At a glance
Distribution of in-flight RMA (Return Merchandise Authorisation) requests across the workflow stages: Pending Approval, Authorised, Received, Pending Refund, Closed, Rejected. Adobe Commerce native RMA is part of the Adobe Commerce SKU only (Magento Open Source does not include RMA out of the box). The card reflects RMA volume in-pipeline, not refund value already paid.
| What it counts | COUNT(rma) GROUP BY status, where status is one of the Adobe Commerce RMA workflow values: Pending Approval, Authorised, Received, Approved, Closed, Rejected, Pending Refund. Aggregated over the rolling 30-day window. |
| API field | RMA records via GET /rest/V1/rma (Adobe Commerce only; Open Source merchants need a third-party RMA module like Aheadworks or Mageplaza). Status enum from magento_rma.status table. |
| B2B emphasis | RMA is a B2B-heavy workflow. DTC apparel often skips RMA for low-value returns and goes straight to Credit Memo. B2B and durable-goods (electronics, furniture, machinery) almost always use RMA because the inspect-before-credit step matters. Expect this card to skew B2B for most merchants. |
| Relationship to Credit Memos | RMA is the upstream workflow; Credit Memo is the downstream financial document. An RMA in Approved or Pending Refund typically becomes a Credit Memo within 24-72 hours. Use this card to forecast the next 1-2 weeks of refund value via Refund Value. |
| VAT / tax treatment | n/a, the card is a count by status. |
| Shipping | n/a. The RMA’s shipping_amount field exists but is informational; the card aggregates count, not value. |
| Discounts / refunds / canceled | n/a for status counts. |
| Currency | Unitless. |
| Multi-store scope | All Store Views by default; configurable via store_id. |
| Time window | 30D rolling. RMAs older than 30 days that are still open are flagged as stuck pipeline. |
| Alert trigger | None on this card directly. Operations should monitor the Pending Approval count, anything above 30 days old is a stuck workflow. |
| Roles | owner, operations |
Calculation
Calculated automatically from your Adobe Commerce data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.Worked example
A B2B janitorial-supply distributor on Adobe Commerce 2.4.7 with native RMA enabled. Snapshot 13 May 26, 30-day rolling. RMA distribution by status:| RMA status | Count | % of total | Median age (days) | Avg grand_total of underlying order |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pending Approval | 47 | 28% | 3.2 | $1,180 |
| Authorised | 38 | 22% | 5.1 | $980 |
| Received (warehouse received returned goods) | 26 | 15% | 8.4 | $1,420 |
| Approved (inspected, refund authorised) | 19 | 11% | 11.7 | $1,620 |
| Pending Refund (CS yet to issue Credit Memo) | 14 | 8% | 13.9 | $1,310 |
| Closed (refunded, archived) | 21 | 12% | 19.3 | - |
| Rejected (claim denied) | 7 | 4% | 4.6 | $720 |
| Total open RMAs | 172 |
| Slice | Count | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Pending Approval > 14 days old | 9 | escalation needed |
| Pending Refund > 7 days old | 6 | CS bottleneck; refunds promised but not issued |
| Received but not Approved (in inspection) > 14 days | 4 | warehouse inspection backlog |
- Pending Approval at 47 (28% of pipeline) is the highest stage. This is the top-of-funnel; healthy. The 9 over-14-days are the concern, those are accounts waiting on a Sales decision and risk turning into churn signals.
- Received but not Approved (4 over 14 days) indicates a warehouse inspection backlog. The merchandise is in the warehouse, the customer is waiting on a refund decision, but the inspect step has not happened. This is the slowest stage to fix and the most damaging to NPS.
- Pending Refund at 14, of which 6 are over 7 days old. Customer Service has authorised the refund but not yet issued the Credit Memo. This is a posting problem, not a decision problem. The 6 over-7-days represent ~$7,860 of customer-side waiting on cash. Easy fix: assign one CS rep a daily 30-min slot to clear the queue.
- Forecast the next 14 days of Credit Memo flow. 19 Approved + 14 Pending Refund = 33 RMAs likely to become Credit Memos in the next 1-2 weeks. Expected refund value ≈ 33 × 46,200. This matches the historical 30-day refund value within 5%, the pipeline is in steady state.
- Rejected count (7) is healthy. Roughly 4% rejection rate is industry-typical for B2B (legitimate damage claims, not fraud). A rejection rate >10% suggests either fraud spikes or an unsupportive returns policy that frustrates customers.
- Cross-link with Refund Value: if next 14 days’ actual refund value materially differs from the $46k forecast above, either the warehouse approval cadence is changing or RMAs are stalling; investigate.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
| Card | Why pair it with Return Status |
|---|---|
| Refund Count | The downstream Credit Memo volume. RMAs flow into Credit Memos. |
| Refund Value | The downstream value. Use Approved + Pending Refund counts × avg refund value to forecast. |
| Refund Rate | The headline. RMA volume in this card is a leading indicator of refund rate movement. |
| Refunds Over Time | Track when Credit Memos post; lagged correlate with Approved status here. |
| Top Refunded Products | SKU concentration in the RMA pipeline. |
| Order State Distribution | Adobe order workflow. RMA is parallel to but distinct from order state. |
shopify.return_status | Cross-platform peer; Shopify’s “Returns” beta API was added in 2023. |
bigcommerce.return_status | BigCommerce-side peer. |
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look in Adobe Commerce Admin:Sales > Returns (Adobe Commerce only). The grid lists every RMA withIf the Sales > Returns menu is missing, the RMA module is not enabled (Magento Open Source) or the Admin role lacks theIncrement ID,Order #,Status,Date Requested. Filter byStatusto slice. The aggregate count at the bottom should match this card.
Magento_Rma::all ACL.
For per-customer history:
Customers > All Customers > [customer] > Returns tab shows every RMA filed by that customer.Why our number may legitimately differ from Adobe Commerce Admin:
| Reason | Direction of divergence |
|---|---|
| Time-zone. The Returns grid uses Admin user’s locale; this card uses UTC. ±1 day on date-bucket boundaries. | Bucket-shift |
| Status enum localisation. The status labels in Admin can be customised (Pending Approval may show as “Pending review” if the merchant translated it). The card uses the underlying enum value; the labels are display-only. | None on count |
Soft-deleted RMAs. Some merchants archive cancelled RMAs to a custom status. This card aggregates all RMAs in the source table; if the merchant has a custom archived flag, those may not appear in the standard Admin grid. | This card may be higher than Admin grid filter |
Third-party RMA modules (Aheadworks, Mageplaza, Mirasvit). These store RMA data in their own tables, not magento_rma. The card needs a connector configured for the module; otherwise it shows zero or partial counts. | Material if third-party RMA in use |
| Multi-store scope. Admin defaults to “All Store Views”; this card matches. Scope-restricted Admin users see fewer rows. | Vortex IQ ≥ scoped Admin |
| Sync lag. 5-15 min behind. | Vortex IQ slightly stale |
| Card | Expected relationship | What divergence tells you |
|---|---|---|
klaviyo.rma_email_engagement | RMA notification emails should match RMA count in Pending Approval / Authorised / Received | If Klaviyo shows fewer emails than RMAs, the notification flow is broken; customers aren’t being told their RMA was received. |
google_analytics.ga_returns_page_views | GA4 traffic to the returns page should correlate with new RMA filings | If page views are high but RMA count is low, customers are landing on the page but not completing the form. UX issue. |
Known limitations / merchant FAQs
My Magento Open Source store shows zero RMAs, why? Native RMA is only in Adobe Commerce (paid SKU). Magento Open Source does not include RMA. Either upgrade to Adobe Commerce or install a third-party RMA module (Aheadworks, Mageplaza, Mirasvit). Once installed, configure the Vortex IQ connector for that module’s tables. An RMA is in Pending Approval for 30 days, what happened? Either the assigned Sales rep is OOO, the customer didn’t respond to a clarification request, or the RMA fell off the team’s queue. The card flags any RMA over 14 days as a stuck workflow. Configure escalation rules in Adobe Commerce > Stores > Configuration > Sales > RMA to auto-close abandoned RMAs after N days. Why doesn’t Pending Refund automatically become a Credit Memo? Adobe Commerce keeps the RMA-to-Credit-Memo step manual on purpose. CS reviews the RMA, confirms the goods received, then issues a Credit Memo. This intentional gap exists for fraud prevention (catch “I returned it” claims with no actual return) and for restocking-fee adjustments. A customer says they returned an item but it’s not in Received status, why? Three causes: (1) warehouse hasn’t logged it yet (most common; 1-3 days lag); (2) the warehouse received it under a different RMA number; (3) the carrier delivered to the wrong dock and the item is in transit limbo. Cross-check with the RMA’s tracking number in Sales > Returns > [RMA]. How long should RMA-to-Credit-Memo take? Industry-typical: 7-14 days end-to-end. Best-in-class B2B: 3-5 days. If your median age inApproved and Pending Refund adds up to >10 days, customers are waiting too long; check the warehouse-receive-to-approve step (often the bottleneck).
Can the same order have multiple RMAs?
Yes. A B2B order with 50 line items may generate 3 RMAs (different damage claims at different times). Each is a separate row in the card.
RMA vs Credit Memo, which is the source of truth?
For pipeline / forecasting: RMA. For accounting / GL: Credit Memo. RMAs can be cancelled before becoming Credit Memos; Credit Memos are immutable once posted.
My RMA count seems low compared to refund count, why?
Some refunds skip RMA entirely. Adobe allows direct Credit Memo creation from Sales > Orders > [order] > Credit Memo without an RMA. DTC apparel often does this for low-value returns where inspection is unnecessary. To force RMA-first, configure Stores > Configuration > Sales > Sales > Allow Credit Memo Without RMA = No (Adobe Commerce only).
Can I see RMAs by warehouse / location?
Yes if the merchant has Inventory module locations configured. Filter the card by pickup_location_id. For multi-warehouse merchants this is the most useful slice.