Firmhouse helps you keep track of products that need to be returned to you via Return Orders. Return orders can be automatically created automatically when your customer cancels their subscription (fully or partially). You can also manually create return orders for one or multiple products via the Firmhouse Portal. Only when you've marked a return order as completed will the billing for the subscription or parts of the subscription stop.
The Return Orders workflow can be used standalone in Firmhouse. But you can also hook up your favourite Returns application via webhooks and our API. Contact us if you have the need to make a custom integration with your current e-commerce or IT stack.
See the following use cases and situations to learn how you can use the Return Orders feature in Firmhouse.
Generating return orders
There are a couple of ways that return orders get created. Take a look at the following situations.
Cancelling a subscription with two-step cancellation enabled
If your project has two-step cancellation enabled, cancelling a subscription will automatically generate a Return Order for all products currently active on the subscription. It doesn't matter if the cancellation was initiated by your customer via the Self Service Center, you do it via the Portal, or via the API.
A Firmhouse project needs to have the two-step cancellation option enabled under Settings > Subscription Model to automatically generate a return order upon cancellation.
Manually create a return order for specific products via Portal
You can manually initiate the cancellation for specific products on a subscription and thus initiate a Return Order for only a part of a subscription. This is useful when your customer desires to cancel and return one product, but wants to keep the rest of their subscription intact.
Steps:
In your Firmhouse project go to Customers and find the customer you want to generate a return order for.
On the details page of the customer, scroll down and click the New return order in the Return orders section.
In the dialog that opens, check one or more products you want to initiate a return for. Optionally increase the quantity if the customer is subscribed to more of the same product.
Fill out any of the optional fields. These are useful to store if you want to use these fields in the email communication towards the customer. Or want to use these fields in an integration with webhook or an external returns app.
Click Create return order. You are now redirected to the created return order.
By your customer via their Self Service Center
Your customers can specifically initiate returns for one or more of their active products via their Self Service Center. Take a look at the following article to set this up and learn how it works:
Overview of products pending return for customer
Firmhouse will show on the customer detail page which products are pending return. Open a customer and scroll down to the Active products list. You will see which of the customer's products are in progress to be returned. You can easily access the specific return order that the product is on, in the case there are multiple.
Using Return orders
View a return order
To view and edit a return order details, you can access the return order via two ways:
Via the Return Orders overview:
In your Firmhouse project, go to Returns in the sidebar.
Find your return order in the list and click it.
Via customer details page:
In your Firmhouse project go to Customers and find the customer you want to generate a return order for.
On the details page of the customer, scroll down and find the Return orders section.
Click the return order you'd like to view.
Complete a return order
When your customer returned their products to you, you can mark a return order as completed. Completing a return order automatically makes the products on the subscription inactive, making sure the customer is not invoiced or charged going forward.
If you complete a return order for the last remaining active products on a customer, you can also choose to immediately cancel the subscription and put it in the cancelled state.
Steps:
Open a return order via the Return Orders overview or via the customer details page (see above for instructions).
On the top-right click Actions and then from the menu click Complete return order.
In the confirmation dialog, optionally modify the date of when the products were received. If the return order contains the last remaining products on the subscription, you can also check the box to fully mark the subscription as cancelled.
Click Mark as returned to complete the return order.
When enabled, the Return order completed email will be sent so that your customer is informed that you've successfully received their products and stopped them from being billed.
Send a return label
If the customer needs to print a return label to put on the return package, you can use Firmhouse to send it. First, make sure that the Return label email is set up under Settings > Email Configuration.
Steps:
Open a return order via the Return Orders overview or via the customer details page (see above for instructions).
On the top-right click Actions and then from the menu click Send return label.
In the dialog, choose a PDF file to use as return label.
Click Send return label email.
Firmhouse now sends out an email with the PDF attachment to your customer.
Changing the products to be returned
If you want to change the products to be returned, you can change the products on the return order. You can remove products that shouldn't be returned, and add any additional products that should be returned. This is useful if your customer has reconsidered, or initiated a return for a product by mistake.
Steps:
Open a return order via the Return Orders overview or via the customer details page (see above for instructions).
You will see the products on the return order on the right in the Products to be returned list. Click the Edit return order details link to the bottom of the list.
In the Make changes to this return order, check or uncheck the products that should be returned. Unchecking a product means that it will be removed from the return order after saving.
Cancel a return order
Cancelling a return order is pretty straight-forward. Useful if a return was initiated by mistake or if your customer reconsidered.
Steps:
Open a return order via the Return Orders overview or via the customer details page (see above for instructions).
On the top-right click Actions and then from the menu click Cancel return order.
In the dialog, click Yes, cancel.
After cancelling, the return order is marked as cancelled. The products on the subscription will continue to be billed.