Use Supplier Returns to credit and return the stock you've purchased and ensure your Stock on Hand (SOH) value and quantity are up to date and accurate in real-time. Within each Supplier Return, you can also choose whether any additional costs incurred from the original Purchase Order (PO) should be refunded or written off.

Within each line of a Supplier Return, you can select a "reason" as to why the product has been either credited or returned to your supplier. By defining a reason per return line, you're able to keep an eye on your supplier's performance, and use the data to guide your future purchasing decisions.

To create Supplier Return Reasons specific to your business, head to the main menu and select Settings > System > Supplier Return Reasons.

A user must have the permission "Supplier Return" enabled to create and complete a Supplier Return.

You can create more than one Supplier Return per PO, provided there is still stock or value needing to be returned for it. Once a PO is in a Complete status, a Supplier Return can be created for it in one of the following ways:

If a Supplier Return has already been created for a PO, a pop-up window stating "Supplier returns already exist for this purchase" will be shown, allowing you to review the Supplier Returns that already exist and ensure you're not creating unnecessary duplicates. But you also have the option to click on the Create New button, in the same window, to proceed with creating another Supplier Return.

Upon creation, a Supplier Return will be given an auto-generated order number, a Parked status, and all order lines and costs that were included on the original PO upon completion will be populated in it. You can then manage the products, quantities, costs, and prices in the Supplier Return as necessary, to ensure you credit or return only the appropriate stock when completing it.

Whilst a Supplier Return is in Parked status, you can update the products, quantities, prices, and costs included on it to ensure you only return the appropriate inventory and value from your stock to your supplier. The details included on a Supplier Return will determine how the remaining stock's on hand and quantities and values are updated, so you must ensure they are accurate prior to completing.

Alternatively, if the Supplier Return is no longer needed, you have the opportunity to delete it by clicking on the Delete button in the bottom right corner of a Parked Supplier Return. Once a Supplier Return is deleted, it cannot be edited or restored.

In the header fields on the Supplier Return, you will see the return's original Purchase Order Number, the PO's supplier, and the PO's original Order Date, all of which cannot be edited in the return. However, you can update the following header details, as necessary, in the Supplier Return:

Below the Supplier Return's header fields, you'll find all the order lines initially included on the PO populated for return. Update the return prices, quantities, and reasons for the products being returned, or use the bin icon to delete any order lines not due to be credited or returned to the supplier.

The following fields are available to edit per order line in a Supplier Return to align with the credit and stock returns due for your supplier:

Hover over the action cog icon in the Supplier Return's order line header to see the options available for bulk-updating the lines of the return. Choose "Select All" from the action cog's menu, and all checkboxes on the Supplier Return's current page will be ticked. Choose "Select None" and all checkboxes will be unticked. These options can then help you to delete or update the "Return" checkbox on each order line in bulk.

Use the "Check Return All Lines" or "Uncheck Return All Lines" actions in the column header's action cog menu to determine whether the order lines selected via the column's checkbox should remove stock from your SOH to return to the Supplier.

Select the "Delete Selected Lines" option in the column header's action cog menu to remove all lines selected in the column's checkboxes from the Supplier Return.

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If the Supplier Return's original PO included additional costs, those costs will be automatically included on the Supplier Return in the Cost Lines section, below the order lines. The costs included in a Supplier Return will be used, along with the product's Return Price and Quantity, to calculate how much the returning product's stock value will be reduced by.

You can adjust the returning cost value via the Cost field, but for each cost, you will need to determine whether the returning cost is to be refunded or written-off using the selector options at the end of the cost's line:

By default, the Cost in a Supplier Return is distributed amongst the Supplier Return's order lines to calculate a "Return Cost" per line. If you reduce the Cost Line's cost, each order line's Return Cost will automatically update to align with the updated distributing value. You can also update each order line's Return Cost manually, but you must ensure the sum-total of Return Costs matches the total cost on the Supplier Return, in the cost supplier's currency. Click on the circular arrow shown in the Cost Line's Cost header to revert the adjusted Return Costs to their original distribution.

When the details included on a Supplier Return, including the products, quantities, prices, and costs, are correct and your inventory needs to be updated to account for it, click on Complete the Supplier Return.

Once completed, the quantities ticked to be returned will be removed from your selected warehouse's SOH and the returning product's stock value will be updated to account for the credited prices and costs.

Supplier Returns can be printed or emailed using the button functions available at the bottom of each Supplier Return, or via the action cog in the View Supplier Returns page. When printed or emailed, the Doc Designer template chosen in the Supplier Return's Template field will be used to generate the PDF version of the Supplier Return.

You can automate default message and subject line used when a Supplier Return is emailed by heading to your Settings > Company and in the Email Templates tab, updating the Supplier Return email template. You'll have the opportunity to add further detail to each Supplier Return's email, but the email template will be used to provide an initial format to the message.

Click on the View Email Log button in the Supplier Return to review any emails sent to the supplier from the Supplier Return. It is not possible to review the email's content, but you're able to review the recipients, senders and dates of each email.

A "residual value" is the difference between a product's current value and its initial purchase landed costs. When a product is receipted into your inventory, the product's Average Landed Cost (ALC) is recalculated, using the receipted purchase price and distributed costs, to determine the product's current total stock value.

A residual value error can occur and will stop a Supplier Return from being completed if:

To resolve a residual value error, you must update the product's current total stock value to match the value of the stock being returned, which can be done using either a stock revaluation or a value-only Stock Adjustment.

If a residual value error occurs because the "Return" checkbox was not selected during the Supplier Return, consider completing a manual stock adjustment as follows:

Let's say you have 1 unit of a product in your SOH, and it has an ALC of $105, meaning its total stock value is $105. This 1 unit is due to be returned to your supplier, but was originally purchased at $100. If a Supplier Return were to be completed, the unit would be removed from your SOH up to its original purchase value; thus, the product's remaining stock value would be calculated as $105 - $100 = $5. As this remaining $5 does not have any SOH to allocate to, it is considered a residual value that needs to be resolved before you can complete the Supplier Return.

A value-only stock adjustment allows you to update a product's current total stock value, without adjusting its SOH quantity. The adjustment would also result in the product's ALC being recalculated to align with the new total stock value.

To complete a value-only stock adjustment:

If you encounter a minor residual value error, such as GBP-0.02, follow these steps:

How the Cost Lines included on a Supplier Return will export to your integrated accounting provider (Xero or QuickBooks) will differ, depending on whether the cost is being refunded or written off, and whether the cost supplier is the same as the stock's supplier. The table below outlines how each variation of cost lines will export, per accounting provider.