[AccessD] Staging/Queueing Ideas

 Hello all,

I have been throwing around the notion of building some sort of queuing
ability into an application I built.

It is an RGA (Return Goods Application).  This application tracks items
returned to the manufacturing plant, for whatever reason.  Through this
process, the RGA can be initiated by Customer service or Shipping.
Shipping will only initiate an RGA if material shows up on the dock
without any prior notification.  

Anyway, the Flow is as follows.. 
First Customer Service gets a call from customer to return material.
They enter this request into the system, and generate a number.  This
information is then Faxed or emailed to the customer.
Second they send this material to our Warehouse (Shipping).  Shipping
then verifies what was sent back, how much was good, scrapped, and
re-inventoried.
Third Manager of Shipping reviews the returns to validate any wrong
doings by our customers (tries to avoid larger customers getting free
material) and gives their approval.
Fourth, goes back to Customer Service who then requests a credit to
customer.
Fifth, goes to accounting where another quick review takes place, and
the actual credit is applied.

So I have 5 Stages/queues.  Currently there is no way in the application
for Shipping to know what to expect, or for Customer Service to know
what shipping has passed on to Manager of Shipping for approval, etc.. 
I did attempt to put a RoutingStatus field in there, but this gets
filled in the first time because it's required, then after that it is
over looked.. 

So what I am looking for is an idea or 2 that might be effective in
producing some sort of staging or queuing ability within this
application.  I do not believe a single field with "who's next" is
adequate.  I have thought about having a date at each stage to be filled
in at the time they completed their part, but does that seem overkill?
Am I making this part way too complicated?

Thanks in advance for any ideas,

Rich