Customer Order Returns & Credits/Negative Priced Items on Invoices

Submitted by EastsideVetEmerg on Sun, 24/05/2015 - 11:54

General User's Discussion

Currently if we have a return from our electronic pharmacy this gets created as a Credit even if we are returning items that are on a current/active invoice. This is a problem for two reasons:

1) The credit note is a seperate document that needs to be actioned and finalised. This is usually not done as it doesn't appear in the typical workflow.

2) The credit doesn't appear on the invoice but a seperate credit note. It is hard for staff to track if an item has been returned and demonstrate this to clients.

The ideal solution for us would be that "Customer Orders" that are "Returns" are added to the current invoice as a credit amount/negative value. OVPMS currently does not support this (as far as I am aware).

While I imagine this is not a big problem for most clinics, it will increasingly become an issue as more clinics get hardware and software that integrates with billing/customer orders in OVPMS.

So, do people see an issue with allowing negative value line items on invoices? Are there other solutions for our problem?

Thanks,

Adrian

Re: Customer Order Returns & Credits/Negative Priced Items ...

Submitted by Ben_Charlton on Sun, 24/05/2015 - 14:07.

The issue with -ve line items has always been the same it gets extremely complicated and very prone to error as soon as discounting and tax are involved. Not to mention fixed prices and unit prices

Not to mention massive issues if the actual invoice total is -ve at finalization

see

http://www.openvpms.org/forum/issue-negative-price-totals-1-5

There are also discounting issues that will cause -ve line items to calculate incorrectly.

In answer the solution is going to be include the credit note into the workflow if it exists. Perhaps just finalize and print credit notes that are produced this way.

Regards

Ben

OpenVPMS Installer and Helper

Ph: +61423044823

Email: info[at]charltonit.com[dot]au

Re: Customer Order Returns & Credits/Negative Priced Items ...

Submitted by tanderson on Mon, 25/05/2015 - 16:13.

For Pharmacy Orders, a return will adjust the quantity on the invoice that generated the original order, if it hasn't been finalised.

If the invoice has been finalised, then invoicing the return will create a Credit.

One limitation with the first case is that if a return takes the quantity to zero, any fixed price needs to be manually cleared, or the line-item deleted.

I think the best solution will be to:

extend Invoices to allow Credit Items
change pharmacy returns so that instead of adjusting the Invoice Item quantity, it creates a Credit Item instead

Re: Customer Order Returns & Credits/Negative Priced Items ...

Submitted by EastsideVetEmerg on Tue, 26/05/2015 - 13:12.

Hi Tim,

I am happy with your solution. There are other situations where it would be helpful to allow credit items in invoices (e.g. when I had to take back an unused medication and dispense some others in a consult the other day).