Did 18 cartons leave, or 20?
Good morning, there. One check, 30 minutes, two books you already keep: last month's gate passes against last month's invoices.
THE MOVE
Problem: the gate pass says 18 cartons. The invoice, typed that evening, says 20. Three weeks later the debit note arrives, and nobody can say which was right.
Move: paste last month's gate passes and invoices into the sheet or your AI assistant. Out comes one dated list: unbilled, billed but never left, disputed, in rupees.
Takes: 30 minutes. The gate pass book and Tally. Nothing new.
Issue 21 · 20 Oct 2026 · 3 min read · run in 30
ONE FIELD NOTE
Two published studies, not a client.
A third of the shortage claims were not the supplier's error
GATE PASS BOOK · 09 SEP
Bracket A · 380 cartons
Written by the security guard as the truck left. Vehicle MH14 CD 9023.
INVOICE INV-1189 · 09 SEP
Bracket A · 400 cartons
Typed in Tally that evening, from the dispatch plan.
20 cartons billed that never left: ₹4,240. Debit note DN-77 arrived on 08 Oct, day 29. The customer's count agreed with the gate, not the invoice. Example, not a client.
The case: a study of about 1,00,000 customer claims at warehouses serving three Indian automobile OEMs: half traced to picking the wrong part or quantity, four in ten to wrong labels. Both happen before the truck moves.
The details:
A second study put cameras over loading docks in Europe. One company found 32.5% of the claims it checked were errors made after the goods left. Another, about 40%.
Before the cameras, every claim was paid, because there was no record of what went out.
You already keep that record: a gate pass with a quantity on it.
Why it matters: some shortage claims you pay are not your mistake. You cannot tell which until the gate pass and the invoice sit side by side, every month, while the customer's window is open.
FIELD TOOL · STEP BY STEP
The Dispatch Reconciliation
30 minutes · last month's gate passes and invoices · one dated list
1 · GATE PASS BOOK
What left the gate
GP-303 · 09 Sep · Bracket A · 380
GP-305 · 16 Sep · Housing B · 1?0
GP-307 · 27 Sep · Shaft C · 60
2 · INVOICES (TALLY)
What was billed
INV-1189 · Bracket A · 400 · ₹212
INV-1191 · Housing B · 120 · ₹640
(no invoice for GP-307)
3 · THE DATED LIST
Mismatches, in rupees
GP-303: 20 short · ₹4,240 billed, not at gate
GP-305: GAP, left out
GP-307: ₹69,000 left unbilled
Matched by invoice number. A blank or unreadable entry is GAP and stays out of every total. Example rows, not a client.
Copy last month's gate pass entries: number, date, invoice number, part, quantity. A photo of the page works.
Export the month's invoices from Tally: number, date, part, quantity, rate.
Paste both into the sheet or the prompt below, with any debit note you hold.
Fix the invoices this week. Answer the debit notes while the window is open.
Pro tip: a smudged quantity comes back GAP and stays out of the totals. Close it with the LR copy.
PROMPT STATION
The dispatch check prompt
Paste your three records between the tags, or open it already loaded. Remove customer names first.
Check one month of dispatches for my plant. Use only the three records below. No benchmarks, causes or fixes. If something is missing or unreadable, say so; never guess.
<gate_pass_book>
[GP no, date, invoice no, part, qty]
</gate_pass_book>
<invoices>
[Invoice no, date, part, qty, rate]
</invoices>
<customer_documents>
[Any GRN or debit note, or "none"]
</customer_documents>
Read them in that order. Then:
1. Pair each gate pass with an invoice: by invoice number first, then by part and date.
2. List every mismatch in rupees at the invoice rate: gate passes with no invoice (use the latest rate for that part, marked "at last rate"), invoices with no gate pass, quantity differences, customer documents that disagree with the invoice. Anything missing, unreadable or contradictory is GAP: keep it out of the totals and name the one document that would close it.
3. End with exactly these two lines:
Dispatch check, [month]: N dispatches, M mismatches, G gaps, ₹X left the gate unbilled, ₹Y billed but not at the gate, ₹Z disputed by customers.
Check first: [the one entry to pull the file for on Monday, and why].
Use my numbers exactly as written. Indian rupees, Indian number format.Or open it in ChatGPT. Tested in Claude on a made-up September register: the smudged quantity came back GAP and stayed out of the totals. Claude shows a caution banner for prompts opened by link; that is normal, press send.
THE ONE CLICK
The Dispatch Reconciliation sheet
Make a copy. Gate passes on one tab, invoices on the other. The third tab matches them, marks mismatches in red with the rupees, and writes the dated line.
THIS WEEK'S NUMBER
15 days to object
How long the law gives a customer to object to delivered goods in writing. Inside 15 days, the payment clock stops until you settle it. After that, the goods count as accepted on delivery day and payment is due within 45 days. A debit note on day 22 moves neither date.
Source: MSMED Act, 2006, section 2(b)
Not known: what quantity disputes cost Indian plants a year. Nobody has counted it.
ONE QUESTION
Reply with one number: how many of last month's dispatches had a mismatch? Or just reply “got it”, so next Tuesday lands in your Primary tab. I read every reply.
Coming next Tuesday: Logistics. Freight per carton went up and nobody noticed for two months. One sheet, the drift in rupees.
P.S. September set a record, 14.15 crore e-way bills in one month, as reported from GSTN data. Each is a truck leaving a gate with a paper that says what is on it. Yours are in there.
Until next Tuesday,
Sachin
Founder, Scalatris LLP · scalatris.com
I read every reply.
Forward this: know who signs your gate pass book? Forward this before the month closes.
SOURCES
1. The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006, section 2(b) and section 15.
2. Sundarprasad and Muthukumar, “Customer Claims in Automobile Spare Parts Industry: A 3PL Perspective”, IJRTE 8(4), November 2019.
3. Helm, Malikova and Kembro, “Rooting out the root causes of order fulfilment errors”, International Journal of Production Research, 2023.
4. GSTN data on September 2026 e-way bills, as reported by Business Standard and Mint, 8 and 9 October 2026.