Problem
The general idea behind non-inventory items is to enable the accounting team to set policies for accounting and tax treatment of specific types of transaction that will eventually be entered by non-accounting staff, i.e. cashiers, salespersons, purchasing staff, HR … etc.
As many might already experiences with more advanced ERP systems like Oracle, SAP, Odoo or smaller accounting packages like Tally or Quickbooks, the cashier has the ability to record down-payments by simply applying the correct item, without the need to refer to the accounting department everytime a customer wants to make a down payment.
Currently, manager fails to deliver on what it promises: Easy use for non accountants as non accountants would probably fail to record many essential types of transactions, including but not limited to:
- Down payments
- Subscriptions of customers and other unearned revenues
- Withholding tax on purchase invoices
- Purchases of items for capitalization
- Settlement of employee benefits
- Invoices of social insurance
- Loan payments
- Personal drawings
And I am sure other users could add to the list.
Solution
In order for Manager to be truly user-friendly for non-accountants, it has to enable accountants to set the treatment for all types of transactions using non-inventory items, so that the end user has to select “Printer” in the cash payment and that item automatically go to to fixed assets instead of leaving the line blank and dumping things in suspense.
That’s not unprecedented, it’s just simply to be on par with what most, if not all, other accounting packages already provide.
The edit screen for non-inventory items should load a full GL Transaction line similar to the lines of receipts and payments like so
The staff who creates the PO or Purchase Invoice, will only select “New Car” in the item field – as they should – and the whole line is filled for him. The accounting department can easily pick-up from there.
Advantages
- Ease of use and less confusion of end users, especially since most business rely on non-accountants for document entry and creation
- Standardized accounting treatment
- Standardized tax treatment
- Less room for errors
- Suspense account is left for truly “Unknown” transactions
- On par with the most popular accounting packages