Overview
Heartland Retail offers merchants the ability to process returns linked to completed sales transactions. This process ensures that, for any given transaction, customers can return only those items purchased on the original ‘referenced’ sale, thereby protecting merchants from loss as well as eliminating the need for manual calculation.
Upon completion of a sale transaction, the POS essentially creates a memo noting the details of sale transactions, which it will then retrieve and use when processing returns. These details include:
- Items sold, including quantities
- Discount amounts
- Price Adjustments
- Tax amounts
- Payment detail
The original sale transaction will serve as the ‘parent transaction’ for any returns.
With this new functionality, we introduce the Restrict returns to parent transaction setting in the POS Settings screen. This setting allows merchants to restrict the ways that a return can be initiated within the system.
- When toggled to Yes, the system requires that all returns are linked to a parent transaction, thereby disallowing blind returns.
- When toggled to No, the system allows users to perform blind returns as before: initiate a new ticket, switch to Return via the dropdown menu, add items to be returned, and enter negative quantities equal to the quantity being returned.
Merchants can perform referenced returns regardless of whether the Restrict returns to parent transaction setting is toggled on or off.
If you have questions regarding information in this document, please contact the Heartland Retail support team by phone at 833-844-4767 (select option 1, then option 2), or by email at hretailsupport@heartland.us.
Processing a Referenced Return
- To navigate to the desired parent transaction, click the hamburger menu button in the upper left and select the Find Ticket option.
- On the page that displays, you can either enter the ticket number in the Search field, or simply select the ticket from the list.
- Once you have accessed the desired ticket, select the Return option and the POS will display a toast message indicating successful link between the return and the sales ticket and will update the top left dropdown to Return.
- Next, for each item you wish to return, enter a negative quantity equal to the return quantity. For example, if you are returning one item, enter -1 in the quantity field.
Please note: The POS will validate the quantity entered using the parent transaction quantities. If you enter an invalid quantity, it will display a toast message indicating as much.
Once you have entered a valid quantity, the POS will calculate the refund amount for a returned item to match the purchase price, automatically adjusting for any promotions or discounts.
- If prompted, select a return reason, then repeat as necessary for other line items being returned.
- If desired, you can add sale items to the return ticket, such as you would if a customer wished to exchange an item.
- Once you have finished entering return quantities and, if desired, adding new sale items, select Tender to finalize the ticket.
- Upon completion of the return ticket, the POS will refund payments according to the payment detail from the parent transaction.
Important Notes:
If you later view a referenced return ticket, the POS will include a Parent Ticket option in the dropdown at the top left corner as well as in the buttons at the bottom of the screen.
If you select Parent Ticket, the POS will take you to the original sale transaction and, from there, you can select Return to create additional returns if any eligible items remain. In such cases, follow the steps above to complete the return. Keep in mind that, once all items from a parent transaction have been returned, the POS will not allow any additional returns on that ticket.
Failsafe Measures
We have implemented the following failsafe measures for merchants who opt to use referenced returns.
New Tickets
Return option in ticket dropdown is disabled
If, when creating a new ticket, you attempt to change the dropdown selection in the upper left from Sale to Return, it will display a red toast message as pictured here:
Switch to Return option in item dropdown is disabled
If, when creating a new ticket, you access the dropdown for a item on the ticket, you will see that the Switch to Return option is disabled. If you attempt to select this option, the POS will display the same message as above.
Linked Returns
Return option in ticket dropdown is disabled
After linking a return to a parent ticket, as the action is unnecessary, you cannot switch the ticket dropdown to Return. Attempting to do so will produce a red toast message as in the previous section.
Restricted options in item dropdown
After linking a return to a parent ticket, the Switch to Return and Adjust Price options in the item dropdown menu are disabled. Attempting to access either option will produce a red toast message.