[SL] Service company; ad-hoc parts, parking/fuel expenses

[Alan M. <li...@mu...>]

Hello.

I run an IT service company (well, just myself, really).  I don't keep an inventory, but do buy hardware and software for my clients on an as-needed basis.  I am wondering if the following workflow is correct?

First, I created two parts: "HARD001 - Hardware" and "SOFT001 - Software".  My idea is to use just those "parts" for hardware and software, rather than creating a seperate part for every piece of hardware and software I purchase.  I would then just change the descriptions as appropriate (e.g., change "Hardware" to "Dual-head video card" or change "Software" to "Microsoft Office 2007 Profession", etc.)

Once I purchase a part, I would then create a purchase order.  From the purchase order I then create a vendor invoice, which I then issue a payment on after it has been posted.

This should, I believe, do the following:

  1.) Place the part into inventory
  2.) Balance out any amount owing to "0"

Once the part is in inventory, when I add it to a Sales Order, I am assuming that the inventory will be reduced accordingly?

Is this a good way to go about it, or is there a better way?  The only reason I am wanting to mess around with POs and vendor invoices is because I need to make sure I track the taxes that I pay on goods I am then reselling to my clients, and I don't know of another way to do that?

While on the topic, I also keep track of other expenses like parking and fuel.  What is the best way to do that?  Should I enter them in individually as a GL transaction, or do a PO/vendor invoice thing?  I wouldn't want to do a PO/vendor invoice for each individual fuel and parking expense, as I have quite a few of them in the course of a month.  Is this what "Vouchers" are for?  I am thinking a "cleaner" way to do this is to track my fuel and parking for each month seperately, but in a spreadsheet (one for each month) which keeps a total of each expense, plus any taxes paid on it.  I can then maybe create a "dummy" vendor for these sorts of expenses and do the PO/vendor invoice thing; I wouldn't mind doing it once per month, or is a GL transaction best?  Can you input taxes paid and have them go into the appropriate tax account by doing a GL transaction?

I hope that makes sense?

Thanks for your tips!

-Alan