Selling service engagements: Do I really need the Inventory Module?

  • Selling service engagements: Do I really need the Inventory Module?

    Posted by DSC Communities on December 16, 2016 at 6:07 pm
    • Tim Andaya

      Member

      December 16, 2016 at 6:07 PM

      Hi,

      We have a client who sells there services as package deals which may or may not include, travel and lodging expenses.

      They currently maintain their engagements outside of GP and then just make Receivables entries.

      They would like to see what we can do in GP to keep a better eye on what is/isn’t be handled in the other application but, from what I can see, they will need to setup both SOP and Inventory to get what they will need and the only reason they need inventory is to sell non-inventory objects (services, hotel, travel, lodging etc.,).

      Am I missing something?  Do they really need inventory?

      ——————————
      Tim Andaya
      Strategic Systems Group
      Thousand Oaks CA
      ——————————

    • Don Pugh

      Member

      December 19, 2016 at 1:50 AM

      If you want to generate an invoice that shows line items for travel, expense, then I suggest you create “services” type of inventory items, with the description, and GL account to be booked to.  It is not a lot of effort to configure SOP and Inventory.  You can edit the unit price and/or quantity  to reflect the actual amounts.  You could also include the line items for the labor services, such as “painting” or “diagnosis” or what ever you sell, and include these on the invoice.  The unit of measure could be hours or days or weeks, depending on your business.  All the information could be imported with IM from an external system.

      Another thought would be to consider Project Accounting if that is the nature of the business.

      But if your labor invoice is generated externally then just bringing the total as a receivable item would work.  But I would think that customers/clients would want to see everything on a single invoice.

      Every business has a critical business application that is customer facing.  In you business this sounds like the consulting services and the ability to provide a good invoice and project status.  This is where the time and effort should be spent on building the best solution possible. 

      Don

      ——————————
      Don Pugh
      GP Consultant
      Sandon Associates
      Woodside CA
      ————————————————————————-

    • Leslie Vail

      Member

      December 21, 2016 at 12:49 AM

      It is my understanding that all of the master files come with system manager. It doesn’t matter these days because everyone gets inventory too. I think you’d be better off to put in some bare-bones inventory. You can make some selections in SOP and Inventory setup that will minimize the chore normally associated with inventory. For example, not requiring an item to have a price list.

      Kind regards,

      Leslie

      ——————————
      Leslie Vail
      Accounting Systems Consulting, Inc.
      Dallas TX
      ————————————————————————-

    • Gerald Clement

      Member

      December 22, 2016 at 10:55 AM

      I would suggest setting up a few part #s to break things down a little.

      Then they can types in/override descriptions as needed.

      A part # will automatically post to its own sales account so that they well also get a separation of revenue types on their income statement.

      You will also have better sales history and can see breakdowns in sales by line item in smart list. 

      A simple setup of sales order processing and inventory should only take a few hours each.

      ——————————
      Gerald Clement MBA
      Dynamics GP 1993, Dexterity 1995
      Computer Productivity Services Inc.
      cps@cpsinc.ca
      ————————————————————————-

    • Bill Marshall

      Member

      December 22, 2016 at 11:59 AM

      The main advantage to enabling Inventory is to have more control over the GL Accounts used by SOP.  If Inventory is not enabled, GP will default to the GL Accounts you setup under Setup/Posting.  If you enable Inventory, you can assign specific GL Accounts to each item or item class to get different items to post, for example, to different sales accounts.

      ——————————
      Bill Marshall
      President
      mc²
      ————————————————————————-

    DSC Communities replied 7 years, 7 months ago 1 Member · 0 Replies
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