At a glance
Count of NetSuite Return Authorisation (RMA) records created in the period. The merchant-facing operational view of returns: how many returns are flowing through the warehouse and AR back-end. Distinct from refund value (the dollar twin lives on Credit Memos Value) and from the commerce-side refund count, which only sees DTC returns and misses B2B / EDI returns that originate inside NetSuite.
| What it counts | COUNT(transactions WHERE type='RtnAuth') over the period (created date). Each RA record is one return regardless of how many lines it contains. Excludes Customer Refund records (cash-direct refund without RMA) which sit on a separate counter. |
| VAT / tax treatment | n/a, this is a count metric. The dollar twin includes tax (RA total field is gross). |
| Shipping | n/a for count. The dollar twin includes shipping refund where the merchant chose to refund shipping. |
| Discounts | n/a. The original SO discount carries through to the RA. |
| Refunds | This counts the return authorisation event (the customer says they want to return goods + the merchant says yes). The downstream credit memo + customer refund + restock-or-write-off events are tracked separately. NetSuite’s RMA workflow is a multi-step process: RA created > Item Receipt > Credit Memo > Cash Refund or applied to next invoice. This card counts the first step. |
| Cancelled / voided orders | RAs cancelled before Item Receipt are included by default (configurable). |
| Currency | Currency-agnostic at the count level. |
| Channels / sources | All sources blended: web RAs (customer-initiated via SuiteCommerce return portal), B2B RAs (sales-rep initiated), warehouse-initiated (defective inbound), and EDI returns. |
| Time window | 30D vsP |
| Alert trigger | up >20% vsP, driven by sentiment_key: returns_trend |
| Roles | owner, operations |
Calculation
Calculated automatically from your NetSuite 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 UK omnichannel apparel brand on NetSuite OneWorld. Reporting window 02 Apr 26 to 01 May 26.| Bucket | RA count | RA value (GBP, gross) | Avg RA value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Web (DTC, customer-initiated) | 1,840 | £142,800 | £77.60 |
| B2B wholesale (sales-rep initiated) | 42 | £88,200 | £2,100 |
| Warehouse defective (internal) | 18 | £4,200 | £233 |
| Total | 1,900 | £235,200 | £124 |
up >20% vsP alert.
What the merchant should investigate, in order:
- The B2B 42 RAs are 38% of the dollar value despite being 2% of the count. A single B2B account returning a £45,000 carton-shipment of mis-sized blazers (3 cartons rejected at goods-in by the wholesale customer) accounts for 22% of the dollar growth on its own. This is a single-event spike, not a structural issue.
- The web 1,840 is the operational signal. Apparel benchmark return rate is 18 to 28% on web, this brand sits at 14.7% (1,840 returns / 12,520 web orders), healthy. But it is up from 12.1% prior period. The 2.6 percentage-point rise on a base of 12,520 is ~325 extra returns; cross-reference Top SKUs by Inventory Value and the SO line-item detail to find the SKU concentration.
- Investigation reveals 220 of the 325 incremental returns are on a single SKU range (a navy-blazer line that launched 4 weeks ago). The blazer size chart was off by half a size (vendor sample mis-fit); customers ordered their normal size, found the cut tight, returned. Action: pull the listing, update the size chart, send proactive resize-and-keep emails to the 220 affected customers offering a free exchange + a £15 credit. Estimated salvage: 60 to 80 of those returns flip to exchange + retention.
- The 18 warehouse-defective RAs are inbound supplier issue. All 18 trace to a single cotton supplier whose Q2 batch had thread tension issues. Action: raise a supplier credit claim against the supplier; the £4,200 should be recoverable. Cross-reference Landed Cost Variance for the same supplier.
- Cross-channel reconciliation: Shopify reports 1,920 refunds for the same period; NetSuite shows 1,900 RAs (of which not all have completed the credit-memo posting yet). The 20-RA gap is normal sync lag (RAs created in NetSuite from Shopify refund webhooks dwell 0 to 24h before Vortex IQ indexes them). Reconciles within 1.1%.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
| Card | Why pair it with Returns Count |
|---|---|
| Credit Memos Value | The dollar twin. A flat count with rising value means returns are getting more expensive (B2B mix up); rising count with flat value means low-value DTC defects spiking. |
| Top SKUs by Inventory Value | Returns cluster on a tiny minority of SKUs; the top-3 typically explains 30 to 50% of return volume. |
| Margin by SKU | High return rate + low margin = product is a structural loss-maker. |
| Customer Churn Signals | High return rate from a single customer is a churn precursor. |
| Landed Cost Variance | Defective-inbound RAs trace back to supplier QC; the variance card shows whether the supplier’s costs are also drifting. |
shopify.refund_count | Cross-connector: web RAs should reconcile with Shopify refunds within 5%. |
bigcommerce.refund_count | Same logic for BigCommerce-fronted stores. |
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look in NetSuite’s own dashboard:
Transactions > Customers > Issue Return Authorizations > List, filtered by Date Created to match the period. Row count = RA count.
For the value view: Reports > Sales > Sales by Customer > Detail, filtered by transaction type Return Authorization.
Why our number may legitimately differ:
| Reason | Direction | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Cancelled RAs | Either | Vortex IQ includes RAs that were created and later cancelled by default. Some NS reports filter out cancelled RAs. Configurable via manifest. |
| Multi-step RA workflow | Ours can be lower | RAs created via the Return Portal that are still in Pending Receipt may not yet appear in some NS reports that filter to Received only. Vortex IQ counts all RAs regardless of receipt status. |
| Customer Refund without RA | Ours lower | If the merchant issues a Customer Refund directly (no RA created), Vortex IQ does not count it here. Track those on a separate refund card. |
| Card | Expected relationship | Notes |
|---|---|---|
shopify.refund_count | NS web-RA count ≈ Shopify refund count within ±5% | Sync direction matters: Shopify refund webhook creates the NS RA. The 5% gap is mostly sync lag plus B2B refunds Shopify does not see. |
bigcommerce.refund_count | Same logic | BC partial-refund mapping to NS RA can differ; expect 10 to 15% gap. |
stripe.stripe_refund_count | Should equal the dollar-side refunds settled via Stripe | Stripe counts refund transactions; NS counts RAs. One RA can produce multiple partial refunds. |
Known limitations / merchant FAQs
What is the difference between RA count and refund count? RA count = the customer’s return-request event (item flagged for return). Refund count = the financial event (cash back to customer). On NetSuite the workflow is RA > Item Receipt > Credit Memo > (Cash Refund or Apply to Invoice). One RA can produce zero refunds (customer gets store credit applied to next invoice), one refund (typical), or partial refunds split over time. The two counts are not interchangeable. Why is my RA count higher than my Shopify refund count? Two reasons. (1) NetSuite captures B2B and EDI returns that never touch Shopify. (2) Some NetSuite RAs originate from warehouse-defect inspections (inbound supplier issues) that have no commerce-side refund. Subtract those two populations and the residual should reconcile within 5%. A customer kept the item but I refunded them. Is that an RA? Optional, depends on your workflow. NetSuite supports a “Customer Refund without RA” flow (Transactions > Customers > Issue Customer Refund), used for goodwill refunds where the merchant doesn’t ask for the item back. Those refunds bypass this counter. If you want to track them, use a separate Customer Refund counter card. Why do my RA counts spike after a product launch? Two structural reasons: (1) size-fit returns for apparel (typically 20 to 35% return rate on first 4 weeks of a new line vs 15 to 22% steady-state); (2) expectation gap for non-apparel (product photos vs reality), peaks at 8 to 14 days post-purchase as customers receive and inspect. Pre-empt by tightening size charts, adding video, and proactive customer-service outreach to launch buyers. Should restock RAs count separately from full-return RAs? Possibly. Some merchants distinguish “restocking” returns (item is fine, customer changed mind, restock to inventory at full value) from “defect” returns (item must be written off or sent for repair). Vortex IQ exposes the breakdown via the RA’sdisposition field if the merchant uses the standard NetSuite disposition codes (Return to Stock, Return to Vendor, Scrap, Repair).
My OneWorld account: should I see RAs per subsidiary?
Yes. Subsidiary-level return rate often varies materially: US apparel sees 20 to 30% return rate, UK 12 to 18%, AU 8 to 15% (different cultural return tolerance, different shipping-cost-back). Always view per-subsidiary to avoid the consolidation masking a regional issue.
Does this include intercompany RAs?
Yes by default. Intercompany RAs (subsidiary A returning goods to subsidiary B) appear in both subsidiaries’ counts in the consolidated view. Filter them out by Customer.subsidiary != Transaction.subsidiary for third-party only.
What is the relationship between this card and inventory write-offs?
Returns disposed as “Scrap” or “Damage” become inventory adjustments rather than restock. The dollar value of that population is on Dead Stock Value when the merchant ages out the damaged stock. Returns that flow to “Return to Vendor” should produce supplier credits, tracked on the AP side.
A B2B account’s RA count is climbing. Should I worry?
Yes. B2B RA spikes are a churn precursor. The B2B account that returns 3 SKUs in a month and didn’t return any in the prior 6 months is signalling unhappiness. Cross-reference Customer Churn Signals to see if the same account is also slowing on order velocity. Pre-emptive account-management outreach often saves the relationship.