RMA Return-Shipment Tracker
Track every authorized return from "label sent" to "received at the warehouse," flag the ones that never ship or never arrive, and hold the refund until a coordinator confirms the item is back and inspected.
A private, login-protected tool that loads your open returns, tracks each shipment's status, nudges customers who haven't shipped or whose package is overdue, and refuses to release any refund or restock until a coordinator confirms the item was received and inspected — with a full audit trail.
Before you start
- A list of open RMAs (CSV or Google Sheet) with RMA number, tracking number, and an expected-by date
- A way to get receiving updates (warehouse scans, an email, or someone typing them in)
- Free Vercel, Supabase, and Resend accounts
- No coding experience needed — you'll paste the plan into an AI agent
The problem this kills
You authorized the return, you sent the label, and then... silence. Some customers never drop the box off. Some packages sit "in transit" for two weeks. And every so often a refund goes out for an item that never actually came back to your warehouse — money gone, item gone.
Most teams track this in a spreadsheet that nobody updates, with receiving living in a totally separate system. The result is leaked refunds, angry "where's my money" emails for returns that DID arrive, and a warehouse team that has no idea what's supposed to be showing up.
This tool closes the loop. Every authorized return is tracked from the moment the label goes out to the moment it's scanned in and inspected — and the refund simply cannot be released until a real person confirms the item is back.
What you'll build
A small, private web app for your returns and warehouse teams:
- Load your open RMAs from a CSV or Google Sheet — RMA number, tracking number, expected-by date, customer, and what's being returned.
- Track each shipment's status — clearly separating "not shipped yet," "in transit," "delivered but not yet inspected," and "received & inspected."
- Automatic flags for returns that were never shipped or are overdue, so nothing slips through the cracks.
- Customer nudges via Resend — a friendly reminder to ship the item back before the window closes.
- A hard refund gate — a coordinator confirms the item was received and inspected; only then is the refund/restock released and logged.
- A returns-in-flight dashboard and a clean "cleared to refund" export.
What's inside the Implementation Plan
The plan is a single file you paste into an AI coding agent (Claude Code), which then builds the tool with you step by step.
It opens by interviewing you about your business — your current returns process, your RMA numbering, what your receiving updates actually look like, your refund-approval rules, and your messiest edge cases (partial returns, wrong item sent back, items arriving damaged). It reads a short tailored spec back to you and waits for your thumbs-up. The tool it builds fits your returns workflow, not a generic template.
From there it walks through the database, the import, the status tracking, the overdue flags, the customer nudges, the receive-and-inspect confirmation, the refund gate, and the CSV export — each step ending in a ready-to-paste prompt.
The governance it includes (this is the point)
This isn't a toy. The plan bakes in the controls a returns operation actually needs:
- Login so only your team can open the tool.
- Row-level security so each organization only ever sees its own returns.
- A complete audit trail — who marked what received, who released which refund, and exactly when.
- A hard human-in-the-loop gate — the tool can draft a "ready to refund" recommendation, but a coordinator must confirm receipt and condition before any refund or restock is released.
- Duplicate guards keyed on the RMA number so the same return can't be processed — or refunded — twice.
Who it's for
Returns operations and warehouse-coordination teams who authorize returns and need to be sure the item is actually back before money goes out. If you live between a returns queue and a receiving dock, this is for you.
You've got this — paste the first prompt and let the agent interview you.