Raising an RMA, receiving goods back, the financial reversal, and what a return does to stock.
RMAs, New, or from the sales order itself. A return names the order, the lines coming back, a return type (Refund, Replacement, Store Credit or Warranty by default) and a reason from your list. It starts as Requested and moves to Authorized when you approve it. The buyer's return label, if you provide one, is bought the same way an outbound label is, through your own shipping account.
Returns are raised by your staff. A buyer on the portal cannot open one themselves during the beta; that is on the beta statement's out-of-scope list.
When the parcel arrives, open the RMA and receive each line. A serialized unit is verified by scanning its identifier, which must match the unit that shipped: a different unit is refused and named. On receipt the unit comes back into stock with the status you choose (Available if it can be resold, Unavailable with a defect if it cannot) and the return is Received.
A received line can be reversed (a Manager permission) if it was received in error.
Receiving a return reverses the sale on the ledger: the revenue comes off, the cost of goods returns to inventory at the unit's original cost, and the order's profit is restated. A refund, store credit or replacement is recorded on the RMA and shows on the order's Financials tab. The analytics Returns tab lists returns by reason and by product, which is where a recurring defect shows up first.
A Replacement return can be linked to the new outbound order so the two are read together: the original unit comes back, the replacement unit ships, and the cost of both is on the same record.