Using Accounts Payable

Vendors: Adding a VendorUnderstanding Vendor DemographicsThis section discusses concepts related to the demographic information youmaintain about your vendors. It includes the following subsections:• Demographic Information: Different Roles, Same Person Record• A Vendor: A Corporation or a Person?• Formatted Names• Vendor Addresses• Vendor Demographics Forms and File Relationships• Finding Vendor Demographic InformationDemographic Information: Different Roles, SamePerson RecordColleague Finance treats vendors as person records that are part of yourinstitution-wide database of people. They are stored in the same databasefrom which you draw your students, employees, volunteers, donors, and allother persons and corporations with which your institution has a relationship.The following example shows how Colleague maintains cumulativeinformation on people associated with your institution but continues to needonly one person record.Stephen Jones applies for admission to your institution as a freshman. He isentered in Colleague Student as an applicant, is accepted and becomes astudent, and is entered in Colleague Student as a student. While a student hevolunteers for your institution, and is thus entered in the Human Resourcesmodule as a volunteer. After he gets his degree he continues at yourinstitution in graduate school.While he is in graduate school, he is a teaching assistant. You enter him inthe Personnel module as an employee with the position Teaching Assistant.When he gets his doctorate, he becomes an assistant professor for yourinstitution (a second position, Assistant Professor, is added to his employeerecord). After a number of years, he moves to a position with a localresearch firm, but remains an adjunct professor for your institution, andbecomes an independent contractor. This makes him a vendor, and youenter his vendor record in the Purchasing or Accounts Payable module.When Stephen Jones retires, he becomes a donor to your institution. At that52 Using Accounts Payable, June 19, 2009© 2009 Datatel, Inc.