Warehouse returns management, unit by unit

A purchase order tells you what's coming, in what quantity and condition. A customer return tells you almost nothing. The box might hold the right item unopened, the right item damaged, a different item, or nothing at all. Every unit needs a decision, and until that decision is made the stock shouldn't be available to sell.

When returns are handled on a side table with a spreadsheet, three things go wrong. Resellable stock sits unprocessed for weeks. Damaged units slip back into available stock. And nobody can reconcile what came back against what was refunded. The fix is to treat a return like any other receipt: a document, a scan, a decision and a movement.

Returns follow the same pattern as inbound receiving, with a grading step in the middle.

• Create an RMA by hand, through the API or from a CSV file, optionally linked to the original sales order.
• Receive the parcel at the returns location and scan each unit.
• Grade each unit and choose its disposition. A default disposition set per client pre-fills the choice.
• Restock sends the unit toward available stock through putaway. Quarantine and repair keep it out of allocation. Scrap records the unit as received and then writes it off.
• Every graded unit posts a return receipt to the ledger first, so the history shows the goods arriving even when they are written off.

Restock is for units you would sell to the next customer without hesitation: an unopened serum with its seal intact, a phone case still in its sleeve. Quarantine is for doubt. The unit may be fine, but it needs inspection, a client's decision or a supplier's answer first. Repair suits items worth fixing, such as headphones with a faulty cable. Scrap is for anything that can't be sold safely, like opened food or a cracked screen.

Grading per unit matters because one return often holds mixed outcomes. For example, a customer returns three bottles from an order of olive oil: two sealed, one leaking. Two go to restock and one to scrap, on the same RMA line, and the ledger shows all three arriving before one is written off.

Returns rarely match the paperwork. NextStock handles the common mismatches without forcing anyone to work around the system.

• A parcel with no RMA can still be received. NextStock creates an unplanned RMA so the goods are recorded and the office can investigate.
• A return linked to an order can't exceed the shipped quantity without an exception, which catches a customer sending back more than they bought.
• A serialized unit must have been shipped to be returned, and receiving it puts the serial back in stock, keeping serial number tracking intact.
• Returns that arrive after the client's restock window default to quarantine instead of restock, so late returns get a closer look.

Some stock goes back the other way. A supplier return authorizes specific stock to leave, reserves it, stages it and dispatches it to the supplier. Quarantined or damaged stock is the usual source, and a supplier return can reserve that stock even though it isn't available to sell.

Each supplier return records the credit you expect and its state: expected, received or rejected. That turns a follow-up email thread into a list you can work through. It is not a negative receipt: the original receipt stays exactly as it happened, and the return is its own record in the ledger.

Direct-to-consumer brands see the most return volume, especially in apparel and footwear, where size exchanges are routine. 3PLs need per-client rules, which is why the default disposition and restock window are set per client. Distributors see fewer returns but larger ones, often full cases. The returns management process guide covers grading criteria in more depth.

• Set up a dedicated returns location so unprocessed returns never mix with sellable stock.
• Agree grading rules with each client before go-live and write them down.
• Process returns every day. A resellable unit waiting in a tote is a sale you can't make.
• Review quarantined returns weekly so they don't become permanent residents.