Other Enhancements that could be added -- BPCS-L

In light of the terrific response I had to my previous posting of things that could be good to have in the next versions of BPCS, I am going to add two more.

1. The first one is something that practically every company that I have been in contact with could use. Most every company has Customers that are also Vendors and vice versa. Not only BPCS, but I have not seen any software that can provide a way of connecting a Vendor and a Customer account if the entity is the same. It is incredible because the need is so wide spread, and the solution is relatively simple. Add a field in the Customer Master file for the Vendor # and add a field in the Vendor Master file for the Customer #. Then write an option in the menu to run "combined statements" that will show both what the entity owes us as a customer and what we owe them as a vendor. If you want to get even fancier, you could create a transaction type to be able to cancel Invoices From with Invoices To one with the other. As a matter of fact, you can take care of the General Ledger in BPCS today with ACR500 by entering a credit and debiting your A/P account for it, however this still will leave the balance open in the Vendor account (A/P). It seems that it is just a little step further and you will have something that a great number of customers need and that very few software packages, if any, offer.

2. Commissions. In BPCS whereas you pay commissions based on payments received or on orders invoiced, the system is a one step system. Once, based on the logic you have built, commissions are due, you run the report and pay them. In real life, for the most part, this is not the way it works. Most companies, not all, but most, credit the commissions to the salesmen when the order is shipped and billed, and they pay it when the customer pays the invoice. Further more, if you use the pay commissions based on payments received method, from an accounting perspective it is not correct because when you ship and bill the order you will not be recognizing your liability due to the commissions owed to the salesmen involved, therefore overstateting your income and understating your liabilities. The salespeople could be entered as vendors in the Vendor Master file, when orders are shipped and billed, that account should be credited for the commissions owed, when the bills are paid by the customer, those invoices should be mark as due. The only complication here is the due date of the commissions in the A/P system. This could be handle by way of if the source is Commissions Due, the due date should be 99/99/9999 (the end of times), when the customer pays the invoice, that date should be changed to today's date, to make it due immediately.

As with the other posting. If anybody is interested in these enhancements and needs further clarification, thoughts, etc., I can be contacted at imco99@hotmail.com

I want to mention, for the benefit of those that think that things have not changed in SSA, that this seems not to be the case. I got three E Mails yesterday regarding my posting, so they are listening, it is up to us, professionals and clients, to speak up.

Ruben A. Mirensky