NESFA^® Treasury Procedures:  Handling Returned Books from Customers

Books are returned by our customers for various reasons.  Over the years they have been received by some of our members at their own homes and then brought to the clubhouse.  When they arrive at the clubhouse, someone must process the returns: 

• Open the box.
• Determine whether the merchandise is still saleable.
• Mark the enclosed returned shipping document as to whether the books are still saleable.  If some are, and some are not, indicate which is which. 
• Place the annotated shipping document into the Returns folder on the Sales desk.
• Return the saleable books to the shelves.
• Put the unsaleable books into the staging area for hurt books (and possibly apply the hurt book discount UPC labels to them).

The Treasurer should check the Returns folder weekly, and process the return documents:

• Use Tasks > Credit Memos from the Peachtree menu bar.
• For each credit memo to be processed:
  • Apply the next credit memo number sticker.  Credit memos are numbered CRyynnn, where yy is the fiscal year number, and nnn is a sequential number starting with 001 for each fiscal year.
  • Fill in the Customer ID, the date, and the credit number.
  • Fill in the Customer PO number.  This will be the number that can be used to identify the transaction from the customer's eventual listing of invoices and credits that comes with a payment.  It will be different for each customer.  For Amazon.com, use the shipment number.  This will normally be an 8- to 10-digit number.  For Baker & Taylor, use the number that looks like a sequence of 2 or 3 letters followed immediately by a few digits and then possibly some trailing letters.  For Follett Library Services use the Charge Back number (usually 6 digits).  For other customers, use something that will identify the shipment.
  • Use the tab Apply to Sales, and list the items returned.  Make sure that the appropriate discounted prices are used.
  • Save the transaction; the credit memos should now appear among the list of invoices when processing a payment from this customer.

If any of the books are damaged, for each separate title with damaged books, an inventory adjustment needs to be completed.  Use the CR number as the reference number for the adjustment and use the procedure located here.

This page is maintained by Treasurer at NESFA dot org.