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Take back customer returns of owner units

3PL add-on For: Administrator, Compliance manager, Warehouse staff Checked on 18.0.0.2.0, 18.0.1.0.0

A customer sends back units that an owner (one of your 3PL clients) sold through you. The units go back into the owner's stock, never into yours or another owner's, and the decision to resell or destroy them is recorded for the owner. The flow is the core one (Take back customer returns) with the owner rules added.

Background: the modules follow the reading that returned owner units come back into the owner's stock and are matched only against the owner's outbound records, and that the saleable-return verification is the owner's duty, which the 3PL carries out (FD&C Act § 582(c)(1)(B), § 582(c)(4)(D); see Compliance background). See Owner stock.

Take back a customer return of units an owner sold​

Start the return from the owner's delivery the units left on, and scan each returned unit. Odoo's return copies the delivery's Held for Owner, so the return is held for the owner. The software accepts a unit only if the owner is its Seller of Record and it was shipped to that customer.

Note

With Odoo Enterprise's Barcode app, see Scan owner stock in the Barcode app.

Who: Rx Tracking User or Manager

Requires: Rx Tracking (DSCSA): 3PL and title model, with 3PL switched on.

Before you start:

  1. Go to Inventory ‣ Operations ‣ Deliveries and open the owner's delivery, for example WH/OUT/00012 (Northwind Generics LLC's order 3PL/OUT/2026/00001, 2 Demoprazole to Riverside Community Pharmacy). Its Held for Owner shows the owner.

  2. Select Return.

    Result: the Return dialog lists the delivery's products with a Quantity of 0.00 and a Serials (scan each package) column.

  3. On the DSCSA product's line, select the Serials (scan each package) cell and scan the DataMatrix of each returned unit, one per line, for example (01)00399990101300(21)600000011002(17)280331(10)BPDPZ2508K.

  4. Select the dialog's title to leave the cell.

    Result: Lots shows BPDPZ2508K, Scanned 1, and Quantity 1.00.

  5. Select Return.

    Result: the return opens: a receipt WH/IN/NNNNN, Ready, with the customer in Receive From, "Return of WH/OUT/00012" in Source Document, the owner order in Owner Order and the owner in Held for Owner. The chatter says "1 DSCSA package(s) scanned in the return wizard.".

    Screenshot of the Ready return WH/IN/00040 from Riverside Community Pharmacy. Held for Owner, Northwind Generics LLC, is outlined.

  6. Select Validate.

    Result: the return is Done, with a To Verify smart button.

Result: the units are in WH/Returns to Verify, still held for the owner, where no delivery can reserve them. Records: the return WH/IN/NNNNN (Done, Held for Owner = the owner); each unit's package Returned, with its Return Transfer, Held for Owner and Seller of Record unchanged. A customer return creates no DSCSA document and sends the owner no notice; the owner is notified when the units are verified (3PL-RET-02).

A box with units of several sellers​

A return holds the units of one seller only. When a customer sends back your own units and an owner's in one box, make one return from your delivery for your units and one from the owner's delivery for the owner's units. The Seller of Record on the unit's package (Inventory ‣ Rx Tracking ‣ Packages) tells you which delivery it left on.

Known issue

Known issue (PF-W19-01): when a unit of an owner is scanned on a return that isn't held for that owner, the refusal suggests "or hold this return for OWNER ("Held for Owner") before scanning". That doesn't work: on a return made from your own delivery, setting Held for Owner is refused when you save ("… is on our sale or purchase order: its DSCSA units can't be held for …"), and a receipt made with New comes from a vendor location, so it is treated as the owner's purchase, not as a return. Use Return on the owner's delivery.

If it doesn't work

The dialog's scans are all or nothing: if one line is wrong, nothing is created. Select Close, correct or delete the line, and select Return again.

Next: Verify an owner's returned units for resale

Verify an owner's returned units for resale​

Put the owner's returned units back into the owner's sellable stock. The software records the verification for the owner and sends the owner a Return verified notice.

Your procedure decides who may verify returned units and which checks come first (the package's condition, its label); the software requires the Rx Tracking Manager right. The owner gives no instruction for a verification.

Who: Rx Tracking Manager

Requires: Rx Tracking (DSCSA): 3PL and title model, with 3PL switched on.

Before you start:

  1. Go to Inventory ‣ Rx Tracking ‣ Returns to Verify.

    Result: the list shows each returned unit, with a Held for Owner column next to Returned By. Your own units have it empty.

    Screenshot of the Returns to Verify list: a Northwind Generics LLC unit and one of our own. The Held for Owner column is outlined.

  2. Select the checkbox of each owner unit you verify.

    Result: Verify for Resale and Reject and Destroy appear above the list.

  3. Select Verify for Resale, then Ok in the confirmation "Put the selected returned packages back in sellable stock?".

    Result: the units leave the list.

Result: the units are back in WH/Stock, In Stock and still held for the owner: they count on the owner's line in Physical Inventory and can be shipped only on the owner's orders. Records: on each package, Return Decision Verified for Resale, Decided By and Decided On; the move "DSCSA return verified for resale", held for the owner; the chatter line on the return transfer; and one Return verified notice per owner and return transfer, in Inventory ‣ Rx Tracking ‣ Owner Notices (in the 3PL ‣ Operations section), emailed to the owner's notice contacts:

Saleable return verified for OWNER (FD&C Act §582(c)(4)(D)): N returned unit(s) of PRODUCT from CUSTOMER, return WH/IN/NNNNN. Each unit's
product identifier was scanned and matched to its shipment by OWNER (seller of record); the units are back in the stock we hold for OWNER.
Verified by USER on DATE (UTC).

The notice wording is the product's; it is quoted, not a legal statement of these docs. What each notice holds: Owner notices and holds. Selecting units of several owners at once verifies each unit into its own owner's stock, with one notice per owner. Your own units are verified as in core, without a notice.

If it doesn't work

Reject and destroy an owner's returned units on its destroy instruction​

Destroy returned owner units that can't be resold. You never destroy an owner's stock on your own: the owner's Destroy instruction is recorded for the return first, then an Rx Tracking Manager rejects the units. Background: the modules follow the reading that a 3PL doesn't direct the disposition of owner stock, so every destruction records the owner's instruction (FD&C Act § 581(6), (22), (24), (26), (27); § 582(a)(1), (a)(7); § 584(d); see Compliance background). This is how the modules read the law; it has not been reviewed by counsel. See the disclaimer.

Who: Rx Tracking User or Manager records the instruction; Rx Tracking Manager rejects

Requires: Rx Tracking (DSCSA): 3PL and title model, with 3PL switched on.

Before you start:

  • The return is Done and its units are in Returns to Verify. See Take back a customer return of units an owner sold.
  • The owner has told you to destroy the units, in writing, by email or through its portal. Keep that order at hand: you record its reference and can attach it.

Record the owner's destroy instruction​

  1. Go to Inventory ‣ Rx Tracking ‣ Returns to Verify and open the owner's returned unit, for example serial 600000011001.

    Result: the package form shows Held for Owner and Seller of Record; its header has Record Destroy Instruction.

  2. Select Record Destroy Instruction.

    Result: the Destroy Instruction of OWNER window opens with Owner and Instruction (Destroy) filled in and read-only, Received On now, Received Via Email, Recorded By you, and under Use, For Model stock.picking and For Record the return transfer.

    Screenshot of the Destroy Instruction of Northwind Generics LLC window, recorded for the return WH/IN/00017. Reference is outlined.

  3. In Reference, enter the owner's order number, for example NWG-DEST-3201 (the placeholder speaks of a release order; PF-W19-04). Optionally change Received Via, choose Received From, attach the owner's order with Evidence, and add Notes.

  4. Select Save.

    Result: the window closes. The instruction is listed in Inventory ‣ Rx Tracking ‣ Owner Instructions (in the 3PL ‣ Operations section) with no Used On date yet.

Reject the units​

  1. As an Rx Tracking Manager, go to Inventory ‣ Rx Tracking ‣ Returns to Verify and select the checkbox of each unit of that return that the instruction covers.

  2. Select Reject and Destroy, then Ok in the confirmation "Move the selected returned packages to scrap? They will be recorded as destroyed.".

    Result: the units leave the list.

Result: the units are in Virtual Locations/Scrap, still held for the owner, and their packages are Destroyed. Records: on each package, Return Decision Rejected and Destroyed, Decided By, Decided On; the move "DSCSA return rejected"; the chatter line on the return transfer; the instruction, now Used On the rejection's date for the return transfer. The owner gets no notice: it directed the destruction.

Important

One destroy instruction directs one rejection. To destroy several units of one return on one instruction, select them together in step 1 of "Reject the units". A unit of the same return rejected later needs a new instruction (record it again from that unit).

A Scrap instruction doesn't count here, and an unused Destroy instruction recorded in Owner Instructions without the return is not picked up: record it from the returned unit. If the owner's profile sets Owner Instructions to Optional, the units are rejected without an instruction. Your own returned units are rejected as in core, without an instruction.

Known issue

Known issue (PF-A03-07): Reject and Destroy creates no scrap order, so rejected units don't appear in Inventory ‣ Operations ‣ Scrap. The package and the return transfer's chatter keep the record.

If it doesn't work

Take back units an owner shipped at lot level to a small dispenser​

An exempt small dispenser may have received an owner's units at lot level, without serials. The software then matches a return at lot level, as in core (Take back units shipped at lot level to a small dispenser), but counts the units still out per seller: an owner's return uses only the units that owner shipped to the customer without serials, and your own returns only yours.

Who: Rx Tracking User or Manager

Requires: Rx Tracking (DSCSA): 3PL and title model, with 3PL switched on.

Before you start:

  • The owner's delivery to the small dispenser became Done at lot level, without scanning, before the company's small-dispenser exemption end date. See Ship at lot level to an exempt small dispenser (the same steps on the owner's delivery).
  • Each returned unit still has its DataMatrix label.

  1. Go to Inventory ‣ Operations ‣ Deliveries and open the owner's lot-level delivery, for example WH/OUT/NNNNN: 2 Demoprazole of Northwind Generics LLC to Hillcrest Family Pharmacy.

  2. Select Return.

  3. In the Serials (scan each package) cell of the line, scan the returned units, for example (01)00399990101300(21)600000011007(17)280331(10)BPDPZ2508K, then select the dialog's title.

    Result: Scanned shows the number of units, and Quantity takes it.

  4. Select Return.

    Result: the return WH/IN/NNNNN opens, Ready and held for the owner.

  5. Select Validate.

Result: the return is Done and the units are Returned, held for the owner, in Returns to Verify. Records: as in 3PL-RET-01. Returned By is empty in Returns to Verify for units taken back at lot level (Known issue PF-W08-05, see RET-03).

If it doesn't work