Return to Vendor (RTV) Orders - Best Practice – CEO Juice

This best practice explains the different types of returns to vendor that can be processed in the system and how to complete each.

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Overview | Best Practice Steps | Other Helpful Info | Related Alerts

Overview

Overview

Return to Vendor (RTV) orders are used to account for items that were returned to the vendor for credit, replacement or repair. There are four different types of RTVs that can be utilized in the system. It is important to process returns on an RTV because the RTV will track where the return and receiving of new item currently stands in the RTV status. This is much more beneficial for tracking and reporting than returning items on a negative purchase order and expecting replacement item on a separate purchase order as there is no tracking or linking of the two purchase orders possible.

RTV order types:

Credit RTVs are used when returning an item to a vendor for credit.
Replacement RTVs are used to send an item back to a vendor and to receive a replacement. This type of RTV acts as both a positive and a negative purchase order in one. When you add an item to a Replacement RTV there will be two line items on the RTV; one line type is classified as a return, and the other line is classified as the receiving or replacement line.
Advance Replacement RTVs are used when you are receiving a replacement from a vendor and then returning a defective item. The difference between a Replacement RTV and an Advance Replacement RTV is the order in which the transactions occur. When using a Replacement RTV, you return the item and then receive a replacement; but an Advanced Replacement RTV is the opposite.
Repair RTVs are used to track items that may leave your inventory for repair.

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Best Practice Steps

Best Practice Steps - start to finish

First you must ensure that you have an RTV warehouse and a defective items bin within your system. All items to be returned are transferred into and shipped from your RTV warehouse. This warehouse needs to be configured as unavailable as this prevents the items from showing up as available inventory in e-automate.

Creating an RTV warehouse:

1. Go to Inventory and then select Warehouses

2. Click new to create a new warehouse

3. Complete the following fields for the new inventory warehouse

Warehouse - enter the name for this warehouse
Description - enter the description for this warehouse
Type - select RTV Returns
Address - enter address of this warehouse or synchronize with company address
Standard Bin - select the RTV bin designated for non-defective items if created (if not yet created come back and compete this step after creating)
Defective Bin - select the RTV bin for defective items (if not yet created come back and compete this step after creating)
Costing Type - select how you want the system to calculate costs on the item
Exclude from company average cost calculations - you may want to check mark this option if you do not want the system to calculate your average costs using anything that's been processed on an RTV order

4. Click OK to save the warehouse

Creating your Defective item and/or Standard bin:

1. Go to Inventory and then select Bins

2. Click new to create a new bin

Bin - enter bin name
Description - enter bin description
Warehouse - select the warehouse that this bin in a subdivision of
Stock Type - select standard or defective
Picking Order - enter the order in which you want this bin to show up on the picking list

Credit RTV Orders - Creating, Transferring, Shipping and Completing:

Creating RTV Order:

1. Go to Purchasing and select RTV orders

2. Click New

3. complete the header of the new RTV order

Vendor - Select the vendor from the drop-down list
Description - Enter an appropriate description.
Type - Select the RTV order type of credit
Status - defaults to open
Purchaser - Select the purchaser from the drop-down list
Vendor RMA Number - Enter the RMA number provided by the vendor
Branch - select appropriate branch if not defaulted correctly
Return warehouse - enter which RTV warehouse the item will be returned from

4. Add the ship out method and external remarks on the Order/Shipping and Remarks tab if desired

5. Add item(s) to the RTV order on the Items tab

Click the magnifying glass in the item field and select the item to be returned
Enter the quantity to be returned
Click QuickAdd

6. The RTV order should now reflect the credit amount expected. If the amount should be updated, double click on the item and adjust the amount. Click Ok to save item amount.

7. Click OK to save the RTV order

Transferring (moving item to be returned from its current warehouse to the RTV warehouse selected in your RTV order:

1. in the list of RTV orders, highlight the line for the RTV order you just created and click the transfer button from the toolbar

2. Click OK to process and save the transfer

3. The status of the RTV order now shows "Open - (Transferred In)"

Shipping (shipping the item from the RTV warehouse back to the vendor):

1. in the list of RTV orders, highlight the line for the RTV order you just created and click the ship button from the toolbar

2. Select the ship method. You also have the option to add a freight cost, weight and update the shipped date in the header as well as add tracking number and delivery details on the misc. tab.

3. Click OK to process and save the shipment

4. The status of the RTV order now shows "Open - (Shipped)"

Completing (completing the return once shipment reaches vendor and return is complete):

1. in the list of RTV orders, highlight the line for the RTV order you just created and click the complete button from the toolbar

2. The return column on the return screen will show 0. Click the use full quantities button to update this amount to match the quantity to be returned. If you have a quantity on the item that is greater then 1 but don't want to complete all quantities, then double click on the line item and adjust the return field.

3. click OK to save and complete the return

4. The status of the RTV order now shows "Completed"

Replacement RTV Orders, Advanced Replacement RTV Orders and Repair RTV Orders - Creating, Transferring, Shipping, Receiving and Completing:

Note that the process below is for a Replacement RTV Order but differs slightly if you are processing a...

Advanced Replacement RTV Order then follow same steps, but the receiving will come before the shipping as you typically receive the replacement item before sending the other item back.
Repair RTV Order then follow same steps, and know that you'll be getting the same item back once repaired and will receive it at that time

Creating RTV Order:

1. Go to Purchasing and select RTV orders

2. Click New

3. complete the header of the new RTV order

Vendor - Select the vendor from the drop-down list
Description - Enter an appropriate description.
Type - Select the RTV order type of replacement
Status - defaults to open
Purchaser - Select the purchaser from the drop-down list
Vendor RMA Number - Enter the RMA number provided by the vendor
Branch - select appropriate branch if not defaulted correctly
Return warehouse - enter which RTV warehouse the item will be returned from
Receive warehouse - enter which warehouse you want to receive the replacement into

4. Add the ship out method and external remarks on the Order/Shipping and Remarks tab if desired

5. Add item(s) to the RTV order on the Items tab

Click the magnifying glass in the item field and select the item to be returned
Enter the quantity to be returned
Click QuickAdd

The RTV order will have 1 line item for the return and another for the new item to be received. The return line item should reflect the credit amount expected for the return and the receive line item should reflect the charge amount expected for the replacement. It will net zero since the cost/credit for same item is the same. If the amounts should be updated, double click on the items and adjust the amount. Click Ok to save item amounts.

NOTE that if you are shipping back an item that is different than the item you'll be receiving back, you'll want to add both items and delete any extra line items following the steps below

a. add item to be shipped out and item to be received, this will create 4 line items. Each item will have 1 line item for return and one for receive

b. save RTV Order

c. go back into RTV Order and delete the receive line item for the item to be shipped out only and delete the return line item for the item to be received only

7. Click OK to save the RTV order

Transferring (moving item to be returned from its current warehouse to the RTV warehouse selected in your RTV order:

1. in the list of RTV orders, highlight the line for the RTV order you just created and click the transfer button from the toolbar

2. The transfer box will appear showing a quantity of one item moving to the RTV warehouse and this is the item to be returned. Click OK to process and save the transfer

3. The status of the RTV order now shows "Open - (Transferred In - Open)" signifying that the first item has been transferred and the receive item is still open.

Shipping (shipping the item from the RTV warehouse back to the vendor):

1. in the list of RTV orders, highlight the line for the RTV order you just created and click the ship button from the toolbar

2. Select the ship method. You also have the option to add a freight cost, weight and update the shipped date in the header as well as add tracking number and delivery details on the misc. tab.

3. Click OK to process and save the shipment

4. The status of the RTV order now shows "Open - (Shipped - Open)" signifying that the first item has been shipped out and the receive item is still open.

Receiving (receiving the replacement item into inventory):

1. in the list of RTV orders, highlight the line for the RTV order you created and click the receive button from the toolbar

2. The receipt box will appear showing a quantity of one item to receive. This is going to be received into the receiving warehouse you selected on the RTV order. Click the use full quantities button to move the receive column from zero to your true received quantity. In this example, our full quantity is 1, but if you needed to partially receive the full quantity amount you would double click on the receive line item and adjust the receive quantity number. Click OK to process and save the receipt.

3. The status of the RTV order will now show Open (Shipped - Received) signifying that the first item has been shipped out and the replacement has been received.

Completing (completing the return once shipment reaches vendor and return is complete):

1. in the list of RTV orders, highlight the line for the RTV order you just created and click the complete button from the toolbar