Allow Users to Return Items Without the Original Sales Order

Examples

Your Customer Returns a Whole Bunch of Orders

Vision Corporation is a wholesaler who sold 8,000 items in 475 sales orders to retailer Fantastic Laptops.

Each order included more than 100 order lines.
Vision shipped and closed most of these orders.
Each order used different prices.

One year later, Fantastic Laptops returns 50 items in a large container. To simplify order entry, billing, and through agreement with Fantastic Laptops, Vision Corporation credits all items at the same price. The Order Entry Specialist uses the Order Management work area to create a single unreferenced return order for all the returned items. This approach allows the Order Entry Specialist to complete the return without having to spend many hours looking up the original sales order for each item.

Your Customer Sends Returns Without the Original Sales Order

First Software maintains over 50 outlets in a fast-paced environment. They sell to an established set of clients, and maintain a contractual, working relationship with each client. Each outlet receives return items that they sold, and also returns items that other outlets sold. However, personnel who work at the outlets don't have time to look up the original sales order for each return.

First Software trusts their clients and don't feel its necessary to confirm the original sales order. At the end of the week, one person at each location enters all returns they received into a single return order that doesn't reference any of the original sales orders.

You Accept Competitor's Orders

Computer Service and Rentals is a new company who sells laptops in a retail marketplace. They are interested in gaining market share, so they accept items that their customer purchased from a competitor as part of a promotion to sell new laptops. Computer Service and Rentals enters these items as unreferenced returns, then sells them later as refurbished.

You Didn't Migrate Data During an Upgrade

Green Corporation sells magazine subscriptions. Customers call the call center to cancel subscriptions. Green Corporation recently upgraded to Order Management, but didn't migrate order data from their legacy system to Order Management.

The Order Entry Specialist creates an unreferenced return to cancel the subscription and credit the remaining part of the subscription that the customer already paid but didn't use. The Order Entry Specialist sets details on the order line, such as item, quantity, return type, and then uses attribute Duration and attribute Period to specify details about the return. Order Management calculates the price when the Order Entry Specialist adds the return to the order.

The Item Doesn't Include Identifying Markings

Computer Service and Rentals is a retailer who sells directly to the public. Their customer returns an item but doesn't have the original receipt, and the item doesn't include a serial number or other marking that the Order Entry Specialist can use to look up the item when creating the return. The Order Entry Specialist uses the Add Unreferenced Return Lines action to add the item.

Small Incorporated is a retailer who sells the Long Life Tea Set, which is a pick-to-order, configured item that includes configure options, such as steeping pot, pouring vessel, and set of tea cups. Customers return items but no longer have the receipt, and the item doesn't include an identifying marking that the Order Entry Specialist can use to look up the item when creating the return. The Order Management work area doesn't allow the Order Entry Specialist to return a configured item. Instead, the Order Entry Specialist creates a return line for each configure option.

If you have an unreferenced return, and if you're returning a configured item that's:

Pick-to-order. You can return one or more individual configure options or the entire item.
Assemble-to-order. You can't return any configure option. You can't return the entire item.

How It Works

Here's what you do.

Fill in attributes on the order header, then, in the Order Lines area, click Add Unreferenced Return Lines.
Add your unreferenced return lines, then click Add to add them to the sales order.

Here's what Order Management does.

Uses attribute values from the order header to set default values for attributes on return lines.
Runs pretransformation rules to set the default values.
Prices the return according to current system date.
Sets Billing Frequency to One Time Billing and credits the entire amount as a single credit.
Adds included item for each kit according to the product structure that you set up in the Product Information Management work area.

Set Up

If you're upgrading, then here's what it does, depending on whether you extended your pricing algorithms.

Haven't extended. Promotes all algorithms to the latest version.
Have extended. Reconciles algorithm extensions, then promotes all algorithms.

How Pricing Works

Pricing Administration comes predefined to calculate price for each unreferenced return.

Determines whether the return line does or doesn't include a reference to the original sales order.
Calculates price like it normally calculates a sales order line, then adds a negative sign.
Calculates price according to the pricing set up that exists on the return date or cancel date. For example, it applies the discounts and charges that existed on the item as of the return date or cancel date.
Calculates a one time charge or recurring charge.
Calculates the pricing adjustment and discount.
If Pricing can't determine the charge, then it applies a zero charge.
Allows the Order Entry Specialist to manually adjust the price as an override on the return line.
Prices the cancel for a coverage or subscription, including pricing only part of the coverage or subscription period.

You don't need to do any set up to implement this predefined behavior.

For example:

Example of enabling unreferenced returns

Note

Pricing determines that the list price for the AS54888 item is $2500.00 according to the price that exists on the date and time when you added the order line.
Pricing applies the negative sign to get -2500.00.
The user overrides the price to -$2000.00. For example, assume your company policy requires that you reduce the refund by $500 when the customer returns the AS54888 without the original sales order.

You can modify the predefined behavior for an unreferenced return.

You can modify your pricing process to calculate a return amount that's different than the price as of the return or cancel date, such as including a restocking fee.
You can apply a manual price adjustment on the charge.
The predefined behavior for a referenced return or an unreferenced return doesn't support pricing from a returns price list.

Create a Business Rule

You can write a business rule, such as an approval rule, that processes an unreferenced return.

Here's the logic that this example implements.

If attribute Return Without a Reference Order equals yes, and if attribute Order Total Amount on sales order is equal to or greater than $10,000, then assign sales order to the mgr_operations position for approval.

Get a Report

In the Reports and Analytics work area, expand the Order Management, Fulfillment Lines Real Time subject area, expand Fulfillment Lines General Details, then notice the attributes you can use for a fulfillment line. To create a report that includes unreferenced return lines, add a filter.

Return Without a Reference Order = Y

For details, see Use Reports and Analytics with Order Management.