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.
In the normal course of business, customers are likely to return orders from time to time due to various reasons and business should design processes the manage and accept such returns. A well designed returns management process can reduce costs and issues associated with returns or exchanges.
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.
Warehouses can be places where piles of packed or loose products occupy space. If left disorganized, it will become very challenging to identify products for packing or picking. Hence, proper organization of warehouse is very important. Warehouse labeling systems eliminate this problem by making sure products are easily identified and managed during the warehousing and shipping process. Labeling is the most functional and cost-effective way to keep your warehouse organized and operating efficiently.
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.
Subsidiary Ledgers – AP Ledger
An accounts payable invoice gets recorded in the Account Payable sub-ledger at the time an invoice is received and validated that the respective goods corresponding to the invoice have been received. Then it is verified and vouchered for payment as per the payment terms agreed with the Supplier.
Business Case of Multiple Warehouses
Adding extra warehouses to business provides many benefits such as reducing shipping costs, increasing storage capacity, and having warehouses for specific purposes to simplify overall warehouse management. Multiple warehouses allow you to organize your inventory in a way that helps your business be more effective.
What is the difference between Warehouse Management & Inventory Management?
The terms “inventory management” and “warehouse management” are sometimes mistakenly used interchangeably as they both deal with operations and products of industries. Despite their few similarities, there are many notable differences between warehouse and inventory management systems.
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).
Miscellaneous Warehouse Processes
At the end of each inventory control, the Contractor provides the Ordering Person with an inventory report which contains a list of all stock adjustments. The Ordering Person uses the report to create, by use of his/her own means, necessary value and accounting adjustments related to the stock. Let us look at some to the mislaneous warehouse processes not covered earlier.
© 2023 TechnoFunc, All Rights Reserved