Companies and businesses have huge transactions pertaining to their accounts payable process. They receive goods and services from various suppliers and they need to manage timely payments to these creditors to avoid default and adhere to the payment terms.
“Accounts Payable” is used as a generic term to represent various different things related to AP process. Some of the common usage of the term is:
Accounting Entry: As explained before “Accounts Payable” refers to the accounting entry that indicates a short term liability payable to the supplier of goods and services for the goods supplied or services rendered. It is a short term liability and categorized as Current Liabilities under the balance sheet head “Liabilities”.
Accounts Payable Sub Ledger: Companies and businesses have huge transactions pertaining to their accounts payable process. They receive goods and services from various suppliers and they need to manage timely payments to these creditors to avoid default and adhere to the payment terms. They use a subsidiary ledger generally referred to as “Accounts Payable Sub Ledger” and sometimes just as “Accounts Payable”.
Accounts Payable Process: Accounts Payable term is also used to refer to the accounts payable process. This process involves receiving the goods or services, verifying the quantity and quality with the Supplier Invoice and releasing the payment as per the agreed payment terms.
Accounts Payables Department: As companies have large number of transactions related to AP Process, hence many a times they need a separate division, branch or department to manage and handle all the AP related transactions. That department is referred to as Accounts Payable Department and sometimes just as Accounts Payables.
Eventually once we understand the accounts payable process and what are its elements we can easily understand what is being referred to at any point in time.
When products arrive at a facility, there need to be a defined process to let them in. The process for accepting inventory when it arrives is called "Receiving". Any warehousing operation must be able to receive inventory or freight from trucks at loading docks and then stow them away in a storage location. Receiving often involves scheduling appointments for deliveries to occur, along with unloading the goods and performing a quality inspection.
This article discusses the documents that gets generated during the procure to pay process. Undestand why these documents are created, what is their business significance and how they are handled and generated using ERP or automated systems.
Overview of Warehouse Processes
The basic function of a warehouse is to store goods. This means that they receive deliveries from suppliers, do any necessary checking and sorting, store the materials until it is dispatched to customers. Traditionally warehouses were seen as places for the long-term storage of goods. Now organizations want to optimize their customer experience and try to move materials quickly through the supply chain, so the role of warehousing has changed.
Accounts Payable Journal Entry
Although in the large organizations the Procure to Pay Accounting process starts when the purchase order for supply of goods is released to the supplier. To keep things simple in the beginning we will discuss the core accounting entries related to the Accounts Payables process.
One of the warehousing best practices that retailers like Walmart, Amazon, and Target have adopted is known as cross-docking. During this process the inbound products are unloaded at a distribution center and then sorted by destination, and eventually reloaded onto outbound trucks. In real parlance, the goods are not at all warehoused but just moved across the dock (hence the name).
What is a Warehouse & why companies need them?
All organizations hold stocks. In virtually every supply chain, gaps exist between when something is produced and when a customer is ready to buy or receive it. Stocks occur at any point in the supply chain where the flow of materials is interrupted. This implies that products need to be stored during this period of gap.
To stay competitive in today’s tough market, the location of your warehouse is vital. To grow retail business need to offer to customers faster and affordable shipping time, which is dependent on the warehousing location as the location of the warehouse affects the transit time to ship orders to customers.
When a customer wants a product that has been stored in the warehouse, the same need to be picked off the shelf (or off the floor) and get it ready for shipping. Depending on how big is the warehouse, picking can take a while. (Many distribution centers cover more than 1 million square feet.). Hence, warehouse order picking methods are an important aspect within any warehouse.
We need a strong payables process so that it provides us with a high-productivity accounting solution to process vendor payments. An integrated payables process provides strong financial control so you can prevent duplicate payments, pay for only the goods and services you order and receive, and maximize supplier discounts. Understand the key features of an effective accounts payable system.
Before shipping, businesses need to make sure that the items will arrive in good condition. Packaging is a form of protection against environmental threats that the product will face from the time it leaves warehouse facility until the time it reached the customer. The packaging is intended to provide protection for the item as it is being handled in the warehouse or when the item is being shipped.
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