# Introduction - Packages

A package records what physically went into one box, before anything ships.

**Video coming soon:** Packing a sales order into boxes, and what a package does and does not do to your stock.

It is the bridge between an order and a shipment: the order says what was promised, the package says what is actually in the carton, and the shipment says where that carton went.

![The Packages screen, subtitled Manage packages for sales orders, purchase orders, and repairs, and its Package action. Columns read Package number, Date, Type, Source number, Customer/Vendor, Items, Status, Carrier, Tracking and Shipment Date. Every row is typed Sales against a sales order number, names a UK trade customer such as Poole Bay Marine Works or Cotswold Industrial Supplies, and shows a status of Shipped with carriers including Tuffnells Two Day, Palletways Overnight, Evri Courier, DPD Next Day and Ironvale Own Fleet.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/inventory/packages/packages-list.png)

*Twenty-five packages, each against one source document. The carrier and tracking appear once a shipment exists.*

## One order, several boxes

A sales order does not have to become one package. Splitting is the normal case rather than the exception: goods that arrive at different times, items too heavy to travel together, or a customer who wants the urgent half now.

- **Package** (the box): A set of lines from one source document, with quantities, packed together. It carries its own number.
- **Shipment** (the journey): What happened to that box: the carrier, the tracking number and the dates. This is what takes the stock off your count.

> **Note:**
>
> **A package is not a stock movement**
>
> Packing does not reduce your count. Stock leaves when the shipment goes, which is why a box sitting on the dispatch bench overnight is still stock you are holding, and the reports are right to say so.

## Not only for sales

The subtitle says it: packages cover sales orders, purchase orders and repairs. The **Type** and **Source #** columns tell you which document a box belongs to, so a return going back to a vendor is packed the same way a customer order is.

![A package record showing its number and status, the source document it was packed against, the customer it is going to, and the line items and quantities inside the box, with an activity panel at the right.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/inventory/packages/package-detail.png)

*The package record is the answer to what was in that box, which is the question a delivery dispute always comes down to.*

## Why record it at all

The packing record is what makes a delivery dispute answerable. When a customer says two of the four arrived, the package says what was in each box and the shipment says which box the carrier lost.

- Every package belongs to exactly one source document.
- A line can be split across packages, but the total cannot exceed what the document promised.
- A package with no shipment against it has not gone anywhere.
- The packing slip prints from here, not from the order.

> **Tip:**
>
> **Pack what you picked, not what was ordered**
>
> If the pick came up short, the package should say so. A package matching the order while the carton does not is how a shortage reaches the customer instead of your stocktake.