Special Considerations for Initial Setup

Before beginning Initial Setup, you need to consider several options that may affect your system’s operation. The Special Considerations section includes discussion of accounting design issues and some optional features, which allow you to tailor your system to your particular organization. The following pages describe these system options.

Running Without General Ledger

If the General Ledger application is not part of the system, General Ledger account number verifications cannot be performed.

Files Shared With Other Applications

Several of the files that Purchase Orders requires are shared with the Accounts Payable and Inventory Control applications.

The following files are shared with Accounts Payable. If Accounts Payable has already been installed, these files already exist. They can be updated from either Purchase Orders or Accounts Payable:

• Vendors
• Terms

The operating phase of Accounts Payable dictates the operating phase of these files. For example, if Accounts Payable is in Live Operations, these files are operationally in Live Operations regardless of the operating phase of Purchase Orders.

The following files are shared with Inventory Control if Inventory Control is part of the system. If Inventory Control has already been installed, these files already exist. They can be updated from either Purchase Orders or Inventory Control:

• Product Classes
• Products
• Warehouses
• Products By Warehouse
• Products By Vendor

The operating phase of Inventory Control dictates the operating phase of these files. For example, if Inventory Control is in Live Operations, these files are operationally in Live Operations regardless of the operating phase of Purchase Orders.

The following files are not shared with Accounts Payable or Inventory Control.

• Parameters
• Special Instructions
• Status Codes • Alternate Addresses
• Purchase Orders

Data Transfer to Other Applications

The Purchase Orders application requires both the Inventory Control and Accounts Payable applications. The Purchase Orders Parameters file contains options that specify how Purchase Orders interfaces with Accounts Payable and Inventory Control.

Accounts Payable

• Inventoried Purchases must be entered through Purchase Orders.
• Posting of purchase orders and invoices in Purchase Orders automatically updates files in Accounts Payable.

Inventory Control

• On hand and on order quantities, purchase history, and inventory costing data are updated in the files that Purchase Orders shares with Inventory Control.
• Product (on hand) receipts can be entered through one of the two applications. (The application used for receipt entry is specified in the Purchase Orders Parameters file.)
• History in the Products by Vendor file can be updated during end-of-month processing in either application.
• Information in the Products By Vendor file can be maintained on either a calendar or a fiscal year basis. Detail can be maintained with breakdowns by individual vendor, if this option is chosen in the Inventory Control Parameters file.
• The estimated freight option is available, if it is selected in the Inventory Control Parameters file. If this option is selected the system increases the cost of products by a given percentage when invoices are posted, before updating the costs in inventory, to cover the estimated freight cost.