---
title: How to handle sale or return with wholesale bakery customers
Metadescription: Sale or return for a wholesale bakery - invoicing the week not the delivery, taking the unsold off as a discount line, and why it has to be a draft.
author: Dan Edwards
author_role: Founder
author_url: https://danedwardsdeveloper.com
author_linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-edwards-developer
published: 2026-08-27
---

Token estimate: ~1,100

# How to handle sale or return with wholesale bakery customers

Sale or return means the shop pays for what sold and hands back what did not, so the count that decides the bill happens at the next delivery rather than at the order. Wholesale Handler has no returns field. The arrangement runs on the [invoice](https://wholesalehandler.com/articles/how-invoices-work-on-wholesale-handler) instead - a week of deliveries collates into one draft, and the unsold comes off it as a discount line before it is sent. Crediting an invoice already sent is the thing it will not do.

By **[Dan Edwards](https://wholesalehandler.com/about)**, Founder.

## Invoice the week, not the delivery

An order records what left the bakery. On sale or return you do not know what to charge for until days later, when the driver counts what is coming back.

That gap is why per-delivery invoicing does not suit the arrangement. Wholesale Handler collates processed orders into one draft per customer, and a second batch of orders joins that open draft rather than raising a second invoice, so a week of deliveries sits on one document until you finalise it.

## Take the unsold off as a discount line

Add an adjustment to the draft, set it to Discount rather than Charge, and give it an amount and a description.

The description is required and prints on the invoice, so it is the whole record of the return - **12 sourdough returned, week of 6 October** rather than **returns**. Neither the order nor the packing slip carries the count anywhere else.

A discount cannot take an invoice below zero. A quiet week where the returns are worth more than the deliveries is refused, and the balance goes on the next invoice instead.

## It has to be a draft

A finalised invoice is immutable. Once it is sent, no line can be added, changed or removed, and there is no credit note - crediting a sent invoice is on the [roadmap](https://wholesalehandler.com/roadmap) rather than built.

So the returns count has to reach you before you finalise, which puts the invoice a day or two after the last delivery of the period rather than on the same morning.

## When a whole delivery comes back

Delete its lines instead of discounting them. Removing the last line belonging to an order unlinks that order, and it returns to the pool of uninvoiced orders rather than disappearing - so it can be invoiced later if the shop sells the stock after all, or left alone.

## When the arrangement ends

While sale or return is in force the shop carries no risk on over-ordering, so nothing pulls the order towards the number that actually sells. That is why it is usually bounded - a fixed run of weeks, then firm sale at the figure the returns turned out to show.

The [order history](https://wholesalehandler.com/articles/how-orders-work-on-wholesale-handler) on the account holds both halves of that figure. What you delivered each week is on the orders, and what came back is on the invoices as discount lines.

## Q&A

**Q: Can I set sale or return up per customer so it happens automatically?**
A: No. There is no sale-or-return mode and no returns field on an order, so every credit is a discount line added by hand to that customer's draft. Someone has to hold the count between the delivery and the invoice.

**Q: Does the customer see why the discount is there?**
A: Yes. The description you type appears as a line on the invoice they receive, alongside the products, which is why it is worth writing the quantity and the week into it.

**Q: Is a lower firm price better than sale or return?**
A: It is a different deal, and simpler to run. The shop buys outright at a discount and carries the waste, so there is nothing to count at the door and nothing to adjust on the invoice. It transfers less risk, which is why it persuades fewer buyers to try an unfamiliar line.