Accounts: customers and suppliers in one list

One idea: the party and its roles

Sahl has no separate screens for customers and suppliers. There is one screen called Accounts in the main menu, and every record in it is a party. A party carries one or more of four roles:

• Customer: you sell to them and track what they owe in "Customer receivables".
• Supplier: you buy from them and track what you owe in "Supplier payables".
• Employee: has its own balance in "Employee receivables", used today for cashier shift differences. Details in Employees and salesmen.
• Salesman: linked to invoices so a commission can be calculated.

A company you both sell to and buy from? One party with the customer and supplier roles, each role with its own independent balance.

Adding a new party

1. Open Accounts from the main menu and click New party.
2. On the Basic tab: enter the Name (required) and choose the Type: individual or company.
3. Leave Code empty to generate it automatically in the form C-000001, or type your own code if you are migrating from an older system. The code must be unique.
4. Choose the Roles; at least one is required.
5. Optional fields: Default transaction currency, Price list, Classification, Region, Salesman, Licensed dealer / Tax number, ID number, and Notes.
6. On the Contact tab: mobile, phone and email, plus any number of Contacts with a name and position.
7. On the Addresses tab: billing or shipping addresses, each with its city and region.
8. On the Credit tab: payment terms, credit limit and the policy when the limit is exceeded. See Credit limits.
9. Save. "Save and new" opens a blank form right away so you can enter several parties in a row.

What the optional fields actually do

Reading a party's balance

When you open a saved party, the top of the form shows the Balance for each role it carries, in the base currency:

• (owes us): a positive number, the party owes you. For a customer this means unpaid invoices.
• (we owe): a negative number, you owe them. For a supplier this is the normal state when there are unpaid invoices.

To see what is behind the number, open Reports, then Statement, choose "Customer" or "Supplier" and the party name; you will see every invoice, voucher and cheque with its date and running balance. To see how old the debts are, open Reports, then Ageing. Details in Statement, liquidity and ageing.

Deactivate instead of delete

A party with documents is never deleted; it is deactivated with the Deactivate button at the top of the form. Deactivation is refused while the party still has a balance in any role; clear the balance first with a receipt or payment voucher, then deactivate. A deactivated party disappears from the pick lists in invoices and stays in historical reports.

Permissions

Viewing, creating, updating and exporting accounts are four separate permissions under "Customers and suppliers". Regions and categories have their own permission, and salesmen have theirs. See Roles.