A sales return — often called an RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) — records goods a client sends back against a delivery you shipped. It is the reverse of a delivery note: where a delivery takes goods out of the warehouse, a return brings them back in. Each return references one delivery note, and its lines say which delivered items came back, in what quantity, and in what condition.
A sales return handles the goods leg of a return. Once the goods are back, the return also builds the credit note that gives the client the value back, from the invoice that billed them.
Key Concepts
- Sales Return (RMA) — A document authorizing and recording the receipt of goods back from a client, always linked to the delivery note that shipped them.
- Goods condition — The state the goods came back in. Good items are fit for resale; Damaged items are not.
- Returnable quantity — How much of a delivery line can still be returned: the quantity it shipped minus everything already returned against it, across all returns.
- Receiving — The step that actually moves stock. Until a return is received, it is just paperwork.
Creating a Sales Return
The easiest way is from the delivery itself:
- Open the shipped (or delivered) delivery note and click Create Return in its header.
- Confirm or override the suggested return number (e.g., RMA-2026-000001) — leave it empty to auto-number.
- A draft return is created with one line per delivery line, pre-filled with each line’s full remaining returnable quantity and condition Good. You land on the return, ready to trim it down. It is dated today: if the goods came back on an earlier day, change its Return Date while it is still a draft.
Only shipped or delivered notes can be returned against — a delivery that never left the warehouse has nothing to return, and nor does one cancelled since: its goods are already back. A return started from scratch (below) against a delivery note that has already been cancelled cannot be received either: a message says so, and that return is yours to cancel.
You can also start from scratch:
- Navigate to Sales > Sales Returns in the sidebar and click New.
- Pick the Delivery Note the goods come back against. The sales order and the client come from it and cannot be changed. The warehouse starts as the one the goods left from; change it if they come back somewhere else.
- Set the Return Date — the day the goods came back — and any notes. The return’s Lines are beside its details on the right, empty until you add them.
- Press Add above the Lines. The return is saved in Draft status with its number, and its first line opens, ready to fill in (Adding lines before you save). To add the lines later, click Save instead: the return is stored in Draft status and you land on its page.
Editing Lines and Conditions
While the return is in Draft, the Lines beside its details are where you adjust what is coming back:
- DN Line — Which delivery 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. The product is always the delivery line’s: a line whose product was changed to another one is refused when you receive the return. Picking its delivery line again does not change the product back, so remove that line and add it again from the delivery note.
- Quantity — How much comes back. Partial returns are normal — return 4 of the 10 you shipped and the other 6 stay returnable for a future return.
- Goods condition — Good or Damaged. This decides where the stock lands when you receive (see below).
- Reason — Why the client returned the line (wrong item, defect, transport damage). Useful for quality follow-up.
- Notes — Internal remarks such as batch references or inspection findings.
Lines can only be added or modified while the return is in Draft status.
Receiving the Return
Click Received, the next step on the road at the top of the return’s page, and confirm, once the goods are physically back at the warehouse. The road runs Draft → Received → 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. Receiving is the step that moves stock, all at once:
- Good lines are added straight back to the warehouse’s sellable stock — they are immediately available to sell again.
- Damaged lines are booked into a separate held stock bucket. They count as inventory but stay out of the sellable quantity until you decide what to do with them (repair, scrap, return to supplier).
- Either way, the goods go back into the lot they were shipped from, at the cost they left at. A batch keeps its own dates and its own value on the shelf, so goods that come back past their best are found with the rest of their lot.
- The sales order’s shipped quantities roll back by the returned amounts. A fully-shipped order drops back to Partial (or Confirmed if everything came back), so the goods can be re-shipped later if needed. An order you have already closed stays closed: what came back comes off what it shipped, and nothing is owed again. The same goes for a line you closed short: it stays closed, and the order it finished stays Completed.
- An inbound stock movement is recorded for full traceability, dated on the return date — not on the day you press Received.
For example, a hotel kitchen hands back 4 of the 10 baguettes a delivery brought. The delivery took 3 from Monday’s bake at 30 DA each and 7 from Tuesday’s at 35 DA. Receiving the return puts the 3 back into Monday’s lot at 30 DA and 1 into Tuesday’s at 35 DA — the lots they left, in the order they left.
If the return has moved on since your page showed it — a colleague received it, or cancelled it — the step you pick is refused with a message asking you to refresh the page, and nothing is booked a second time.
A return date after today, or before the delivery note’s own date, is refused with a message saying which — both when a return is created from its delivery note and when it is received. Correct the Return Date on the draft and receive again.
The Returnable Cap
Each delivery line can only ever be returned up to what it actually shipped, counted across all returns. If you shipped 10, received one return of 4, a second return can take at most 6. Receiving a return that exceeds the cap is refused with a clear message — trim the quantity and receive again. This means you can never end up with more stock back than you sent out.
Statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | The return is being prepared. Lines, quantities, and conditions can still be edited. Nothing has entered stock. |
| Received | The goods are back: stock has been booked (Good as sellable, Damaged as held) and the order’s shipped quantities rolled back. Set by the Receive action, never by hand. |
| Closed | Administratively settled — typically once the credit note is issued. Reached from Received. |
| Cancelled | The draft was abandoned before anything was received. Nothing was booked, so nothing needs undoing. |
A return can only be deleted while in Draft.
Crediting the Client
The return does not change the invoice itself, but it knows which invoice billed its goods. Once the goods are back (Received or Closed), click Create credit note in the return’s header: Beelocity builds a draft credit note from that invoice — one line per returned line, at the invoice’s price, tax rate and discount — and opens it. Check it and issue it; issuing takes nothing into stock, since receiving the return already did.
A return has one credit note. If it already has one, Create credit note says so and offers to open it. If part of what came back was never invoiced, or is already credited, the note carries only the rest and a message says so; if the goods were billed on more than one invoice, create a credit note from each invoice and issue it without a restock warehouse, since receiving the return already put the goods back.
A typical full return flow in DZD terms: you shipped and invoiced 10 units at 1,500 DA each (15,000 DA before tax), the client returns 4 damaged units, you receive the return (4 units land in held stock), click Create credit note, and issue the note of 6,000 DA before tax against the invoice.
Finding a Return
The Sales Returns list searches by number, and its filter button narrows it by Status, Client, Warehouse, the Delivery or Sales Order it came from, or a Return Date range (see Working with lists).
Important Notes
- Sales returns share their access rights with delivery notes — the same warehouse team that ships goods receives them back.
- Receiving is not reversible from the app. Double-check quantities and conditions before receiving; if you make a mistake, ship the excess back out on a new delivery note.
- The return date is the day the goods came back, and the stock moves on that day whenever you run the Receive action. It cannot be a day still to come, nor a day before the delivery note’s own date.