Question 1
"I have been asked to speed up the quarterly management reporting process which at the moment I report on a quarter almost 2 months after the period end date. One of the reasons for this is we wait on accruals to come in after the period end - about a month. I have thought of using a purchase order system but I am not sure on how easy this is to set up. Is there software we can use that will allow staff to make purchase orders that is easy to use and does not require too much accounts labour time to monitor, and for it to be useful for accruals reporting?"
- There are several purchase order systems available, some of which are online (in the cloud") and some of which are installed on the user's computer. Both could be used for gathering information on accruals.
- What sort of accounting system do you use currently? There may be a facility in that that will deal with POs that has not yet been turned on.
- How do you get details on accruals currently? Is there any sign off process on purchases?
- How accurate does your management accounts need to be?
- Do the people who would be raising purchase orders have access to the internet? Would it be ok to store details of purchase orders online in a secure manner?
- Do you have any other systems that you would like to have integrated?
Sage line 50 has a whole purchasing module as standard. It's also a network app, so anyone on the network could access it if they have rights (and licences!).
