Examples of Consigned Inventory Returns

You can return consigned material in various statuses such as Put Away and Consumed. Use the Transfer to Consigned transaction type to transfer consigned material that has been consumed implicitly or explicitly back to a Consigned status.

These examples illustrate return scenarios based on material status:

Material received and not yet put away to inventory
Material received and put away to inventory
Material consumed and consumption advice not yet generated
Material consumed and consumption advice generated

Material Received and Not Yet Put Away to Inventory

Material Received and Put Away to Inventory

You can search for and return consigned material in this status. If the material is lot or serial controlled, you can provide the lot and serial numbers while initiating the return. You can perform either a single or two-step return. With the single step return, you return directly to the supplier. With the two-step return, you first return to receiving, and then return to supplier. You can't create a debit memo for this type of return transaction.

Material Consumed and Consumption Advice Not Yet Generated

The material ownership has changed from supplier to buyer, but the consumption advice hasn't yet been created. Since the consumption advice hasn't communicated the detail of ownership change to the supplier, you may prefer to return the material to the supplier as consigned rather than as owned inventory. In order to do this, you must first perform a Transfer to Consigned transaction for the item and quantity.

The Transfer to Consigned transaction changes the status of the material back to Consigned. If the item isn't lot or serial controlled, the application uses FIFO logic to determine the exact transaction line or lines whose status must be changed from regular to consigned. If the item is lot or serial controlled, you can narrow down the specific transaction line.

Once the material changes status from Owned to consigned, the material is available for return to supplier. Since the ownership has passed back to the supplier, debit memos aren't needed.

Material Consumed and Consumption Advice Generated

The material ownership has changed from supplier to buyer, and the consumption advice has been created. Since, the consumption advice has communicated the detail of ownership change to the supplier, you need to return the material to supplier as owned rather than consigned inventory.

Since the ownership is with the buyer, when the return to supplier transaction is created, a debit memo is generated if the invoice has been created based on the consumption advice.

If the material is lot or serial controlled, you can provide the lot and serial numbers while returning. Once the supplier receives the material, they process a credit note against the invoice for the consignment order line.