Raise an RMA in Cin7 Core

Raise an RMA in Cin7 Core

An RMA (return merchandise authorization) is a numbered authorization provided by a merchant to permit the return of a product to receive a refund, replacement, or repair during the eligible period. Returns involve an interlinked network of actions and decisions, including issuing credit notes, refunds, and initiating actions like inspection, repair, replacement, scrap, and restocking. The RMA module in Cin7 Core allows you to configure your organization's return policies, which are then used to streamline returns decision-making and automate much of the returns workflow.

Cin7 Core creates the following objects for returns:

  • Return Merchant Authorization (RMA): RMAs are numbered authorizations provided by the merchant to permit the return of a product. RMAs are for RMA officers or managers to make the final decision on what will happen to a returned product, decide how costs of a return are handled, and manage communication with the customer.

  • Return Order: Return Orders are for warehouse staff and managers to carry out inspection, repair, replacement and restocking of physical products.

Actions taken on RMA and return orders are translated to combinations of Cin7 Core processes (Sales order/credit note, Inventory write-off,and jobs) to correctly reflect the return in your organization's inventory and accounting records.

RMAs can be raised for any sale processed through Cin7 Core, and can be raised either by your RMA officer or from a customer submitting a returns request. RMAs initiated through the Cin7 Core web portal do not have the same return policy restrictions  as those applied to the customer returns submission portal, and while return policies will be used to auto-fill return information, the final decision will be determined by the RMA manager. This allows for your organization to handle its returns with more flexibility.

Prerequisites

 

Create a new RMA

A new RMA can be generated manually from the RMA list (Sale → RMAs) page. From here, RMA managers can generate new RMAs, search existing RMAs, and take returns actions. Any paid order is available for return regardless of fulfilment status, and any fulfilled or partially fulfilled order is available for return regardless of payment status.

Search for a sale order to view product details. The user can view product information and order quantity and click the Return policy link, if applicable, to view the terms and status of a product's policy.


The RMA manager can then enter the following:

  • Packing conditions (mandatory): Original or Opened. This will not be available if the order has not been fulfilled.

  • Reasons for return (mandatory): Select a reason for return from the values configured in the return settings.

  • Return type (optional): Select a return type from Refund, Replacement, Repair, and Other. This is an optional field at this stage, and can be changed before taking a final decision. All return types are shown regardless of the return policy.

    • NOTE: If the product has not been fulfilled, only Refund and Other will be available.

  • Notes (optional): an optional text input field with a limit of 2000 characters. Attachments are limited to 32 Mb in size. Notes is a mandatory field when Return Type: Other is selected.

Clicking Create creates the RMA and adds it to the RMA list, and clicking Close closes the form without creating an RMA.

Select an existing RMA

When a request for return is submitted via the customer returns portal, it can be found in the RMAs list by going to Sale → RMAs.

There are two views:

  • RMA - General: Each RMA has a single line showing a summary with RMA number, SO number, customer, date created, date expired and status.

  • RMA - Products: Each product in an RMA is displayed on a single line, with detailed information about the RMA status, return order (RO) status, and resolution actions.

The RMAs list can be searched by RMA number, SO number, RO number, product name, product serial number, related job number (if applicable) and Customer. The list view can be filtered by  filtered according to RMA status (All, Draft, In Progress, Completed).

Select an existing draft RMA to continue. To resolve an existing RMA, go to Resolve an RMA instead.

 

View and edit RMA order details

Creating an RMA will take you to this screen automatically. Alternatively, you can click on an RMA in the RMA list to open it and view return details. At the top of the screen is the RMA document header, which will be autofilled with the customer's details. Customer details, Shipping details, and Receipts location can be changed here if necessary. RMA Creation Date and Expiry Date can also be edited here, the default expiry period is one month.

  

Specify receipt action for products

Scroll down the page to the Products tab to determine what receipt action should be taken for returned products. Click a product on the left hand side of the screen to show the product, sale order details, warranty status and return request details on the right.

Click Authorize to approve the RMA and receipt action or Reject to refuse the return of the product and notify the customer (e.g. product no longer covered by warranty). Receiving returned products, or authorizing receipt not required, will automatically create an authorized credit note for the value of the returned products, which can be closed out with a refund or alternative depending on the RMA resolution selected later in the process. This is to correctly generate the accounting transactions related to the return.

The following receipt actions are available, which in turn can generate a return order for warehouse staff:

  • Inspect

    • Creates a return order for warehouse staff to inspect returned products to determine condition and next action.

    • Costs and expenses can be assigned to the return.

    • Use this option for inspecting a product's damage, carrying out repairs, restocking a product under an alternative SKU (e.g. refurbishing), or if you want to assign costs to the return (either yours or your customers').

    • The return order must be resolved in order for the RMA to be resolved.

  • Scrap

    • Creates a return order for warehouse staff to scrap the returned products.

    • This generates an inventory write-off for the scrapped item.

    • No shipping, inspection, or repair costs can be added.

    • Use this option for items that are defective or should not be restocked to inventory.

    • No further actions are required on the return order, the write-off will be authorized when the linked RMA is resolved.

  • Restock

    • Creates a return order for warehouse staff to return products to inventory as the original SKU.

    • This generates a stock adjustment for the restocked item.

    • No shipping, inspection, or repair costs can be added.

    • No further actions are required on the return order, the stock adjustment will be authorized when the linked RMA is resolved.

  • Receipt not required

    • Returned products do not need to be returned to your organization,

    • Use this option if the product value is too low to be worth restocking/repairing, if the customer never received the original items, or if the item must be returned to your supplier.

    • The RMA manager can then resolve the RMA and communicate the resolution to the customer.

  • Cancel: Cancel the RMA for this product without notifying the customer (e.g. RMA was created by accident).

Note: If the return policy permits cross-shipping, returns where replacement or repair is requested will have this option available. This allows the merchant to send a replacement product before the returned product has been received by the merchant.


Returning products from the customer to merchant supplier

In some cases, the returned products will not be processed by your organization as the merchant, but must instead be sent to the manufacturer or supplier for inspection, repairs, or other actions. In this case, you can select Receipt not required as the product receipt action, then check the Drop ship box in the Details tab. Select a supplier and supplier address (supplier addresses are loaded from your supplier record).

Authorize the receipt action to continue. When you have received a resolution from the supplier, see Return resolution by supplier (not merchant).


  

Print or email return instructions for the customer

Return Authorizations are documents intended for your customers, to notify them where to send the returned products. Return authorizations will show what products are expected to be returned and include the return address. Return authorizations can be saved to your computer, printed, or emailed directly with the document as a PDF attachment.

  

Documents and emails are fully customizable in the Settings module. See Manage document and email templates for more information.

The return authorization will include the merchant return address, or the supplier address if applicable.

Next steps

Once you have selected a receipt action and created instructions for your customer, you may have to wait for any warehouse actions to complete before reaching a resolution. See Return orders for detailed instructions on these steps.

Once this step has been completed, or if it is not necessary, you can move on to resolving the RMA.

View related orders

The Related orders tab of an RMA provides a quick reference link to related tasks such as return orders, credit notes, service sales, jobs created for the return (inspection, repair, etc.) and their status. The related orders tab corresponds to each returned product in an RMA.

Receiving returned products, or authorizing receipt not required, will automatically create an authorized credit note here for the value of the returned products, which will be closed out with a refund or alternative depending on the RMA resolution selected later in the process.

  

Add notes and attachments to RMA orders

There is a space on the RMA order header where the user can enter notes. This field can be edited while the RMA has Draft or New status.   

The attachments tab can be used to attach images and documents to the order.

 

View RMA activity log

The Activity logs tab displays the date and time of all activity taken for the RMA, an activity description and which user took the action.

 

Email or print an RMA

RMAs are intended for internal use and show each product in the RMA, the return order resolution and the RMA resolution. RMAs can be saved to your computer, printed, or emailed directly with the document as a PDF attachment.


Documents and emails are fully customizable in the Settings module. See Manage document and email templates for more information.


Was this article helpful?

Have more questions? Submit a request