Consignments

Consignments


Overview

A consignment situation is one where your goods are being sold by a third party and that third party has the physical product in their possession.    In this scenario
  1. The inventory stays on your books and you maintain ownership until sold by the third party.
  2. The third party reports sales on a regular bases and this is when the sale is recorded rather than the actual moment of sale.
  3. The consignee is paid a fee for selling the product,
In AccountingSuite this situation is handled with the following:
  1. An inventory location designated as a consignment location.
  2. A customer designated as a consignee.
  3. A Consignment Warehouse transfer to record the movement of inventory to the consignee location.  (only causes changes in location, not quantity overall)
  4. A Consignment Cash Sale to record the sale of the consigned goods and to record the consignee fee.  (decreases inventory and records sales)

Setting it all up

Enable Consignments

To enable consignments, open Quick Menu / Settings / Sales and tick the Consignments checkbox.
In the Accounting or Sales tab, enter the appropriate default accounts for consignments functionality.


Create a Consignee

  1. Open and existing customer or create a new customer. 
  2. Tick the checkbox labeled Consignee.

Create a Consignment location

To create a consignment location:
  1.  Ensure multi-location is turned on in Quick Menu / Settings / Inventory tab.
  2. Navigate to List / Locations and click Create.
  3. Tick the consignment location checkbox.
  4. Fill out the Address / Contact fields.  (clicking the Update Address will auto-fill from the customer card)
  5. Click Save and Close.

Using Consignments

To move inventory to a consignment location

  1. Create a Warehouse Transfer by clicking Inventory / Warehouse Transfer.
  2. Check the Consignment Checkbox.    The to location is limited to Consignment locations and the consignee will show.
  3. Enter the goods to be transferred and click Save and Close.



To record the sales of consigned goods

  1. Create a Cash Sale from the Sales menu.   
  2. Tick the checkbox labeled Consignment Cash Sale.
  3. Add each item that sales are being recorded for, the quantities and the sale prices.
  4. At the bottom, record the fee that the consignee is charging for these sales.
The total of the document is the amount that is exchanged hands.   Inventory will be reduced at this point.