Back to D200: Inventory Order Management Extended Scenarios

Lesson 13: Processing Sales with Returns

Part 3: Extended Sales and Purchase Scenarios

This lesson explains how you can process a sale with return by using a mixed order. Sales with Returns: General Information

In Acumatica ERP, you can create a mixed order to process both a sale and a return in the same order on the Sales Orders (SO301000) form.

Learning Objectives

In this lesson, you will do the following:

Become familiar with the general settings and workflow of a mixed order
Create a mixed order
Process a sale with a return in a mixed order and the related documents

Applicable Scenario

You may need to perform a sale and a return through a mixed order if all or most of the following are true for your company:

Your company sells many products at a big store, with employees processing many orders per day through counter sales.
Some customers need to buy and return products or services (or replace the returned products) at the same time.
The new items or items for replacement can have higher or lower prices.
The order balance may be positive or negative. Because you perform these sales and returns at a counter, you process no shipments. You also need to process AR documents.

Processing of a Sale with a Return

This section describes the general workflow of a sale with a return in the same order; for simplicity, a single item is returned and a single item is sold in this workflow. To process the sale of a stock item and the return of a stock item in the same mixed order, you perform the following general steps:

You create a mixed order (that is, an order of the MO type) on the Sales Orders (SO301000) form.
On the Details tab, you add lines by doing any of the following:

You add a line with the item for sale and specify a positive quantity. Because the line has a positive quantity, the system inserts the Issue operation for the line.
You add the stock item to be returned without linking it to the original invoice, which you may need to do if the original invoice cannot be found or if a customer is returning a part of a kit. To do this, you click Add Items on the table toolbar of the Details tab; in the Inventory Lookup dialog box, which opens, you add the needed lines and click Add & Close. Then you specify a negative quantity for these lines in the Quantity column. In the order line, because you have specified a negative quantity, the system inserts Receipt in the Operation column instead of the default setting of Issue.
You add the stock item to be returned and include a link to the original sales invoice (that is, the sales invoice for which the return is being performed). To do this, you click Add Invoice on the table toolbar; in the Add Invoice Details dialog box, which opens, you select the line of the invoice and click Add & Close. The system adds the selected lines to the order with the quantity specified in the Qty. to Return column. In the order line, the system inserts the Receipt operation in the Operation column and a negative quantity in the Quantity column. To specify the quantity to be returned in the Add Invoice Details dialog box, you first check the Available for Return column, which shows the maximum quantity of the item that can be returned, considering any already-returned quantities of the item from the AR document. Then you can do either or both of the following:
Select the unlabeled check box for the line, which causes the system to automatically set the Qty. to Return to be the same as the Available for Return quantity. You can specify another quantity.
Manually specify the Qty. to Return, which causes the system to automatically select the unlabeled check box in the line.

Depending on the order balance (Order Total), you do either of the following: a. You process a payment. If the Order Total is positive, you click Create Payment on the table toolbar of the Payments tab of the Sales Orders form. In the Create Payment dialog box, you specify the needed settings and click the appropriate button to create the payment. You then release the payment on the Payments and Applications (AR302000) form. b. You process a refund. If the Order Total is negative, you click Create Refund on the table toolbar of the Payments tab of the Sales Orders form. In the Create Refund dialog box, you specify the needed settings and click Refund to create the refund. You then release the refund on the Payments and Applications form.
You prepare a credit memo or sales invoice for the mixed order by clicking Prepare Invoice on the Sales Orders form, which results in either of the following:

If the Order Total of the mixed order is negative, the system generates an invoice of the Credit Memo type.
If the Order Total of the mixed order is positive, the system generates a sales invoice of the Invoice type. When you release the document on the Invoices (SO303000) form, the mixed order is assigned the Completed status. The system automatically generates and releases inventory issues with the Credit Memo transaction type and the Invoice transaction type on the Issues (IN302000) form. On release of each inventory issue, a batch of GL transactions is generated. The inventory is updated. When the sales invoice or credit memo is released and assigned the Closed status, you can view this invoice or credit memo as an AR invoice or AR credit memo, respectively, on the Invoices and Memos (AR301000) form.

Workflow of Processing a Sale with a Return

For a sale with a return in the same order, the typical process involves the actions and generated documents shown in the following diagram. Sales with Returns: Mixed Orders and Related Documents

When you need to process a sale and a return in the same order, you create a mixed order on the Sales Orders (SO301000) form, create a payment or refund, and then create an invoice or credit memo. The following sections describe this processing in detail, including key settings of these documents.

Creation of a Mixed Order

A mixed order in Acumatica ERP has an order type for which the Mixed Order automation behavior is specified on the Template tab of the Order Types (SO201000) form. You can use the predefined MO order type, which has this automation behavior, for the processing of mixed orders. A mixed order does not support shipments because you use this order for counter sales. For details about order types, see Sales Order Types: General Information. You create a mixed order on the Sales Orders (SO301000) form. In the Summary area, you select the type and the customer. Then on the Details tab, you can add lines with items for sale, which have a positive quantity, and lines with items for return, which have a negative quantity. Each new line that you manually add on the Details tab has the default Issue operation in the Operation column. The Quantity specified for the line aﬀects the value in the Operation column as follows:

If you specify a positive quantity for the line (which means that the quantity is being issued for sale), the Issue operation remains unchanged. This line amount increases the balance of the order.
If you specify a negative quantity for the line (which means that the customer is returning the quantity), the system automatically changes the operation from Issue to Receipt. This line amount decreases the balance of the order. You can add an item to be returned from the original invoice by clicking Add Invoice on the table toolbar and selecting the line of the needed invoice in the Add Invoice Details dialog box, which opens. In this case, Receipt is inserted in the Operation column and the negative line quantity (that is, the quantity of the original line with a minus sign) is inserted in the Quantity column. Depending on whether the order has a positive or negative balance, you then process either a customer payment or a customer refund. For details, see the next section.

Preparation of a Customer Payment or Refund for a Mixed Order

If a mixed order has the Open status, you can create a payment or refund by using the Payments tab of the Sales Orders (SO301000) form as a starting point as follows:

If the Order Total value is positive, you can click Create Payment on the table toolbar. You use the Create Payment dialog box, which opens, to specify the payment's settings and create the payment.
If the Order Total value is negative, you can click Create Refund on the table toolbar. You use the Create Refund dialog box, which opens, to specify the refund's settings and create the refund. You can delete an unreleased payment or unreleased refund from the system by clicking the line with the applicable payment or refund on the tab to select it and then clicking the Delete Payment or Delete Refund button, respectively, on the table toolbar of the Payments tab. This deletes the payment or the refund from the current tab and from the system. Also, if a payment was made by credit card and the payment has the Open status, you can void the payment on the Payments tab of the Sales Orders form by clicking the line with the payment, and then clicking the Void Card Payment button on the table toolbar.

Preparation of an Invoice or Credit Memo for a Mixed Order

To prepare an invoice or a credit memo for a mixed order, you can click Prepare Invoice on the form toolbar of the Sales Orders (SO301000) form. Depending on the order's balance, the system will create a document on the Invoices (SO303000) form as follows:

A document of the Invoice or Cash Sale type if the Order Total is positive or zero

A document of the Credit Memo or Cash Return type if the Order Total is negative

        The type of document created depends on whether the AR Document Type setting on the Template
        tab of the Order Types (SO201000) form contains Invoice/Credit Memo or Cash Sale/Cash Return.

You can the track return documents related to a sales order on the Return Documents Related to Sales Order (SO4010SP) inquiry form. You open the form by clicking Related Return Documents on the side panel of either of the following:

The Sales Orders (SO301000) form
The Sales Orders (SO3010PL) list of records For the selected sales order, the form displays the related return orders, their related shipments, and return invoices. The form also shows AP documents for drop-ship returns. The form displays all the documents related to the return of items that have been sold in the selected sales order. The Qty. on Shipments box shows the total quantity of shipped items and items added to shipments that have not been processed yet. The Qty. on Returns box shows the quantities of items on return orders of all types and return invoices. These quantities are calculated in items' base UOMs. The Related Return Documents table shows links to return orders, as well as the related shipments and AR documents. For drop-ship vendor returns (orders that are used to process the return of the drop-shipped items directly from a customer to a vendor), the links to these returns and their AP documents are shown. The Return Documents by Line table lists the inventory IDs of the items in the sales order lines with links to the respective return orders and return invoices.

Sales with Returns: Process Activity

The following activity demonstrates how to process to completion a sale with a return in the same order.

          This activity is based on the U100 dataset. If you are using another dataset, or if any system settings
          have been changed in U100, these changes can aﬀect the workflow of the activity and the results of
          the processing. To avoid any issues, restore the U100 dataset to its initial state.

Story

Suppose that you are Regina Wiley, a sales manager at the SweetLife Fruits & Jams company. On January 29, 2025, a representative of the Allen's Bakery customer came to the SweetLife's store and bought 30 jars of peach jam and 15 jars of cranberry jam. The next day, the representative came to the store again to return the 15 jars of cranberry jam because these jars were leaking. While returning the cranberry jam, the customer decided to also buy 10 jars of grape jam. Because the representative has come to the counter to perform both the sale and the return, you want to simplify the process by using a mixed order. SweetLife owes some money to Allen's Bakery because the total amount of the purchased items is less than the amount to be returned for the received items. Aer you create the order, you need to process the customer refund as well. Acting as the sales manager, you need to process the sale and the return of the jam.

Configuration Overview

In the U100 dataset, the following tasks have been performed to support this activity:

On the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form, the following features have been enabled:
Inventory and Order Management, which provides the standard functionality of inventory and order management
Inventory, which gives you the ability to maintain stock items by using forms related to the inventory functionality and to create and process sales and purchase documents that include stock items
On the Sales Orders Preferences (SO101000) form, the Automatically Release IN Documents check box has been selected.
On the Order Types (SO201000), the MO order type, which has the Mixed Order automation behavior, has been activated.
On the Customers (AR303000) form, the ABAKERY (Allen's Bakery) customer has been created.
On the Stock Items (IN202500) form, the PEACHJAM32, CRANBJAM32, and GRAPEJAM32 items have been created.
The following sales documents, for which you will process a return, have been created:
On the Sales Orders (SO301000) form, a sales order for the ABAKERY customer has been created. (The order has 30 units of the PEACHJAM32 stock item and 15 units of the CRANBJAM32 stock item, and is dated 1/29/2025.)
On the Payments and Applications (AR302000) form, a payment dated 1/29/2025 and linked to the sales order has been created and released.
On the Invoices (SO303000) form, a sales invoice that is related to the sales order has been created and released.

Process Overview

In this activity, you will create an order of the MO type on the Sales Orders (SO301000) form. You will add the returned stock item from the released sales invoice and a new stock item for sale. You will create a customer refund related to this order. You will release the customer refund on the Payments and Applications (AR302000) form. On the Sales Orders form, you will initiate the creation of the credit memo linked to the mixed order; finally, you will release the credit memo on the Invoices (SO303000) form.

System Preparation

Before you start processing sales with returns in the same order, do the following:

Launch the Acumatica ERP website with the U100 dataset preloaded, and sign in as sales manager Regina Wiley by using the wiley username and the 123 password.
In the info area, in the upper-right corner of the top pane of the Acumatica ERP screen, make sure that the business date in your system is set to 1/30/2025. If a diﬀerent date is displayed, click the Business Date menu button and select 1/30/2025 on the calendar. For simplicity, in this activity, you will create and process all documents in the system on this business date.
On the Company and Branch Selection menu in the top pane of the Acumatica ERP screen, select the SweetLife Store branch.

Step 1: Creating a Mixed Order To create the mixed order for Allen's Bakery, do the following:

On the Sales Orders (SO301000) form, add a new record.
In the Summary area, specify the following settings:

Order Type: MO
Customer: ABAKERY
Date: 1/30/2025
Description: Return of cranberry jam and sale of grape jam

On the table toolbar of the Details tab, click Add Invoice to begin adding the line for the returned item.
In the Add Invoice Details dialog box, which opens, do the following: a. In the AR Doc. Type box, make sure that Invoice is selected. b. In the Inventory ID box, select CRANBJAM32. The table shows the order line with the selected item. Notice that in the line, the Available for Return quantity is 15 and the Qty. to Return is 0. Also notice that the order number is shown in the Order Nbr. column and the number of the related invoice is shown in the AR Doc. Nbr. column. These numbers are also links that you can click to open the document in a pop-up window. c. In the table, select the unlabeled check box for the line with the CRANBJAM32 item. Notice that the Qty. to Return is now the same as the Available for Return quantity, which is 15. You could change the Qty. to Return if fewer units of the item were being returned. d. Click Add & Close to close the dialog box. In the line on the Details tab of the form, notice that the number of the original invoice has been inserted in the Invoice Nbr. column, Receipt has been inserted in the Operation column, and -15 has been inserted in the Quantity column (the original line quantity was 15).
On the table toolbar of the Details tab, click Add Row to manually add the line for the item to be sold.
Specify the following settings in this row:

Branch: RETAIL
Inventory ID: GRAPEJAM32
Warehouse: RETAIL
Location: MAIN
Quantity: 10

On the form toolbar, click Save.
You have created the mixed order. Because the order balance is negative (notice that Order Total in the Summary area is -113.50), you need to process a customer refund for this order, which you will do in the next step.

Step 2: Processing a Customer Refund for the Mixed Order To create a customer refund for the mixed order, do the following:

While you are still viewing the Return of cranberry jam and sale of grape jam order on the Sales Orders (SO301000) form, on the table toolbar of the Payments tab, click Create Refund.
In the Create Refund dialog box, which opens, do the following: a. In the Refund Amount box, make sure that the amount is the same as the Unrefunded Balance amount on the Payments tab. b. In the Payment Method box, select CASH. c. In the Cash Account box, select 10100ST - SweetStore Petty Cash. d. Click OK to close the dialog box.
On the Payments tab, in the Reference Nbr. column, click the link to open the customer refund on the Payments and Applications (AR302000) form in a pop-up window.
On the form toolbar, click Remove Hold.
Click Release. Notice that the released customer refund is assigned the Open status.
Close the Payments and Applications form.
Refresh the webpage for the Sales Orders form, to which you return. Step 3: Processing a Credit Memo for the Mixed Order To process a credit memo for the mixed order, do the following:
While you are still viewing the Return of cranberry jam and sale of grape jam order on the Sales Orders (SO301000) form, on the form toolbar, click Prepare Invoice.
On the Invoices (SO303000) form, which opens with the Credit Memo type selected for the document, review the detail lines of the credit memo.
On the form toolbar, click Release. The credit memo is assigned the Closed status.
On the Sales Orders form, return to the mixed order that you created earlier. Notice that the order now has the Completed status, as shown in the following screenshot.
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   Figure: The mixed order with the Completed status
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You have processed a sale with a return in the same order on the Sales Orders form.