> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Return Status, Adobe Commerce > Return Status for Adobe Commerce stores. Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it. **Metrics type:** [Supporting Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained) • **Category:** [Ecommerce Platform](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) ## 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](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/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** | | | | **Hidden in the data:** | 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 | **Insight pattern:** 1. **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. 2. **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. 3. **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. 4. **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 × $1,400 avg = ~$46,200. This matches the historical 30-day refund value within 5%, the pipeline is in steady state. 5. **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. 6. **Cross-link with [Refund Value](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/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](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/refunded-orders) | The downstream Credit Memo volume. RMAs flow into Credit Memos. | | [Refund Value](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/refund-value) | The downstream value. Use Approved + Pending Refund counts × avg refund value to forecast. | | [Refund Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/refund-rate) | The headline. RMA volume in this card is a leading indicator of refund rate movement. | | [Refunds Over Time](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/refunds-over-time) | Track when Credit Memos post; lagged correlate with Approved status here. | | [Top Refunded Products](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/top-refunding-customers) | SKU concentration in the RMA pipeline. | | [Order State Distribution](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/order-state-breakdown) | Adobe order workflow. RMA is parallel to but distinct from order `state`. | | [`shopify.return_status`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/return-status) | Cross-platform peer; Shopify's "Returns" beta API was added in 2023. | | [`bigcommerce.return_status`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/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 with `Increment ID`, `Order #`, `Status`, `Date Requested`. Filter by `Status` to slice. The aggregate count at the bottom should match this card. If the **Sales > Returns** menu is missing, the RMA module is not enabled (Magento Open Source) or the Admin role lacks the `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 | **Cross-connector reconciliation (when these connectors are connected for this merchant):** | Card | Expected relationship | What divergence tells you | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [`klaviyo.rma_email_engagement`](/nerve-centre/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`](/nerve-centre/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. | ***
Documentation cross-reference (for agencies running multiple platforms) * [`shopify.return_status`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/return-status) * [`bigcommerce.return_status`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/return-status)
## 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 in `Approved` 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. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Return Status* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Adobe Commerce and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. [Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.