Process customer part returns, vendor RMAs and credits

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1. Decide which return workflow applies

Use Customer return when a customer brings back a part previously sold on a VMOTEK invoice. Use Vendor RMA when the shop sends received stock back to the supplier. A customer return may place a resalable part back in the selected shop, quarantine or scrap an unusable part, and create a credit memo, account credit or refund request. A vendor RMA removes usable stock only when the approved RMA is marked shipped; expected vendor credit remains visible until someone records the actual credit.

• Never edit or delete the original invoice to represent a return.
• Never reduce a historical PO receipt after the receiving event.
• Confirm the physical part, shop, quantity, condition and reason before approval.

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2. Start a customer return from the invoice

Open Invoices from the left navigation, search for the original invoice and open it. Choose Return parts in the action row. VMOTEK opens Returns & Credits with that invoice already identified. Select Load returnable parts. Only stocked invoice lines appear; labor and unrelated charges are not treated as physical inventory. For each part, the screen shows the originally sold quantity, quantity already returned and maximum still returnable. Enter only the quantity physically received now. VMOTEK rejects a value that would make all returns exceed the original invoice quantity.

• Navigation: Invoices → open original invoice → Return parts.
• Use the original invoice rather than creating an unconnected inventory adjustment.
• If no part appears, verify that the invoice line is linked to an inventory item.

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3. Record reason, condition and customer resolution

Choose a clear reason such as customer request, defective, wrong part or warranty. Record the physical condition and disposition for each line. Resalable means the approved quantity can return to usable stock at the selected shop. Opened, damaged or defective parts may need quarantine, scrap or a later vendor RMA instead. Choose Account credit when the customer will use the amount later, Refund request when payment should be returned through the applicable payment method, or Credit memo only when accounting staff will resolve it separately. Approval creates an immutable credit memo. A refund choice creates a pending refund record; it does not falsely claim that Stripe, cash or another provider has already returned money.

• Account credit adds an auditable credit to the customer ledger.
• Refund request remains pending until payment processing succeeds.
• Credit memo records the financial correction without changing the original invoice.

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4. Review and approve the customer return

Go to Returns & Credits from the Procurement section and review the draft. Confirm the customer, invoice, shop, part, quantity, amount, tax and any restocking fee. An authorized employee chooses Approve. For lines marked Restock, VMOTEK adds quantity to a lot at that shop and writes a customer-return inventory activity linked to the original invoice line. It then issues the credit memo and records the selected financial resolution. Reopening the inventory item shows the compensating movement; reopening the return shows the credit evidence. The original invoice remains available exactly as issued.

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5. Start a vendor RMA from the purchase order

Open Purchase Orders, find the PO that received the item and choose Start vendor RMA. Load returnable parts. VMOTEK reads the actual PO receipt rather than the ordered quantity, subtracts quantities already assigned to non-cancelled RMAs and shows the remainder. Enter the quantity being returned, reason and condition. Add the supplier's RMA number when available. Save the draft before packing the shipment so another employee can review what is leaving the shop.

• Navigation: Purchase Orders → open received PO → Start vendor RMA.
• The maximum comes from received quantity minus prior returns.
• Use separate RMAs when the supplier gives separate authorization numbers.

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6. Approve, send the return memo, ship and reconcile the credit

Approve confirms the business decision but does not remove stock yet. It also creates a numbered, immutable vendor return memo containing the supplier, original PO, shop, approved parts, quantities and expected credit. Open the RMA from Returns & Credits to review it, then choose Download memo PDF for the packing paperwork or Email memo to send the PDF to the vendor through the shop's connected Gmail account. VMOTEK records when and by whom the memo was sent. Mark shipped only when the goods physically leave the shop; that action consumes the selected shop's usable inventory, writes a vendor-return inventory movement and stores the carrier and tracking number. When the supplier's credit document arrives, choose Record credit and enter the actual amount, supplier credit-memo/reference number and credit date. If the supplier credit differs from the expected value, explain the variance before saving. The original PO and receipt remain unchanged.

• Draft: being prepared and still editable.
• Approved: authorized; a vendor return memo is issued, but stock remains at the shop.
• Shipped: inventory has left and supplier credit is pending.
• Credited: the supplier's actual credit, reference and date were reconciled.
• Cancelled: approved or shipped activity is reversed through compensating records rather than erased.

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7. Understand multi-shop behavior

The return belongs to the shop that physically receives or ships the part. Company administrators may review returns across locations, while a shop-scoped employee operates only within authorized locations. Customer, vendor, item and historical document identities remain company-wide; inventory quantity, lot movement and operational responsibility remain shop-specific. Renaming a shop does not change return ownership because VMOTEK retains its stable shop identity.

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8. Configure payment methods and handle overpayments

Select Settings → Payments. Connect Stripe when the shop accepts online or card-present payments, then review Payment methods. VMOTEK supplies company defaults for cash, check, credit card, bank transfer and other. Add a clearly named method such as Fleet ACH only when staff can identify and reconcile it. A shop override with the same code replaces the company method only for that location. Turn on Require reference for checks, transfers or custom methods that need a check number, bank reference or receipt identifier. Turn on Allow excess as customer credit only for methods where retaining extra funds is part of the shop's policy. When recording payment on an invoice, enter the amount actually tendered. VMOTEK shows cash change separately; an allowed retained overpayment requires explicit confirmation before it becomes customer credit.

• Navigation: Settings gear → Payments → Payment methods.
• Cash overpayment: return and record the displayed change; do not create artificial revenue.
• Retained overpayment: apply only the invoice balance and create the remainder as customer credit.
• Deactivate a method instead of renaming historical payment records.

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9. Apply customer credit to a future invoice

Customer credit is money the shop owes the customer. It is different from a credit limit, which is how much unpaid work the shop permits the customer to carry. Open Customers, select the customer and review Customer credit. The card shows the available customer-credit balance, unpaid invoice exposure and the effective credit limit for the active shop. Open an unpaid invoice for the same customer and find Payment history & refunds. Enter an amount under Apply customer credit and confirm. VMOTEK locks the balance, creates a negative application entry linked to the invoice, records the invoice payment and reduces both balances atomically. It will not spend more credit than the customer owns or more than the invoice still owes.

• Company customer credit limit is the fallback; a customer/shop relationship can override it for one shop.
• Unpaid exposure is calculated from live open invoice balances rather than an editable or stale counter.
• Customer-credit entries remain visible as credit, application, adjustment or reversal records.
• Use the credit memo link to explain where return credit originated and the invoice link to explain where it was applied.

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10. Refund an original payment

Open the invoice and scroll to Payment history & refunds. Choose Refund beside the original positive payment, enter an amount no greater than the displayed refundable balance and select the reason. VMOTEK preserves the original payment and creates a separate refund request. An offline payment can be completed with the accountable offline reference. A Stripe payment is returned against its original PaymentIntent using an idempotent provider request; the result retains the Stripe refund identifier. Pending, processing and successful amounts all reduce what can be requested again, preventing concurrent or repeated over-refunds. A failure remains visible for an authorized retry rather than disappearing.

• Partial refunds are allowed until their cumulative amount reaches the original payment.
• Card payments return through the original provider; do not relabel them as cash refunds.
• A refund increases the invoice's open balance through a separate negative payment entry.
• The original invoice, payment and related credit memo remain unchanged for audit and accounting.

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11. Reconcile payments, refunds and customer credits

Select Reports → Payment Reconciliation. Search by invoice, customer, shop or external reference and filter to payments, refunds or customer credits. The report shows each event independently, including its shop, amount, method or status and provider reference. Review pending or failed refunds, payments without required references, unapplied customer-credit balances and differences between invoice balances and payment activity. Export CSV when finance or accounting needs the evidence outside VMOTEK. All Shops administrators can review the company; shop-restricted staff see only financial activity for their granted locations.

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12. Review the controls and documents

The Returns & Credits summary shows open customer returns, customer credits, open vendor RMAs, pending vendor credit and pending refunds. Select the Vendor RMAs tab to find drafts awaiting approval and shipped returns awaiting credit; select a row or its RMA number to reopen the review. The review displays the issued memo number and its status, lets staff download or email the memo again, and retains the supplier credit reference after reconciliation. Managers should review shipped RMAs without vendor credit, refund requests without provider confirmation, repeated returns for the same part and differences between expected and actual vendor credit. Inventory activity is the physical audit trail; return memos, supplier credit references, customer credit memos, original payments, refunds and customer-credit applications are the financial and documentary trail.

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13. Test before using live returns and refunds

Use a controlled invoice containing one stocked part. Return one unit as resalable with Account credit, approve it, and verify the selected shop quantity increases by one, the inventory activity names the customer return, the credit memo total agrees with the returned line and the customer credit appears once. Next, use a received test PO to create an RMA. Approve it and verify a numbered vendor return memo appears with the correct PO lines and expected amount. Download the PDF, optionally email it to a test vendor address, then mark the RMA shipped and verify quantity decreases only at shipment. Record a supplier credit reference, date and actual amount; confirm the RMA and memo show Credited and that any difference requires a variance explanation. Attempting to return the same full quantity again should be rejected.