Receipt tasks

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Receipt tasks

    Receipt tasks in ServiceNow are created when goods receipt is required for purchase order lines. Each receipt task references a purchase order and is grouped by the recipient and the calendar month of the product's expected delivery date. Receipt tasks are generated only during the month of the expected delivery date and remain open until all deliveries for that recipient and month are confirmed. This process is automated by the[PSM] Create Receiving Taskscheduled job.

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    For example, if multiple purchase order lines have different expected delivery dates and recipients, receipt tasks are created based on the month and recipient grouping to track delivery confirmations efficiently.

    Key Features

    • Grouping: Receipt tasks group purchase order lines by recipient and expected delivery month.
    • Lifecycle: Tasks are created at the start of the delivery month and stay open until all deliveries are confirmed.
    • Automation: The creation and management of receipt tasks are automated through a scheduled job.
    • Visibility: All receipt tasks can be viewed under the Receipt Acknowledgment sub-module within the Sourcing and Purchasing Automation module.

    Key Receipt Task Fields

    • Number: Unique system-generated ID for each receipt task.
    • Assigned to: Person responsible for managing the receipt task.
    • Primary contact: Procurement team member for inquiries related to receipts and acknowledgments, synchronized with the assigned person on the parent task.
    • Short description: Auto-generated brief description based on the products to be received.
    • Description: Detailed description of the receipt task.
    • State: Current status of the task (e.g., Open, Shipped, Partially Complete).
    • Due date: Expected completion date for the assigned person.
    • Summary details: Includes expected start, actual start and end dates, and task duration.

    Related Lists

    • Purchase order lines: Lists all purchase order lines linked to the receipt task.
    • Receipts: Shows receipts associated with the task, updated upon partial or full shipment.
    • Shipment details: Contains shipment tracking numbers linked to the receipt task.

    Receipt tasks are created when goods receipt is required for the purchase line.

    A receipt task references a purchase order and is grouped by the recipient and the calendar month of the product's expected delivery date. A receipt task is created only during the month of the expected delivery date, irrespective of the purchase order creation date, and remains open until all the expected deliveries for the recipient in a calendar month are confirmed. This is done using the [PSM] Create Receiving Task scheduled job.

    Consider the following example:

    The current month is September 2020, and for a purchase order, there are five purchase order lines:

    Table 1. Purchase order lines referenced in receipt task
    Purchase order line Expected delivery date Recipient
    1 September 10, 2020 John
    2 September 20, 2020 John
    3 October 22, 2020 John
    4 September 12, 2020 Peter
    5 October 5, 2020 John
    On the purchase order, three receipt tasks are created as follows:
    • Receipt task 1, associated to purchase order line 1 and 2, is created on September 1, 2020, with the state Open.
    • Receipt task 2, associated to purchase order line 3 and 5, is created on October 1, 2020, with the state Open.
    • Receipt task 3, associated to purchase order line 4, is created on September 1, 2020, with the state Open.

    You can view all receipt tasks from the Receipt Acknowledgment sub-module under the Sourcing and Purchasing Automation module. The following are the key fields of a receipt task:

    Table 2. Receipt task fields
    Field Description
    Number System-generated unique identifier of the receipt task.
    Assigned to Person primarily responsible for this receipt task.
    Primary contact Person within the procurement team who can be contacted with questions about receipts, milestones, invoices, or other activities related to acknowledgment. This field is populated or updated with the same user in the Assigned to field of the parent task record, as follows: For a receipt or acknowledgment task, from the referenced purchase order.
    Short description Brief description of the receipt task.

    This description is dynamically populated based on whether there are one or multiple products to be received from the supplier.
    Description Detailed description of the receipt task.
    State Status of the receipt task. For example, Open, Shipped, Partially Complete, and so on.
    Due date Expected due date from the person to whom this task is assigned.
    Summary Details
    Expected start Expected start date of the receipt task.
    Actual start Actual start date of the receipt task.
    Actual end Actual end date of the receipt task.
    Duration Duration to complete this receipt task.

    The following are the related lists of a receipt task:

    Table 3. Receipt task related lists
    Related list Description
    Purchase order lines List of all the related purchase order lines for this receipt task.
    Receipts List of all the receipts for this task.

    This list is populated when the shipment of the product is partially or fully complete.

    For more details, see Receipts
    Shipment details List of all the shipment tracking numbers for this receipt task.

    For more details, see Shipment details.