What Is the Vendor Product Category Type?
The Vendor Product category type is assigned to sublets, warranty plans, and deal options used in Blackpurl. It controls which General Ledger (GL) accounts are used when these items are bought and sold, driving the accounting transactions that integrate from Blackpurl into your accounting package.
If you are not familiar with sublets, see Sublets in Blackpurl before continuing.
Vendor Product Category Fields
When you add a Vendor Product category, you will configure the following fields.
Field | Description |
Type | Set to Vendor Product for sublets, warranty plans, and deal options. |
Name | The display name for this Vendor Product category. |
Income GL | The Income General Ledger account where revenue from selling a vendor product integrates in your accounting package. |
COGS GL | The Cost of Goods Sold General Ledger account where the cost of selling a vendor product integrates in your accounting package. |
Inventory GL | An accrual General Ledger account used as a clearing account to ensure all vendor products are fully accounted for. Vendor products do not carry a running inventory value, so this should be a liability account acting as a true clearing account. |
How the Vendor Product Category Drives Accounting
When a vendor product (such as a sublet) is assigned a Vendor Product category, Blackpurl generates accounting transactions at each stage of the workflow. The GL accounts used in those transactions are drawn from the category's Income GL, COGS GL, and Inventory GL fields.
The following example uses a vendor called Smith & Co, whose sublets are assigned the Sublet Sales Vendor Product category.
There are three points in the workflow where transactions integrate from Blackpurl to your accounting package:
When a Vendor Receiving (VR) for a sublet is processed — a journal transaction integrates from Blackpurl to your accounting package.
When a Vendor Invoicing (VI) for a sublet is processed — a vendor invoice document integrates from Blackpurl to your accounting package.
When a Customer Order containing a sublet is finalised — a journal transaction integrates from Blackpurl to your accounting package.
Step 1: Vendor Receiving (VR) Journal
When a VR for a sublet is processed in Blackpurl, a journal integrates to your accounting package with the following entries:
Debit — BP Sublet Accrual GL (the account set in the Inventory GL field on the relevant Vendor Product category)
Credit — Received Inventory Accrual GL (a clearing account; the balance remains here until the VI is processed)
Step 2: Vendor Invoicing (VI) Transaction
When the VI for a sublet is processed in Blackpurl, a vendor invoice document integrates to your accounting package. The offset GL on that document is your Received Inventory Accrual GL, which clears the credit entry that was created during the VR.
At this point, the VR and VI transactions have balanced each other out in the Received Inventory Accrual GL.
Step 3: Customer Order Finalisation
After the VR is processed, an amount remains sitting in the BP Sublet Accrual GL, waiting for the sublet to be invoiced out through a Customer Order in Blackpurl. Once the Customer Order is finalised, two transactions integrate to your accounting package:
1. A customer invoice document is created with the offset GL set to the Income GL from the relevant Vendor Product category.
2. A journal clears the BP Sublet Accrual GL, with the offset posting to the COGS GL from the relevant Vendor Product category.
These two transactions together clear the remaining balance in the BP Sublet Accrual GL that was created during the VR, completing the accounting cycle for that sublet.
Warranty Plans and Deal Products
Warranty plans and deal products are also assigned the Vendor Product category type. It is recommended that you set up separate categories for warranty plans and deal products, each with their own relevant GL accounts, rather than sharing the same category used for sublets.