Pull a department's leftover kitchen stock out of production, approve the counts, and finish the return to book whole cases back into warehouse locations.
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The retail-bowls line over-pulled rice this morning, and now the shift is winding down with whole cases still on the bench. Left there, it ages out in the kitchen while the warehouse reads short. A kitchen return moves that surplus the other way — it pulls the cases out of the kitchen and books them back into warehouse locations as counted, located stock you can pick against tomorrow. Open Kitchen Returns to see the returns already in flight. Plant+
A return is built from what's staged in the kitchen. Each line is one sitting in a department, sent back to the warehouse as whole cases.
Start a new return
On Kitchen Returns, select New.
Pick the department and load its stock
Choose the Department the stock is staged in, then select Load kitchen stock. Bettr fills the Items list with every returnable WIP lot in that department and pre-fills each one with the cases it suggests sending back — what's on the kitchen beyond tomorrow's demand. Set a Production run first to narrow the load to one run's leftovers.
Set the cases and locations
For each lot, set Qty to return (cases) — a return moves whole cases, so any remainder stays in the kitchen, and the line shows the pounds each quantity pulls. Under Locations, add the warehouse location the cases go back to, or split them across a few.
Create the return
Select Create return. It opens as a draft, and its badge names what it still needs before it can finish — approval, then a location.
A finished-recipe lot carries a Final product badge, and its output count needs a second set of eyes before the return can finish. Raw-material and sub-recipe lots don't — they finish on the quantity you set.
Open the item's approval
Find the item marked Final product and select Approve quantity.
Confirm or adjust the count
The dialog shows the requested cases and how many are available in the kitchen. Approve it as-is, or type an Adjust output count to change it and split that quantity across locations. Add a comment for whoever finishes the return.
Approve
Select Approve. Approving locks the product and quantity; only the location split can change afterward.
Scan a case instead of scrolling
On a long return, select Scan QR and scan a case's lot label — Bettr jumps to that item and opens its approval, so the floor checks off cases as they stack them.
Once every final-product count is approved and every item has a location, the return reads Ready to complete. Finishing is the move that matters: it pulls each item's whole cases out of the kitchen and books them into the warehouse locations you set.
Finish the return
Select Finish return and confirm.
Finishing can't be undone
The cases move from the kitchen into warehouse stock the moment you confirm, and a finished return can't be reversed or deleted. Check the quantities and locations first.
The return now reads Completed, and its stock is live warehouse inventory at those locations, ready to pick.
If the department cooked for another company in your organization — a commissary producing for a storefront — a completed return can go one step further. Select Release and Bettr mints a sales order at the producing company and a purchase order at the receiving company, so the hand-off lands as real orders on both sides of the transfer.
Why kitchen returns need Sales and Purchasing on
Release is why this surface asks for Sales and Purchasing alongside Production. It only fires when the return's contact is linked to a receiving company in the same organization, both sides carry the counterparty customer and vendor contacts, and the receiving company stocks a product with a matching code — otherwise releasing stops and names what's still missing.
Every return can carry a sticker for the tote or pallet heading back to the warehouse. Select Print label for a kitchen-return label with the return number, department, and a QR code that reads back to the return, then Print label again in the dialog to send it to your printer.
Not the same as early kitchen returns
Inventory has a similarly named tool. Log early kitchen returns captures stock coming back off the line early, built up through a shift. This one lives in Production, works from a department's WIP lots, and can release the stock to a sister company — reach for it when you're clearing a run's leftover WIP at the end of the day.