Cancellations and Returns when Using a Warehouse

You need to be concerned with cancellations and returns and how inventory tracking is affected both prior to fulfillment and after fulfillment. The following rules apply:

• Just as with fulfilling products, when products are returned, they are only returned to the Primary Warehouse. Recall that fulfillment rules dictate that merchandise is only shipped from the Primary Warehouse. As a result, returns are shipped back to the warehouse they were delivered from; the Primary Warehouse.
• If you cancel an invoice after fulfillment occurs, the inventory will be automatically returned to the Primary Warehouse and the Quantity will be incremented with the returned amount on the invoice as well as the quantity on the Product Profile. Further, an Activity Type of Return will be noted on the Products child form. The image below is an example of this. Notice that an Activity Type of Return has been entered as discussed. Note that if the return is because of damaged goods you do not want them returned to inventory and you will need to decrement your inventory manually as a result of this. View the Help topic on Manually Adjusting Warehouse Inventory for more information.

• If you cancel before fulfillment occurs, the Quantity Available (for the product) value changes because it is decreased when a product is added to a cart. If you cancel after fulfillment occurs then the Quantity on Hand value is changed because it contains the total inventory for a product in the warehouse and is decreased when a product is fulfilled.

Remember that if a customer returns a damaged product and you are using a warehouse to manage your inventory, it is a two-step process to adjust that inventory.

1. Cancel the invoice to refund the customer’s money or create a credit on the customer's record. However, when you cancel an invoice, this automatically places inventory back in your warehouse. You do not want damaged goods in your inventory.
2. Use the manual decrement inventory adjustment to remove the inventory from your warehouse, described in Manually Adjusting Warehouse Inventory Help topic.