Zepto ASN, Doc-In and Doc-Out Explained for Brands (2026)
A Zepto ASN (Advance Shipping Notice) is the dispatch declaration a brand submits to Zepto before its goods arrive: which purchase order is being fulfilled, the invoice details, and the quantities on the way. Zepto reconciles the ASN against its own PO line by line, so what is coming is agreed before the delivery appointment, not discovered at the dock.
"Doc-in" and "doc-out" are not terms Zepto defines publicly. The most likely meaning is dock-in and dock-out, the moments your vehicle is placed at an unloading dock at the Zepto warehouse and released from it. This guide walks through the full inbound flow, shows where each document sits, and marks clearly what we could and could not verify.
Key Takeaways
- The ASN is the brand's promise of what is on the truck. The GRN is Zepto's record of what it accepted. Every later deduction lives in the gap between the two.
- Build the ASN from the invoice, not the order. Approved quantities and invoiced quantities often differ, and Zepto reconciles line by line.
- Send it after invoicing and before arrival. An ASN that lands after the truck does nothing for the receiving team.
- "Doc-in / doc-out" most plausibly means dock-in and dock-out of your vehicle. Zepto does not define it publicly, so confirm the meaning with your Zepto warehouse contact.
- Most ASN failures are master-data failures: unmapped item codes, the wrong buyer entity or delivery location, or prices that do not match the PO.
What a Zepto ASN Actually Is
An Advance Shipping Notice is not a Zepto invention. It is a standard supply chain document: the supplier tells the buyer's receiving site what is coming before it arrives, so the site can plan unloading and match the delivery to an open purchase order. What makes the Zepto ASN matter for brands is that Zepto reconciles it against its PO line by line. Declared quantities meet ordered quantities before the goods hit the dock.
At minimum, an ASN ties three things together: the purchase order being fulfilled, the invoice that billed it, and the SKU-level quantities on the vehicle. ASNs in general also carry item identifiers and, for food and personal care, batch and expiry details. Zepto's exact field list is defined in its vendor documentation and can change, so treat your Zepto onboarding material as the source of truth for the schema.
The practical point: the ASN is the last moment the brand controls the story. Once the truck is unloaded, Zepto's receiving record takes over, and whatever was not declared cleanly becomes a variance someone in finance will chase weeks later.
The Zepto Inbound Flow, Step by Step
Here is where the ASN sits in the sequence from PO to goods receipt. Steps 1 to 5 are the brand's side; steps 6 to 8 happen at Zepto's warehouse.
- Zepto issues a purchase order. The PO names the buyer entity, the delivery location, Zepto's item codes, quantities, rates and the dates the PO is valid for.
- The brand maps and validates it. Zepto item codes resolve to your SKUs; the buyer entity and delivery location resolve to the right customer record, GSTIN and fulfilling warehouse.
- The brand approves, with cuts. Quantities are approved at SKU level against stock, shelf life and case or crate rules, and every cut gets a reason.
- Pick, pack, invoice and e-way bill. The GST invoice is raised (with IRN where e-invoicing applies) on the GSTIN the PO demands, and an e-way bill is generated where the movement requires one.
- The ASN is submitted. Assembled from the invoice against the specific PO, and sent before the goods arrive.
- The vehicle arrives in its appointment slot. Third-party onboarding guides describe Zepto deliveries arriving within a booked appointment carrying the PO, invoice and e-way bill. This is where dock-in happens.
- Unloading and receiving checks. The same guides describe barcode scans, shelf-life checks and quantity counts at inwarding. Units that fail are short-received.
- Dock-out and GRN. The vehicle is released and Zepto records the goods receipt. The GRN, not the invoice, is what drives fill rate and what gets paid.
Doc-In and Doc-Out: What the Terms Most Likely Mean
Brand teams search for "doc in and doc out process in Zepto", but we could not find Zepto defining either term in any public source, and our own Zepto integration does not use them. So instead of inventing a procedure, here are the two readings that fit the evidence.
Reading 1: dock-in and dock-out (most likely). In warehouse operations, dock-in is the timestamp when a vehicle is placed at an unloading dock and dock-out is when it leaves the dock. Dock scheduling references treat the sequence as gate check-in, dock-in, unloading start and finish, dock-out and gate-out, and measure "dock time" as dock-in to dock-out. Applied to Zepto, the "doc-in / doc-out process" would be your vehicle's turn at the Zepto warehouse: reporting inside the appointment, getting a dock, being unloaded and checked, and being released. Long gaps between gate-in and dock-in usually mean the vehicle was early, late, or arrived without the paperwork or ASN the receiving team expected.
Reading 2: documents in and documents out. Some teams use "docs" loosely for the paperwork that travels with the truck (PO reference, tax invoice, e-way bill) and whatever comes back after receiving, such as an acknowledgement or the GRN. Under this reading, "doc-in" is handing over the documents at the gate or dock and "doc-out" is collecting proof of what was received.
Either way, the operational lesson is the same: the ASN, the invoice and the physical load must say the same thing, because the receiving team compares them while your vehicle is at the dock. Before you write an SOP around these terms, ask your Zepto warehouse contact or Category Manager which meaning they use and which timestamps they record.
Every Document on the Zepto Inbound Journey
| Document / event | Created by | When | What it settles | Typical failure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Purchase order | Zepto | Before anything moves | What, how much, at what rate, to which location, by when | Item codes not mapped to your SKUs |
| GST invoice (with IRN where applicable) | Brand | At dispatch | What was billed, from which GSTIN | Invoice not ready when the vehicle leaves |
| E-way bill | Brand or transporter | Before movement, where required | Legal movement of the goods | Wrong vehicle number or validity lapses |
| ASN | Brand | After invoicing, before arrival | What is on the way, against which PO | Quantities copied from the order, not the invoice |
| Dock-in / dock-out | Zepto warehouse | On arrival / after unloading | When the vehicle was at the dock | Meaning not published by Zepto: confirm locally |
| GRN | Zepto | After receiving checks | What was accepted, and so what gets paid | Short, damaged or unscannable units |
Common Mistakes That Break Zepto ASNs
Unmapped or duplicated item codes
If a Zepto item code does not resolve to exactly one of your SKUs, the ASN line cannot match the PO line. Two variants sharing one platform code is a classic trap. Clean the mapping before the first PO, not after the first rejection.
Declaring the order instead of the invoice
Approved quantity, picked quantity and invoiced quantity are three different numbers on a bad day. The ASN must carry what was invoiced and loaded, or the line-by-line reconciliation fails on its own terms.
Invoice not ready at dispatch
The ASN carries invoice details. If the invoice is raised hours after the truck leaves, or sits in an ERP queue, the ASN either goes late or goes out wrong.
Wrong buyer entity or delivery location
Zepto POs are raised against a specific entity and delivery location. Invoicing from the wrong GSTIN or declaring the wrong destination produces an ASN that cannot reconcile to the PO it claims to fulfil.
Prices that drift from the PO rate
If the invoice rate differs from the PO rate, the ASN inherits the difference. Settle rate-card disputes before dispatch; the dock is the wrong place to discover them.
Treating the ASN as optional paperwork
Teams that send the ASN after arrival, or only when reminded, lose its whole value. Make it part of the dispatch step, with an owner and a check that it was accepted.
Watch a Zepto PO Become an ASN
See a Zepto PO ingested, approved at SKU level, invoiced, and turned into an ASN built from the actual invoice, submitted before the goods arrive.
How FilFlo Handles the Zepto ASN
FilFlo is the order-to-cash operations layer for FMCG brands selling through quick commerce, and Zepto is one of its live channel workflows: POs in, ASNs out. Zepto POs come in through FilFlo-operated middleware as Zepto issues them, header and lines, with the source document preserved. Zepto item codes are mapped to your SKUs, the buyer entity and delivery location are resolved, and the PO joins the same approval queue as every other channel, with SKU-level quantity cuts, reasons, crate-MOQ rules and the approver on record.
After fulfilment, FilFlo assembles the ASN from the actual invoice, either raised in FilFlo's GST invoicing flow or read back from ERP (live today with Microsoft Dynamics 365), against the specific PO it fulfils, and submits it to Zepto before the goods arrive. Because the ASN comes from the same order trail as the PO, the approval and the invoice, what is declared matches what was approved and billed. The full mechanics are on the Zepto ASN and PO integration page.
What to plan for: ASN submission is enabled account by account, not on by default, and it depends on invoice data being available at dispatch time. Downstream, GRN data and credit notes live on the same trail; for how that tail works across platforms, see the quick commerce order-to-cash guide.
How We Researched This: What Is Verified and What Is Not
We describe the ASN from FilFlo's own live Zepto integration. Zepto's receiving practices come from third-party onboarding guides, because Zepto's vendor documentation is not public. Doc-in and doc-out could not be confirmed from any primary source. Here is the status of each claim on this page:
| Claim | Status | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Zepto reconciles a submitted ASN against its PO line by line | Verified | FilFlo's live Zepto integration |
| The ASN is built from invoice data and sent before goods arrive | Verified | FilFlo's live Zepto integration |
| Deliveries arrive in a booked appointment with PO, invoice and e-way bill | Third-party | Published Zepto brand onboarding guides |
| Inwarding includes barcode, shelf-life and quantity checks | Third-party | Published Zepto brand onboarding guides |
| Dock-in / dock-out as vehicle milestones at a dock | Verified as general warehouse vocabulary | Dock scheduling references |
| Doc-in / doc-out as named Zepto process steps | Not verified | No public Zepto definition found |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an ASN on Zepto?
An ASN (Advance Shipping Notice) is the dispatch declaration a brand submits to Zepto before its goods arrive: which Zepto purchase order is being fulfilled, the invoice details, and the quantities on the way. Zepto reconciles the submitted ASN against its own PO line by line, so receiving expectations are set before the delivery appointment instead of being argued about at the dock.
When should a brand submit the Zepto ASN?
After the GST invoice is raised and before the goods reach Zepto. The ASN is built from the invoice, so it cannot be accurate until the invoice exists, and it is only useful to the receiving side if it lands ahead of the truck. In practice that means invoicing at dispatch and submitting the ASN in the same step, well before the appointment slot.
What does doc-in and doc-out mean in the Zepto process?
Zepto does not publish a definition of these terms, so treat any single answer with care. The most likely reading is dock-in and dock-out: the moments a delivery vehicle is placed at an unloading dock at the Zepto warehouse and released from it after unloading, which is standard warehouse vocabulary. A looser reading is the documents that go in with the truck (PO reference, invoice, e-way bill) and the receiving record that comes back. Confirm which one your Zepto warehouse contact or Category Manager means before you build a process around it.
Is the ASN the same as the GRN?
No. The ASN is the brand's declaration of what is on the way, sent before arrival. The GRN (goods receipt note) is Zepto's record of what it actually received and accepted after its checks. Differences between the two, such as short receipt, damage or unscannable packs, are what later turn into GRN variances, credit notes and short payments.
Why does Zepto reject or fail to match an ASN?
The common causes are on the brand's side: platform item codes that are not mapped to the right SKUs, an ASN built from order quantities instead of the invoice, a PO reference that does not match the live PO, prices that differ from the PO rate, or a buyer entity and delivery location that do not match the PO. Most of these are master-data problems that should be fixed before the first ASN goes out.
Can FilFlo submit Zepto ASNs?
Yes, for accounts where it is enabled. FilFlo ingests Zepto POs through FilFlo-operated middleware, runs SKU-level approval, and after invoicing assembles the ASN from the actual invoice data (raised in FilFlo, or read back from Microsoft Dynamics 365) and submits it to Zepto before the goods arrive. ASN enablement is per account and depends on invoice data being ready at dispatch, so it is set up during onboarding rather than switched on by default.
Bring a Real Zepto PO
In a 30-minute demo, watch FilFlo take a Zepto PO from intake to SKU-level approval, GST invoice, ASN submission and GRN, on one order trail.
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