Goods without an ERP credit note — returned items on shelves before the ERP is updated

What “No credit note” means

When you put a returned item on a shelf, it immediately enters warehouse stock. The ERP system (Subiekt for us) receives it only with the sales credit note. Until then, the warehouse stock is higher than the ERP stock, and without a marker it is unclear why.

That is why the item is marked No credit note:

• It sits on an ordinary shelf beside other items of the same product; there is no separate location or document.
• It counts in warehouse stock and moves like any other item, but it cannot be transferred to another warehouse.
• Stock screens show how many items do not yet have a credit note.
• The marker belongs to a specific return, so you know which return must be settled in the ERP.

When an item gets or loses the marker

Workflow rules determine both moments. Our process works like this:

1. The return is closed. Shortly afterwards, items going back to a shelf are marked. They are still waiting to be put away, so shelf quantities have not changed yet.
2. You put the item on a shelf (Return putaway — this is when goods enter stock). Items are marked on the shelf where you place them. There is nothing else to do.
3. The return reaches status KFS_Confirmed—the credit note is in Subiekt: an automation confirmed it, or Customer Service closed the return manually after reconciling the credit note. The marker disappears from all shelves at once, and the items become ordinary stock.

A return in KFS_Error keeps the marker until Customer Service settles it (Close a return, mark it problematic, and set its Customer Service status).

Only items returning to a shelf are marked—the ones in the put-away list. Items on a transfer route (for example to Defects or a repair shop) are not on that list, so they are not marked (Return transfers — routes to another warehouse (such as Defects), a workshop, or a manufacturer).

Where the marker appears

There is no separate chip on return line items: the credit note applies to the whole return and appears on the KFS tile. The marker is removed when the return status changes.

The product browser’s Stock field controls which stock the WMS column shows:

• All (default) — total warehouse stock, including goods without a credit note.
• Sellable — warehouse stock minus goods without a credit note. Quantity filters and sorting also use this figure.
• No credit note — only products that include such goods.

The Only WMS vs ERP discrepancies switch works as before: it compares ERP against total warehouse stock, including goods without a credit note. More about the report: Reports — map of all dashboards.

When tracking is disabled, these columns, the Stock field and the chips are hidden.

Exports from the product browser and product/location pages include the quantity without a credit note when tracking is enabled. This column is not selected by default; select it in the column chooser.

Moving marked goods

Items of the same product are indistinguishable, so it does not matter which physical item you take. The system keeps the marker on the shelf as long as at least the marked quantity remains there. Example: a shelf has 5 items, 2 of them without a credit note.

The same applies to moving, picking, sorting, and replenishment within a warehouse. Every marker transfer appears in the return history so the office knows where the items awaiting settlement are.

Only credited goods can go to another warehouse

You cannot transfer goods without a credit note to another warehouse. The ERP does not have them yet, so they cannot be included on an MM document. You can transfer only the quantity above the marked items. Example: 5 items on a shelf, 2 without a credit note—you can move 3. If you request more, the terminal refuses with: Goods without an ERP credit note (2 items) cannot yet be moved to another warehouse — you can move at most 3 items. Nothing is saved; stock and markers stay as they were.

In Inter-warehouse transfer mode (Inter-warehouse transfer), the terminal refuses as soon as you try to pick more than the unmarked quantity. Pick only the amount stated in the message; items without a credit note stay on the shelf. If every item there is awaiting a credit note, the terminal says: All these goods (2 items) are awaiting an ERP credit note — they cannot yet be moved to another warehouse. The destination put-away step checks again. You can move these items after the return receives its ERP credit note.

When the marker is lost

If marked goods disappear from the warehouse—shipped in a parcel, found missing during inventory, or removed from stock—the marker is lost, and the return history records Goods without credit note removed. The same quantity rule applies: losing one of five items does not affect two marked items.

Goods found later, a reversed inventory adjustment, or a cancelled document can restore stock, but not the marker; the goods return as ordinary stock.

One case removes the marker even though the goods stay: abandoned packing for an order packed from several bins or at several stations. The goods return to the bins, but the marker is lost and recorded in history. Abandoned packing from one bin at one station returns the marker along with the goods.

Return history

You cannot delete a return with marked goods

As long as any item in the return is marked (and tracking is enabled), you cannot cancel or delete the return—even after reopening it. The system responds: Goods from this return are on a shelf and do not yet have a sales credit note in the ERP — the return cannot be cancelled or deleted. Deleting it would remove the only record of those goods and hide the real stock difference between the warehouse and ERP. First reconcile the credit note in the ERP; then clean up the return.

Will these goods be sold?

Marked goods are not blocked in the warehouse. Picking can take them like any other item. Our marketplace stock comes from the ERP, which does not know about these goods yet, so the marker does not change marketplace quantities. When the ERP reads stock through a BaseLinker-compatible connection (warehouse stock methods) or reconciles quantities, it receives the stock minus goods without a credit note; reconciliation will not remove those goods from the shelf.

Enable tracking

First enable Settings → Returns → General → Track goods without an ERP credit note (off by default). The switch enables the feature; two workflow rules determine when the marker is added and removed (Actions — what a rule can do):

• Trigger Return status changed, condition Return status — the closed-return statuses that await a credit note; action Mark returned goods as having no credit note.
• Trigger Return status changed, condition Return status — the status meaning “credit note is in the ERP” (KFS_Confirmed for us); action Remove the “no credit note” marker from returned goods.

Both actions have no parameters and can run repeatedly. Without the switch, the rules do nothing; with the switch but without the rules, nothing is marked. Markers apply only to closed returns.

Returns closed before the rules were active are not marked retroactively. Such a return is marked only if its status later changes to one that triggers the marking rule.

Disable tracking

Turning off the switch deletes every marker in the company; from then on, all goods count as ordinary stock. Before saving, the screen asks for confirmation and shows how many items will lose the marker. Return history entries remain.

Turning tracking back on starts from zero: only returns marked by the rule after re-enabling will get a marker. Previously marked items do not regain it, even if their return is still awaiting a credit note.