Report defective material and open a claim

A supplier claim records defective material against the supplier. You choose whether the units have gone from your warehouse or are still there.

If the units have gone, they leave stock immediately in a movement with the reason Defective / Supplier Claim; you need record nothing else. If they are still in your warehouse, no movement is written: they stay on hand, keep their value, and are set aside so nothing else can use them until you decide what happens to them.

Who can open a claim

You need the Manage Supplier Claims permission, which also lets you read the purchase orders a claim starts from. If your access is limited to certain departments, you can claim only products of your departments.

If Open Claim does not appear, ask whoever manages your users about the permission, or check whether your plan includes supplier claims. Supplier claims come with the Starter plan and above.

How to open a claim

Claims always trace back to a delivery that has already been received. You cannot open one from a purchase order or a shipment.

1. Open Inventory, then Supplier Claims, then Open Claim at the top of the page.
2. Under Received order, pick the order the defective units arrived on. Only orders with at least one delivery are listed.
3. Tick each defective product. Each product shows what was delivered and, if some is already under a claim, Already claimed. If the order has more than one line for the same product, tick the line the defective units came in on. A product appears in a claim only once, so the other line can no longer be ticked.
4. Enter the Quantity of defective units for each ticked product.
5. Check Take from for each ticked product, and change it if the units are at another warehouse.
6. Answer Where are the goods now? Choose Still in my warehouse to keep the units in stock, at their value and set aside so nobody else can use them while the claim is open. Choose Gone from my warehouse to remove them from stock now and move their value to the claim. There is no default, and the answer covers every product you ticked.
7. If the goods have gone, choose Returned to Supplier or Scrapped.
8. Add Notes if the defect needs explaining. On a claim that moves stock, the notes are copied onto the movement so the movement history shows why the units left.
9. Click Open Claim. For example, when you tick several products, the button can read Open claim with 3 products.

Products are saved in turn. If one is refused, products saved before it stay in the claim and the others stay ticked, so you can correct it and carry on.

Check the inherited cost

The claim permanently copies its unit cost from the purchase-order line: the line price converted into your currency plus that line's landed cost per unit. This sets the claim's value. A free replacement from the supplier later enters stock at this inherited cost, not at the replacement order's price. Choosing the wrong order means the wrong cost on both the claim and the replacement stock.

The panel shows each product's Inherited unit cost under its quantity and, once you enter a quantity, what that product is worth in the claim. Use both figures to check that you picked the right order.

Choose a warehouse and quantity

Take from determines the warehouse the claim works on. If the goods have gone, choose the warehouse they were removed from. If they are staying, choose the warehouse where they are held; the units must physically be there. Stock can move after it is received, so defective material is often no longer at its delivery warehouse.

The panel starts on the order's delivery warehouse if it still holds stock; otherwise, it starts on the warehouse holding the most. The number next to the picker is the on-hand quantity there.

Take from appears only when the product has stock recorded at one or more warehouses. If it is not shown, the units come out of the order's delivery warehouse, and the save is refused if that warehouse does not hold enough.

The quantity cannot exceed either of these limits:

1. What can still be claimed on the line: the quantity delivered less the quantity already claimed. The panel says You can claim at most so many on this line.
2. What is free at the chosen warehouse: the quantity on hand less anything another claim already holds and, for goods you are keeping, less anything assigned to an open assembly.

Open Claim stays disabled while a quantity exceeds what can be claimed or what is on hand, and until you answer where the goods are. The number beside Take from is the plain on-hand figure; it does not drop when a claim holds units. A quantity the panel accepts can therefore still be refused on save, with a message naming how many units are free.

If units are leaving, claiming units you do not hold would drive stock below zero. If they are staying, the hold must be backed by units that are really there.

Quantity already claimed

Quantity already claimed on the same line still counts after a claim is settled or short-closed. Closing a claim does not free its units.

Clearing a claim as The material is fine frees the units because they were good and never left. Deleting the claim also frees them and, if they had left, puts them back. On a claim whose units left when it was opened, undoing units with Correct units that left puts them back in stock and takes them off the claim.

Returns, scrap, and held units

Returned to Supplier and Scrapped record how the material left; both remove units from stock in the same way. A claim has one destination: all its units are returned or all are scrapped, and the first exit decides which. Units that go the other way need a claim of their own.

Choose Still in my warehouse to keep units on hand at full value. No other movement, assembly, or stock-count difference can consume them until you release them, clear the claim, or record that they have already gone.

Add products from another order

A claim can hold several products from one order. To add a product from another order of the same supplier later, choose Add product on the claim's row.

You can do this until a replacement order is linked to the claim. After that, Add product is greyed out because the one order has to cover every product. The goods' whereabouts are not asked again: every product shares the claim's answer.

Claim dates and inactive products

The claim is dated when you save it. There is no date field, so you cannot backdate a defect found today to when the material arrived.

If units stay in your warehouse, no stock movement is created yet. A movement is written when you release them, dated that day, and it cannot be backdated either. In either case, the date must fall in a financial year that is not locked.

An inactive product cannot be claimed until you reactivate it.