Pending restocks doubling stock adjustment?

[NeishaArceo]

I'm having trouble understanding the way the pending restocks screen is set up. So if an item is refunded and not restocked (i.e. because it was defective and will be thrown out), then the count and inventory history are already accurate from the time of sale.

But it looks like when you try to clear out the pending restocks screen by marking the item as damaged, it creates an extra inventory adjustment. Even though it doesn't change the count, there's a new line item for the inventory value, so it looks like this in both the item's stock history and the history tab under the inventory management menu:

4/29/24 1 sold - $2.82 inventory decrease

5/8/24 1 damaged return - $2.82 inventory decrease

Is there any way to know if this is truly adjusting anything in the inventory values? Or is the way it's displayed just a little misleading?

[MayaP]

Good Afternoon @NeishaArceo,

Great question! I am going to tag some of our community members who can shed some good insight on this ( @Twiggy @Candlestore @Twpchair @DLRosenberg). 

If you have any further questions let me know! 

[Twiggy]

Was this item sold with loyalty? Xxx

[Twiggy]

As in square loyalty - with sale  xxx

[NeishaArceo]

No

[Twpchair]

As far as I can figure it out and I'll double check with the gentleman that does all the computer stuff I have to go in and physically remove it so it doesn't add it twice. If I'm answering this right he had to add a separate section for damaged goods. Then it didn't mess with my inventory either. 

[Candlestore]

@NeishaArceo ;

Let's Look at this from an item stand point.

On 4-29-2024 You sold 1 Widget   (decreased inventory of 20 widgets down to 19)

On 5-8-2024 You took back a Damaged Widget but do you exchange it or just take back the damaged Widget?

If you took it back and refunded the customer the count is off, but if they exchanged the Damaged Widget for a Good Widget that was in stock you would have decreased inventory of the Widget by -1 for the exchange of a Good Widget for the Deffective one.  So the count should drop by a total of 2 widgets to 18 Good Sellable Widgets

Basically you sold 1,

And have 1 you can not sell because it was damaged, inventory dropped -2.

Can you fix the damaged 1, yes but then it goes into 1 receivable since in its current condition it is damaged and there for unsaleable.

Now where Square shows this is unknown to me becuase I was using Square before they reported returns and I used my Accounting Software to show these fluctuations.  Again I do not get many returns maybe 2 a year.  

So in the above example this is not misleading, but could be clearer in an accounting packages with notes as to why these adjustments happened.

Hope this helps.

[NeishaArceo]

It sounds like you're not familiar with the pending restock screen or perhaps the skip restock function. I'll try to clarify.

[NeishaArceo]

So far no one is understanding my question, and I think that's because it's more of a back end engineering issue.

I didn't even notice the "Pending Restocks" section for a long time and I might just go back to ignoring it at this point.

Here's how the process works:

• Pull up the original transaction
• Select return
• Choose which item on the receipt you're returning
• The next screen asks you if you want to restock the item and you click SKIP RESTOCK
• The following refund (or exchange) does NOT return the damaged item into your inventory
• Whether it was a refund or exchange, your inventory numbers are accurate

But then you have this screen called Pending Restocks where all of those items you elected not to restock are sitting and pending.

I suppose if you skipped restock originally, evaluated it, and decided later it was fine to put back into inventory then this might make sense as a place to go back and finish the process of restocking it.

Your only options are restock or mark damaged. Choosing mark damaged does this:

I can absolutely see value in knowing when a damaged item was returned. But since it is NOT in fact reducing your inventory value a second time, if there is going to be a line item in the history for the return, the highlighted section should be blank.

[JJ_]

Jumping to reply @NeichaArceo. From what you're sharing it looks like this is either an unexpected behavior or a feature request. I recommend reaching out to our Support Team, so they can take a closer look at this situation and escalate this if necessary. However, if this is indeed working as intended, then you may file a Feature Request in our Ideate Board for Square for Retail