Which warehouse should a return go to: automatic assignment, rules and the assignment queue

Every return gets its destination warehouse through three steps — the address the customer ships to, your routing rules, then the warehouse the order originally shipped from. Anything left over waits in one queue for a person.

A return that has no warehouse cannot move: labels, receiving and inspection all hang off the destination. So every OMS return order carries an assignment status alongside its main status — assigned, still open, or waiting for a person — and the assignment normally happens by itself the moment the order is created. This article walks through the three automatic steps, how to keep them accurate, and what to do with the leftovers.

Step 0: keep each warehouse’s returns address filled in#

1. Open Master Data → Warehouses and open a warehouse. On the returns-address card, fill in the address customers should ship returns to — it can differ from the warehouse’s main address (a dedicated returns dock is common).
2. This address is what step 1 matches on. Two warehouses sharing the exact same returns address is ambiguous — assignment stops and asks a person instead of guessing.

How automatic assignment works#

1. Match by destination address: if the address on the return matches exactly one warehouse’s returns address, that warehouse wins. This is the everyday case when the platform handed the customer a label to a specific returns site.
2. Your routing rules: if the address step finds nothing, your rules are tried in priority order. A rule can match on the client, the sales channel and the return source, and sends matched returns to a warehouse — or to an outside address, for returns handled by an external refurbisher.
3. Fall back to the shipping warehouse: if there is still nothing, the return goes back to the warehouse the original order shipped from. Only when even that is unknown does the order wait for a person.

Maintain routing rules and the handling mode#

1. Open OMS → Settings → Return routing (/oms/settings/returns). The top of the page sets how warehouse returns are handled across the board — handled inside OMS, or handed to the warehouse team as an RMS execution order. The switch only affects returns created after you change it; orders already in flight keep the mode they started with.
2. Below it, keep your rules: Add rule, set the match conditions (leave a condition empty to mean “any”), pick the destination — a warehouse, or an outside address for externally handled returns — and order the rules by priority. Two rules with the same conditions pointing at different destinations are rejected with a clear message; fix the older one instead of stacking a contradiction.
3. Turning a rule off keeps it on the page (greyed out) instead of deleting it, so you can switch a seasonal rule back on later.

The assignment queue: returns waiting for a person#

1. On OMS → Returns (/oms/rma), use the “Awaiting assignment” quick filter — that is the queue. Open an order: while it is unassigned, the detail page leads with an assignment panel instead of warehouse actions.
2. Pick the warehouse and confirm. If this destination should be the standing answer for similar returns, tick “Save as rule” in the same step — the panel turns your pick into a rule for that client and source, so the next similar return assigns itself. If an identical pick already conflicts with an existing rule, nothing is saved and the message tells you which rule to fix.
3. Assigning is all this queue needs — the order then continues on its normal path (label, receiving, inspection) with no extra hand-off.

Assigned to the wrong warehouse?#

• Use “Change warehouse” on the detail page and pick the right one, with an optional note — the change is recorded on the order. Changing the warehouse only moves the routing; the return’s main status is untouched.
• If the warehouse execution order was already created, the page says so plainly: the execution order stays at the original warehouse — talk to the warehouse team before the goods move, so nobody receives against the wrong order.
• Finished returns (completed or cancelled) can no longer change warehouse — reopen the return first if it truly has to move (the reopen action asks for a reason and records it).

Docklify features used in this article#

• Warehouse returns address — Master Data → Warehouses → open a warehouse → returns address card
• Return routing settings: handling mode switch, rules, unmapped reasons — OMS → Settings → Return routing (/oms/settings/returns)
• Assignment queue and per-order assignment panel with “Save as rule” — OMS → Returns (/oms/rma) → “Awaiting assignment” filter → open an order
• Change warehouse / reopen on the return detail page — OMS → Returns → open an order