Stock | Handling Empty Bottle Returns or Deposits

Stock | Handling Empty Bottle Returns or Deposits

This knowledge base is to help explain how to handle stock management and the sale and return of a client's deposit when returning an empty bottle.

The scenario that we want to address is when a client purchases a beverage that has a returnable for deposit bottle. We will also look at ringing up the sale with a return of an empty bottle.

To achieve this, we require items to be linked to departments. The return or empty bottles needs to be linked to a negative department.
Negative departments works in the reverse of normal departments. This means that when an item that is linked to a negative department is sold the quantity and rand value is a negative value and it decreases the amount the client needs to pay as well as increases the stock the store holds.

For this scenario we will use the below departments:

To link the Empty Bottles Crates Negative department as a negative department ensure that the negative department tick is ticked in the department setup:

We will create the below items:
Coke Bottle 500ml - This will be the stock item purchased and sold
Glass Bottle Deposit - This will be the stock item purchased and sold
Glass Bottle Return - This will be the stock item returned for refund or credit (Negative Item)

With the Glass Bottle Return item it is important to ensure that the major department is selected correctly as the negative department:


When purchasing stock from the supplier, the store is charged for the Coke Bottles 500ml as well as the deposit fee of the bottle.
In the Goods Receiving Voucher (GRV) we add the items accordingly:

This will now increase the stores stock holding on these items.

When selling the item to a client that also has a empty bottle to return the following is rung up:

This sale will decrease the stock on the Coke Bottle 500ml and Glass Bottle Deposit but increase the stock on Glass Bottle Return.

To improve the stock management and ease of use we recommend the following setting be set up on these items.
For the cashiers to quickly sell a Coke Bottle 500ml and add the Glass Bottle Deposit we recommend adding the Glass Bottle Deposit item as an associated item in the stock maintenance of the Coke Bottle 500ml.
Go to stock maintenance and select the Coke Bottle 500ml and edit the item.
Go to the Associated Items tab at the top and enable the tick box labelled Enable Processing of Associated Items in Modules and pick the desired modules we recommend using GRV , Invoicing and POS as a minimum.


Now add the Glass Bottle Deposit item to the screen.
Ensure that the Selling Price and Quantity is correctly linked.
This will mean that every time a Coke Bottle 500ml is rung up a Glass Bottle Deposit will automatically be added to the sale.
If set up the Glass Bottle Deposit item can also be automatically added in the GRV.

Additional Transactions with the use of the negative item.
If empty bottles are returned to the supplier, the Glass Bottle Return item can be added to the GRV document as per below:

The stock on the Coke Bottle 500ml and the Glass Bottle Deposit will increase while the Glass Bottle Return items stock will decrease. The value of the Glass Bottle Return items will also decrease the amount owed on the GRV to the supplier.

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