How to Cancel a Return | Latner Software Documentation

Cancelling a return reverses it, taking the equipment back out of your yard's available stock and putting the rental contract line back at Off Hire so the return can be recorded again properly.

Overview

Returns get processed on the strength of what the yard says came in, and sometimes the paperwork catches up a day later - wrong meter reading, wrong branch, wrong machine, or the gear never actually came back. Cancelling the return unpicks all of that in one step so you can record the real one.

Cancelling is all or nothing. There's no line selection, so every item on the return is reversed together.
Each contract line goes back to Off Hire, not On Rent. The off hire that preceded the return is left alone, and the Actual Off Hire Date is kept.
The return's Return Date is cleared off the contract lines, the meter reading taken at return is deleted, and the equipment's current meter reading rolls back to the reading before it.
Equipment quantities move back out of available and onto rent at the original branch, and serialised equipment goes back to Off Rent.
Open return inspections raised by the return are deleted. Inspections already completed or awaiting approval are left as they are.
The return record isn't deleted. It stays on the contract's Returned tab as Cancelled, so the history of what was recorded and reversed is still there.
Once cancelled, the line can be returned again straight away - a line at Off Hire is ready to return.

Before You Begin

Cancelling a return needs the right permission, and both the contract and the equipment have to be in a state that can still be reversed.

Requirement	Where to Find It
Cancel Rental Return permission	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups › your group › Rental › Option
Rental Contracts permission, so you can open the contract and the return record behind it	Security › Configuration › Permission Groups › your group › Rental › Screen
Access to the branch the return was booked into	The Branch shown on the return, checked against your user's branches
A rental contract in Active status	Rental › Rental Contracts
A return in Completed status whose contract lines are all still Returned	The contract's Returned tab
The equipment still sitting in the yard - not already back out on another contract	Equipment › Equipment, the Rental Status of each item on the return

Cancel Rental Return sits under Rental › Option, next to the other cancel permissions

Without the permission, Cancel Rental Return isn't in the Options menu at all. If it's there but greyed out, the problem is record state, not permissions - either the return is already Cancelled, or the rental contract isn't Active. Hovering the greyed out option tells you which: Only Returns for Active Rental contract can be Cancelled.

Cancelling the Return

Step 1 - Open the return from the rental contract

Open the rental contract and go to the Returned tab. Every item that has been returned on the contract is listed here with the return it belongs to. Click the Return # link to open the return itself - that's the only screen the cancel option lives on.

The contract's Returned tab - the Return # is the same on every line because one return can cover several items

Step 2 - Check what the return covers

The return screen shows the whole return: its Return Status, the Branch it was booked into, the Return Date, and a Details tab listing every item, its return quantity and meter reading, and the contract line's current status. Read this before you cancel, because all of it goes back together.

Return Status - has to be Completed. A return that is already Cancelled can't be cancelled again.
Branch - the branch the equipment was returned into, and the branch the quantity is taken back out of.
Rental Contract Detail Status - every line has to still read Returned. If one has moved on, the cancellation is refused.

The return screen before cancelling - three items, each at Returned, with the off hire date they came off rent

Step 3 - Choose Options › Cancel Rental Return

Click Options in the top right and choose Cancel Rental Return. There is nothing to fill in and nothing to tick - the whole return is reversed.

The Options menu on a return, with Cancel Rental Return and the sibling Change Return Date option

Step 4 - Confirm

Latner asks you to confirm. Click Confirm to reverse the return, or Cancel to back out and leave it as it is.

The confirmation step - the only thing standing between you and a reversed return

There's no success message. The screen refreshes in place, and the Return Status flipping to Cancelled is how you know it worked. If something blocked the cancellation you get a red error message instead, and nothing is changed - the whole reversal is one transaction, so it either all happens or none of it does.

After Cancelling

The return is now a historical record and the contract is back where it was before the return was processed.

The return reads Cancelled, and both Cancel Rental Return and Change Return Date are greyed out on it from here on.
Every contract line on the return is back at Off Hire with its Actual Off Hire Date intact, its return date cleared, and any pending return inspection or final invoice sub-status cleared.
The meter reading captured at return is gone, and the equipment's current reading is whatever it was before the return.
Serialised equipment reads Off Rent again and points back at the contract line. Bulk equipment quantities move back from available to on rent at the branch the equipment was rented from, and any cross branch return movements created by the return are removed.
Sub hire lines have their sub hire order and order line put back to Active.
The line is ready to be returned again - process a new return with the correct date, branch or meter reading.

The cancelled return - the lines have gone back to Off Hire and kept their off hire date

Cancelling the return does not cancel the off hire, even when the return created the off hire for you. The off hire stays Completed and the equipment stays at Off Hire, so charging does not start again. If the equipment is actually staying on site, cancel the off hire as well - use Options › Cancel Off Hire on the off hire record to put the line back on rent.

The Off Hire tab after the return was cancelled - off hire 271 is still Completed and has to be cancelled separately

FAQs

Can I cancel just one item off a return?

No. Unlike Cancel Off Hire, cancelling a return has no line selection - every item on the return is reversed together. If only one item was wrong, cancel the whole return and process a new one for the items that really did come back.

I only had the return date wrong. Do I need to cancel the whole return?

No. Use Options › Change Return Date on the return instead, which needs the Change Rental Return Date permission. It updates the return and every contract line on it, and it won't let you move the return earlier than the off hire date of any line. Cancelling is for when the return itself shouldn't have happened, or when the branch, quantity or meter reading was wrong.

Latner says it cannot cancel the return because the equipment's rental status is not available.

The machine has already gone back out - it's on another contract, reserved, or in transfer. Latner won't quietly pull it off the new job to put it back on the old one. Deal with the newer record first (cancel the reservation or the newer contract line), then come back and cancel the return. The message names the line and the equipment number so you know which item is in the way.

Latner says there isn't enough quantity available at the branch.

This one is about bulk equipment. Cancelling takes the returned quantity back out of the return branch's available stock, so that quantity has to still be sitting there. If it's since gone out on another contract or been transferred to another branch, put it back or reverse that movement first.

Latner says it cannot cancel the return with an Off Hire rental detail.

The contract line is no longer Returned, so there is nothing to reverse on it. The usual cause is that the return has already been cancelled and the page you're looking at is stale - refresh it and check the Return Status.

The option is greyed out and the contract is finished. Can I still cancel the return?

Only by bringing the contract back to Active first. A Returned, Completed or Cancelled contract blocks the cancellation - reopening a completed rental contract is the usual way to get back to Active. Note the reverse trap as well: with a line sitting at Off Hire after a cancelled return, you can't complete the contract until that line has been returned again.

What happens to the charges the return added to the contract?

They stay. Fuel to bill, excess hours admin charges, any charge lines added during a mobile return, and the Damage check required line raised when damage check was ticked are all left on the contract as ordinary lines. Cancelling the return doesn't remove them, so delete the ones you don't want before you record the return again - otherwise you'll end up charging twice.

What about pick up dockets that were completed when the equipment was returned?

They stay completed. Where Auto Complete Pickup Dockets when Returning Equipment is enabled, processing the return closes off any open pick up docket for those items, and cancelling the return does not reopen them. If the equipment still has to be collected, raise the docket again on the contract.

Has the return already been invoiced? Does cancelling credit it?

No. Cancelling a return doesn't touch invoices, and it doesn't check whether the lines have been billed. A returned line that has already been invoiced can still be un-returned, which means the invoiced period and the contract can drift apart. If the return was invoiced, sort the invoice out separately - a credit note from the rental contract is the usual answer.

Does cancelling the return restart the sanitation schedule?

Only where Finish Sanitation Schedule on Off Hire is switched off in Security › Settings › Rental. With that setting off, sanitation schedules are finalised on return, so cancelling the return puts an open recurring docket back in front of each sanitation line - chaining on from the last completed docket, or starting from the line's start date where there isn't one. Ad hoc dockets are left alone. With the setting on, the schedule was already finalised at off hire, so cancelling the return changes nothing.

Who cancelled this return, and when?

The return itself doesn't record it - Created By stays as whoever processed the return, and there's no cancelled by or cancelled date on the record. The equipment audit trail is the place to look: the quantity and status changes, and the deletion of the return meter reading, are all logged against the equipment with the user who made them.

Can I cancel a return from my phone?

No. The mobile return screens create returns, they don't cancel them. Cancelling has to be done on the full return screen in the browser.

Do the photos and documents from the cancelled return survive?

Yes. Return documents are held against the contract line rather than the return, so they stay put - and they'll still show on the Documents tab of the next return you process for that line.

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