Founder POV: Let’s be honest: suppliers don’t always get it right.

This article is adapted from a LinkedIn post by Robbie Francis, Founder of Hops.

Let’s be honest: suppliers don’t always get it right.

Items arrive: short, damaged, substituted...or they don’t arrive at all!!

And once you’ve identified that at Arrived or Processed Into Stock, the next question is: What happens now?

This is where Hops® handles the actual recovery process::::::Because identifying the problem is one thing, recovering the margin is another.

(And that’s what credit notes are really about!!)

When a delivery is wrong, there are 4 possible paths, because too many options can create decision paralysis.

So we keep it “talking Hops®”: Simple, clear, operator language:

1️⃣ Keep order open

Use it when:

• The missing item is arriving later the same day
• It will still appear on the same invoice

✅ Benefit: Keeps the original order intact and avoids creating unnecessary admin if the issue is genuinely temporary.

🤔 Consideration: This is only useful if the resolution is immediate. If the stock doesn’t arrive as expected, you’re now carrying ambiguity in the system.

2️⃣ Create backorder

Use this when:

• The supplier is sending the missing items later, on a new delivery.

✅ Benefit: Creates a clean, traceable follow-up. You preserve the audit trail and keep visibility of what is still outstanding.

🤔 Consideration: This introduces another delivery event that your team needs to manage properly when it lands.

3️⃣ Create credit note

Use this when:

• The supplier won’t resend the item, but you’ve been charged, or expect to be charged.

✅ Benefit: This is where margin recovery becomes real. It creates an auditable record, gives finance something clean to reconcile and stops credits from being forgotten.

🤔 Consideration: If no one follows through, a credit note is just a nice intention. It still needs to be monitored and chased.

4️⃣ Cancel undelivered items Use this when the missing items won’t be resent and you don’t plan to reorder them.

✅ Benefit: Closes the loop cleanly, removes ghost items from expected deliveries and keeps the system tidy.

🤔 Consideration: Make sure the cancellation matches invoice reality. If you’ve been charged and simply cancel, you haven’t recovered anything.

At Hops®, the idea is simple:

1. Identify the issue
2. Decide what the supplier is doing next
3. Trigger the right recovery path
4. Keep it all auditable

That’s what good operators do, and that’s what good systems should make easy!!!!!

---

About Robbie Francis
Robbie Francis is the Founder of Hops. He has spent years building and implementing hospitality technology with operators, focused on simplifying back-of-house operations across inventory and finance.

Follow Robbie on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/robbiefrancis

View the original LinkedIn post: Let’s be honest: suppliers don’t always get it right.