A department is typically used for monitoring revenue and costs across different departments or cost centres, but since you can name them as you wish, apply them to customers, suppliers, orders, purchases and accounting they're flexible enough to use for reporting on whatever you can think of!
Note: If you are subscribed as a Retail/Wholesale business and therefore using inventory management then you'll see Channels.
How departments are assigned
Departments can be assigned to any contact or record manually or automatically.
Orders / Purchases and Departments
Departments can be selected on an order-by-order basis but they will also automatically inherit the department from the customer, if assigned.
Customers / Suppliers and Departments
New customers can be assigned a department manually, but can also be automatically assigned a department when they are created via SmartForms online.
Departments and SmartForms
SmartForms are used for capturing information from customers online, this might be an enquiry or a registration form for example. When the customer completes and submits the form to you a customer record will automatically be generated in Brightpearl, this record will be assigned a department. Any orders generated for this customer will also inherit the department, as will any accounting associated with the order or customer payments.
How to add a department
- Go to Setup > Department > List departments.
- Click the Add Department button.
- Enter a name for the department.
- Click to save.
The department will be listed and now available for assigning to customers, suppliers, orders, accounting journals and purchases.
Viewing Reports by Department
Departments can be used for breaking down your reports into areas of your business, such as online or other sales channel, or for reporting on cost centres, such as finance department, sales department. You'll find the department filter available on many reports in Brightpearl.
You'll find the "Departments" filter on many reports, such as:
- Sales Analysis (by Customer, Product, ...and more) Answer questions such as "What is the total sales revenue generated from sales in this department?"
- Profit & Loss Answer questions such as "How much profit has this department generated so far this month?"
- General Ledger Great for viewing sales or expenses by department!
