How to have 2 companies share 1 inventory

[35mph]

Accounting rules aside... client wishes to set up 2 companies in Great Plains, but have them both draw from the same inventory...

Currently, in another software package, they have 2 companies set up, and in order to move inventory from one company to the other, they create an AR and and AP to each other.

They would like to be able to both draw from the same inventory...

I guess we COULD set up 1 company and segregate by GL account numbers, but they really use a different set of vendors and customers, so we'd like to use separate vendor and customer files.

I haven't gotten as far as figuring out just what the inventory accounts would look like on the respective balance sheets... I guess I'm hoping that the provider of this solution would have some additional insight as to what to look out for, workarounds, solutions, etc.

Maybe the best solution would be something like a tool that let's us transfer inventory from one company to the other without having to do the AR/AP thing... or it would set that up for us automatically.

Thoughts? Thank you...

 

[WarnerAlex]

I've seen companies who have set up one company with all inventory at one site and then entered transfers to other sites as needed.

 

[35mph]

Yes, that would be an easy way to transfer inventory from one physical location to another...

but we're hoping to separate the two "entities" a little bit more by having separate vendor and customer files...

They really are two separate companies, but they share one warehouse and product line... and hopefully we can come up with a better way to "co-mingle" that inventory.

 

[NEmacGuy]

Having limmited knowledge of GP, many systems at this level will not allow for cross company transactions other than GL. The closest I have ever come to what you mentions is with our current ERP system (not GP) we have integrated EDI build in both supplier and customer side. The two companies pass data back and forth via EDI.

 

[35mph]

Thanks for the replies, friends... here's a follow-up: same prospect, maybe different solution.

Any thoughts on setting up ONE company, therby sharing inventory and having two different warehouses... but the snag here is that everything else, like Payables and Receivables, has to be segregated out by "type codes" and different GL accounts... but that seems to be cumbersome at best.

Really, this is just like a large company with two different divisions.... that each do their own billing and disbursements... but they share inventory between their respective warehouses. And from a tax standpoint, they are both reported on the same tax return.

thoughts?

 

[stef315]

You can seperate the vendors and customers using classes maybe. Also, for SOP you can seperate the companies' invoices as types and maybe look at eOne Solutions product Flexicoder for GL Posting by invoice type ID.

 

[GPSKid]

Seems to me you could set up a Microsoft Access program with table links to both companies' inventory. This Access program could look at the quantities on hand and let you generate a table for each company with inventory item transaction adjustment entries. These entries could then be imported to thier respective companies with Integration Manager or Table Import. The Inventory Offset account could be a "due to/due from" ledger account at each company which can be used to settle between the companies at the end of the month. While not necessary, using common inventory item numbers at both companies would help. This method is a lot less work than generating A/R & A/P invoices.

 

[35mph]

stef315, thanks for the eOne recommendation... they offer some good tools for Great Plains. Sure would be nice if there was a way in Great Plains to have a given customer class (or customer ID) default to a given invoice format.

GPSKid, thanks for taking the road less traveled by suggesting a way use two companies, with Access sitting in-between. I discounted this idea early on, but am giving it more consideration. It seems a bit complicated, and fraught with ways to fail, but if it was set up right, it would yield just the desired result.

 

[stef315]

As for the customer class defaulting in the Invoice ID that would actually be pretty easy with VBA. You could also suggest eOne add it into their product if you thought you'd be able to use the product otherwise.

As for the two companies, we have one client that uses two seperately licensed copies of Small Business Manger because they have a simple business process but too many employees. I didn't do the work but my co-workers did some stuff to create one place to enter payroll that feeds into both companies. They had to draw from both companies for various payroll reports also. Not the best situation if you can help it. In this case, I believe the client has already outgrown the two companies also. I don't know prefer the back-end stuff although I'm comfortable with SQL. I think it's the accountant in me or something.

Anyway, good luck with whichever method you decide to use.