Automation in ReturnMate | ReturnMate Help Centre

ReturnMate automates the repetitive parts of returns processing through purpose-built settings, not a general rules engine. This page lists every automation that exists today and where to configure it — and is explicit about what doesn't exist, so you can plan around it.

Automations you can configure

Auto-approval per return reason

Each return reason has an Auto-approve toggle in Settings → Return Reasons. When enabled, portal submissions for that reason skip the review queue and are approved immediately — for prepaid-label returns the label is generated and emailed without staff involvement.

Typical use: enable for low-risk change-of-mind reasons; keep warranty and damage reasons on manual review.

Labels at approval

Label generation is part of the approval action itself — when staff approve an RMA (or auto-approval fires) with a prepaid return method, the label is created and emailed to the customer in the same step. There is no separate "auto-generate labels" setting to configure.

Return-window eligibility

The portal automatically disables change-of-mind reasons once the return window expires (shop default 30 days, or per-reason Return Period overrides in Settings → Return Reasons). Warranty and fault reasons remain available where applicable.

Warranty policy matching

Warranty periods are matched automatically per item — by SKU first, then product tag, then collection, then your default policy (Settings → Warranty Settings). The portal uses this to show or hide warranty reasons; see Warranty Settings.

Restocking and shipping fees

Restocking fees apply automatically by item condition at resolution (Settings → Restocking Fees), and are never applied to warranty, damaged-in-transit or wrong-item returns. Customer-paid return shipping is deducted automatically when the customer agreed to it in the portal.

SLA tracking and alerts

With SLA tracking enabled (Settings → SLA Settings), ReturnMate starts the clock at receipt, pauses it on pause-configured statuses, flags at-risk and breached RMAs on the RMA list, and emails assigned staff and admins when breaches occur.

Dangerous goods handling

DG-classified SKUs (Settings → Product Catalog) automatically block non-DG carriers, route to DG-capable ones, attach the DG transport document, and apply DG surcharges. See Dangerous Goods Shipping.

Carrier suggestion and surcharges

Each RMA gets a suggested carrier based on destination, weight and DG status, and configured surcharges (SKU, destination state, bulky, DG) apply automatically at label generation (Settings → Carrier Surcharges).

Serial verification

With serial tracking enabled, serials captured in the portal are automatically checked at receiving and mismatches are flagged on the RMA (Settings → Serial Tracking).

Lifecycle emails

Customer emails (approval, label, received, resolution, rejection, quotes, pickup-ready) send automatically at each lifecycle step, using your templates and branding (Settings → Branding; see Domain & Branding).

Helpdesk sync

With Gorgias or Zendesk connected, customer messages and (optionally) internal notes sync automatically per your direction and retention settings (Settings → Integrations).

What ReturnMate does not have

To be explicit, there is currently no:

General rule builder (if/then conditions and actions)
RMA tagging system or tag-based rules
Multi-level or role-based approval workflows
Custom form builder (portal steps are driven by per-reason requirement flags — see Return Reasons & Policies)
Custom RMA statuses for standard returns (warranty statuses are configurable in Warranty Settings; the standard lifecycle is fixed — see the Workflow Guide)
Scheduled or time-based automations
Slack, Teams or SMS notification actions

If one of these would materially change your operation, tell us — see Getting Support.