When you post a sales return order, you have the possibility of separating the quantity and the value parts of the transaction. That is, you can post the sales return order as received, thus updating inventory availability and creating a posted return receipt. Then, at a later time, you can invoice the sales return order, thus updating inventory valuation and creating a posted sales credit memo.

This flexibility addresses a division of labor that is common in many companies where the warehouse handles the shipping and receiving of goods, and the accounting department is responsible for invoicing the items.

At this point, you have created the sales return order, and the returned item has arrived at the warehouse.

To post a sales return order

  1. In the Search box, enter Sales Return Orders, and then choose the related link.

  2. In the Sales Return Order window, on the Actions tab, in the Posting group, choose Post.

  3. Depending on your company-specific policy, select one of the following options.

    Option Description

    Receive

    Posts a return receipt. The employee who is responsible for invoicing can see now which sales return orders need to be invoiced. This can be done by creating a sales credit memo and then using the Get Return Receipt Lines function.

    Invoice

    Invoices the sales return order.

    Receive and Invoice

    Posts a return receipt and invoices the sales return order.

    A window shows the status of the posting process.

Note
The procedure you use for handling a returned item should also take into consideration your company's policy of inspecting returned items from customers.

For example, it is advisable to inspect and approve a returned item before posting the sales return order as received. In this way, if the item is rejected under inspection, you can simply delete the sales return order afterwards.

If, however, you have posted a sales return order as received, and the item is subsequently inspected and rejected, you can handle this by invoicing the order and then issuing a corrective sales invoice.

It may be worthwhile to consider using a special, designated location for storing damaged or defective items, which must eventually be returned to the vendor. In this way, you can better control inventory availability and valuation.

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See Also