[gnue-sb-discuss] Re: Purchase Orders for Utilities, etc.

[Jason Cater]

Peter, 


> The other alternative, I suppose, is to put some intelligence 
> into the system, so that each account code within General 
> Ledger has a flag on it that says whether a PO is required 
> for AP invoices to that code. If the flag was set, which 
> should probably be the default, the system would refuse to 
> allow a direct-input AP invoice to cost there, but would 
> require it to be matched to a PO instead. If the flag was 
> not set (for example, on Payroll, Utilities and Rents codes)
> then direct input AP invoices would be OK. Having said this, 
> I am not aware of any system that does this as of time of 
> writing, so I wonder if there is an obvious flaw with this 
> that I've not spotted.

I had actually wondered about something like this when discussing the
subject in IRC.  I think such a flag would be a *good* idea. I'm not
certain about it being true by default, but then again I'm a programmer
and not an accountant -- I'll let the accountants here debate that one :) 

I know in my existing company, whether right or wrong, they would not go
for requiring a PO for every single AP invoice.  We have good rules on
what requires a PO (goods) and what doesn't (services). Given the size of
our company and the nature of our business, this works great for them. So
they would consider a system that forces a PO for every single AP invoice
to be a flaw. But they would probably make use of this flag.

> * My apologies to Geoffrey Boycott (now *there's* a phrase I 
> never thought I'd type) for (ab)using his cricket-related 
> metaphor.

Hmm.

> -- 
> Peter Sullivan

-- Jason