Customer returns

A customer return records goods a customer sends back: the wrong item, a crushed carton, a recall. You record what came back and in what condition, then receive it. Receiving puts the goods back into stock as new stock units in the warehouse's returns area, with the batch and expiry of the units that were issued, ready to be labelled and put away.

#Before you start

In a warehouse with location management on, returned goods land in a bin whose purpose is Returns. If the warehouse has none, a Receiving bin is used instead. Set purposes on the Locations page.

#The Customer returns list

Open Warehouse > Customer returns. The list shows returns dated in the last 90 days; open the filter (funnel icon) to choose a warehouse, a state (Draft or Received), a customer or other dates. The card title says which filters are applied. When your organization has business units, the filter also offers Business unit (all, your main business only, or a unit with its sub-units); without a choice the list starts with the unit chosen in the header. At most the newest 1,000 returns are shown.

The Transfer returns tab shows returns recorded by the handheld scanner as a transfer, read-only. See Transfer returns.

#Record a return

1. Select Create on the list.
2. Choose Against:
   • GIN (the usual case): search for the issue note by number or customer. A plain number lists every issue note with that number, each with its own prefix, so you choose; a number with a legal entity's prefix, such as PH-812, finds only that one. The customer and the warehouse are taken from it; you can choose another receiving warehouse.
   • You can also open a dispatched issue note and select Record return on its toolbar; the new return opens against that GIN with its units listed.
   • Customer: for goods that came back with no paperwork. Choose the customer.
3. Choose the Warehouse, and in a warehouse with location management the Returns location (picked for you when there is only one).
4. When your organization has business units, check the Business unit. It starts with the issue note's business unit, else the warehouse's owning unit, else the unit chosen in the header; choosing another issue note or warehouse moves it until you choose a unit yourself.
5. Enter the Date (not in the future and, against a GIN, not before it was dispatched), and optionally the Customer reference (their return or note number, up to 100 characters) and a Description.
6. Add the lines (below), then select Save. The return is saved as a draft; no stock moves yet.

A return of a business unit that is, or sits under, a separate legal entity is numbered in that entity's own sequence, for example PH-CR-3.

#Lines against a GIN

The form lists every stock unit the GIN issued, with the batch, expiry, quantity issued, quantity already returned and what can still be returned. Select Return under a unit to add a line for it. Add more than one line for the same unit when part came back good and part damaged. The batch, expiry and manufacture date always come from the issued unit and cannot be typed.

#Lines against a customer

Search for the product and select Add line. Enter the batch, expiry and manufacture date the same way as on a receipt: a batch-tracked product needs a batch, a product that requires an expiry needs one, and the manufacture date cannot be after the return date or on or after the expiry. 3PL products cannot be returned here.

#Scan a returned unit's label

Scan the OCTO label on a returned carton into the Scan a returned unit's label box. The return switches to that unit's GIN (asking first if you have already added lines) and adds a line for the unit with its product, batch and expiry. If the unit was issued on more than one GIN to this customer, you are asked which one. A unit that was not issued to the chosen customer, or on the chosen GIN, is refused.

#Condition and reasons

For every line enter:

• Quantity: more than zero, at most 3 decimal places; a serial-tracked product is returned in whole units.
• Condition: Good or Damaged. A damaged line needs a Damage reason; Other needs a note describing the damage.
• Return reason: why the customer sent it back (Wrong item, Damaged in transit, Expired, Near expiry, Not ordered, Quality complaint, Recall or Other). Other needs a note.

Goods whose expiry is on or before the return date cannot be returned as Good: record them as Damaged with the reason Expired. Goods with less shelf life left than the customer minimum are accepted as good and show the badge Below customer minimum: 40 of 90 days.

#Edit or delete a draft

Open the draft and select Edit to change it, or Delete to remove it (no stock is affected). You can move a draft to another business unit in the same legal entity. If someone else saved the draft after you opened it, saving shows "This return was changed by someone else. Reload it to see the changes." A received return cannot be edited or deleted. Neither can a return whose receipt has started but not finished (the profile says "This return is part-way received. Receive it to finish."): only Receive is left.

#Receive a return

On the draft's profile select Receive and confirm. For every line OCTO writes a new stock unit (one per unit for serial-tracked products) in the returns location, with the issued unit's batch and expiry, the line's condition and a reference to this return. Damaged lines are marked damaged with their reason. The issue note itself, and anything Sales reads from it, does not change. Every returned unit takes the return's business unit. A line with no batch takes the return's number as its batch, for example CR-31.

After receiving, select Print labels to label every returned unit (see Stock labels); the profile also shows a Stock units card listing each new unit with its label code, the quantity now, its bin and its condition. A unit still waiting to be put away has a Put away button; a damaged unit has a Decide button that opens the Damaged stock list for the return's warehouse (it needs Warehouse › Damage & disposition › View).

#Print the return note

Select the Print icon in the toolbar of a return's profile to print the customer return note: the number, date, warehouse and returns location, customer, GIN and customer reference, every line with its batch, expiry, quantity, condition and reasons, and signature lines. With business units, the note carries the business unit's letterhead and a Business unit line. A draft prints with a DRAFT watermark; it goes away once the return is received, which also fills in who received it and when. Anyone who can view the return can print it.

#What happens next

• Good units wait in Awaiting put-away until they are put away to a saleable bin. See Put-away.
• Damaged units are marked damaged with their reason and can only be put away into a damage area. They are listed on the Damaged stock list (select Decide on the return's Stock units card), where you can start a Return to vendor, Scrap or Repair document with them, or add them to a damage and disposition document by scanning each unit onto it.
• Returned units count in stock, availability and inventory exactly like received goods.

#Transfer returns

Returns recorded by the handheld scanner are transfers marked as a return. They are listed on the Transfer returns tab and open read-only, marked Recorded by the handheld. They have no customer, condition or reason.

When your organization has business units, the tab filters by business unit like the other lists (the funnel icon, starting with the header's unit), adds a Business unit column and shows each number with its legal entity's prefix. A return recorded against a transfer request belongs to the request's business unit; its profile shows it.

#Errors you may see

#Current limitations

• A return whose receipt has started, and which a rule now refuses (for example the returns bin changed purpose), can't be edited or deleted. Ask a supervisor.
• Returns are not inspected by quality control yet; condition is recorded by the clerk.
• A return does not create a credit note or change the sales order's delivered quantity.
• 3PL stock cannot be returned here, and the handheld's return scan still records a transfer return.