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Returns

A return authorization for goods a customer sends back, from receiving them to crediting the customer or sending a replacement.

A return, listed as an RMA (return merchandise authorization), is your permission for a customer to send goods back: a regulator that failed, the wrong cylinder size, an appliance damaged on the way. It records what is coming back and why, and from it you receive the goods, decide what happens to each item, credit the customer and, if they want one, send a replacement. A return does not post anything to your books by itself; the receipt, the credit and the replacement do.

How to authorize a return when a customer calls about goods they want to send back

  1. Go to Sales → Returns (the list is headed RMAs) and click Add RMA.
  2. Choose the Customer, the Customer Location and the Customer Contact, and enter their reference under Customer Reference. If the goods came from one order, choose it under Sales Order.
  3. Set the Order Date, the Expiration Date after which the authorization lapses, and the Return Location, the yard or warehouse the goods come back to.
  4. Save. The return opens as a Draft.

How to list the returned items when the return is still a draft

  1. Click Add Lines and choose how:
    • Add from shipment lists every line you have shipped to this customer that can still be returned. Search by shipment, sales order or item, tick the lines and add them. The price and item come from the original shipment.
    • Add manually lets you enter an item and quantity yourself, for goods you cannot trace to a shipment.
  2. On each line, check the Return Quantity and Unit Price, choose the Return Reason, and set a Restock Fee Percent if you charge one.

The reasons come from Configure → Return Reasons on Sales. A new company starts with Defective, Wrong Item Shipped, Damaged in Transit, No Longer Needed, Warranty and Other.

How to confirm the return when the customer may send the goods

Click Confirm and confirm. The return becomes To Receive. AimRack checks that no line authorizes more than was shipped on its source line, less what other returns already authorize. Once confirmed, the lines are fixed; Reopen returns it to Draft if you must change them.

How to receive the goods when they arrive at the yard

  1. On a return that is To Receive, click Receive. AimRack creates a receipt from the return's lines.
  2. Check the quantities on the receipt and post it.
  3. Returned goods go back into stock at their original cost when the line came from a shipment, at current cost when it did not, and at no value when the return reason says so. Goods tracked by serial or batch number come back On Hold until you decide what to do with them.

When every line has received its full quantity, the return becomes Completed on its own. If the customer will not send the rest of a line, open the line and click Stop Receiving; Resume Receiving undoes it.

How to decide what happens to each returned item when it has been inspected

Open the line and choose a Disposition:

  • Use As Is puts the goods back into use; held stock is released.
  • Return to Customer means you send the goods back. A Ship button then appears on the return, which creates a shipment to the customer.
  • Scrap or Rework opens a quality issue for the line, and the disposition is set once the issue is created.

A line starts as Pending until you choose.

How to credit the customer when the goods are back

  1. Click Issue Credit. It appears once something has been received, and needs permission to create invoicing records.
  2. The window lists each line with the quantity received that has not yet been credited. Choose the quantities; the window shows the subtotal, the restocking fee and the total.
  3. Confirm. AimRack creates a draft credit memo for the total and opens it. Review and post the memo to apply the credit.

How to send a replacement when the customer wants the goods replaced

Click Create Replacement. AimRack creates a draft sales order for the returned items, priced from the customer's current prices. The button then becomes Replacement Order, which opens that order. Confirm and ship it as you would any order.

How to stop a return when it will not happen

Cancel stops a return that is still Draft or To Receive and releases the quantities it authorized, so they can be returned later on another return. Delete RMA, in the menu beside the return number, removes a return that is Draft or Cancelled.

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