Purchase ledger

• What is a purchase ledger?
• The Main Purchase Menu
• File Maintenance Menu
• Add a Supplier
• Access a Supplier
• Editing a Record
• Adding a transaction
• Purchase Reports
• Daybook/Audit Trail
• Pre-Payment Selection
• Print Remittance/Cheques
• End of Month
• Analysis Code Maintenance
• Index

Introduction

What is a purchase ledger?

A purchase ledger maintains records of purchases and suppliers. It is therefore similar in concept to the financial functions of the main veterinary system which it fulfils, amongst other things, in relation to sales and clients. A purchase ledger is sometimes called a 'bought ledger', or 'accounts payable'.

Because the number of clients a practice has can exceed the number of suppliers it has by a factor of perhaps as much as 200 fold, facilities available in a sales ledger program are generally slightly more extensive than with a purchase ledger, but they mirror the general operations of a purchase ledger.

Therefore it is highly recommended that the facilities of the sales ledger aspect of the main veterinary system are thoroughly mastered before the purchase ledger is started. You may be considering setting up the nominal ledger, if you have one, at this stage as well as the purchase ledger. This is highly inadvisable because you may well want to see how the purchase ledger goes before even deciding on what nominal accounts you want to have, or even whether to have a computerised nominal ledger at all.

As with the sales side, and computer systems generally, you should run your manual system in parallel with the computerised purchase ledger until you have mastered the difficulties before going live. The computerised ledger will not operate identically to your manual one, so you will need to learn the differences, just as no two manual systems are identical.

The Premvet 5 purchase ledger is designed to allow flexible control of purchases. Up to 65535 suppliers and 9999999 invoices can be handled by the system, disk space permitting. The system is open item and permits analysis by up to 255 analysis codes (and up to 9999 sub-analysis codes if required). The system will also print cheques according to user defined formats and remittance advices. Payment selection is designed to allow payment by combinations of due date, supplier status and so on.

It is best from an administrative point of view if responsibility for inputting data into the purchase ledger is routed through one person. Obviously that person should be thoroughly conversant with the general operation of the computer. The purchase ledger does not therefore support use by more than one workstation at a time. If this is attempted, the second user will be told to try again later.

The main purchase menu

This has the following options:

Select the option required. The purpose of the final option, return to main vet. system is obvious. The other options are detailed later. There is however one invisible option which will be explained first.

If no files are present, or if you enter an asterisk (*) from the main purchase menu, the purchase file maintenance menu will appear.

File Maintenance Menu

This has 5 or 6 options:

If you do not have multiple companies, the change company option does not appear. If you have no purchase ledger data files set up yet, you must run the first option before you start.

The purchase ledger may be subdivided into different companies (maximum 99). If the first company's files are already set up, you will be asked whether you wish to initialise the existing files or set up a new set for another company. From now on, when you enter the purchase ledger you will be asked which company you wish to use.

A single set of analysis codes (including sub-analysis codes) is retained between the different companies.

The 'Wipeout transactions' option permits the retention of suppliers and analysis codes, but allows transactions to be wiped out.

The validation option fulfils the same sort of tasks as the option General applications -> Validation programs -> Validate main data files does in the main veterinary system sales ledger records.

The expand files option is provided for the same reason as in the main veterinary sales ledger.

The change company option is provided to move between different companies (if used).

Add a Supplier

When this option is selected, a blank supplier record is shown and you are asked for the details of the new supplier. Listed below is the name and abbreviation for each field, which is used when editing a field.

Supplier Name (SN, 25 characters)

This is the name for this supplier. Do not reverse the order as in the sales ledger, or use commas, these will have no effect.

Address lines 1,2 and 3 (A1,A2,A3, 25 characters each)

This is the supplier's address.

Contact (CO, 15 characters)

This is the name of the accounts contact person of the supplier.

Record number

This is automatically allocated by the system and cannot be changed.

Status (ST, 4 characters)

This is a four-letter code to hold the status of the supplier or the credit period in days allowed by the supplier or decided by the user. Alternatively, if the due date for this supplier's invoices is a certain date of the month following the invoice date, enter the number of that date followed by a full stop. So if the due date is the 20th of the following month, enter 20 and a full stop.

Type (TY, 2 characters)

This is an additional code which could be used in payment selection, for example. It can be used to store information on the method of payment for this account.

Phone (PH, 10 characters)

This is the supplier's telephone number.

Telex/fax (TE, 10 characters)

This is the supplier's telex or fax number.

The following fields are updated automatically by the system and should not need to be changed.

Net (NE, 8 digits)

This is the net amount now outstanding for this account.

VAT (VA, 8 digits)

This is the VAT amount now outstanding.

Total

This is the total of 'Net' and 'VAT'.

Last invoice date (LI, 10 characters) and Last paid (LP, 10 characters)

These are: the date of the most recent invoice and the date of the last payment on this account.

Please note that these two fields are updated only when adding transactions and when paying off the last transaction on file for a particular supplier. The fields are not updated when editing or deleting a transaction. However, if you do have to change these two fields this can be done from the supplier record edit routine.

Month-To-Date (MT, 8 digits)

This is the total amount purchased on this account in the current month.

Age

This is the age of the earliest invoice which has not been paid off.

Amount (AM, 8 digits)

This is the amount which is now outstanding, whether it is due according to the credit period or not.

Year-To-Date (YT, 8 digits)

This is the total amount purchased on this account in the current purchase ledger year

Access a Supplier

When this option is accessed, you will be prompted for the name or record number of the supplier concerned. If no supplier corresponds to selection criterion, 'No matches found' will be displayed and you will be returned to the main purchase ledger menu. Otherwise, the first supplier to match with the selection criterion will be displayed. Either the name or the first part of the name may be entered.

Besides the record fields outlined in the ' Add a Supplier ' option, the last 6 transactions for this client are displayed on the screen. The prompt line then appears:

Edit Fwd Back Goto Tran Rep U/+p D/-own Strt Last Quit

Editing a Record

To do this select 'Edit' from the prompt line. This will allow you to edit the information on the top half of the screen. You will then be asked for the abbreviation for the field you wish to edit. These are given above in the ' Add a Supplier ' section. If you are not sure of the codes, type in a question mark '?' and the codes will be displayed next to the field contents for you to choose from.

The prompt for the field chosen will be displayed and then you may type in the new value for the field. Then the edit prompt will be redisplayed. To return to the main record prompt, press <RETURN> at this point.

Letters and Purchase Orders

In a similar manner to the Operation option on the management record you can access definition files, letters etc. from a supplier card using the 'Reps' option. This will give you the options:

Transactions

Transactions are similar to the clinical records on the sales side, they contain a record of the invoices, payments and purchase orders raised.

Selecting Transaction from the management prompt line will present you with the following sub-menu.

Transaction - Add Del Edit List Main Pay Quit

Add	Add a new transaction
Delete Edit	Editing and Deleting a transaction
List	List an Invoice
Main	Main from the transaction prompt returns you to the main supplier record prompt.
Pay	Paying an Invoice
Quit	Quit from the main supplier record prompt or from the transaction prompt returns you to the main purchase ledger menu.
Info	Displays additional information
Old	Details on paid invoices

• Adding a transaction

  Use the 'Add' option for adding a new invoice. You will be asked for the following information:

  Date of invoice

  This should be entered in the usual DD.MM.YYYY format.

  Invoice number

  This may be up to 8 characters (letters and numbers are both allowed) and it can either be your invoice number or the supplier's invoice number.

  Reference

  You have up to 35 characters here. This can be anything to identify what was supplied and provide as much or as little detail as you wish. If you used the supplier's invoice number in the invoice number field, you could use your invoice number here, or vice versa.

  The reference will default to the last reference entered during the current session for the current client. This simplifies entry of multiple lines of detail for the same invoice if you wish to do this. Once you exit from the transaction entry sub-menu, the default will be reset. There is no obligation to use all the space provided, because in some reports part of the field may be truncated for reasons of space on the display.

  Analysis code

  This should be in the range 1 to 255. The analysis category name will be retrieved and you are asked to confirm that this is the analysis category to which you wish to allocate this transaction.

  You will be asked for sub-analysis code instead of analysis code, if sub-analysis codes are set up. Purchase sub-analysis codes are optional, even if set up. Press RETURN at this prompt, and you will be asked for the analysis code instead.

  Net amount, VAT amount, Paid amount

  Enter these in the usual way for numbers, i.e. no commas, a full stop for the decimal point, and a leading minus (-) for negative entries. The maximum positive number which may be entered is 9999999.99 (10 million less a penny) and the largest negative number -999999.99 (1 million less a penny).

  You may enter the gross amount at the 'net amount' prompt, and then entering a '/' as the VAT will work out the VAT as a proportion of the gross and the net amount will be adjusted.

  Due date

  This should be entered in the usual DD.MM.YYYY format. The due date defaults to 30 days from the invoice date or the period in the 'Status' field of the current record.

  The balance due, and the invoice total both appear on the screen as well as a sequential invoice number for this client which is used if editing or deleting.

  Note: The maximum number of current (i.e. unpaid or paid but current month) invoice lines which may be held at any one time for any one client is limited to 300. Running end of period removes invoices which are not current if you find you are running out of lines. The removed lines are still accessible until end of year by running the 'O'ld listing option.

• Editing and Deleting a transaction

  Editing and deleting invoices is by 'E' and 'D' respectively in response to the transaction prompt. Select the invoice by typing the sequential number on the right hand side. If deleted, the financial amounts are merely zeroed. If amended, the last character of the text will be marked with a tilde (~). This is for security reasons.

• Paying an Invoice

  To pay or part-pay an invoice use the 'Pay' option. However, to use the cheque printing or remittance advice printing facilities, you will need to pay the invoice through those options and not in this way.

  The invoices which have not been fully paid off, and are due for payment, are then listed one at a time on the prompt line and you are asked:

  (Date, No., Ref., Amount) due - pay? No Full Part Quit
  

  If you enter Full or Part you are asked for the cheque number and the payment date. If you enter Part you are first asked for the amount as well. These details are only available on the daybook/audit trail program and not from the record.

• List an Invoice

  The option List from the transaction prompt is used to obtain a partial list of transactions which match a search string. Pressing <CR> will give all current transactions.

• Alternative Information

  Additional information about invoices is available by pressing <I>nfo (this is an invisible option and does not appear on the prompt line) from the supplier management record prompt.

  This gives sub-analysis instead of analysis code, net amount instead of gross, and VAT amount instead of payment amount. If sub-analysis codes are not set up, the analysis code is given instead. Before the information is redisplayed you will be asked whether you wish to make this format the default. If set as the default you can still display the former style of layout by pressing <I> another time.

• Old Invoices

  Transactions which have been paid, are no longer current, and have gone through end of period are still accessible by typing <O>ld from the transaction prompt. This option is invisible and does not appear on the prompt line. You will be asked 'String to search for' and may thus select records which only contain a particular string, or press <CR> to select all records.