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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2026-03-13
Setup Considerations: Receipts and Returns

Setup Considerations: Receipts and Returns

You can use this topic to help make decisions when planning your configuration and use of Workday receipts and returns functionality. It explains:
  • Why to set it up.
  • How it fits into the rest of Workday.
  • Downstream impacts and cross-product interactions.
  • Security requirements and business process configurations.
  • Questions and limitations to consider before implementation.
Refer to detailed task instructions for full configuration details.

What They Are

With Workday receiving functionality, you can create and edit receipts for goods and services.
You can also log time and tasks for contingent workers and project-based services.
With Workday returns functionality, you can complete supplier invoice adjustments when you return goods.

Business Benefits

Workday receipt and return functionalities increase efficiency by:
  • Enabling users to process the receipt of goods at the point of delivery.
  • Automating the receipt process to reduce the risk of errors.
  • Scanning barcodes to streamline the receipt of goods, especially high-volume deliveries.
  • Initiating the return of goods and services directly from purchase orders, supplier contracts, or receipt lines.
  • Automatically launching invoice adjustments for returned goods and services.
  • Automatically launching goods delivery processes to track chain of custody and deliver received goods to internal locations.

Use Cases

You can:
  • Scan item barcodes using mobile devices at the point of delivery to manage receipts and submit them for approval.
  • Approve receipts.
  • Create receipt adjustments to correct the quantities or amounts on already approved receipts. Workday then automatically adjusts accounting, inventory levels, delivery tickets, and labels.
  • Put away received items.
  • Return unwanted and unordered goods.

Questions to Consider

Question
Considerations
How do you want to manage received assets from different sources?
You can configure the
Receipt
 business process to initiate asset registration and tracking based on receipts from purchase orders or supplier contracts.
How do you want to match receipts to supplier invoices?
When you configure the
Supplier Accounts Match Event
 as a subprocess on the
Receipt Accrual Event
 business process, you can match supplier invoices to:
  • Purchase orders.
  • Receipts.
  • Supplier contracts.
Matching enables you to identify exceptions on supplier invoices and invoice adjustments, helping you control spend for your organization.
How do you want to manage deliveries from companies within your organizational structure?
You can configure your companies to operate as customers, suppliers, or both, enabling them to do business with each other through direct intercompany transactions. This configuration eliminates the need to create separate customer and supplier invoices, saving you time.
At the company level, you can also configure Workday to create multiple goods delivery tickets for each tracking number on a delivery.
Do you want to generate receipts for lease-type supplier contracts automatically?
You can schedule automatic receipt of contract lines when you use these lease-type supplier contracts:
  • Financial leases.
  • Operating leases that use the
    ROU Asset Depreciation Expense
     accounting method.
Do you want to track delivery of goods from the original receiving location to an internal deliver-to location?
You can configure the receiving event to generate printed PDFs or labels for received goods. You can also configure the goods delivery event to initiate after you complete receipts.
If you use Workday Inventory, do you want to automatically put away received goods into their stocking location?
You can automatically initiate the put-away event for inventory replenishment goods that have a defined put-away rule.

Recommendations

  • You can review receipt balances in the
    Spend Transactions
     section of the contract.
  • Add a secondary level of approval or create a
    To Do
     step in the condition rules. You can then set a requirement to inspect goods physically or handle high-value items.
  • Select which Workday-provided configurable report fields in the
    Matching
     category you need for your matching rules.
  • Use the
    Mass Cancel Procurement Documents
     task to cancel multiple receipts in
    Draft
     status.

Requirements

To configure the
Receipt
 business process to automate the creation of supplier invoices from receipts, add the
Create Supplier Invoice from Receipt
 action step. You can then create supplier invoices from purchase order and supplier contract receipts.
You can also add the
Review Schedule for Installment Generation
 action step to review prepaid installment schedules for supplier invoices and process available installments.

Security

To create, edit, and cancel receipts, initiate returns, and to adjust already approved receipts, configure these domains in the Procurement functional area:
  • Process: Receipt/Return (NEW)
  • Process: Receipt Accruals
  • Process: Receipt/Return – Cancel
  • Process: Receipt/Return - View
  • Self-Service: Receipt
  • Self-Service: Receipt Scanning
Configure the
Reports: Organization Receipt/Return Reporting
 domain in the Procurement functional area. Users with organization-based roles can then view and report on operational transactions when you tag their organizations on the receipt or return lines.
When you use mobile devices to process receipts or accept returns, configure these domains in the System functional area:
  • Mobile Usage - Android
  • Mobile Usage - iPad
  • Mobile Usage - iPhone

Business Processes

Access these business processes to configure rules for receipts, receipt adjustments, returns, put-aways, delivery, and matching:
  • Inventory Receipt Put-Away Event
  • Receipt Accrual Event
  • Receipt Adjustment
  • Receipt
  • Record Intercompany Receipt Event
  • Return to Supplier Event
  • Supplier Accounts Match Event
  • Supplier Accounts Match Exception Override Event
  • Goods Delivery Event
Add the
Initiate Supplier Accounts Match Event for Related Supplier Invoices
 service step on the
Receipt
 and
Receipt Adjustment
 business processes to clear any match exceptions.
Configure the
Receipt
 business process and security policy to:
  • Add
    Assign Lots/Serial Numbers
     task as an action.
  • Include an approval step for the
    Purchase Order Buyer
     and
    Requester
     groups.
  • Route receipts to put away inventory and define put-away rules.
  • Print receipt labels.
  • Generate goods deliveries.
On the
Receipt
 business process, you can add the:
  • Create Supplier Invoice from Receipt
     action step to create supplier invoices from purchase order and supplier contract receipts. You can also add rules to prevent creating invoices for specific suppliers.
  • Review Schedule for Installment Generation
     action step to review prepaid invoice installment schedules and process available installments.
  • Initiate Asset Registration Events from Receipt for Supplier Contracts
     service step to initiate asset registration for contract receipt lines.
  • Review Trackable Lines for Assets
     action step to review and update trackable asset lines.
  • Initiate Goods Delivery Events from Receipt for Receipt Lines
     service step to generate a goods delivery event.
  • Label Printing with Receipt BP
     service step and label integration step to print labels for received goods.
You can configure the
Inventory Receipt Put-Away Event
 business process to:
  • Route adjusted put-away transactions for approval.
  • Trigger put-away adjustments by configuring the business process as a step on the
    Receipt Adjustment
     business process.
You can configure the
Procurement Document Mass Action Event
 business process and security policy to enable users to mass cancel draft receipts using the
Mass Cancel Procurement Documents
 task.

Reporting

Reports
Considerations
Find Receipts
Enables you to search and view receipt details.
My Receipts
Enables you to view receipts you initiated.
Receipt Accrual by Company
Enables you to preview receipt accruals per company and ledger period.
Find Returns
Enables you to search and view return to supplier transaction details.
My Returns
Enables you to view and track return to supplier transaction details for returns that you initiated.
Find Inventory Return Orders
Enables you to view return orders based on the inventory site.
Maintain Procurement Conditional Rules
Enables you to create and manage condition rules for:
  • Purchase Orders.
  • Receipts.
  • Receipt Adjustments.
Find Manifest
Enables you to search manifests and manifest lines by Carrier Tracking ID to identify Dock Logging status.
Find Receipt Accruals
Enables you to search and view receipt accruals by company or accounting period to verify transaction status.
Find Receipt Accruals for Supplier
Enables you to search and view receipt accruals specific to a supplier to manage vendor-related accrual balances and history.
Accrual Balance Documents for Inventory Receipts
Enables you to view uninvoiced inventory receipts and identify instances where invoiced amounts exceed purchase order totals.
Find Goods Delivery Group
Enables you to view and manage configured goods delivery groups.
Find Goods Delivery Ticket
Enables you to search and view details for goods delivery tickets.
Goods Delivery Exceptions
Enables you to identify and filter goods delivery tickets that have associated exceptions.
Goods Delivery Status
Enables you to view a count of delivery tickets by status and drill down into specific ticket details.
Inventory Put-Away Plan
Enables you to view receipt lines and stocking location information and drill down into the Receipt Line.

Integrations

You can upload or retrieve data using an EIB with web services that support receipt functionality in:
  • Inventory.
  • Procurement.
  • Supplier Accounts.
You can print labels for received goods using an integration.
You can automatically receive goods using Advanced Ship Notice integrations based on information from a supplier or EDI 856 connections.

Connections and Touchpoints

You can create business assets from receipts as well as supplier invoices and supplier contracts. Spend categories on procurement transactions drive business asset processing.
Workday offers a Touchpoints Kit with resources to help you understand configuration relationships in your tenant. Learn more about the Workday Touchpoints Kit on Workday Community.