Re: [SL] A couple of practical POS questions

[Ashley J G. <agi...@pu...>]

On Fri, 2 Mar 2007, Matt Jackson wrote:
> Hello, all.

Hi Matt!

> I sell inventory items.
> I assume this means my process, starting from the beginning is:
>
> 1. Add my vendors

Yep - just a quick tip that might help you later - the "start date" you have 
on your vendors (defaults to the day you create them) will dictate how far 
you can back-date transactions for them. you might want to manually fudge 
that date if you plan to enter backdated purchases (eg, 01/01/1998 or 
whatever)

> 2. Add my items
>
> 3. (confused here) Add items I have ordered and their prices *at that time*
> (they change). I order 6 of this, 8 of that, etc. all on a single invoice
> from my supplier. Can I enter these "orders" with their particular order
> numbers/dates in that fashion in SQL Ledger? The only thing I was able to
> find was under "Order Entry > Purchase Order" I could enter one
> item/number/description, but not many. How does this work?

This is the first bit of SL "philosophy" for lack of a better word. Each time 
you enter an item (or a payment, or a line on something) press "Update". That 
will do the lookup (eg, if you enter a product code, update will look up the 
product, add the description and cost etc). After you update, you will find 
another line ready to be entered.

The golden rule: if you've done something, press update.

> Next, when I sell an item:
>
> 1. Go to POS > Sale
>
> 2. Enter order info
>
> BUT...
>
> - why is there only the "Record In: Accounts Receivable" option? Why can't
> I record it in checking account if I received a check? That is a different
> sort of asset.

That's a bit of an accounting question - the "Record in" shows where the sale 
gets recorded, which typically will be in something like "Accounts 
Receivable". You don't sell stuff to your bank account, you sell it to your 
clients, aka debtors, aka accounts receivable.

> - Why is there only one "record" for an item number/description/quantity,
> etc.? What if they order many items in one order? Is there a way to add
> more lines for more items?

Golden rule - click update :-)

> - Why do the "amount / source / memo" fields below that lead to my checking
> and petty cash accounts? Does the money "technically" go from AR to the
> asset account all within one invoice? Why not directly into cash or
> checking acct?

It's called double-entry accounting, and I'm not the right person to teach it 
to anyone, but essentially any action must affect two accounts equally and 
oppositely. If you receive money from a customer, it increases your bank 
account (that's one ledger entry) and reduces the amount in "accounts 
receivable", the other ledger entry.

Take a look at your "chart of accounts", "balance sheet" and "income 
statement" - you might want to turn on the "account number", headings and 
subtotal options in those reports.

Bear in mind that the POS interface is for a special case, where payment is 
done at the same time as invoicing. So normally, you'd invoice a customer 
(sale goes onto AR), then at a later time, they will pay you 
(amount "transfers" from AR to bank account). In the POS screen this is done 
as one step, but behind the scenes the transactions are the same.

Also, any general accounting book or information will help out with 
understanding why it's done the way it is. A pretty useful looking resource I 
came across is http://www.dwmbeancounter.com/tutorial/Tutorial.html
It might go a bit deep (I learnt most of this sort of stuff from various 
places so haven't gone right through it yet) but if you grok that you'll be 
very well armed to understand the accounting principles behind how SL works.

I hope though that this gives you enough to work out what's going on a dig a 
bit deeper with SL, let us know if anything's unclear.

> Thanks,
>
> Matt Jackson

You're welcome! :-)

-- 
Regards,
	Ashley J Gittins
	web: 	http://www.purple.dropbear.id.au
	jabber: agi...@pu...