Excessive Processing and Handling Fees for Returns Reconciliation

$12,000-$24,000 annually (160-240 hours/year at $25/hr + lost interest on delayed credits averaging $8,000-$15,000 cash float for 30-60 days) • $15,000-$28,000 annually (260-416 hours/year at $25/hr spent on manual tracking + 30-45 days cash float on $10,000-$18,000 average returned inventory pending credit) • $18,000-$36,000 annually per library account (assuming 500 returned books/year at $3-5 per-book handling + $10-15 per-book shipping recovery)

Clerk manually counts returned books, writes counts on return authorization form, scans items individually into legacy WMS, flags discrepancies in notebook, emails supervisor list of damaged/unsaleable items for manual credit determination • Clerk receives 50-150 returned items per day, manually verifies against RMA spreadsheet, writes exceptions on Post-it notes, photos sent to supervisor via WhatsApp, damage assessment recorded in Notepad, credit memo generated 3-5 days later • Inventory and finance teams export return reports from distributors/wholesalers and POS, then reconcile title-by-title and account-by-account in large Excel workbooks and email threads, sometimes double-checking against paper credit memos or PDFs.