How to add a simple Boolean Flag value to each order item

Question

I am looking for the simplest way to add a simple Boolean value to an order to indicate if the order was broken within the shipping process. We mail a physical product out that sometimes get's damaged and need a simple way to mark an order as damaged or not.

I then have a separate system outside of Magento where I pull and build reports, so really I just need a way inside of Magento to add this value and ensure it is saved to the database for each order.

Could a Magento expert point me in the right direction, I am very new to Magento and it's a bit of a nightmare sometimes.

Actually after a though, I think it will need to be on each order item and not just the order, as some orders might have items that are not broke but other items that do break

Answer 1

Could you not use the Magento process of adding creating a credit memo for items that have been returned? Then you could simply look for orders that have a credit memo attached to them.

These items will be stored in the table sales_flat_creditmemo