Should I refuse a partial shipment if my acknowledgment didn't authorize a split?

Almost never. By the time the truck is at your dock, the cost of refusing the partial usually outweighs the cost of accepting it. The supplier still has to find a place for the rejected pallets, you still need the parts, and the relationship takes a hit for an enforcement that will not recover the balance any faster. The better play is to accept the partial, document the receipt against the original PO, and immediately demand a firm ship date and any additional freight terms for the balance. Save formal refusal for repeat offenders or for partials so small they create more receiving overhead than they save in production hours.

How long should I wait before treating an open balance as a late delivery?

Use the supplier's promise on the balance as the new promise date and apply your normal late-delivery cadence from there. If the supplier never gave a firm date and is responding with "shipping ASAP" or silence, treat it as late starting day three after the partial. The longer the balance runs without a committed date, the more your situation looks like a capacity problem the supplier has not surfaced yet, and waiting longer almost never produces a better date. Switch to the late-delivery playbook with the partial-receipt date as the new baseline.

Can the supplier close the PO on their side after they ship the partial?

Some can and some do, especially with smaller suppliers running on simpler systems. If the supplier closes the PO and ships the balance under a new internal job, you can lose the link between the two events on their side. Practically, this means a balance ship date you got verbally never makes it into their shipping queue, and the balance silently disappears. Confirm in writing that the balance is shipping against the original PO. If the supplier insists on a new internal reference, get the new reference in email, copy your contact's manager, and update your ERP note so the link is preserved on your end.

What if the supplier wants to ship the balance under different freight terms than the partial?

Request the change in writing before the balance ships and run the math against the Incoterms agreement on the original PO. Suppliers sometimes try to bill the buyer for premium freight on the balance to recover their own scheduling costs, especially when the partial was their fault. If the original PO was prepaid and added or DDP, the balance should ship under the same terms regardless of how the supplier wants to recover. If you do agree to a freight change, document it in the same thread that confirms the balance ship date so you do not have to relitigate the point when the freight invoice lands.

Should I refuse a partial shipment if my acknowledgment didn't authorize a split?

Almost never. By the time the truck is at your dock, the cost of refusing the partial usually outweighs the cost of accepting it. The supplier still has to find a place for the rejected pallets, you still need the parts, and the relationship takes a hit for an enforcement that will not recover the balance any faster. The better play is to accept the partial, document the receipt against the original PO, and immediately demand a firm ship date and any additional freight terms for the balance. Save formal refusal for repeat offenders or for partials so small they create more receiving overhead than they save in production hours.

How long should I wait before treating an open balance as a late delivery?

Use the supplier's promise on the balance as the new promise date and apply your normal late-delivery cadence from there. If the supplier never gave a firm date and is responding with "shipping ASAP" or silence, treat it as late starting day three after the partial. The longer the balance runs without a committed date, the more your situation looks like a capacity problem the supplier has not surfaced yet, and waiting longer almost never produces a better date. Switch to the late-delivery playbook with the partial-receipt date as the new baseline.

Can the supplier close the PO on their side after they ship the partial?

Some can and some do, especially with smaller suppliers running on simpler systems. If the supplier closes the PO and ships the balance under a new internal job, you can lose the link between the two events on their side. Practically, this means a balance ship date you got verbally never makes it into their shipping queue, and the balance silently disappears. Confirm in writing that the balance is shipping against the original PO. If the supplier insists on a new internal reference, get the new reference in email, copy your contact's manager, and update your ERP note so the link is preserved on your end.

What if the supplier wants to ship the balance under different freight terms than the partial?

Request the change in writing before the balance ships and run the math against the Incoterms agreement on the original PO. Suppliers sometimes try to bill the buyer for premium freight on the balance to recover their own scheduling costs, especially when the partial was their fault. If the original PO was prepaid and added or DDP, the balance should ship under the same terms regardless of how the supplier wants to recover. If you do agree to a freight change, document it in the same thread that confirms the balance ship date so you do not have to relitigate the point when the freight invoice lands.

PLAYBOOK

Partial Shipment From a Supplier? Here's What to Do

“Truck dropped 480 of 750 housings yesterday. Packing slip says balance to follow, no date. The hydraulic line starts Friday. Where's the rest?”

The truck arrived. Receiving counted the cartons and you signed for less than what the PO ordered. The supplier shipped a partial. Now you have a partial receipt in the ERP, an open balance on the same PO, and a clock running on AP, production, and the supplier's commitment to ship the rest. Partial shipments are routine in production buying and almost always a controlled situation, but they only stay controlled if you keep the balance loop open and documented. Drop the thread and you end up paying for parts that never shipped or chasing a balance the supplier already closed on their side.

What this looks like

It is 7:42 Wednesday morning. The freight truck dropped off PO 9214 yesterday for 750 stamped steel housings, the ones that feed the hydraulic sub-assembly cell starting Friday. Receiving counted 480 cartons and stamped a partial receipt in the ERP. The supplier's packing slip lists 480 of 750, balance to follow. No ship date on the balance. No expected delivery. Just a note that says "remainder shipping ASAP".

A partial shipment is not automatically a problem and it is not automatically a delay. There are four shapes it can take and you cannot tell them apart from the receipt alone. The supplier may have split the order intentionally to ship the ready quantity now and finish the run next week, with a real date in mind. They may have run short on raw material and be guessing at when the balance can ship. They may be using the partial as cover for a deeper capacity issue they have not admitted yet. Or your acknowledgment may have specified a partial ship and you forgot, in which case the open balance has a date already and you just need to find it.

Before any contact with the supplier, run the diagnostic. Pull the original PO acknowledgment and check whether a partial-ship plan was specified. Check the supplier's email for any prior note about splitting the order. Confirm the ERP partial receipt was logged at the right quantity (a clerical miscount on the dock creates a phantom balance and a phantom problem). Check whether the partial covers the parts production needs in the first half of the week or only in the second. The answer to that one decides whether you have hours to recover or days. Know what you are dealing with before you write the email.

Why it matters

The cost picture on a partial is messier than a flat late delivery. The 480 units in receiving are not free yet. Your AP three-way-match runs against the original PO for 750, the receiving record for 480, and whatever invoice the supplier sends. If the supplier invoices for the full quantity and AP processes it before anyone flags the partial, you have paid for 270 units that never shipped. On a $14 housing that is a $3,780 receivable to chase back from the supplier, and on more expensive parts the figure scales up fast. The balance also still costs you on the production side. If the housings drive a $10,000-per-hour assembly line and the partial only covers two days, day three runs idle until the balance lands.

The downstream cascade depends on which shape the partial actually is. A planned split with a firm balance date means production can sequence around the gap, run the parts you do have, and pick up the rest when they land. An open-ended partial with no balance commitment means production is planning around a supplier who may have already lost control of the order. If the gap forces a reactive expedite on the balance, freight runs $3,000 to $40,000 depending on weight and origin, and the bill almost always lands on your budget.

The internal communication consequence is the one buyers underestimate. AP, production planning, and the line lead all need different versions of the same news within hours of the partial arriving. AP needs to know not to pay the full PO. Planning needs to know which assemblies can run on the partial and which have to wait. The line lead needs to know whether to reallocate Friday morning to a different build. If you are not pushing those updates the moment the partial is logged, you become the information bottleneck on a problem the rest of the plant already feels.

What to do, step by step

Step 1: Verify the partial before you contact the supplier. Pull the PO acknowledgment and check whether a partial ship was specified. Reconcile the receiving count against the supplier's packing slip and the ERP partial receipt. A miscount on the dock creates a phantom balance, and you do not want to escalate to the supplier on the wrong number. This takes ten minutes and changes the entire tone of the next conversation.

Step 2: Send a specific first follow-up to the supplier asking for a firm date on the balance. Vague check-ins get vague answers. Reference the partial receipt with the exact quantity that arrived, the open balance, and a deadline for the response.

Initial follow-up template: "[SUPPLIER NAME], we received the partial shipment on PO [NUMBER] for [PART DESCRIPTION] on [DATE]. The receiving count is [X of Y units] and the packing slip notes the balance of [Z units] to follow. Please confirm a firm ship date for the balance by [TIME TODAY]. Production is sequenced around the original quantity and the balance date drives what we can run on [DATE]. If the balance is moving under different freight terms, please confirm those as well. [YOUR NAME]"

"Shipping ASAP" is not a date. If the response comes back vague, push back the same day: "I need a specific ship date, not ASAP. What day does the balance leave your facility?"

Step 3: Document the open balance for AP before the invoice lands. Most ERP systems will show the open quantity correctly if the partial receipt was logged at the right count, but AP teams process invoices fast and a full-PO invoice from the supplier can slip through if nobody flags it. A two-line note to AP closes that gap.

AP note template: "[AP CONTACT NAME], heads-up on PO [NUMBER]. Supplier shipped a partial of [X] units against the ordered [Y] and the balance of [Z] is on a separate ship that has not landed yet. The partial receipt is logged in ERP. Please flag the PO so we do not approve the invoice for the full quantity until the balance is received. I will update you when the balance ships. [YOUR NAME]"

Step 4: Communicate internally before production has to ask. Two sentences to the planner are enough. They need to know what the partial covers and what is still open before the line lead starts asking. Send it the day the partial arrives, not the day before the gap is supposed to close.

Internal update template: "[PLANNER NAME], partial receipt on PO [NUMBER] for [PART DESCRIPTION] today: [X of Y units] in. Balance of [Z units] is open with the supplier and I am working a firm ship date. Best estimate is [DATE]. We can run [PROCESS] off the partial. [SECONDARY OPERATION] will need to wait on the balance. I will confirm a firm balance date by [DATE/TIME]. [YOUR NAME]"

If the supplier does not give a firm balance date inside your follow-up window, the open balance is no longer a partial situation, it is a late delivery on the balance quantity. Run the late-delivery playbook from there, with the partial receipt as the new baseline instead of the original promise date.

How PO-Relay handles this

When a partial receipt is posted in your ERP, PO-Relay's task board shows the original PO line splitting cleanly into a closed quantity and an open balance. The balance becomes its own task with the partial receipt date as its new baseline. The supplier's packing slip and any prior note about a balance ship are pulled into the task context automatically, so you start the next step with the full picture instead of a fresh search.

Email Intelligence watches the supplier thread for a balance commitment. If the supplier sends a real ship date for the balance, the assistant tags it against the right PO and pushes the new date into the task. If the supplier sends a vague "shipping ASAP" or stays silent, the loop is flagged as "awaiting balance commitment" and sorted to the top of the Parts Dashboard so you see it the moment you open PO-Relay.

Auto Follow-Ups drafts the first balance-commit email the moment the partial is posted, pre-loaded with the exact partial quantity, the open balance, the original promise date, and a response deadline. If the supplier's reply is vague, the second-attempt draft layers escalation language and asks for a specific ship date. You review every draft and send it from your own inbox. PO-Relay never sends email and never writes to your ERP.

The Morning Report resurfaces the open balance every day until it is shipped or the loop is manually closed. The Parts Dashboard shows the partial-receipt status to your planner, line lead, and anyone else on the team in the same view, so production sees what the partial covers without coming through you for an update.

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Common mistakes to avoid

Letting the partial receipt close the loop in your head. The receiving count clears the dock, but the balance is still open and now lives on you, not the dock supervisor. Treat every partial as a new task on the balance quantity with its own deadline, its own follow-up cadence, and its own paper trail. The PO is not done because some of it arrived.
Accepting "shipping ASAP" or "next week" as a balance commitment. Push back in the same message: "I need a specific ship date for the balance. What day does it leave your facility?" Without a date, you cannot plan production around the gap and you cannot tell when the situation has slipped from a controlled partial to a late balance you should already be escalating.
Forgetting to flag AP. A full-PO invoice from the supplier can clear AP before anyone notices the receipt was partial, especially if the partial landed in a different week from the invoice. A two-line heads-up to AP the same day the partial arrives prevents an overpayment that you will spend a month chasing back. Document the receipt count in the email so AP has the reference.
Communicating only to the planner. The planner is one stakeholder. The line lead needs to know which builds can run on the partial and which have to wait. AP needs to know not to pay the full invoice. The supplier needs a balance commitment ask the same day. One update each is fifteen minutes total and keeps you out of the bottleneck role for the next 48 hours.

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GlossaryPartial Receipt GlossaryThree-Way Match FeatureEmail Intelligence FeatureAuto Follow-Ups FeatureParts Dashboard