Customer claim process

You can register, review and process claims received from customers. A claim can be based on documents such as invoices, service orders, maintenance sales orders and sales orders. The claim can be registered manually, copied from an original document or from a call. After a claim is registered and submitted you can (partially) approve, reject or cancel the claim.

Register customer claim

On the Claim Header you can specify whether the claim is settled by a credit note (sent to the customer) or by an invoice (received from the customer). To do so select the required option in the Claim Invoice Procedure field in the Customer Claim (tscmm1600m000) session.

You can specify whether the claim line is reimbursed in cash (based on the approved amount on the claim line) or materials (based on item and quantity specified on the claim line). To do so select the Reimburse Materials or Reimburse Costs option in the Claim Method field on the Claim Line in Customer Claim Lines (tscmm1110m000) session,

A customer claim can be created:

Manually : You can specify the values of the claim header and the claim lines manually.
From an original document : You can register a claim based on the documents such as invoices, service order, maintenance sales orders, sales orders or a sales schedule. The original document information is specified on the claim header in the Customer Claims (tscmm1100m000) session.You can copy the data from the original document using the Copy all Lines option in the Action menu. The original items, quantities and sales amounts are copied to the claim.
From a Call : You can register a claim from a customer call. The transaction text from the call is copied to the claim internal text and the call is transferred to a customer claim.

Note: The claim header is generated by a call or created manually. In both methods it is possible to generate the claim lines based on an original document.

Submit customer claim

You must submit the claim after registration. When the claim is submitted, the header-status of the claim is set to Pending Approval. The claim lines can now be Approved, Rejected, Modified, or Canceled.

Note: In some cases, the Line Status first becomes Pending Approval Estimates, Pending Material Return, Pending Supplier Approval, before the line becomes Pending Approval.

Approve the estimates

When the claim is submitted and the Use Estimates field is checked in the Customer Claim Lines (tscmm1110m000) session, the claim Line Status is updated to Pending Approval Estimates. It is mandatory to approve the estimates before you approve the claim. If the estimates are not approved, the Approved Quantity and the Approved Amount in the Customer Claim Lines (tscmm1110m000) session cannot be modified.

Note: If this field is unchecked, the claim Line Status is updated to Pending Material Return (in case Return Material Required checkbox is selected in Customer Claim Lines (tscmm1110m000) session) or Pending Approval.

Receive and return defective part from Customer

If the material must be returned by the customer before approving the claim, you must select the Return Material Required check box in the Customer Claim Lines (tscmm1110m000) session and a Line is created in Customer Claim Receipts (tscmm1113m000) session. When the claim is submitted, a warehouse order is created and the claim status is set to Pending Material Return. A warehouse order is created that is used to receive the item in customer owned inventory.

When the item is received, a warehouse order is created to deliver the defective part to the Service Department. The part must be delivered to the service department, before the claim can be Approved or Rejected.

An inspection is performed on the defective part at the Service Department. An inspection is created automatically if the measurement type is specified at the time of delivery to the Service Department. You can add more inspections manually. All inspections must be completed or rejected before the Claim is approved.

Action for Item - You can use the Approval Action field and Rejection Action field in the Customer Claim Lines (tscmm1110m000) session to indicate the status of the items received from the customer:

Make Company Owned: The item is sent back to the warehouse as company owned.
Return to Customer: The item is sent back to the warehouse as customer owned. When the item is returned to the warehouse, a new warehouse order is created to send the item back to the customer.
Scrap: The item is not sent back to the warehouse and can be scrapped.

Return to customer

If the item is returned to the customer, a claim delivery line is created in the Customer Claim Deliveries (tscmm1112m000) session. The Material Type field is set to Return Material to indicate that the delivery line is used to return the claim item to the customer.

Terminate the warehouse receipt of the defective part

You can terminate the receipts on the claim line, if the status of the claim is Pending Material Return and the defective part(s) are not received (completely). Open warehouse order inbound lines are deleted.

Approve the claim

You can approve the claim header or individual claim lines. After a claim line is approved, the claim line status is set to Approved. If all the lines (approved or rejected) are processed, the header status is set to Approved. If one or more lines are rejected, the Partially Approved field is checked on the header in the Customer Claims (tscmm1100m000) session.

If the Print RMA Required field is set to To be Printed in the Customer Claim Receipts (tscmm1113m000) session, a RMA ( return material authorization) document is printed.

If the Print RMA Required checkbox is selected on the service type, the RMA is printed as part of the approval step.

If the Customer Claim Inspection Required check box is selected in the Customer Claim Lines (tscmm1110m000) session, LN creates and processes a service inspection before the claim can be Approved or Rejected.

If the Material Type field is set to Reimburse Material in the Customer Claim Deliveries (tscmm1112m000) session, a delivery line (with a warehouse order linked to it) is created, to send new material to the customer.

Based on the option selected for the Tagged To field in the Customer Claim Lines (tscmm1110m000) session, the approved claim amounts are registered as claim costs on the serialized item warranty, with the status Active, for the installation on the customer claim header. When the Tagged To field is set to contract, an additional record is created in the Contract Cost Coverage - Overview (tsctm4580m000) session.

Receive invoice

When the claim is approved and the Claim Invoice Procedure field is set to Invoice Based in the Customer Claims (tscmm1100m000) session , an invoice must be received from the customer. The user must select the “Approve for invoice linking” option on the specific menu. The claim line status is changed to “Approved for invoice linking”. The invoice received in the Accounts Payable can now be linked to the claim line.

Credit note

When the claim is approved and the Claim Invoice Procedure field is set to Credit Note Based in the Customer Claims (tscmm1100m000) session, a credit note sales invoice is created in Invoicing.

Reimburse material

When the claim is approved and the Claim Method field is set to Reimburse Materials in Customer Claim Approval (tscmm1110m100) session , a Line is created in Customer Claim Deliveries (tscmm1112m000) session. New material is issued for reimbursement to the customer. The warehouse order for this delivery line is created, when the claim is approved. If the Inventory Commitments Required checkbox is selected in the Claim Management Parameters (tscmm0100m000) session , the inventory commitments are updated when the warehouse order is created.

Claim line is settled

After the claim is approved, the claim line-status is updated to “settled” only when:

In case of Claim Method set to Reimburse Costs in Customer Claim Approval (tscmm1110m100) session :

If the Claim Invoice Procedure field is set to Invoice Based and the Claim Method of the line is Reimburse Costs, then purchase invoice lines can be linked to the claim line using a ledger account with the customer claim integration set. You can set the status of the claim line manually to Settled if one linked invoice line is present which has the Final Invoice check box selected in the Customer Claim Invoice Lines (tscmm1115m000) session. Additionally, the related cost purchase invoices must be finalized in the General Ledger and the related purchase invoices related to orders must be approved in Accounts Payable.
The invoice is created in SLI when the Claim Invoice Procedure field is set to Credit Note Based in Customer Claim Invoice Lines (tscmm1115m000) session, and SLI has created the sales credit note. SLI triggers the creation of the customer claim invoice line in Customer Claim Invoice Lines (tscmm1115m000) session and automatically set the status to Settled.

In case of Claim Method set to Reimburse Materials in Customer Claim Approval (tscmm1110m100) session :

The status of the related material line in warehousing is set to Confirm shipment.
The related material line is terminated.

Customer claim rejection

The user can reject the claim using the Reject customer claim option on the claim line or claim header in the Customer Claims (tscmm1100m000) session. The user have to specify the reason for rejecting the claim and can optionally fill the rejection text. If the Return Material Required checkbox is selected in the Customer Claim Lines (tscmm1110m000) session, a warehouse-delivery is created, to send the received item back to the customer.

Cancel customer claim

You can cancel the claim only when:

The claim header status is Modified or Pending Approval and:

The Claim Method field is set to Reimburse Costs in the Customer Claim Lines (tscmm1110m000) session.
- The Claim Invoice Procedure is set to Credit Note Based in the Customer Claims (tscmm1100m000) session, and the related invoice line is not finalized in Financials, Or
- The Claim Invoice Procedure is set to Invoice Based in the Customer Claims (tscmm1100m000) session, and the related line can be deleted in Financials.

The Claim Method field is set to Reimburse Materials in the Customer Claim Lines (tscmm1110m000) session.
- The related Warehouse order line(s) and Planned Inventory Transactions can still be modified in Warehousing.

Close and delete customer claim

A customer claim is closed when:

The header-status of the customer claim is Approved, Rejected or Canceled.
The line-status of all the customer claim lines is Settled, Rejected or Canceled.
All the delivery and receipt lines of the customer claim are final (no open orders exist for the customer claim).

When a customer claim is closed the header-status of the customer claim is set to Closed. When a Customer Claim is closed the line-status of the Customer Claim lines is not changed.

After a customer claim is closed, the option is available to post the claim to history, but only when the parameter Use Claim History is selected in the Claim Management Parameters (tscmm0100m000) session.

Finally the option is available to delete the closed customer claim(s) . When a customer claim is deleted the customer claim header and all its lines are deleted. If parameter Use Claim History is selected in the Claim Management Parameters (tscmm0100m000) session, deleting can only be done after the claim has been posted to history.