Feature Request - Warranty Claims Against Supplier

Current Process For Warranty Claims Against Supplier

I am not sure what everyone else is doing when it comes to tracking warranty claims. Our process when the customer contacts us for faulty products is to use Google sheets and write down items such as;

• The SO number with the purchase date
• The date the customer contacted us / opened a warranty claim
• The product name, sku, and the batch number
• Description of the issue
• Images uploaded to Google Drive per supplier, in a folder named by its SO number
• The PO invoice number that the product was purchased from (as we know via FIFO-Batch) and therefore we know and write down the unit cost.

The reason we do the above, is that we need to claim the cost of these faulty products from our suppliers. We record each claim, then add up the total value of the defective products. From there, we apply the total amount as a credit amount (we put a negative value in the additional amounts column in the PO) off our next invoice with that supplier (though I'm going to guess some companies may want the value as money back rather than a credit).

It works OK, but there should be some process native inside Cin7, rather than using an external spreadsheet and google drive. I do not believe there is anything in Cin7 to do the above (however happy to be corrected if there is).
 

Feature Request For Warranty Claims Against Supplier

I think either (or both?)

• A “Warranty" tab could to be added to the Sales Order view or….
• In the Sales > Warranties > Create a claim against supplier (maybe prefix for document can be “WC-”)

A customer contacts us about a faulty product with images. We find it is a valid claim (ie - its within the warranty period and not caused by misuse etc), then;

• We would open up the Sale Order and click on the Warranty tab. Or perhaps better yet, go to warranty menu > create a warranty claim against supplier.
• We would enter the SO number, select the item (or items) that were defective. This will check if the item is within its warranty period from the sale date.
• This will then load the unit price paid for that product, referencing the PO it came from, along with noting the supplier name.
• In this tab, it would also allow us to upload images / evidence of the defective product.
• Once completed, this will add to the suppliers 'pending' warranty claims amount.
• We can then share a link with our suppliers, who can login and view each pending warranty claim, see a detailed summary with attached documents and images.
• They review each claim, by agreeing or disputing
• The claims agreed, will have the value added to a ‘pending’ supplier deposit
• The claims disputed, we will liase with them directly, and come to a conclusion, to keep or remove them on the claims amount.
• Once all claims have been reviewed, we would then ‘complete / finalise’ the pending warranty claims amount. This will add a single ‘warranty claims deposit’ credit note. The credit note/supplier deposits would list each SO, from which the credit note was generated from.
• Now, lets say that we reorder with them months later. For example, lets pretend the new order value is $10k.
• Let's pretend there was $2k worth of warranty claims, that were completed/approved.
• On that Purchase Order, we would apply the ‘warranty claim deposits' in the payment section. This will mean we need to pay the remaining amount of $8k

This will definitely be useful for us and I assume others. Please note there is also some other times where;

• We receive a new Purchase Order
• We are physically checking the products before they have been sold, so there is no Sale Order Number.
• We can simply use the Credit Note tab for this situation, however we still need to be able to upload images for reference.

The above is just a summary / idea, it will need more thought put into it to cover everyone, but it would be a start I guess. There needs to be something native inside Cin7 to track the value of warranty claims against the supplier - where we can use it as a credit off the next invoice or as a cash payment / refund back to a bank account etc.