Construction Site Delivery Notes (DDT): Receipt to Invoice

Where Delivery Note Handling Actually Breaks

The site manager counts the goods against the paper DDT, but the purchase order is back at the office, so the note is checked against itself. It gets signed without reservations because the truck has to leave, reaches the office days later, and the supplier's deferred invoice then references every DDT of the period. Exceptions are discovered at the last step, when the note is signed and the invoice issued.

Exceptions at Receipt

• Short delivery: write the quantity actually received on the DDT before signing; purchasing claims the balance or a credit note.
• Wrong item or an unrequested "equivalent": reservation or refusal; the site manager decides technically, purchasing on price.
• Transport damage: a specific reservation with a photo.
• Delivery with no order in the system: record who asked for it; purchasing raises the order or disputes the delivery.
• DDT addressed to another site: record the real site; the office reassigns the job.
• Partial delivery on an open order: record this delivery only; the register keeps the running balance.
• Reinforcing or structural steel without the qualification-certificate reference on the DDT: under Italy's NTC 2018 (§11.3.1.5) that reference must be on the transport document, and the works director must check it and refuse non-conforming supplies before installation.

Exceptions in Three-Way Matching

Price outside the agreed tolerance, invoiced quantity above the sum of received quantities, a deferred invoice that cites a DDT missing from the register, a full invoice despite a reservation on the DDT, and charges the order never covered (transport, pump hire, truck waiting time) each need their own rule and their own owner. The general mechanism is covered in our goods-receipt and invoice matching guide.

The DDT Register

One row per DDT line: DDT number and date, supplier, site and job, order, item, DDT quantity, received quantity, reservations, technical documents, received by, invoice, status, and who owns the open exception. Received quantity is what gets paid; the owner column turns the register from an archive into a to-do list.

What Is a Rule and What Needs a Model

Reading the photographed note and handwritten reservations needs a model. Finding the order, applying tolerances, matching the invoice and routing exceptions are rules. Accepting a substitute product or steel with incomplete papers stays with a person.