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  Sales Returns Processing

Use

Sales returns processing manages merchandise that the customer has returned due to complaints. You enter the returned merchandise in the system and have them analyzed (in the laboratory, for example). When the analysis is complete, you use the results of that analysis to decide whether the merchandise can be reused. You can trace this procedure through the document flow for sales returns processing.

Process Flow

Sales returns processing involves the following steps:

  1. As soon as the customer has returned the merchandise, you enter the sales returns order using the sales document type configured in Customizing.

  2. You can enter header and item data just as you can in the standard. The system automatically creates empties items as subitems.

  3. When you save the sales returns order, the system automatically generates a delivery and posts the goods receipt. The goods receipt posting is updated in the appropriate stock (for example, blocked stock returns, goods receipt blocked stock, or quality inspection stock) for a defined storage location.

    Note Note

    The system considers the quantities of blocked returns stocks in the returns stock of a plant. Blocked stock returns are neither valuated nor available for unrestricted use.

    End of the note.

  4. You can create an empties credit memo immediately, without having to wait for the results of the analysis. The system generates a credit memo for the customer for the deposit value of the empties as soon as the allegedly defective merchandise is returned. The system does not create credit memos for the full product until the analysis results are available and the subsequent settlement has taken place.

  5. Once the results of the analysis are available, you can process them in the analysis document. The system provides you with an analysis item for each order item, based on the sales returns document. You can then enter the missing data for the material, such as the analysis result, the refunding indicator, the quantity, and so on. You can split the order quantity and valuate it separately. The system can then settle each valuated item. The order items (or partial quantities of order items) that are valuated at a later point in time cannot be settled by the system until they have been valuated.

  6. The system generates SAP SD and SAP MM follow-on documents during settlement. Each analysis item becomes a separate item in the follow-on documents. These follow-on documents include the customer credit memo and the warehouse stock postings.

  7. The system updates the document flow.

When the Customizing for sales returns processing is optimized, the business processes follow the pattern illustrated in the following diagram:

Result

The system makes the SAP MM postings in the corresponding storage locations. The physical warehouse stocks always correspond to the posting transactions. The document flow enables you to track the postings made by the system.

Example

You have 30 units of measure (UoM) of a product A in an order item and a partial analysis result is available for 10 UoM. You can define these 10 UoM as free of defects for the analysis item in the analysis document. The next analysis results are received three weeks later, and you enter the remaining 20 UoM as spoiled in the analysis document. You can settle an item in a document as soon as you enter the analysis results for that item in the analysis document: event 1 with 10 UoM of product A; event 2 with 20 UoM of product A.

Note Note

The above example assumes that you have activated the Incomplete Settlement Allowed field in Customizing (Customizing table Document Types for Sales Returns ).

End of the note.