Re: Can sales orders affect inventory?

[Stroller <..hidden..>]

On 13 Nov 2006, at 16:28, Chris Travers wrote:
> ...
> Reposting invoices can screw up COGS and inventory accounts even if
> you don't use the shipping module.  This has been discussed to death
> on this list already and so I highly recommend that people don't
> repost invoices.

I'm afraid I haven't been quite fully aware of this issue before now  
- I have only just gone live with SL this week - but I'm not quite  
clear how one can entirely avoid reposting an invoice.

I create customer invoices by entering SL's AR menu & clicking on  
"Sales Invoice". I enter the first half of the customer's name,  
"update" and select the customer from a list; I enter the part number  
& a quantity and the price & subtotal are automagically filled in; I  
email the customer their invoice as a PDF & when the browser returns  
to the "Add Sales Invoice" screen I see that an invoice number has  
been generated.

It is my understanding, however, that if I now close this window the  
invoice will be lost. Is that not the case?

If instead I click on "New Window" on the left-hand-side and in the  
new window click on AR > Reports > Outstanding, fill in no fields but  
simply click "Continue" all outstanding invoices should be shown. The  
invoice that I have just emailed is not.

If I go back to the first window, the "Add Sales Invoice" screen in  
which the details of the just-emailed invoice are still shown, I can  
press "Post". Only now is that invoice shown in the list of  
outstanding invoices... with, of course, an empty field in the "Paid"  
column.

When my customer writes me a cheque for the work done it is my  
instinct to go into this outstanding invoice, enter the date & amount  
of the cheque (what are the "Source" & "Memo" fields for, please?)  
and then click "Post". Have I now "reposted" that invoice in the way  
that is recommended against? Is there some other way to do this?

> I suppose that when we get to re-engineering the invoice structure,
> that the ability to really repost an invoice will go away (though we
> may have buttons for "void" and "return."

I believe that it is "correct" for an accounting system like L-SMB  
never to allow an existing transaction to be edited. I can see that  
this is clearly desirable in any situation in which employees need to  
be audited or otherwise accountable. I am sure I am in the minority  
here, but I am a sole trader & nobody else has access to my SL  
system; it is therefore quite useful for me to be able to edit  
invoices when I have made a mistake.

For instance, I find that the great number of fields in the "Add  
Sales Invoice" screen make it a little difficult to read, and I find  
it easiest to print a copy of the invoice (or email a copy to myself)  
for proof-reading. If the printed invoice is correct then this goes  
in my permanent hard-copy records, but if I have failed to price an  
item then I must go back & edit it before emailing the corrected copy  
to the customer. I use quite heavy use of notes - eg: "Labour - 1  
hour" might be followed by "Digging ditch", "Building wall",  
"Replacing roof tiles" or just about anything; I'm using Safari on  
the Mac & although I can call my browser's spell-checker for any  
field it does not seem to automatically underline words in the "Item  
Notes" fields in the way that it does in the multi-line "Notes" &  
"Internal Notes" boxes. I'm kinda pernickety & if I notice a spilling  
mistake - even a day or three after the invoice has been presented to  
the customer - then I like to be able to change it. I believe that in  
the UK this is quite legal, as it is the hardcopy invoice that is of  
relevance to the tax man; as long as the copy I keep is identical to  
that I give to the customer then that's what's important; the tax man  
will never audit my computer records because I am not required to  
have any, only paper records. I appreciate that correcting a spelling  
mistake in SL is fussy and that allowing my computerised records to  
have a different spelling (or otherwise different notes) from my  
paper records might also be seen to be "incorrect", but I prefer it  
that way.

Stroller.