Quotes, Sales Invoices, Purchase Invoices, Bank Payments and receipts all have description headings.
I know that everyone uses the program differently and you can in theory put in whatever heading that you want.
However, I would like to know what recommended practice is for what information to put in each one.
For example, I quote a client a laptop.
So sales quote would have Laptop Fujitsu E547
Purchase Orders and Purchase invoice would have Laptop Fujitsu E547
Sales Invoice would have Laptop Fujitsu E547
Bank Spend - Laptop for Client ABC
Bank Receive - Laptop from Client ABC
But I am not really sure if this is the information that I should be putting in given that Manager does not autofill the description based on the original description when you are copying to invoice or paying/receiving the bill.
Also when you are doing an overview of your general ledgers, I don’t know how useful that information is.
This is not entirely true. Descriptions are copied where it makes fairly universal sense to do so. For example, descriptions on sales quotes are copied to sales orders or sales invoices on the assumption that you are working your way through a sales opportunity. Descriptions on purchase orders are copied to purchase invoices, too.
But descriptions in a sales chain are not copied to forms in a purchase chain. And descriptions are not copied to bank or cash transactions, since the nature of the destination form is generally different from the origin form.
The question of what to put into the summary-level Description field is really up to you. And it depends somewhat on which reports you use. In some cases, reports rely on line item descriptions, but will substitute a summary description if there is no line item description. You might also consider what shows in tab level listings.
For your examples, I don’t think I’d be putting laptop model numbers in that field. I would enter something simple, like Laptop and accessories, reserving the model number for a line item description. Then you might also have additional line items for a spare battery, carrying case, etc.
For your bank transactions, I wonder whether you need to mention the client at all. When purchasing a laptop for ABC, the client doesn’t really come into the picture. You are purchasing a laptop from some distributor, either as a cash purchase or to satisfy a purchase invoice. In that case, I might mention the purchase invoice number, because that is the trail I’d most likely be trying to follow at some later date. Likewise, when receiving money from the customer, the receipt is to satisfy a sales invoice. You already know who the money comes from. It really doesn’t matter whether the receipt is for a laptop or a projector.
I think where my problem is, is knowing what to put into the description heading for payment and receipts. I could look at using purchase and sales invoice numbers for the description field.
Perhaps what I need to do is use my reports and analyse data and see what information I am looking for to help me decide what to put into the summary field description.
I personally found that very helpful. That’s why I earlier said “…it depends somewhat on which reports you use.” For example, I find the Statement of Changes in Equity report useful. But it did not seem relevant or professional to have a line on the report for “Online transfer to personal bank account.” So I put the simple description, Draw, in the Description field of the line item of the payment transaction form. And I enter the more complete Online transfer to personal bank account in the summary level Description field. This way, I have all the information I may need in the future and the report is succinct. I originally did it the other way around, but switched after seeing which field the program used for which reports.