Dealing with Returns

[melanieh]

I have a database that has the basic tables of products, accounts and orders.

I need to figure out how to deal with returns.

Do I create a separate table and link that to the orders table for returns?

I haven't made such a large database file so I was curious if anyone had any information on how to lead me in the right direction. Or if there were any examples. (I've looked around but haven't completely figured out the best way to handle this.)


Thanks!

 

[boblarson]

In my Point of Sale application I wrote for a major healthcare provider, I treated returns as separate with an ability to add back into inventory if it was able to be returned to inventory. The reason I treated it separately for this was that, in most cases, the return was NOT going to be able to be added back into inventory.

 

[pbaldy]

Are you asking about a separate table vs a negative transaction in the same table, or are you considering deleting the original transaction vs a return transaction? For audit trail purposes, you generally want to know that you had both a sale and a return. If you just delete the sale, you've lost tracking on it. Your bank deposit doesn't tie to your sales for the day, etc. As an ex bean-counter, I can assure you that the bean-counters won't like you deleting a transaction.

I could go either way on the 2-table vs 1-table question. It would depend on the specifics of your situation.

 

[Sum Guy]

I was going to make a comment but I realized Bob had said exactly what I was going to say.

If a substantial percentage of returns are going back into inventory you need to have a procedure that allows for this. 26 of Item A returned to inventory, refund or credit customer.
If the returns are not going back to inventory, post to your loss on sales account.

 

[Simon_MT]

I keep all my values positive with a Table called Sales Type holding two fields:

Invoice | 1
Credit Note | -1

If you take this a bit further with a Flag either on each transaction to denote whether or not there is any impact on stock. You should be able to decide when Stock is being affected and when its is not.

Simon