Short-close a supplier claim

When a supplier tells you they will not replace defective units, short-close the claim. Short-closing records the value you have lost against the claim and closes it with the status Rejected, so it stops counting as something the supplier still owes you.

Before you short-close

The claim must still have units to resolve, must not already be closed, and its units must have left your warehouse. A claim that is still holding its material cannot be written off.

Short-Close only appears if you are allowed to manage supplier claims, the claim still has units to resolve, it is not already closed, and it is not holding stock. If the units are still in your warehouse, release or account for them first. This also applies to a claim you have only partly released.

If the claim is still holding its units, you will not find Short-Close in its actions menu. Instead, you will find Release the held units (Record what happened once the replacement for held units has arrived), They already left, and, only while no unit has departed, The material is fine. Release the units first if they are leaving.

How to short-close a claim

1. Open Inventory, then Supplier Claims.
2. Find the claim. The Open tab lists every claim not yet finished, and the Supplier picker narrows the list.
3. Open the actions menu for the claim using the three-dot button at the end of its row.
4. Choose Short-Close. In a claim with several products, this acts on one product at a time: the dialog says which, or lets you pick it, and the other products stay open.
5. Read the confirmation, which states the number of units that will be written off and what they are worth.
6. Choose Short-Close again in the dialog to confirm, or Cancel to back out.

How the write-off is calculated

The write-off is the quantity still to resolve multiplied by the unit cost the claim captured when it was opened. This cost is a snapshot: later edits to the original purchase order do not change it, so the figure in the confirmation is the figure that gets recorded.

Short-closing always writes off everything still to resolve. There is no option to write off part of it. If the supplier already sent some replacements, those units have already reduced what is owed, and only the remainder is written off.

Your stock levels do not change when you short-close, and no inventory movement is created. The units must already have left: either you said they were gone from your warehouse when you reported the defect, you released them later, or you recorded that they had already left through some other movement. Their value went with whichever of those happened. Writing them off again as stock would drop your on-hand quantity twice for one physical loss.

Find the write-off

After short-closing, the Supplier Claims page shows a running total, written off in short-closed claims, recorded here for your accounts. It covers every short-closed claim whatever tab, supplier or page you are viewing, and appears once there is something to show. A claim moves to the Closed tab with the status Rejected once every product in it is closed and none was settled; if one of its products was settled, the claim shows Settled. While other products are still open, the claim keeps their status. Each product shows how many units were written off.

A write-off is a dated accounting event, recorded on the day you short-close. A locked financial year will not take one.

The confirmation offers nowhere to type a reason or a different date. Keep your own note of why the supplier refused, for example in the email trail with them. The claim's history records who short-closed it and when.

Choose the right action

Short-Close is the right action when the defect was genuine, the units have gone, and no replacement is coming.

The material is fine is the right action when the defect turned out not to be one and the units are still on your shelf. The claim closes as Withdrawn, nothing is written off, and the units rejoin ordinary stock and become claimable again.

Delete is for a claim that should never have existed at all, such as one for the wrong product or the wrong quantity. It removes the claim's photographs, comments and history with it.

Correct a short-closed claim

There is no way to reopen a short-closed claim. If you short-closed the wrong one and nothing has been received against it, deleting the claim is the way back. This removes the write-off along with the claim, puts back any units that had left, and frees the claimed quantity on the original delivery so it can be claimed again.

Deleting needs permission to delete stock movements as well as permission to manage claims. It is refused once a replacement has been received against the claim or anything at all has been received on the replacement order linked to it.

Raising a fresh claim for the same units is not a way round that refusal: a short-closed claim keeps counting against what can still be claimed on the order line.