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Independent IFS Cloud practice · Purchasing
The supplier return you raised, and the goods that never left
Something was wrong with the delivery, so you raised a return to the supplier. That part was right. Then the goods never physically left the building. The return line stays open, the faulty or surplus stock still sits on the shelf and may still count toward availability, and the credit you were owed is never chased. Nobody decided to keep it. The decision to send it back was simply never finished.
Key takeaways
- A return to supplier can be created and then stall before the goods ship. The paperwork exists, the intent was logged, but nothing physically moves, so the stock stays and the return line stays open.
- This is not an overdue customer return. That runs on the sales side, where a customer owes you goods back. Here it is you who owes the supplier goods back, and it is your return that stalled.
- It is not an over-receipt either. The over-receipt is why you might return in the first place. This is about the return that was raised to fix it and then never shipped.
- And it is separate from goods received not invoiced. That gap is about a missing invoice. This one is about goods that should have gone back to the supplier and are still with you.
- The return line, its status and its age all live in IFS Cloud, so a read-only monitor can find returns that were raised but never shipped and hand them back for action.
1.How a return gets raised and then stops
Raising a return and shipping it are two separate steps. Someone decides the goods should go back, because a part is faulty, a delivery was over, or a receipt was booked in error, and a return document is created against the supplier. That records the intent. Actually picking the goods, sending them, and closing the return is a later action that depends on the warehouse and the buyer finishing what was started.
In a busy purchasing function the first step happens because it is the reaction to a problem everyone can see. The second step waits on a courier booking, a supplier authorisation, or a replacement that arrives and makes the return feel less urgent. Weeks later the goods are still on the shelf and the return is still open, waiting on a step that never got its moment.
So the open return is not a mistake in the data. It is a true record of a decision that was made and then left unfinished, sitting quietly among the returns that really are still in progress, with nothing marking which is which.
2.Open returns that have stopped moving
An open return is normal while goods are genuinely on their way back. The value is in separating a return that is still moving from one that has stopped and only looks active.
| What you see | What it points to |
|---|---|
| Return raised, nothing shipped, open past your normal turnaround | A return that stalled: the goods still count as your stock and the supplier credit is never chased. |
| Faulty or blocked stock sitting where the return should have removed it | Unusable stock can inflate availability and be reserved or picked by mistake. |
| Replacement already received, original return still open | You now hold both the replacement and the item you meant to send back, and only one was expected. |
| Return open with no credit or debit note matched | Money you are owed by the supplier that no one is pursuing while the document sits idle. |
An open return with no credit matched costs real money. The supplier owes you value, the goods are still in your building, and the only thing keeping the claim alive is an open document nobody is watching. A buyer scanning open returns line by line cannot easily tell a stalled one from a live one. Compare the return status against its age and the stalled ones stand out at once.
3.Finding returns that were raised but never shipped
The return line, whether anything has shipped against it, and its creation date are all available through standard OData projections, so they can be read without touching a record. Detection compares the return status against its age and looks for two things:
- Raised but not shipped - where a return exists against a supplier and no goods have moved against it, so returns that never left surface before the goods are forgotten on the shelf.
- Age past the turnaround - how long an unshipped return has stayed open against your normal return rhythm, so a return that has genuinely stopped is separated from one still being arranged.
Because it is a read-only monitoring pattern, it runs beside purchasing and writes nothing back to IFS. It adds no object inside the client system, so an R1 or R2 release leaves nothing of ours in your IFS to retest. Before each release I check that the standard projections it reads still match, as part of the subscription. It hands the buyer a short list of returns that are open but going nowhere, and the decision to ship, chase the credit, or cancel stays with the person who owns the supplier relationship.
4.Rolling it out without noise
- Time it to the close - unshipped returns distort both stock and supplier balances, so run the check before period end.
- Dry-run first - log which returns would have been flagged across a full period before a single item reaches a buyer.
- Not shipped first, age second - list returns raised and not shipped, then those open past your normal turnaround.
- Read only, no footprint - standard OData reads, nothing written back, no new object inside IFS Cloud.
Related reading
5.Frequently asked questions
Why can a raised return stay open unnoticed?
Raising the return records the intent, but shipping the goods and closing the line are separate actions. A return can stay open with nothing shipped against it, and whether it has stalled shows only when its status is read against its age. Check your own open returns for lines with no shipment and a creation date older than your normal turnaround.
How is this different from an overdue customer return?
An overdue customer return is on the sales side: a customer owes you goods back and has not sent them. This case is on the purchasing side: you owe the supplier goods back and the return you raised never shipped. Same idea of a stalled return, opposite direction and opposite owner.
Why does an unshipped return matter beyond the paperwork?
Two reasons. The stock you meant to send back still sits in your inventory, so it may count toward availability and can be reserved or picked by mistake. And the credit or replacement you are owed by the supplier is never pursued while the document sits idle. The longer it waits, the harder both are to recover.
Does this monitoring write anything to IFS Cloud?
No. The return line, its shipment status and its age are read through standard OData projections and compared outside IFS. Nothing is written back, so there is no upgrade footprint and no new object inside the client system. Shipping the goods or cancelling the return stays a human decision.
6.About the author
Dariusz Myśliwiec brings 18 years hands-on with IFS (Apps 7.5–10 and IFS Cloud). IFS Certified Associate Consultant. PRINCE2® 7. Based in Kraków, delivering remotely across Europe and globally as an independent practice, so you talk to the consultant who builds it.
Selected clients: Fugro · LGC · BVI Medical · Betafence (PRÆSIDIAD) · Barlinek · NGK Ceramics · Newag · Oleofarm.
IFS is a registered trademark of IFS AB; this practice is not affiliated with IFS AB.
Ship the returns before they cost you twice
Tell me how your open supplier returns look at month-end. On a 30-minute fit call we check whether a rule that reads return lines against their status and age fits your data. The SCM Automation Pack runs three rules today (unconfirmed purchase orders, late deliveries, stock below minimum), so this would be an additional rule built to order, read-only, with a dry-run period before anything reaches a buyer.
