Thanks Fidget. I certainly understand the point between loading and delivery is ripe for error & pilferage, but most of the time we are shipping collect using the customer dictated carrier. The customer's receiving process can also be ripe for error. So when we have multiple check points to ensure the count going on the truck is correct, and the truck is their carrier, it still seems a little more like a bad debt write off than an allowance, but I am with you in that we cannot & should not treat the customer as a bad debtor. Therefore we have decided to create a special type of allowance, "shortage claims", to enable us to identify how much revenue is lost due to shortage claims by individual customers, and we can address the issue with any customer(s) that have excessive shortage claims.