How deliveries and returns work
Deliveries and returns happen inside a reserved order, one date group at a time: prepare, deliver, receive, check in and close each group.
Once a job is confirmed, the work moves to the warehouse. Someone gets the equipment ready, loads the van and sends it out. Days later, someone unpacks it and checks that it all came back in one piece. In Filmo, that work happens inside the order itself, on two pages: the and the .
Think of them as the warehouse's checklist for the job. There's nothing separate to create: when you reserve the order, Filmo builds the checklist from its lines, and as the warehouse ticks things off, the order's status moves along with it.
Three ideas to keep in mind
- The work is split by dates. Filmo groups the lines by the day they go out and, separately, by the day they come back. Each is prepared, delivered or brought back, and closed on its own.
- Coming back isn't the same as being free. Equipment marked still takes up stock. Only when you is it free for other jobs.
- Closing a group is final. When you , whatever didn't go out is cancelled. When you finish a return, whatever wasn't checked in is treated as fine or as lost. After that, the group can't be changed.
Follow the Landmark Venues wedding
Landmark Venues has reserved three large frame tents, 120 Chiavari chairs and 12 round tables. Everything goes out on Friday. The chairs and tables come back on Sunday, and the tents on Monday, once the crew has taken them down.
- Reserve the order Reserving creates the delivery and return groups and puts their tasks in your Calendar. See Reserve equipment for an order.
- Prepare the equipment On the «Delivery note», assign the tents' units and mark everything «Prepared». See Prepare an order for delivery.
- Deliver it Mark it «Delivered», save and click «Finish delivery». See Deliver an order and finish the delivery.
- Print the delivery note Generate the PDF that travels with the van. See Generate and send a delivery note.
- Receive it and check it in On the «Return packing slip», mark what came back and its , then check it in. See Return and check in equipment.
- Finish the return Close each return group. When the last one is finished, the order is «Completed».
How Filmo groups the work
Delivery and return groups
When you reserve, Filmo looks at each line's dates. Lines that go out on the same day form a delivery group, titled «Delivery of» and the date. Lines that come back on the same day form a return group, titled «Return of» and the date. The two are independent: the wedding has one delivery group, for Friday, and two return groups, for Sunday and Monday.
| Delivery group | Return group | |
|---|---|---|
| Grouped by | The day each line goes out | The day each line comes back |
| What it includes | Items, kits, spaces and custom lines | The same, except sale lines and cancelled lines |
| Calendar task | One delivery task per group | One return task per group |
| Can be cancelled | Yes, while nothing in it has been delivered | No |
- Staff, vehicles and services don't take part in deliveries or returns.
- Items you sell go out but never come back, so a has no return group.
- Groups follow the lines. Every time you save a reserved order, Filmo rebuilds them from the lines' current dates: a line whose date changes moves to the group for its new date, and a group left empty disappears with its Calendar task. See Change order dates.
- If you add equipment for a day whose delivery is already finished, it goes into a second delivery for that same day, shown as an extra tab.
Warning: Returns don't split that way. A new line that comes back on the day of a return that's already finished joins that finished group, where it can't be changed. Give it another return date.
Where everything is
| You want to | Where | How |
|---|---|---|
| See what goes out or comes back across all orders | «Orders» → «Going out» or «Coming back» | See what's going out and coming back |
| Check line and group statuses | The delivery and return pages | Line statuses from reserved to checked in |
| Prepare the equipment and assign units | Order → «Delivery» | Prepare an order for delivery |
| Deliver and close the delivery, or cancel it | Order → «Delivery» | Deliver an order and finish the delivery |
| Add equipment at the last minute | Order → «Delivery» → «Add» | Add equipment during a delivery |
| Receive, check in and close the return | Order → «Return» | Return and check in equipment |
| Return equipment from several orders | «Orders» → «Order lines» → «Select to return» | Return items from several orders at once |
| Print, download or send the PDF | «Generate PDF», or order → «⋯» → «Generate delivery note» | Generate and send a delivery note |
| Prepare the customs list for travel abroad | «ATA Carnet» | Create an ATA Carnet goods list |
Good to know
- Nothing is saved as you tick. Marking equipment shows the «Unsaved changes» bar; click «Save» when you're done.
- With search or a filter active, «Prepare everything», «Deliver everything», «Return everything» and «Check everything in» only act on the lines you can see, and ask you to confirm.
- A cancelled order doesn't accept changes on its delivery or return pages.
- The PDF, the company signature printed on it, the space for the client to sign by hand and the in Campus accounts are different things. None of them gives the document special legal value.
Up next
See what each status on the delivery and return pages means: Line statuses from reserved to checked in.