RMA requests

An RMA — a return authorisation — is the paperwork for reviewing a customer’s request to send something back, before any goods or money move. It records the request, who looked at it, and what was decided.

Where

Sale Transactions → RMA / Returns

Plan

Growth and above

Permission

Sales → Rma

An RMA on its own returns nothing

Marking an RMA refunded or replaced does not refund anybody, does not put stock back on the shelf and does not reverse the sale. It changes the status of a form.

The goods and the money only move when somebody raises a good return and posts it. The RMA then holds a link to it. Skip that step and you have an RMA marked “refunded” against a customer who was never refunded.

The single exception is below.

Raising one

An RMA can stand alone or be linked to a sale. Picking the sale lets you choose its lines, which copies the item, quantity, serial and batch across.

Field	Notes
Customer, location	Customer is optional
Originating sale	Optional
Reason, notes
Expected return by
Lines	Item, quantity, serial, batch, reason, intended resolution, refund amount

The intended resolution on a line — refund, replace, repair or store credit — is a note of what you plan to do. It does not cause anything.

The total is added up from the line refund amounts and shown read-only. You cannot type a total that disagrees with the lines.

Working through it

The stages are: requested → under review → approved → goods received → refunded or replaced → closed, with rejected and cancelled as ways out.

Each stage needs its own permission — reviewing, approving, rejecting, receiving, refunding and closing are all separately granted. Every step can carry a note, and the notes build up into a trail on the document.

You can edit an RMA until it is closed or cancelled. After that it is frozen.

The one thing an RMA does by itself

If you mark an RMA refunded with the method set to store credit, and there is no good return linked to it, the system posts that credit to the ledger as money you owe the customer. It does this once.

Every other transition — approving, receiving goods, refunding by cash, card, bank or mobile money, replacing, closing — moves nothing.

Linking the good return

From approved onwards, the status screen offers a Good Return picker. Raise the good return separately, post it, then come back and link it here.

That link is what ties the authorisation to the event that actually happened. Nothing enforces it, so it is worth making it part of the routine.

Related

• Good returns — the document that moves the goods
• Trade-in requests