How to use supplier claims

A supplier claim records the replacement units a supplier owes you. Raise one when material you have already received and stocked turns out to be defective and you expect the supplier to send replacement goods.

A claim can hold one product or several from the same supplier. Each product is raised against the purchase-order line its defective units arrived on, which is where the claim takes its cost from. A product can appear only once in a claim; units of it from another delivery need a claim of their own.

Open and resolve a claim

1. Open Inventory, then Supplier Claims.
2. Choose Open Claim.
3. Choose the order the defective units arrived on.
4. Tick each defective product.
5. Enter its quantity.
6. Check its warehouse.
7. Answer where the goods are now. There is no default, and nothing saves until you answer.
8. If the goods have gone, choose Returned to Supplier or Scrapped.
9. Ask the supplier for a replacement.
10. Raise a zero-value purchase order for the replacement, with the same supplier.
11. Go back to Supplier Claims.
12. Open the claim's actions menu.
13. Choose Link replacement PO.
14. Pick the replacement order.
15. Receive the replacement order as you would any delivery. The claim draws down by the quantity received.
16. If the claim holds units in your warehouse, end the hold by releasing them, clearing the claim if the material turned out to be fine, or recording that they already left. Once the replacement has arrived, choose Record what happened instead: returned to the supplier, scrapped or kept.
17. If the supplier will never send the rest, choose Short-Close to close the claim and record the loss. A claim still holding its units cannot be written off; end the hold first.

The Supplier Claims page

Open Inventory, then Supplier Claims. Three cards sit at the top.

Outstanding value is what your suppliers still owe you, with the number of open claims and suppliers under it. Units to resolve counts units neither replaced nor written off. Held in your warehouse is the value of defective units you are still keeping; choose Show to list them.

Below the cards are the Open, Partly replaced, Closed and All tabs and a Supplier picker. Open covers every claim that is not finished, Partly replaced covers claims where some replacement units have arrived, and Closed covers settled, rejected and withdrawn claims.

The list is grouped by supplier. Each supplier's header shows its name, number of claims, units still to resolve and, if you can see inventory values, what those units are worth. The totals follow the tab and supplier you chose and cover all of that supplier's claims, not only those on the page you are reading.

Suppliers are ordered by their most recent claim, and the newest claim comes first within each supplier. The page shows 50 claims at a time. A supplier with many claims can continue on the next page, where its header appears again and says how many of its claims that page shows.

Each claim row shows its number, status, where the goods are, the replacement order once linked, and when it was opened. Under it, each product row shows the order its units came on (from PO-…), To resolve as a quantity of the units claimed with how many were replaced or written off, and Value. Click anywhere on a claim or product row other than a link, such as the product's name, to open the claim. The actions menu at the end of the claim row holds everything you can do with it.

Where the goods are

When you open a claim, your answer about where the goods are determines what happens to your inventory. Every product on the claim shares that answer and one destination: the units are either returned to the supplier or scrapped, not some of each. Units going the other way need a claim of their own.

Gone from my warehouse: The units leave as a movement with the reason Defective / Supplier Claim. Their value moves onto the claim and stays visible until the replacement arrives or you write it off. The movement is not treated as consumption and does not appear as material consumed.

Still in my warehouse: No movement is created. The units stay on hand at their full value and are ring-fenced, so a stock-out, an assembly or a stock-count difference cannot consume them while the claim holds them.

You can transfer the whole held quantity to a holding area, and the claim's hold follows it to the new warehouse. A transfer that would leave the source unable to cover what is held is refused. See Claim material you still hold.

Beside the status, the claim row shows where the goods are: In stock, or 20 of 50 in stock once part of the batch has left; Back in stock after you clear a claim as fine; Already left when something else took the units; Kept by us when you kept faulty units after their replacement arrived; or Returned to Supplier, Scrapped or Removed once they have gone. If the claim's products are in different states, each product shows its own label instead.

How replacement cost works

Suppliers ship replacements on a zero-value order because you are not paying for them again. If received normally, the replacement units would enter inventory at zero and your stock value would drop by the original goods' cost, even though nothing was lost.

Once the claim is linked to the order, the replacement enters at the defective units' cost instead of the zero price on the replacement document. If a replacement arrives while you still hold the defective units, the part that stands in for them enters at no cost because the units on your shelf still carry that cost. You then record what happened to them. See End a claim on held material.

The unit cost is copied from the source purchase-order line when the claim is opened and frozen there. It is the line's price converted into your currency at the order's conversion rate, plus its landed cost per unit. Editing the purchase order later does not change a claim already raised.

If a delivery on the linked order brings more units than the claim still owes, the units owed enter at the claim's cost and settle it. The excess enters at no cost on a line of its own on the same order. Units received earlier keep their cost.

Claim statuses

A claim has six possible statuses:

Open: The defect is recorded and no replacement order is linked.

Accepted: A replacement order is linked and nothing has arrived on it yet.

Partially Replaced: Some replacement units have arrived and the rest are still owed.

Settled: Everything claimed has been replaced.

Rejected: The claim was short-closed because the supplier will not replace what was outstanding, and that value was written off.

Withdrawn: Nothing was owed after all. Either the material turned out to be fine, or every unit reported as gone was put back with Correct units that left before anything was replaced or written off.

In a claim with several products, each product has its own status and the claim's status follows them. While any product is still open, the claim reads Partially Replaced if replacement units have arrived for any product, Accepted if an order is linked, and Open otherwise. Once every product is closed, it reads Settled if any was settled, otherwise Rejected if any was short-closed, otherwise Withdrawn.

To resolve is the quantity claimed, less replacement units received and anything short-closed. Releasing defective units does not reduce it: returning or scrapping bad goods does not change how many good ones you are owed. A closed claim has nothing left to resolve, whichever way it closed.

Quantity limits and money settlements

You cannot claim more than the order line delivered, less everything already claimed on it, including settled and short-closed claims. Units become claimable again if you clear a claim as The material is fine, delete the claim, or, on a claim whose units left when it was opened, undo units with Correct units that left, which takes them off the claim.

A claim also cannot exceed what is on hand at the warehouse you claim from, so raise it while the defective material is still in stock.

Supplier claims are for replacement in goods. Credit notes and refunds are not handled here. If the supplier settles in money, short-close the claim so the loss is visible and handle the credit outside the claim.

Plans and permissions

Supplier claims are included in the Starter plan and above. On the Free plan, Supplier Claims shows in the menu with a lock, and the page explains what claims do and invites you to upgrade. An organisation with claims from an earlier plan can keep reading and working them, but cannot open new ones or add products to them.

You need View Supplier Claims or Manage Supplier Claims to see the page. View Supplier Claims is enough to read everything: a claim's detail, comments, photographs, history and held units.

Manage Supplier Claims lets you open a claim, add a product, link a replacement order, release held units, record what happened, clear a claim, record that units already left, correct units that left, short-close, comment and attach photographs. Deleting also needs Delete Stock Movements.

The claim permissions come by default with the Admin, Organization manager and Purchasing roles, and organisation owners always have them. Writing comments also needs a plan with comments, the Starter plan and above.

If your access is limited to certain departments, you see only claims whose supplier, or one of whose products, belongs to your departments. You can open claims only on products of your departments.