Sunday, October 07, 2007

WAKE UP, SLUGGARDS!

Of all of the major components of a financial system, Accounts Payable (A/P) is probably the most simple to design correctly; yet, it is often the most poorly designed of the entire system.  Why is that?

The truth is that A/P is not the flagship of the design.  It’s more like the supply ship!  Not fancy, not the center of most management meetings, just a valuable tool that manages expenditures. 

We all know that most developers are lazy by nature.  They don’t expend effort unless it’s required.

So what’s missing in most A/P designs?  The list is long, but how about the following for starters:

• We need the ability to research a vendor’s invoice from the vendor screen without having to run a report.  This would include the ability to see a digital image of the original invoice.  Invaluable for research.

• We need the ability to research payments made to a particular vendor’s invoice from the vendor screen without having to run yet another report.  We need the ability to see a digital image of a check or the posting of the electronic transfer of funds for that payment.  Again, invaluable when researching.

• Where are multiple discount options for a vendor?  Many vendors offer different payment discounts based on what you’re buying or the amount owed.

• Why not provide a flexible method for analyzing the benefit of maximizing float according to due dates versus the savings of using maximum discounts.

• We need the ability to access vendors by a meaningful code as opposed to some arbitrary, non-intuitive number or code.

• The package must have full support of 1099 type reporting.  (See article: “To 1099 or not 1099.”)

• Finally, give us detail information.  Don’t summarize into reporting periods or require a formal year-end close, losing prior year data.  How archaic.

There are more items that need to be included before we get a GREAT A/P application.  This is enough challenge for sluggard developers for a while!