on.

Build and send an ASN in 3 steps#

  1. Build the ASN from a PO: the PO must be approved, released, or partially_received; its lines are copied over as the ASN’s expected quantities. Carrier defaults to the vendor’s preferred_carrier; add the tracking number and expected arrival date.
  2. Check the ASN while it is still a draft — only drafts can be edited or deleted.
  3. Send: draft → sent. Sending is idempotent — if this PO already has a WMS inbound receipt (matched by source_type=purchase and the PO id), the ASN just links to it (linked=true) instead of creating a duplicate. Otherwise it creates a new WMS inbound receipt (RCV-YYYYMMDD-…) and writes its id back to the ASN (wms_receipt_id).

Or skip the ASN: release the PO directly#

If you don’t need the extra heads-up step, an approved PO can go straight to the warehouse: release turns approved → released and creates (or idempotently links) the WMS inbound receipt, writing wms_receipt_id back to the PO. The list page also supports batch release for multiple approved POs at once.

Only draft ASNs can be edited or deleted. Once sent, an ASN can no longer be changed — double-check the carrier, tracking number, and quantities before you hit send.
Don’t build an ASN by hand if your approval switches are on: auto_create_asn_on_approve builds it from the PO for you, and auto_push_asn_to_wms pushes it to WMS right away.
Freight forwarder arranging an inbound shipment and notifying the warehouse of its arrival
The ASN is the forwarder’s "truck is coming" call to the warehouse — planned on paper before it happens at the dock

Related topics

Purchase: buying documents in 4 pages

Purchase handles buying documents: create the PO, announce the arrival with an ASN, and watch WMS write the received quantities back.

Purchase orders (PO)

Create a PO by hand (vendor, warehouse, quantity/price lines), submit it for approval, and approve or reject it. Only drafts can be edited or deleted.

Receiving write-back and variances

Receiving happens in WMS; on completion WMS writes each PO line’s received_qty back in full, and variance_qty = ordered − received. Review the differences on the variances page.