# Introduction - Returns

A return handles goods physically coming back.

**Video coming soon:** A return from request to received goods to the credit that follows.

It is the only sales document that moves stock in the opposite direction, and it settles both halves of the problem at once: the units go back on the shelf and the customer gets their value back.

![The Sales Returns screen listing ten returns with columns for Return Date, Return Number, Sales Order Number, Customer, Status, Received and Refund. Every row is Approved, and reads Not Received and Not Refunded until the goods come back and the money goes out.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/returns/return-list.png)

*Receive and Refund are separate columns, because a return settles both halves and they can sit at different stages.*

## Return or credit note

The question is only ever whether physical goods are coming back.

**Raise a Return** (Goods are physically coming back)

- Yes: Puts units back into stock at a location
- Yes: Produces the credit note for you
- Yes: Records condition, so damaged goods are not resold
- Yes: Keeps stock valuation correct

**Raise a Credit Note** (Only value is coming back)

- Yes: Right for overcharges, discounts and service disputes
- Yes: Faster, one document
- No: Moves no stock at all
- No: Wrong if goods are physically returning

## The four stages

1. **Requested**: They ask
2. **Authorised**: You agree, warehouse warned
3. **Received**: Goods arrive, stock moves
4. **Credited**: Value goes back

> **Note:**
>
> **Stock moves on receipt, not authorisation**
>
> Authorising a return commits nothing to your stock figures. Nothing changes until the goods are actually recorded as received, which is what keeps your warehouse counts honest.

## What a return is tied to

A return references the original invoice, and that reference is what makes the credit correct. It is how the returned units are valued at the price actually charged rather than at today's price, and how your margin on the original sale reverses cleanly.