Managing inventory sales and returns
Inventory sales and returns includes all workflows that happen during the sale and delivery of items to the customer, as well as the return of devices Your Autotask instance may be configured to use one of the following terms instead: Asset, Configuration Item, Installed Asset, Installed Product. from the customer to your inventory.
The following tasks are supported:
| Feature | Description | Requires Procurement |
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Sales and delivery |
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Reserving a stocked item on a quote |
If Procurement is enabled, you have access to the inventory during the sales process and can reserve stocked items on a quote. This will ensure that the quoted item is available when the opportunity is won. |
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Picking a stocked item |
When you are adding a charge to a contract, project, or ticket that references an inventory product, you can pick, that is, claim, a specific stocked item. |
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Returning a picked item to inventory |
Customers change their minds, and mistakes are made. You can easily release your claim to a stocked item and return it to inventory. |
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Transferring a stocked item |
Items are not always stocked at the inventory location where they are needed. If you have multiple inventory locations, you will want to track the movements of a stocked item from one inventory location to another. |
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Delivering or shipping a stocked item |
Eventually, the stocked item will be sold, and delivered or shipped to the customer. If you enabled Inventory but not Procurement, you transfer stocked items to customers on the Charge page. |
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| Shipping items from the streamlined Delivery & Shipping page |
If you have Procurement enabled, you have a separate page that lets you manage delivery and shipping. On this page, you can also print pick lists and packing lists. |
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Customer device management |
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Managing returned items (overview) Even installing an item as a device is not the end of the story. Eventually, many items are returned by the customer. |
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Installing stocked items as devices at a customer site |
NOTE Both inventory and non-inventory products can be installed as devices, so this topic is not specific to the inventory workflow. It is an important topic to review if you want to enable RMAs, or use the Swap Device Wizard. Installing a device means creating a permanent connection between a product and a customer and possibly a contact. The device is uniquely identified, and can be referenced on a contract or ticket. |
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| Issuing a Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) |
Devices occasionally need to be returned because the customer no longer needs them, repaired because they are broken, or replaced with an upgraded version. To keep track of the returned device, many partners will issue a Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA). NOTE The RMA feature must be enabled separately. Refer to Activations. |
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Swapping one device for another |
While the RMA handles the approval process, the actual device swap is managed using the Swap Device Wizard. |
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