How to Manage Inbound Shipments in Luminous

Inbound shipments are one of the most common failure points in modern commerce. Whether you’re routing inventory to FBA or a 3PL, the shipment you send rarely matches what gets received—if you’re still managing this in spreadsheets, you already know the chaos.

Luminous fixes that.

What Is an Inbound Shipment?

An inbound shipment is any group of goods—raw materials, finished products, packaging—moving upstream into your supply chain. That could be your 3PL, your warehouse, FBA, or another receiving location. The problem? Most systems treat your shipment and the 3PL or FBA’s version as two completely separate events.

Luminous is one of the few platforms that closes that gap.

We give brands the ability to reconcile inbound shipments across systems, keeping your internal records and external confirmations in sync—without hours of manual cross-checking.

Here’s How It Works in Luminous

Let’s say you’ve written a PO to your supplier in China, and you're shipping directly into FBA. You’ve entered it into Seller Central. Now you need to route the goods from that PO into FBA. Luminous makes this straightforward:

1. Create a Shipment from a PO or Transfer Order (TO)
   
   • Name it, set custom statuses (optional), and define how you want costs to be allocated (freight, duties, etc.).
     
     
2. Track Inventory Costs in Layers
   
   • Luminous lets you track costs tied to each shipment so you're not guessing on landed costs later. Freight, duties, tariffs—it’s all there.
     
     
3. Reconcile Shipments Automatically
   
   • When a shipment from FBA or your 3PL hits the system, Luminous flags it as “pending” until you reconcile.
   • You can map it to an existing PO, TO, or shipment, or even create a new one directly.
     
     
4. Match Quantities Received to Quantities Sent
   
   • You’ll see exactly what was received vs. what you shipped. If there’s a discrepancy, Luminous shows it clearly—no more blind spots or relying on two disconnected spreadsheets.

Why This Matters

If you’ve ever lost product between your supplier and FBA or had your 3PL mark something as received that wasn’t, you know the pain.

With Luminous:

• You control how costs are allocated.
• You know what was actually received, not just what you think was sent.
• Your finance team gets clean, reconciled records for COGS.
• You eliminate human error and reduce friction between ops and accounting.

Bonus: Bulk Reconciliation for Streamlined Workflows

Have high-volume flows between AWD and FBA? We support bulk auto-reconciliation so your system doesn’t get cluttered with unnecessary TOs or half-complete data. Use it when you need speed and simplicity without compromising accuracy.

Built for Real Supply Chains

Inbound shipment reconciliation shouldn’t live in spreadsheets. Luminous gives you a clear, centralized view—so whether your goods are in motion, received, or stuck in limbo, you have the data and tools to act fast.

This is how modern brands stay in control.

Book a demo today for a live walkthrough of how inbound shipments work in Luminous.