RMA
“How do I take goods back — refund, credit note or exchange?” Not in this folder. The refund, the credit and the exchange are sales documents, and Sales Workflow says which one. This folder is for the item that comes back faulty and has to be followed while it is checked, repaired, swapped or sent back to the supplier, sometimes for weeks.
Nothing in this folder moves stock, posts a journal, changes what a customer or supplier owes, or reaches the e-invoice queue. That is deliberate, and it is the one fact that decides how you use it: these screens track a return, and a separate sales or purchase document settles it. This page says which screen is whose, and which document has to follow each one.
What each screen records, and whose screen it is
| Screen | Whose | What it records | Stock, ledger, e-invoice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Service Note (Internal RMA) | The service desk and the technician | One unit’s repair or return job: the item and serial, the reason, the replacement unit if one went out, and up to three workflow statuses (internal, customer, supplier) | Nothing |
| Customer RMA | The service desk | Service notes grouped for one customer, printed as the return authorisation | Nothing |
| Supplier RTV | The service desk or warehouse; the buyer follows it with the purchase document | Service notes grouped for one supplier, with the supplier’s reference | Nothing. The item stays on hand and what you owe the supplier stays the same |
| RMA Requests | The service desk | Returns a customer or supplier asked for through their own login. Approving one starts a background job that turns it into a service note | Nothing |
| Warranty Admin | Support | Warranty registrations members submitted on the storefront. Approving one writes a warranty certificate | Nothing, and no e-mail |
Behind the screen, a Customer RMA and a Supplier RTV are saved as service documents: the server validates the record, stores it and writes an audit line, and starts no posting job. The service note’s Gen Doc tab links an existing sales invoice, job sheet, receipt voucher or payment voucher to the job as a cross-reference. It creates no document and changes none.
Two things must exist before the first service note. Everyone who will raise one is linked to the applet, because the server refuses a note with no assignee and reporter. And if you want statuses, the workflow processes are built in Workflow Design, chosen in the applet’s settings, and each user has a role in them. Without that the status drop-down stays empty.
If you have screens called RMA HQ, RMA Staff or RMA Supplier, you are on the older return workflow, which this wiki does not document.
Which document settles the return
The service note tells you where the unit is. One of these tells the books:
| What happened | Track it on | Settle it with | What that document does at FINAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| The customer wants their money back, or a credit | A service note, if you want the history | Sales Return | Brings the goods into stock, posts to Sales Returns, and records the refund on its own Payment tab, so one cashier finishes it in one document |
| The customer’s own unit is repaired and handed back | A service note | For a chargeable repair, a Job Sheet for the work and a Sales Invoice for the parts and labour. The unit itself needs no document: it was never your stock | The job sheet moves and posts nothing, not even the money typed on it, and parts on its Lines tab stay in stock. Stock, revenue and cash move on the invoice |
| You swap the unit at the counter | The service note’s Replacement tab (the replacement’s serial) | One POS bill: a return line for the faulty item and a sale line for the replacement | The return line brings the faulty unit in and posts to Sales Returns; the sale line takes the replacement out. An even swap totals zero, and if the bill has no settlement line the server adds one for zero against the newest cash method linked to the branch |
| The unit goes back to the supplier | A Supplier RTV | Purchase Return, or a Purchase Refund Note when the supplier refunds | Takes the goods out of stock and reverses the purchase against the supplier. A Purchase Return posts to Purchase Returns; a Purchase Refund Note posts to Purchases |
So a Supplier RTV is paired with the Purchase Return that follows it, and a refund or a swap with a Sales Return or an exchange bill. For goods that came back, use a Sales Return rather than a Sales Credit Note: a credit note reduces the sale and brings nothing into stock, so the shelf disagrees with the system until somebody notices at the stock take.
Why the tracking is kept apart from the books
A repair can take weeks, pass through several people and end in any of the four rows above. You do not know at intake whether the customer will get a refund, a repaired unit or a new one, so there is nothing yet to post. The service records follow the unit through every status, and the money is decided once, at the end, by whoever settles it, on a document built to post. BigLedger confirmed the split as the design for the Supplier RTV: the RTV is the logistics record, and the Purchase Return moves the goods and the money.
A customer’s unit in for repair was never yours. If booking it in moved stock, every repair would inflate the stock on hand until the unit went home.
Where the RMA figures come from
| Figure | Seen in | Stored or worked out |
|---|---|---|
| Workflow Status on a service note | The Service Note listing | Read live from the workflow tables when the listing loads |
| Workflow Status on the RMA Report | The report and its CSV | The status code stored on the note, refreshed from the status on every save, so the two agree unless something wrote the note without going through the server’s checks |
| Item Qty | The RMA Report | Always 1. A service note is saved as one unit |
| Supplier Name | The RMA Report | The supplier on the Supplier RTV the note is grouped into, one row per RTV line, so a note on two RTV lines appears twice |
| Warranty period and expiry | A warranty certificate | Copied from the registration form at the time of approval. The form fills them from the item’s Basic Warranty when the item has one, and support can type over them. Nothing recomputes them, and nothing marks a certificate expired |
A pair of earbuds at GS-KV-03
A customer brings back wireless earbuds she bought at the till for RM 399. One side is dead, they are under warranty, and she would rather have a working pair than her money.
- At the counter, you raise a service note from the serial number. Nothing in stock or in the ledger changes.
- The technician confirms the fault and moves the internal status. If Workflow Design has a trigger on that step, the customer-facing status follows.
- You swap the pair on one POS bill: a return line for the faulty pair against the bill she bought it on, and a new pair sold, total zero. The return line brings the faulty pair into stock, the sale line takes the new pair out. You record the replacement serial on the service note.
- The distributor accepts the faulty pair. You group the service note onto a Supplier RTV. The stock report still counts the faulty pair, correctly, because it is still in your hands.
- When it ships, the buyer raises a Purchase Return for it. Only now does it leave stock and only now does what you owe the distributor fall.
Skip step 3’s return line and step 5 fails: a Purchase Return is refused at FINAL when the location has no stock to take, or it takes a good pair off the count instead. The Purchase Return page suggests a dedicated returns location for faulty goods, so they never mix with stock you sell.
When a return looks wrong
| What you see | Usually because | Do this |
|---|---|---|
| The supplier’s statement shows a credit your books do not | The Supplier RTV was saved and no Purchase Return followed | Raise the Purchase Return for the same items |
| Returned goods are still counted as sold | The return went on a Sales Credit Note, or only on a service note or Customer RMA | Raise a Sales Return for the goods |
| There’s not enough stock for item … on a Purchase Return | The faulty unit was never brought back into stock at that location | Receive it on the Sales Return (or the exchange bill) first, at the location the Purchase Return takes from |
| An approved RMA request has no service note | The copy job failed its checks and says nothing | Fix the request’s branch, location and people, save, approve again: Internal RMA, Troubleshooting |
| A service note is missing from the RMA Report | Its item was picked as a 3rd-Party Item | Read it from the Service Note listing |
| Zero-value entries in a cash float nobody uses | Even swaps at the till settle to the newest cash method on the branch | Check which cash methods are linked to the branch: POS General |
What these screens will not do
- A Customer RMA does not refund or restock, and a Supplier RTV does not send anything back. The person who settles the return raises the sales or purchase document in the table above.
- Nothing here reaches LHDN. The Sales Return that settles a customer’s return is queued for the e-invoice like any other sales document.
- Nothing in RMA reads a warranty certificate. Whoever books the service note checks the cover by eye in Warranty Admin, and checks the expiry date there too, because a certificate stays ACTIVE after it expires.
- A service note is one unit. The Quantity box is not stored, and the RMA Report shows 1 for every note. Raise one note per unit.
- The approval and rejection e-mails for RMA Requests need two templates nobody sets up for you. Without them the approval still works and the customer hears nothing. Support sets them up.
How you know returns are settled
Ten minutes at month end, before the close.
- Supplier side. List last month’s Supplier RTVs. For each unit the supplier has taken, find a FINAL Purchase Return or Purchase Refund Note for the same item. You are done when every one has one, or is on a list of units still waiting for the supplier.
- Customer side. List last month’s service notes that ended in a refund or a swap. Each one needs a Sales Return or an exchange bill. You are done when none is missing.
- Stock. Open the stock balance for your returns location. You are done when every unit there has an open service note or a Supplier RTV waiting on the supplier.