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Return goods to an owner, or ship without an owner order

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

Most owner shipments are sales to the owner's customers (Ship owner orders). Two other cases: the owner asks for its goods back at one of its own sites, which is a custody return, and a delivery held for an owner exists without an owner order, for example after an import.

Send an owner's goods back to it (custody return order)​

Send an owner's units back to the owner itself, for example to its distribution center. Nothing is sold: the goods stay the owner's, so no DSCSA document is issued. Background: the modules follow the reading that a movement between two sites of the same owner is custody without a transaction (FD&C Act § 582(c)(1)(A)(i), § 582(g)(1); FDA interoperable exchange guidance (September 2023); see Compliance background).

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 ‣ Rx Tracking ‣ Owner Orders (in the 3PL ‣ Operations section) and select New.

  2. Under Owner, fill in:

    • Owner: the owner company, for example Northwind Generics LLC.
    • Kind: Custody return to the owner.
    • Owner Instruction: the owner's return instruction, for example NWG-RTN-3104 (Return to the owner (custody), Northwind Generics LLC).
    • Owner's Order Reference (optional): the owner's own reference, for example its stock transfer number.

  3. Under Customer, choose the owner company in Sold To.

    Result: Ship To shows the owner's delivery address, for example Northwind Generics LLC, Northwind Distribution Center. Change it to another address of the owner if needed.

  4. On the Lines tab, select Add a line and fill in Product, Lot (optional) and Quantity, for example Demoprazole, BPDPZ2507C and 2.

  5. Select the ☁ (Save manually) icon.

    Result: the order is numbered, for example 3PL/OUT/2026/00018, in Draft.

  6. Select Confirm.

    Result: the order is Confirmed, with a Transfers smart button.

    Screenshot of a confirmed custody return order of Northwind to its Distribution Center. The Kind field is outlined.

  7. Select the Transfers smart button, then scan and validate the delivery as in Pick, scan and ship an owner order, steps 3–4.

    Result: the delivery shows Custody Shipment selected and no yellow GLN banner. After Validate it is Done, with no DSCSA Documents smart button and no "DSCSA document … posted" note.

Result: the owner's goods are on their way back to the owner. Records: the custody return order, Shipped; the delivery, Done, held for the owner and marked Custody Shipment; each package Shipped, with Seller of Record and Shipped To the owner; the return instruction, used by the order. No DSCSA document, sales order or invoice is created.

If it doesn't work

Next: Find an owner's instructions and see which are used

Ship an owner's units without an owner order​

Use an owner order whenever you can: it holds the owner's references and keeps the shipment to what the owner ordered. A delivery held for an owner that no owner order created (usually one imported from a file) ships too, but it needs the owner's instruction on the delivery itself, in Owner Instruction.

Who: Rx Tracking User or Manager

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

Before you start:

Create the delivery in the form​

Skip this part when the delivery already exists (for example, it was imported): open it from Inventory ‣ Operations ‣ Deliveries and go to step 5.

  1. Go to Inventory ‣ Operations ‣ Deliveries and select New.

    Result: a New Delivery form opens in Draft. It has no Held for Owner field.

  2. In Operation Type, select the warehouse's receipt type, for example Chico Distribution Center: Receipts.

    Result: Held for Owner appears.

  3. In Held for Owner, choose the owner, for example Northwind Generics LLC.

  4. In Operation Type, select the warehouse's delivery type again, for example Chico Distribution Center: Delivery Orders.

    Result: the form is a delivery again, and shows Held for Owner, Custody Shipment and Owner Instruction.

  5. Fill in:

    • Delivery Address: the customer, for example Riverside Community Pharmacy.
    • Owner Instruction: the owner's instruction for this shipment, for example NWG-SHIP-3102 (Ship to a customer, Northwind Generics LLC). The list shows the owner's unused instructions of every kind: choose one of kind Ship to a customer.

    Screenshot of a new delivery held for Northwind Generics LLC, with its Owner Instruction outlined.

  6. On the Operations tab, select Add a line and fill in the Product and the Demand, for example Demoprazole and 1.

  7. Select Mark as Todo.

    Result: the delivery gets its number, for example WH/OUT/00034, and is Ready (or Waiting when the owner has no free units).

Scan and validate​

  1. Select Scan Serials, scan every unit, then select Register, as in Scan the serials of a delivery and validate it.

    Result: the chatter says "1 DSCSA package(s) scanned.".

  2. Select Validate.

    Result: the delivery is Done, and the chatter says "DSCSA document DSCSA/NWG/OUT/2026/00005 posted for this transfer.".

Result: the owner's units are shipped in the owner's name. Records: the delivery, Done; each package Shipped, with Seller of Record the owner; the owner's outbound DSCSA document, with the delivery's own references (there is no order to take a customer PO or owner invoice from); the instruction, used by the delivery (For Record = the delivery).

Return the goods to the owner without an order​

Select Custody Shipment in step 5, choose one of the owner's addresses in Delivery Address (for example Northwind Distribution Center) and an instruction of kind Return to the owner (custody). The delivery then gets no DSCSA document, as in 3PL-OUT-05.

Backorders​

A backorder of the delivery takes the instruction of the delivery it came from, so it validates without a new one.

If it doesn't work

Known issue

Known issue (PF-W16-02): a new delivery shows Held for Owner only after you select a receipt operation type (steps 2–4), and a delivery made this way gets no GLN warning at all (PF-A06-07). Prefer an owner order (3PL-OUT-01), which warns about missing GLNs when it is confirmed.