Hi,
We're looking for a suggestion for the easiest way to handle routinely expensing inventory items. We just recently implemented NAV 2013 and are still getting the hang of things but we want to get this figured out before we go too far in the wrong direction.
We have an item in our inventory list for everything that we order. This includes everything from raw materials that go into our end products to the small tools that we use in the lab. We do this so that a) we don't have to remember if an item is inventory tracked or not (all things that are purchased are entered into the system) and b) the lab personnel can do a requisition for a new screwdriver without having to find the actual part number from the supplier and email it to us.
Originally we wanted to expense the items (screw drivers, etc) as they are received through some automated way. We have come to realize that this probably isn't the best way to go about it though. Now I'm thinking we should have a new location for items that will be expensed (these items will be received into this new "expense" location) and then on a regular basis (monthly, quarterly, tbd) we can look at the inventory for that location and clear it out to an expense account (or several depending on what the items are).
The problem then becomes: what is the suggested way for expensing an item from inventory? I can do an Item Journal to remove the item from stock, but that works against the Inventory Adjustment account. Do I then have to do a General Journal to adjust the Inventory Adjustment account and move it to the desired expense account?
Ideally I would like to be able to do this in one step (on the item journal). If I could somehow select the expense account on the item journal then that would be perfect. But I can't do that. The only thing I can change is the product posting group. I read a suggestion somewhere to create a fake product posting group for the expense account (set the inventory adjustment account for that posting group to be the expense account) but because I have several expense accounts this would mean several product posting groups which means many new entries in General Posting Setup (each new product posting group needs 4 entries - one for each of my gen. bus. posting groups). That just doesn't seem scalable and will result in confusion/clutter later on.
So, any brilliant ideas on how to handle this? I'm really liking the idea of a new location for expensed items, but I'm not sure how to handle it from there. All suggestions welcome!
Cheers,
Devin