# Stock control when suppliers invoice monthly

> When suppliers deliver with delivery notes and invoice at the end of the month: how to keep stock right, track expected goods and match invoices to notes.

_2026-10-19 · Kronn (https://kronn.gr)_

Your supplier delivers three or four times a month. Each time they leave a delivery note. The invoice arrives the following month, one for everything. Meanwhile you're selling what you received — and your stock has to be right *today*, not when the invoice turns up.

This is daily life for shops, wholesalers, restaurants and anyone who buys regularly from the same suppliers. And it's exactly where most software — and most spreadsheets — stop adding up. Either goods go into stock twice (once from the note, once from the invoice), or they don't go in at all until the invoice arrives, and all month the system says you're out of something that's sitting on the shelf.

![A month with a supplier who invoices monthly: notes all month, goods into stock, invoice by the 15th of next month, invoice matched to notes](/insights/img/apothema-deltia-apostolis-miniaia-timologia-1-en.png)

## Why suppliers invoice monthly

It isn't negligence; it's something the law allows and that suits both sides. Under the Greek Accounting Standards (Law 4308/2014, article 11), the invoice for a sale of goods may be issued up to the 15th day of the month after the goods were shipped or delivered. So the supplier sends goods with a delivery note each time and issues one **consolidated invoice** for all of the month's deliveries, referring to the notes it covers.

For you this means that for two to six weeks you have goods without an invoice. The question is how you handle them.

## The rule: stock follows the goods, money follows the invoice

The whole solution rests on one simple separation:

- **The delivery note moves stock, not money.** When you receive, goods go into stock. But the note isn't a debt: it doesn't increase what you owe the supplier, it isn't paid, it doesn't count in purchases or VAT.
- **The invoice moves money, not stock** — for the goods that already came with a note. It creates the debt to the supplier and brings the final cost price, but it doesn't put back into stock what the notes already brought in.

If your system keeps this separation, stock is right every day and payables are right every month. If it doesn't, you'll find differences at every stocktake.

## Three choices for every line

Not every item on a note goes into stock the same way. For each line, you need three options:

- **Receive now**: the item is on the shelf and goes into stock.
- **Expected**: the note arrived, but the goods haven't — or only part of them. The item shows as "on its way", so you don't reorder it.
- **Not stock**: consumables, packaging, freight — lines you don't track as inventory.

Usually every line on a note gets the same choice, so a "same for all" shortcut saves time. But being able to change a single line is what makes stock reliable.

## Expected goods: what's coming and what's missing

Expected goods aren't a detail. They're the answer to "can I promise this to the customer?". When you know what you have, what you've committed to orders and what's coming from suppliers, you can answer a customer without walking down to the warehouse. And when a supplier sends part of an order, the rest stays in expected goods until it arrives — it doesn't get lost.

## Matching the invoice to its notes

This is the hardest part: when the invoice arrives, which notes does it cover? There are three ways to answer, from the most automatic to the most manual.

**Automatically, when it's certain.** The invoice names its notes — with their MARKs (myDATA registration numbers) on the e-invoice, or with the "related documents" printed on paper. Or its lines are exactly the goods still unbilled on one, and only one, set of the same supplier's open notes. In those cases the link is made without you.

**By proposal, when it isn't certain.** The system proposes the oldest open notes holding the invoice's goods, and you confirm or correct.

**By hand**, for whatever remains: you pick the notes from the list of open ones.

And matching happens **line by line**, in stock units. An invoice line fully covered by notes you received moves nothing. A partly covered line brings into stock only the difference. And a note never brings in again what its invoice already brought. So every item goes into stock **once**, whatever order the paperwork arrives in.

![Without matching — with matching: goods received twice and missing notes, or every item once and open notes in one list](/insights/img/apothema-deltia-apostolis-miniaia-timologia-2-en.png)

## Differences, shortages and phase B of the digital delivery note

The note doesn't always match what came off the truck. Two boxes are missing, one arrived broken, an item was swapped for another. Differences should be recorded at the moment of receipt, not discovered when the invoice arrives.

From 1/1/2027 this also has a tax dimension in Greece. With phase B of the digital tracking of goods movements, loading, transshipment and **receipt** procedures go live, along with the transmission of quantity-check data to myDATA (AADE announcement of 30/9/2026). Put simply: receiving the delivery notes addressed to you will be confirmed digitally, and shortages or surpluses will be declared. Anyone who already records properly what they received will have far less work.

## The usual mistakes

- **Stock from invoices only**: all month the system shows shortages of items you have.
- **Stock from both notes and invoices**: everything is counted twice.
- **Notes that go missing**: received, never entered, and the invoice doesn't reconcile.
- **Packs**: the supplier writes "5 boxes", you sell pieces. Without conversion, stock is off by a factor of twelve.
- **Cost from the note**: notes often carry no prices, or only indicative ones; the final cost price, with discounts, is the invoice's.

## A month in practice

Let's take an example. Your supplier delivers on the 3rd, the 12th and the 24th, each time with a note. At each delivery, whoever receives the goods enters the note — or simply photographs it — and the goods go into stock. On the 24th, one item is missing; its line goes to expected goods.

On the 10th of the next month the invoice arrives, carrying the MARKs of the three notes. It links to them on its own. Its lines are matched to what was received, with no new stock movement. The supplier's balance goes up only now, by the invoice amount. The invoice doesn't charge the missing item, so the note of the 24th stays partly billed and shows in the list of open notes until the rest arrives. Everything else is closed — and whatever doesn't close, you see straight away.

## Supplier delivery notes in Kronn Smart

In [Kronn Smart](/en/smart), suppliers' delivery notes are entered under Purchases and work exactly by this rule: they move stock, never money. For each line you choose receive now, expected or no movement, with a shortcut for all lines. The invoice links to its notes automatically when that's certain, by proposal when it isn't, or by you, and matching happens line by line so no item goes in twice. Lines are matched to your items by the supplier's code or description, the system learns from every correction, and packs are converted into pieces.

With [AI scanning](/en/smart/ai-scanning), a photo of the note or the invoice is enough: the reading recognises whether the paper is a delivery note and proposes the items. More on how that works in our article on [AI scanning of expense documents](/en/insights/ai-sarosi-parastatikon-exodon). See also the packs for [retail and wholesale](/en/smart/retail-wholesale) and for [food suppliers](/en/smart/food-suppliers).

If your own warehouse flow has quirks that don't fit off-the-shelf software, [talk to us](/en/contact) — we also build [custom internal tools](/en/services/internal-tools).

## Sources

- Law 4308/2014 (Greek Accounting Standards), article 11: when an invoice is issued.
- AADE, [press release 30/9/2026](https://www.aade.gr/deltia-typoy-anakoinoseis/deltio-typoy-30092026) (in Greek): phase B of the digital tracking of goods movements from 1/1/2027.

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