Return goods to a supplier
A supplier return is a goods receipt in reverse — stock leaves a site, and the supplier owes you a credit for it. See supplier returns for how the credit side and the accounting behind it work.
Raise the return
- Go to Purchasing → Returns, then select New return.
- Pick the supplier, enter your own return reference, choose a reason, and pick the site the goods are leaving from. Optionally, link the goods receipt the stock originally arrived on.
- The reason is one of eight: overcharge, shortfall, damage in transit, damage in warehouse, defective, "Return to vendor", price adjustment, or other.
- Add lines for what's being returned.
- Save it as a draft.
Approving and sending are optional
A draft return's action bar offers Approve, Edit, Cancel, and Review & post. Approve and Send are not mandatory steps — they are optional sign-off and dispatch records, not a ladder you have to climb:
- Approve records that someone has signed off on the return internally. Once approved, the action bar offers Send, Cancel and Review & post.
- Send records that the goods have physically left, and is where you capture the supplier's own RMA number. Once sent, the action bar offers Cancel and Review & post.
Review & post is offered from a draft, an approved return, and a sent return alike — you can post straight from a draft if you want to.
Post the return
Select Review & post. Posting takes the stock off hand at the variant's current weighted average cost and moves the return to awaiting credit.
Posting fails if a line's returned quantity exceeds what is on hand — a supplier return can never take out more stock than you actually hold.
Once posted, the return can no longer be edited or cancelled. It sits at awaiting credit until you record the supplier's credit note — see record a supplier credit for a return.
See supplier return statuses for the full status list and which actions appear at each one.