What is best way to implement RMA process for inventory items to be repaired and returned when we have some customers who take a debit and some who do not?

dpaul · ‎December 10, 2018

Almost all parts that would be returned on RMA would be repaired and returned to customers. Some customers take a debit and some do not when they return parts. We need to track how many RMAs we have in process. We also need to create similar process for sending back and tracking the units to our vendor to be repaired. We typically do not take a debit when we send to our vendor since they are always coming back for after repair. We would liek to have as few processes as possible to do both. Thanks

Rustler · ‎December 10, 2018

There is no RMA function in QB, so anything you do is a work around

There is no connection between customers and vendors for things like this either

If you use the inventory item on the credit memo, it returns to stock
then if you use that same item on a vendor credit, it is removed from stock
when it comes back, enter a bill and apply the vendor credit - that returns it to stock

the hard part of the above is you really need to use the average cost of the item as the credit amount. When it was returned to stock, that average cost was pulled out of COGS and assigned to the item, so you need it go back to COGS when you get the item to the customer, and that means a sale (see below)

If when you put it on the vendor credit you create a sales order for that customer with that item on it at a zero sales price, when you get it back create an invoice from the sales order (zero dollar) and get it to the customer

I add RMA to the sales order number so there is no confusion as to why it is zero dollar.

View solution in original post

Rustler · ‎December 10, 2018

There is no RMA function in QB, so anything you do is a work around

There is no connection between customers and vendors for things like this either

If you use the inventory item on the credit memo, it returns to stock
then if you use that same item on a vendor credit, it is removed from stock
when it comes back, enter a bill and apply the vendor credit - that returns it to stock

the hard part of the above is you really need to use the average cost of the item as the credit amount. When it was returned to stock, that average cost was pulled out of COGS and assigned to the item, so you need it go back to COGS when you get the item to the customer, and that means a sale (see below)

If when you put it on the vendor credit you create a sales order for that customer with that item on it at a zero sales price, when you get it back create an invoice from the sales order (zero dollar) and get it to the customer

I add RMA to the sales order number so there is no confusion as to why it is zero dollar.

dpaul · ‎December 10, 2018

Very much appreciated Rustler. On customer end of the process -what about creating a new item (lets say by adding RMA prefix) when creating credit memo and using the cost and price from original sales order and then rebilling using this part? I assume we would run into similar issue going forward with average cost of this new part over time but it would also allow us to easily report/see RMA units. Thanks again for your help. Will also visit your site.

Rustler · ‎December 10, 2018

You could do that, the item would stock with no cost though. But it also means you have to have another item for each item that gets sent back RMA. Other wise there is no way to know what the item is. Since premier and pro have an item list limit I prefer to not create more items than I need

dpaul · ‎December 10, 2018

Thanks Rustler. By the way I found your site very informative and the 5 bucks per lesson is a deal.

Rustler · ‎December 10, 2018

Thanks for kind words

hugob · ‎December 10, 2018

Quickbooks does NOT have an RMA option so if you are doing a work around like Credit memo be careful because quickbooks looks at this as a credit memo and puts products back in stock. This can mess up your inventory and accounting. If quickbooks had an RMA option where products would go back to a returns warehouse it would allow for easier returns. I just don’t understand that in 2018 when more and more companies want to sell online quickbooks is limiting us top word template sheet for returns

qbteachmt · ‎December 10, 2018

This: "because quickbooks looks at this as a credit memo and puts products back in stock."

Is why you would not list the original inventory item on the Credit Memo. Make an "RMA Noninventory" type item for that same Product and use this for the Credit Value on the Credit Memo.

Then, use that same item for the Vendor Credit return, as well. That would be a PO.

"quickbooks is limiting us top word template sheet for returns"

You can make any template of the Credit Memo and the PO with the wording on them to be your RMA process: from customer to you and from you to supplier.

specialtygraphx · ‎January 04, 2019

We track RMA's using the "Estimates" transaction. We modified the form template to make a "Return Authorization" document. Since it's using the Estimate function, it is not recording any sales or credits.

mac999 · ‎February 18, 2020

Just came across a very simple work-around on this... Not sure if this completely works for you, dpaul, but for those of you wanting to have some way to track an RMA like you can track a sales order: Just create your credit memo, but before you save it, click the "Mark as Pending" button near the print button. This makes the credit memo non-posting and this even prints out on your template like a watermark that it is pending. You may want to create a new template to use just for this, but after the material is received back to you, just click that button again ("Mark as Final") and it becomes a posting credit memo again.

Eleanor Cleverence

You've got a glitch there thats a total headache, I get it. Fishbowl’s export to QuickBooks is known to trip up sometimes, especially with them database target mappings. Running QuickBooks database manager or killing rogue processes can work, but it's more like a temp fix, ya know?

Here's a thought though, not ideal, but you could schedule regular maintenance tasks to automate these steps when it’s not busy. You might script a task to close lingering qb processes and run the database scan overnight. Both are fairly straightforward if you've got some scripting knowhow, nothing too crazy.

But yeah, there’s a bigger issue. Your setup should really have that seamless integration it ought to have, but Fishbowl's been known to change database configurations, which QuickBooks doesn’t always handle well. You might have to dig into those settings, and honestly, it can be a bit of a puzzle if you’re not into tinkering this stuff but, often, that's where the fix is.

Stick with it, and good luck!

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What is best way to implement RMA process for inventory items to be repaired and returned when we have some customers who take a debit and some who do not?