Could it be possible to have an optional inventory sales item for sales invoices.
Use case: to sell an item from inventory, i skip the item column in the sales invoice and go straight for the account column where i can choose from many accounts. I then choose Inventory - sales and an inventory item from the emerging sales item column.
But what i would like, is to be able to choose an item which gives me, by default, the Inventory - Sales account. Thus opening the extra column for inventory items.
I addition i am wondering if it will be possible in future to be able to restrict users from certain accounts.
For now our sales person can also choose e.g. expense accounts, which she doesn’t need.
How is what you are asking different from the way Manager works now? Unless I misunderstand you, you can set a sales invoice item up exactly that way already. But I’m not sure why you would need to. Whether you enter a sales invoice item to open the account for you or select Inventory - Sales account directly, don’t you get the same thing? Why make it more complex?
Again, unless I misunderstand, you can already do this. See the Guide at Manager Guides.
The first option omits the need to choose an account, the same way as if you would have created a sales item.
The second suggestion limits the use of accounts, not needed for a specific function. If it is already possible to restrict, lets say, expense accounts for a usef then i stand corrected.
Perhaps I still don’t understand. Why not set the account for the sales invoice item to the inventory account? What I meant, though, was that even if you do, you still have enter one field, either the sales invoice item or the account. What difference does it make?
I cannot tell you for certain, because I use the desktop version and don’t have users. But as I read the Guide, and as other topics on the Forum have suggested, you should be able to limit which tabs users see.
@Hans, it’s not possible to restrict individual users from using certain accounts within Chart of Accounts. I do plan to go deeper in user permissions so this could be implemented in future but don’t expect this anytime soon yet.
As for having easier way to add inventory items to invoice. I think the best way to solve this will be that you could set default account to be Inventory - sales instead of Suspense. That way if the invoice is mostly inventory items, Inventory - sales would be automatically pre-selected.
I don’t want to put inventory items into Items column (even though it has been suggested many times before) because in Manager, you can interact with inventory items on cash receipts, cash payments, even on journal entries. If inventory items would go to Items column, then in order to maintain consistency, I would have to put item column everywhere (including on journal entry form) which would look pretty weird.
So I think adding ability to set default account on invoices would solve the problem without breaking the consistency of the overall program.
@lubos, thank you for your answer. After thinking more about restricting accounts i figured you would get problems with predefined sales invoice items which are coupled to accounts that are restricted. for that user. Hmmm difficult.
I understand you don’t want to put inventory items into Items column. I was suggesting being able to create a predifined Sales invoice item with the Inventory - sales account coupled to this item without a specific Inventory item. Therefore creating a general item for selling inventory. Does this makes sense !?
Which is almost the same as what you are proposing.
The idea came to mind because this way our sales invoice data entry assistent, who handles our patients invoices and recieves payment and knows nothing about accounting, doesn’t need to choose an account while creating invoice.
I thought about this a bit more and I realized this is actually better solution because it solves another two problems I was yet to address: pricing levels and supplier item codes.
So in the latest version (15.5.31), you can create sales invoice items and purchase invoice items for inventory items too.
This will be useful not only for your use case but also for cases where you have multiple prices for your inventory items. Or where inventory item can be purchased from multiple suppliers and these suppliers have different inventory codes.
If I understand your question correctly, you cannot set anything other than Suspense to come up as the account on a sales invoice line item. But you can define accounts for sales invoice items, so they automatically populate when you select that sales invoice item.
I changed my mind on this. In the end, I will be moving all inventory items under Items column so if you are selling inventory, you won’t need to select any account. Just select the item and account will be automatically selected.
