Supplier Returns

A supplier return — often called an RTV (Return To Vendor) — records goods you send back to a supplier against a delivery you already received. It is the reverse of a goods receipt: where a receipt brings goods into the warehouse, a return takes them back out. Each return references one completed goods receipt, and its lines say which received items go back and in what quantity.

Typical reasons: a defect discovered after the goods passed the receiving inspection, an over-delivery you agreed to send back, or items you no longer need and the supplier accepts back.

Key Concepts

• Supplier Return (RTV) — A document authorizing and recording the shipment of goods back to a supplier, always linked to the goods receipt that brought them in.
• Returnable quantity — How much of a receipt line can still be returned: the quantity it accepted minus everything already returned against it, across all returns. Rejected quantities never entered stock, so only accepted goods can come back out.
• Shipping — The step that actually moves stock. Until a return is shipped, it is just paperwork.

Creating a Supplier Return

The easiest way is from the receipt itself:

1. Open the completed goods receipt and click Create Return in its header.
2. Confirm or override the suggested return number (e.g., RTV-2026-000001) — leave it empty to auto-number.
3. A draft return is created with one line per receipt line, pre-filled with each line’s full remaining returnable quantity. You land on the return, ready to trim it down.

Only completed receipts can be returned against — an earlier receipt hasn’t put anything into stock yet.

You can also start from scratch:

1. Navigate to Procurement > Supplier Returns in the sidebar and click New. The return’s details are on the left of the page and its Lines beside them on the right, empty until you add them.
2. Pick the Goods Receipt the goods go back against. The purchase order and the supplier come from it and cannot be changed. The warehouse starts as the one the goods came into; change it if they have been moved since, because shipping takes them out of the warehouse the return names.
3. Set the Return Date and any notes, then press Add above the lines. The return is saved in Draft status and takes its number, which a message names. Its first line opens, ready for you to pick the receipt line it reverses. If the form still needs an answer, Add stops on that field, as Save would.

To save the return now and add its lines later, click Save instead of Add (see Adding lines before you save).

Editing Lines

While the return is in Draft, the Lines beside its details are where you adjust what goes back:

• GR Line — Which receipt line this return line reverses. The picker shows each line’s product and remaining returnable quantity (e.g., “4 of 10 returnable”). Picking it fills in the product, unit, and location automatically.
• Quantity — How much goes back. Partial returns are normal — return 4 of the 10 you accepted and the other 6 stay returnable for a future return.
• Reason — Why the line goes back (late-found defect, over-delivery, wrong item). This is the record you’ll lean on when negotiating with the supplier.
• Notes — Internal remarks such as lot references or the supplier’s own return-authorization number.

Lines can only be added or modified while the return is in Draft status.

Shipping the Return

Click Shipped, the next step on the road at the top of the return’s page, and confirm, once the goods leave the warehouse. The road runs Draft → Shipped → Closed: the steps already passed are ticked, the one the return is at is filled, and the next one is a button — every move on a return is yours to make. Rest on a step to see when it was reached and by whom. Clicking the step you are at opens the map instead, where Cancelled is picked while the return is still a draft. Shipping is the step that moves stock, all at once:

• Each line’s quantity is taken out of stock from the lot the receipt put it in, in the return’s warehouse — wherever that lot now sits there, and even if it has been renamed since. If a lot’s stock reaches zero, the lot is retired.
• The purchase order’s received quantities roll back by the returned amounts. A fully-received order drops back to Partial — even when everything went back — so the goods can be re-delivered later, or the order closed. An order you already closed stays closed, and so do its lines.
• If the order thereby drops out of Completed, it leaves the supplier’s quarterly performance figures altogether, and the quarter is worked out again from the orders still in it. Its defect rate leaves with it, and what you sent back is not counted as a defect — the defect rate measures what was rejected at the dock, not what came back later.
• An outbound stock movement is recorded for full traceability, each line valued at what the goods cost when they came in.

Sending Back a Rejected Lot

A lot can pass the receiving inspection and still turn out bad once it is opened — damp flour, a cream that soured on the way. Reject the lot from its stock lot page: its stock moves into Quarantine, where nothing can sell or use it. Then create the return from the delivery and ship it. The return takes a rejected lot’s goods out of quarantine, at what they cost; every other lot goes back from the stock you can sell.

Shipping is refused, with a message saying why, when:

• The lot holds less than a line sends back — part of it was used or has left the warehouse. Lower the line to what is left.
• Part of the lot is promised to an order. The promise stays with the goods when a lot is rejected, so the return cannot take them. Send back only what is free, or wait until the order ships or is cancelled.
• The delivery line names no lot — which only an older delivery, whose lot was renamed before delivery lines kept their lot, can show. Remove that line, and take those goods out with an inventory adjustment.

The Returnable Cap

Each receipt line can only ever be returned up to what it actually accepted, counted across all returns. If you accepted 10, shipped one return of 4, a second return can take at most 6. Shipping a return that exceeds the cap is refused with a clear message — trim the quantity and ship again. This means you can never send back more than you took in.

Finding a Return

The Supplier Returns list searches by number, and its filter button narrows it by Status, Supplier, Warehouse, the Receipt or Purchase Order it came from, or a Return Date range (see Working with lists).

Statuses

A return can only be deleted while in Draft.

Replacement or Credit

The return handles only the goods leg. What you get back from the supplier is agreed outside the document:

• Replacement — the supplier re-delivers the goods. Record the new delivery as a fresh goods receipt against the same purchase order (its received quantities were rolled back, so there is room to receive again).
• Credit or refund — the supplier credits your account. Track the money leg with a supplier debit note (below).

After shipping — getting your money back

Once the return is Shipped, and if the supplier had already billed the goods, use Raise Debit Note — under More actions, the three dots at the top of the return’s page — to formalize the credit: a draft supplier debit note is built from the supplier’s bill, each returned quantity at the price and TVA that bill charged for it, dated on the later of the return and the bill. Review it and issue it — issuing reduces the bill’s amount due immediately, and any remainder is collected as an inbound refund receipt in Treasury. If the goods went back before the supplier billed them, there is nothing to raise: bill the order as usual, and the bill leaves out what went back. A return carries at most one live note, and its notes are listed on the return’s Debit Notes tab.

Once the outcome is settled, click Closed, the last step on the road.

A typical flow in DZD terms: you ordered and received 10 units at 2,000 DA each (20,000 DA). Two weeks later 4 units turn out to be defective. You create a return from the receipt, trim the line to 4, and ship it — stock drops by 4 and the order falls back to Partial (6 of 10 received). The supplier then either re-delivers 4 good units (received on a new receipt) or issues a credit of 8,000 DA, after which you close the return.

Return vs. Cancelling the Receipt

Both take received goods back out of stock, but they serve different situations:

• Cancel the receipt when the whole delivery was a mistake and its goods still sit untouched in stock — cancellation reverses everything the receipt booked, at once, as if it never happened.
• Create a return for the real-world cases cancellation can’t handle: sending back part of a delivery, or goods returned some time after receipt.

A machine you keep is not sent back on a return. A product received as an asset went onto your assets and put nothing in stock, so a return has nothing to take out: its receipt line is never offered on a return’s lines, and Create Return leaves it out. While the machine is still untouched, cancel the receipt instead.

Important Notes

• Supplier returns share their access rights with goods receipts — the same warehouse team that receives goods sends them back.
• Shipping is not reversible from the app. Double-check quantities before shipping; if you make a mistake, receive the goods again on a new receipt.
• The return date is the day the goods leave: shipping moves the stock on that day, not on the day you click Shipped. It cannot be later than today, nor earlier than the goods receipt’s date — a return dated outside those two is refused when it is created, and again when it ships.