Return tie allowed for orders in Shipped stage

You can now tie a sales order return to an order that is still in Shipped stage (stage 3). Previously, you were restricted to tying return orders or lines to Invoiced, or Stage 4, orders only in Sales Order Entry. For situations such as in a counter sale environment where the customer returns an item sold on an order that has not processed through the nightly Sales Entry Invoice Processing Report, you can set up authorization security for your customer service reps to create the return and tie it to the original order. This feature is useful if your company requires that all returns must be tied to an original order.

A new authorization point, Allow Returns in Shipped Stage, is available that can be assigned to customer service reps in SA Administration Authorization Security Setup.

When you enter a Return Merchandise (RM) order in Sales Order Entry, orders in Shipped stage are now included when you perform a lookup on the Invoice # field. When you select an order that is in Shipped stage, the warning: Invoice Must Exist as Active for the Same Customer (6574) is no longer displayed. If you have authorization security, then you can proceed to create the tie to the original sales order. If not, then the Authorization Required message is displayed instead.

Similarly, if you create a Return line on a Stock Order (SO) or Counter Sale (CS) in Sales Order Entry, then the same authorization check is applied. If you have authorization, then you can tie the Return line to the original order number.

The new authorization point is also applied when you copy a sales order in Shipped stage to an RM order.

Note: Currently, when you tie an RM to an order, you can also select the option Auto Apply Credit to Original Invoice. When selected, you can specify an order number that is in the invoiced stage and the credit for the return amount is automatically applied to that invoice. However, since the invoice is not created yet for orders in Shipped stage, this option does not apply. If it is inadvertently selected, then the message Cannot Auto Apply Credit to Original Invoice for an Order in Shipped Stage is displayed.

Return Merchandise (RM) orders or return lines for serial products cannot be tied to the original order in Shipped stage at this time. In addition, Correction Orders (CR) cannot be tied to orders in Shipped stage. They must be in Invoiced or Paid stage.