June 2, 2003 – SRAs can be as easy as 1,2,3

Are you able to use your SRA (stock return allowance) credits in a timely manner? Or do they show up and lay there until the last minute when, in a panic, you throw some things together for a return?
Or do you find yourself so consumed by the day-to-day activities of running your department that you miss taking advantage of your return privileges altogether?
If this is the way that you handle SRAs, you may be missing the opportunity to better serve your customer by having the optimum amount of new, fresh, exciting, current, desirable inventory on hand.
Wouldn’t you rather simplify the SRA process, and at the same time get your hard earned money out of the old dead inventory and into high demand inventory in a timely fashion?
Here is the simplest most effective way I have found to manage SRAs.
A simple three-step process
ONE. During the slow time of your year, run a report that identifies all items that could be returned as credit allows, fitting the return requirements for your OEM and that are outside your sales movement criteria. (Less than two sales in the previous 12 months)
TWO. Pull those low or no demand parts and put them in boxes. Identify each box (“27” for example) and change the bin location on all parts in that box to its identifying number. On the outside of each box, attach a list of all the parts in that box and their cost value. This can be as simple as a pick ticket. Then, if by some slim chance there is demand for a part in the box, your inventory system will tell you which box it is in and you can retrieve it without any hassle and just mark through that item on the list attached to the box so at SRA time we know what is in the box.
THREE. When your SRA credit arrives and you are up to your ears in customers, all you have to do is go back and pull enough boxes to equal the SRA amount, submit the request for return, and when the approval to return comes, you are all boxed and ready to go!
That’s how you get money out of your dead inventory quickly and with seemingly little effort during the rush of the season.
Minimize your losses and MAXIMIZE your efforts! Don’t lose your SRAs! Be prepared in ADVANCE!