# Return tools

Validate the return, enter runtime, and decide whether to disassemble the tool.

Source: https://support.toolingmetrics.com/en/production/tutorials/return-tools/
Updated: 2026-10-29

**Prerequisites:** A return list from a machine is Ready (see [Record runtime](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/en/production/tutorials/record-runtime/)).
**Required permission:** Inventory → Return Lists — User or above. Admins can validate any return list; Managers and Users only the return lists they created.

## Validate the return

1. Physically bring the tool back to the WAP.
1. Open the return list and click **Validate**.

The tool's location moves off the machine — on-hand quantity increases at the destination, in-circulation decreases, and its slot in the machine's tool crib clears automatically.

## Enter the runtime

Validating a return list sourced from a machine immediately opens a **Record cutting edge usage** step, listing the mounted cutting edges of every tool that just came back.

1. For each cutting edge, leave the toggle on **Add to** and enter the usage it accumulated on this run (or switch to **Set total** to replace its total usage).
1. Toggle **Broken** if that cutting edge failed during the run.
1. Click **Save usage**.

![The Record cutting edge usage overlay after a return from the machine: each returned tool's mounted edges with remaining life, a usage value to add or set, and a Broken switch per row](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/guides/cutting-edge-usage-eng.webp)

*Fig. 1: This is the moment runtime is recorded — right as the tool leaves the machine.*

## Keep it assembled, or take it apart

The tool is now back at a storage location or WAP, still fully assembled — nothing forces you to disassemble it. If it's going straight to another job, leave it as is; its identity and history carry over.

To disassemble it instead — returning its individual mounted items back into bulk or serialized inventory — create a second Return List with the **Tool itself** as the source:

1. In the sidebar, click **Inventory → Return Lists** → **+ Create**, and set the **Source** to the tool.
1. Tooling Metrics prefills a line for each item currently mounted in it.
1. Work it through Mark as Todo → Validate, same as any return list. If it stops at Waiting, click Check Availability before validating.

## What to expect

- On-hand quantity increases at each destination; in-circulation decreases.
- If a disassembled piece is a serialized cutting edge, removing it from the tool logs a **Life History** entry — the runtime it accumulated — and resets the tool's Usage Life to zero.

## Next

[Check and scrap a worn piece](https://support.toolingmetrics.com/en/production/tutorials/track-tool-condition/) — record the condition of returned pieces so worn or scrapped ones are excluded from future jobs.