A/P Options Screen

Use this option to specify whether to cost items as soon as transactions are posted, or when you run Day End Processing.

If you cost items at posting, every receipt or return (and, possibly, invoice, debit note and credit note) will update item costs.

This setting also determines when Purchase Orders creates subledger transactions, and—if you create batches during posting or day end processing, instead of using the Create Batch icon—when it creates G/L batches.

Note: If you use Serialized Inventory or Lot Tracking, you must cost items and create transactions at the same time.

If you cost items during posting, you can choose whether to create subledger transactions and audit information during posting or when you run Day End Processing.

If you cost inventory items during Day End Processing, the program also creates subledger transactions at that time. (You cannot change this option.)

Tip: This option lets you choose between processing speed and keeping your inventory data up-to-date. For more efficient processing, create subledger transactions and cost inventory when you run Day End Processing.

Note: If you use Serialized Inventory or Lot Tracking, you must cost items and create transactions at the same time.

Purchase Orders groups outstanding transactions for the Aged Purchase Orders report into five periods, a current (not due) period and four previous periods. You specify the length of each aging period on the Processing tab of the Purchase Order Entry screen.

You can specify different periods when you are printing the report and you can change the default periods at any time.

This field displays the type of transaction for which you can automatically assign document numbers to Purchase Orders transactions.

Enter the number of characters you want to permit in the document numbers Purchase Orders assigns for the corresponding transaction type. Requisition numbers, purchase order numbers, receipt numbers, and return numbers can all be up to 22 characters long, including prefix characters.

This field displays the day end number that will be assigned when you next run Day End Processing.

Type the number to assign as the document number for the next transaction of each type you post in Purchase Orders.

The program increases this number by one each time you assign a document number automatically.

If you type your own document numbers for transactions, the next number is not updated in the Options screen, even if you type the exact prefix (if used) and number that Purchase Orders would have assigned.

If desired, type a prefix of up to six characters to assign as the first part of any document numbers you choose to let Purchase Orders assign automatically.

Use the Accumulate By and Period Type options to specify whether to report period historical transactions or statistics by fiscal year or calendar year, and to specify the period type to use.

If you accumulate by calendar year, the starting date for history and statistics will be January 1st. If you accumulate by fiscal year, the starting date will be the first day of your fiscal year.

The Accumulate By option appears only if the corresponding Keep Purchase History or Accumulate Statistics option is turned on.

Note: You can keep data for up to 53 periods per year (54 periods in a leap year), for any number of years.

Select the Accumulate Purchase History option to keep information about the items you have purchased and the vendors who supplied them. Selecting the option also keeps information about invoices, credit notes, debit notes, and items you returned.

You can then view the information in the Purchase History screen, use the History button to look it up when you are entering transactions, and print it on the Purchase History report.

Purchase Orders keeps purchase history by the type of year (fiscal or calendar) and period you select for the Accumulate By and Period Type options on the Processing tab.

If you choose to accumulate by calendar year, the starting date for the year will be January 1. If you accumulate by fiscal year, the starting date will be the first day of your fiscal year.

Note: You can turn on or turn off the Accumulate Purchase History option at any time. If you turn off the option after you have used it, Purchase Orders keeps the figures already accumulated until you clear them. If you turn on the option again before clearing the history you accumulated previously, the data will still be available, but there will be no figures for the period during which the option was off.

Select this option if you want to accumulate statistics from posted transactions.

When you use this option, Purchase Orders retains statistics from the transactions processed for up to 53 periods per year (54 periods in leap years), for any number of years. The program displays these statistics in the Purchase Statistics screen and prints them on the Purchase Statistics report.

You can turn on or turn off the Accumulate Statistics option at any time. If you turn off the option after you have used it, Purchase Orders keeps the statistics already accumulated until you clear them using the Clear History screen. If you turn on the option again before clearing the statistics you accumulated previously, those statistics will still be available, but there will be no statistics for the period during which the option was off.

(This option is available only if you select the Accumulate Statistics option.) Select this option if you want to:

• Add or edit statistics for previous periods of the current year or for previous years. (You might want to do this if you set up your Purchase Orders system partway through a fiscal year.)
• Add or edit statistics from posted transactions.

You use the Purchase Statistics screen to add and edit purchase statistics, and the Purchase Statistics report to print statistics.

You may want to turn on the option while you are setting up your Purchase Orders system, particularly if you are creating the system partway through an accounting year. You can then enter more complete purchase-order records by adding the statistics from your previous system.

Once your system is operating, you should turn off the option because the program automatically updates the statistics when you post transactions.

The Allow Edit Of Statistics option appears only when the Accumulate Statistics option is turned on. You can turn on or turn off the Allow Edit Of Statistics option at any time.

This option is available in Purchase Orders only if you do not use Inventory Control.

Select this option to allow transactions that use fractional quantities (you can use up to four decimal places). You can select the Allow Fractional Quantities option at any time but, once you select the option, you cannot change back.

Fractional quantities are useful if your inventory includes homogeneous items. (Homogeneous items are those with identical elements which can be broken down into multiple, smaller units, such as oil or grain.) These items can require a wide range of units of measure.

Instead of using the smallest unit (such as ounces) as the stocking unit, you can use a larger stocking unit (such as pounds) and fractional quantities for amounts less than a pound.

If you do not intend to enter any transactions that use fractional quantities, you can simplify transaction entry by not selecting the Allow Fractional Quantities option. This means you do not have to enter decimal places for quantities, and it means that unnecessary decimal places do not appear on reports.

Purchase Orders lets you choose whether you can add a requisition or purchase order for a vendor that does not exist in Accounts Payable.

You can add transactions in Purchase Orders before adding the vendor in Accounts Payable, but you must use the same vendor code when you add the vendor in Accounts Payable, and, in a multicurrency system, you must specify a tax group that matches the vendor's currency.

Finally, you must add the vendor in Accounts Payable before you can post the invoice in A/P.

Select this option if you want to be able to use item numbers that are not included in your Inventory Control system (or Purchase Orders system, if you do not use Inventory Control) when you enter Purchase Orders transactions.

Do not select this option if you want to ensure that all transactions use only items for which you have created a record in Inventory Control (or in a stand-alone Purchase Orders system). If you use Inventory Control and do not select this option, transactions can update item quantities and costs in Inventory Control when you post transactions in Purchase Orders and run Day End Processing in Inventory Control.

Choose this option if you want requisition detail costs to be copied to purchase orders that are created from requisitions. You can change this setting when entering each line of a requisition. (The choice appears on the zoomed requisition detail screen.)

If you do not copy costs from the requisition, Purchase Orders will use the default item cost selected in P/O Options, but you can still use the Finder to choose any other cost kept by Sage 300, or you can enter an item cost.

If you use Inventory Control, use this option to select the type of cost you want to display in transaction entry screens. When you enter item details on transactions, the program displays the selected type of item costs, but you can enter a different cost or select another cost type for individual details.

You can display Most Recent Cost, Standard Cost, Average Cost, Last Unit Cost, Vendor Cost, or either of the two user-defined costs you can enter with item records in Inventory Control.

Note: If you do not use Inventory Control, the Vendor Cost is set as the default item cost.

This option lets you specify which date the program displays by default for the Posting Date when you enter receipts, invoices, returns, credit notes, and debit notes.

You can choose from two settings:

• Document Date. Make this selection if you usually want the posting date and fiscal period to match the document date.

  If you choose this setting, the program will automatically change the default Posting Date if you change the date in the Receipt Date, Shipment Date, Invoice Date, Credit Note Date, or Debit Note Date field.

• Session Date. Make this selection if you usually want the posting date and fiscal period to match the current session date.

  If you choose this setting, the program keeps the session date as the default posting date even if you change the document date.

The posting date determines the date that a transaction is posted to General Ledger. The Fiscal Year and Period are based on the posting date.

If you have a multicurrency system, currency revaluation also uses posting dates to select open documents for revaluation, so that revaluation adjustments are posted to General Ledger in the correct fiscal year/period.

When you turn on the Multicurrency option in Accounts Payable, you also specify a default rate type, such as spot rate, for converting source-currency amounts in transactions to their functional-currency equivalents. The rate type you select in Accounts Payable appears as the default rate type in Purchase Orders as well, but you can change it.

To specify the default rate type, either type the code for the type or select a code from the Finder beside the field. You must select a rate type that is defined in the Currency screens in Common Services.

You can change the default rate type at any time.

Use this option to specify a template that contains the information you want to appear as defaults in transaction-entry screens when you start entering a new transaction.

Note: You can select a default template code only after you have defined template codes in the Templates screen.

This option can help you speed up data entry by automatically inserting the header and vendor information you use most often when entering these types of documents.

Note: If you use multicurrency accounting in Purchase Orders, the tax group for the default template must use the functional currency for the Purchase Orders ledger.

This field is available only if you do not use Inventory Control.

Choose the weight unit of measure which is the basic or standard unit that you use for measuring the weight of your inventory items—such as pounds or kilograms.

Note: Usually, you will add weight units of measure after choosing inventory options, so you will select the default unit at a later time.

Order Entry uses the weights in inventory item records to estimate the total weight of each order in the unit of weight you specify here.

Purchase Orders can use the weights in inventory records to prorate (distribute) additional costs on orders.

The functional currency is selected for the company in the Company Profile screen in Common Services, and is displayed in the Options screen.

Once the functional currency is assigned for a company, you cannot change it. All modules activated for the company automatically use the same functional currency.

Select this option to keep transaction details.

Purchase Orders saves details for the transactions processed from the time you select the Keep Transaction History option.

The program uses these transaction details to create the Transaction List for each type of transaction. Therefore:

• If you keep history, all transaction details you posted in Purchase Orders appear on the Transaction List until they are complete and you clear them in the Clear History screen.
• If you do not keep history, the Transaction List shows only current transactions (incomplete requisitions, purchase orders, receipts, and returns, as well as invoices, credit notes, and debit notes that have not been added to the batch that Day End Processing creates for Accounts Payable).

Note: If you do not keep transaction history, you cannot drill down to Purchase Orders transactions from General Ledger or Accounts Payable transactions.

You can turn on or turn off the Keep Transaction History option at any time.

You set the multicurrency option in the Accounts Payable Options screen. If you turn on the option in Accounts Payable, you also automatically turn it on for Purchase Orders.

After you turn the option on and save your changes in Accounts Payable, you cannot turn it off.

Use the Accumulate By and Period Type options to specify whether to report period historical transactions or statistics by fiscal year or calendar year, and to specify the period type to use.

If you accumulate by calendar year, the starting date for history and statistics will be January first. If you accumulate by fiscal year, the starting date will be the first day of your fiscal year.

The choices for period type are: Weekly, Seven Days (begins on the day on which weeks begin in your fiscal calendar), Bi-weekly, Four Weeks, Monthly, Bi-monthly, Quarterly, Semi-annually, and Fiscal Period (if you chose to accumulate statistics by fiscal year).

The Period Type option appears only if the corresponding Keep Purchase History or Accumulate Statistics option is turned on.

Note: Sage 300 Standard supports accumulation by fiscal year and fiscal period only.

This option is available in Purchase Orders only if you use Inventory Control.

Use this option to specify when to post A/P batches generated from Purchase Orders invoices, credit notes and debit notes:

• During Posting or Day End Processing

  This option lets you post Accounts Payable invoice batches created by Purchase Orders when you post invoices or when you run day end processing in Inventory Control (if you have it)—depending on when you cost transactions in Inventory Control.

  You choose when to cost transactions with the Cost Items During option on the Processing tab of the I/C Options screen. The Cost Items During option gives you two choices:

  • During Posting
  • Day End Processing

  Note: These choices can have a large impact on the speed of processing transactions in Purchase Orders and on the number of A/P batches that Purchase Orders produces.

  If you post A/P batches during transaction posting, Purchase Orders will create and post an A/P batch for each invoice it creates.

  If you are processing a large volume of receipts, you should cost inventory during day end processing or use the Create Batch icon to post A/P batches.

• On Request Using Create Batch Icon

  This option lets you decide when to post Accounts Payable invoice batches created by Purchase Orders. Use the Create Batch screen in Purchase Orders and select the option to Post A/P Batches.

  You can also post the A/P batches created by Purchase Orders using the Post Batch screen in the Accounts Payable module.

You can change your selection any time. If you were using the Create Batch screen to create the transactions, print a copy of the latest G/L Transactions report, and then create any outstanding transactions before changing your choice for the option.

Select this option if requisitions require approval before they can be converted to purchase orders.

Requisition approval is based on the Requisitions Manual Approval security right which you can assign to users in the Security Group screen in Administrative Services.

• If your security group is assigned the security right to approve requisitions, all requisitions that you post are automatically approved, and your User ID appears in the Approver Name field.
• If your security group is not assigned the security right to approve requisitions, all requisitions that you post are automatically put on hold, and the Approval Status field will display "Entered" until the requisition is posted by a user with approval rights.

This option lets you choose when Purchase Orders updates the last cost and most recent cost stored with items in Inventory Control.

You can update costs when you receive goods or when you post the invoice for the receipt.

By default, Purchase Orders updates costs when you post receipts, and it will not change these costs when you post invoices.

This means that if you do not have final costs on your receipts, you should change this setting to update costs when you post invoices.

Note: You can change the most recent cost and the last cost on the I/C Location Details screen in the Inventory Control module.

Purchase Orders lets you turn on or turn off warnings for items that do not exist in inventory.

Select this option if you want the program to warn you each time you add an item to a requisition or purchase order that does not exist in your inventory list.

If you are using Project and Job Costing, you may want to turn off this warning so it does not appear for non-material items.