When to use this: sending near-expiry or damaged stock back to your distributor, usually as part of the monthly expiry clear-out (→ INV-03). The Near-Expiry Returns tab needs an internet connection.
Steps
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Start a return. Go to Inventory → Near-Expiry Returns → New Near-Expiry Return. The Return Near-Expiry Items box opens with the supplier's near-expiry batches already pulled in — you don't have to go hunting for them.
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Pick the supplier and the batches.
1 is the Supplier — batches are only offered for the supplier you pick, since a return has to go back to whoever sold it. 2 is Expiry within, the days-out window (90 days by default) that decides which batches count as near-expiry. 3 is one of the batches BitMed found — tap it and it moves to 4, the Items to Return list, where Added shows it is already on the return and you can still edit the quantity or remove it. 5 is an optional note. Create Return at the bottom submits.
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Follow it through. The return appears in the Near-Expiry Returns list as Requested. It then moves to Accepted or Rejected (rejecting asks you for a reason), then Credit Received once the supplier gives the money back. Each stage is a button on the return itself — there's no separate status screen.
1 starts another return. 2 is the return itself —
SR-000001 · ACCEPTED · Deccan Surgicals & Generics · ₹679.68 · 28/09/2026. 3 is Credit Received, the action available at this stage; once you tap it, no further action shows — the return is done.
Good to know
- This screen is called Near-Expiry Returns, not Supplier Returns, even though the
underlying process and permission are still named
supplier_return. The label changed because "Supplier Returns" read one word away from the Purchases screen's Return to Supplier, which is a different process entirely — this one starts from shelf stock nearing expiry, that one starts from goods you just received against a GRN. If you are sending back something you just received on an invoice, that's a purchase return instead (→ PUR-05). - A rejected return keeps its reason on record, shown on the return itself — so if a supplier won't take something back, you have a written note of why.