Process a purchase return

Prerequisites: A Purchase Order with at least one line that has been received (Received quantity greater than zero).

Required permission: Purchase → Purchase Returns — User or above. The order’s New Purchase Return button shows only to Admins and to the user who created the order; Managers and Users validate only the returns they created.

If the items you’re returning were already put away by a Restock, pull them back out first — see Process a return pick. If they were received but never restocked, skip straight to creating the return.

Create the return

1. Open the Purchase Order the items were received against.
2. Click New Purchase Return.
3. For each item you’re sending back, set the Quantity to Return.
4. Click Mark as Todo (or Save as Draft to come back to it later).

Ship the return

1. Reopen the return once it’s ready to go — click Check Availability if it isn’t already Ready.
2. Click Validate. Items leave on-hand inventory and the Purchase Order’s Received total decreases by the returned quantity.

There’s no separate “send to vendor” step or emailed confirmation for a Purchase Return — validating it is the whole transaction. Use the Purchase Order’s Vendor Reference or Terms & Conditions field, or a comment on the return, to note why the items are being returned or any RMA number the vendor gave you.

Next

If the return is for a Service Order — for example, rejecting a bad regrind that’s already back in inventory — the same New Purchase Return command works; validating it pushes the quantity back into “out for service” instead of removing it from inventory. See Purchase Returns Reference.

Related articles

• Add a vendor
• Create a purchase order
• Create a purchase order in a foreign currency
• Process a purchase receipt
• Receive goods into storage