How Do I Record an Apparel Order With More Than One Supplier?

Question: How do I record an apparel order with more than one supplier?

Answer: We do have complicated orders in our business—none more so than apparel orders. In all orders, I recommend that you use your internal purchase order number to number all parts of the order in your system: Customer Sales Order, Supplier Purchase Order, and Invoice. That makes it easier to find and reference when dealing with both your customers and suppliers as well as internally within your business.

Let’s say that this is your purchase order 1000. Make this your Customer Sales Order 1000, and when the time comes, Invoice 1000. This will involve overriding the auto-generated number in your system for the Invoice as we rarely invoice orders in the same order in which the orders were written and submitted to suppliers.

When you have more than one supplier as with apparel orders, keep the 1000, but add a suffix at the end. This can be anything you want, but be consistent in applying the suffix. I like 1000A, 1000B, etc. And the case of the letter makes a difference. The key is to be consistent, so you can find the related Supplier Purchase Orders with ease.

Please email accounting questions you would like considered for the column to hgatter@accountingsupportllc.com with the subject line of "Ask the Accountant."