The truck stops by the building. 40 boxes of tile, the driver wants a signature, two apartments in the same building are waiting for material, and on the pavement two boxes are cracked. The delivery note says 42. Sign "received in full" and go up to the site, and tomorrow there is nobody to talk to about what is missing.

Receiving materials on site is not an annoying stop in the middle of the day. It is the minute when the quantity, the color, and the project can still be caught. After the driver leaves, the argument moves to the phone, and there you almost always lose.

What to write before he drives off

• Material name, the color if there is one, and the quantity you counted
• Which project or apartment it came off for
• Supplier name, and the delivery note number
• A photo of the stack and of the note, including what is broken
• The gap: what was ordered, what the note says, and what actually came off

In the example: 40 were ordered, the note says 42, the count is 38 whole and two cracked. Write that on the note, or in a photo of it with your count, and tell the supplier the same day. A signature on "received in full" closes the easy part. What is left is an argument about memory.

Two sites, one truck

When more than one job is open, material for Herzl that goes into the apartment on Bialik wrecks the budget and the client. The photo of the stack needs the place name, or a note with the address on the box. "Grey tile" with no apartment is not enough when two close colors sit on two projects.

If part of the delivery belongs to another job, split it in the note at that moment. Not "we will separate it later at the office". Later the boxes are already open.

When the invoice arrives

Compare three things: what was ordered, what came off at the gate, and what the invoice says. An invoice quantity higher than what came off the truck is not "close enough". A price per box higher than the supplier quote needs a look before you approve it, not after the money has been sent.

Broken material written at the gate sits against the credit line. Without the note, the supplier sends an invoice for 42 and you remember that "a few were broken". That is not a number you can argue with.

Who receives the material

One worker owns receiving that day. Not "whoever is free". When everyone is free, nobody counts. That person knows what was ordered, holds the driver until the count, and writes the gap before the signature. It takes a few minutes. Looking for ten boxes the next day takes an hour, and sometimes the crew day.

When the crew arrives and there is nothing to work with

The expensive version of "the order sort of arrived" is a tiling crew that comes up to the apartment and the color is wrong, or a third of the quantity is missing. You pay for a short day, you move them to another site if you have one, and you lose the slot. The gate note from yesterday would have shown it before they drove over.

So close the receiving the same day, not when the invoice arrives at month-end. The invoice checks the note. It does not replace it.

The note stays with the job: quantity, supplier, delivery note, and what is missing. When the invoice arrives there is something to check it against, and the crew is not standing the next day in front of a stack that does not belong to this apartment.