19.7. RMAs and Loaners: Vendor Returns, Advance Replacements, and Loaner Gear

Hardware fails. What separates a tight operation from a leaky one is whether the defective unit, the vendor's replacement, and the loaner that bridged the gap are all accounted for. Manage returns under Inventory → RMA and loaner gear under Inventory → Loaners.

The RMA screen: open cases by type (standard or advance replacement) and status, each tied to the returned unit and the client, with a dead-units-owed aging list below.

RMA types

• Standard RMA: the defective unit comes back from the client first, then goes to the vendor for repair, replacement, or credit.
• Advance replacement: the vendor ships a replacement before receiving the defective unit — common under premium support contracts. AlgaPSA tracks that you owe the vendor a dead unit until it's returned. A Dead units owed table on the RMA screen ages each outstanding unit by days remaining, and the dashboard keeps them visible so they don't quietly turn into charges. If a client never returns the defective unit, you can charge them for it, so the vendor's non-return fee lands on the client and not on your margin.

What an RMA tracks

Opening an RMA (an RMA Created event fires for notification rules) ties together the defective serialized unit, the client it came from, and the vendor case. From the RMA screen you can receive the return from the client — the defective unit is recorded without inflating your sellable stock — and send it to the vendor, moving the unit into In RMA status. The system then tracks the resolution: a replacement received into stock, a repaired unit coming back, a vendor credit, or a scrapped unit — each outcome recorded with the correct stock movements, so serialized history stays complete from first delivery to final disposition.

For advance replacements, when the replacement unit is deployed to the client, the client's managed Asset is relinked to the new unit automatically — the asset record follows the hardware actually sitting at the client site.

Some later-stage RMA transitions are currently driven through the API and automations rather than buttons on the screen; the screen focuses on the common flow of opening the RMA, receiving the return, and sending it to the vendor.

Loaners

A loaner is not a sale — no invoice, no cost of goods, just your unit at a client site temporarily. On Inventory → Loaners:

• Loan out a serialized unit to a client with a due date. It leaves available stock and shows as On loan.
• Return it when it comes back — it rejoins sellable stock.
• The Loaners out view lists everything in the field ordered by due date, so overdue loaners get chased instead of forgotten.

Restocking client returns

Separately from RMAs, Restock return handles the happy case: a client returns good, unused equipment (over-ordered, project descoped). The units go back into sellable stock, with an optional restocking fee recorded for the credit process.