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You might think that accountants would prefer systems based only on numbers. But when the IMA's Manufacturing E-Mail Exchange started discussing how best to identify customers and vendors in their computer systems, participants quickly broke into two camps.
On one side were members who adamantly asserted that a numbers-only system was the way to go. Facing off against them were the numbers-plus-letters advocates, while a small minority favored all letters.
Pro Numeric
Leading the charge for an all-numbers system was Norman D. Henry, CMA. The system at Leatherman Tools, where he's CFO, is all numeric, and it automatically assigns ID numbers. "I strongly discourage anything but numbers," Henry wrote. "Alpha-numenc aaas extra worK at entry. And I strongly discourage building in any logic to the number. Let the computer apply logic within other fields if you need to do any sorting or other categorizations."
Jim Engel backed up Henry's thesis. When his company implemented an accounts receivable system recently, it added logic to customer identification with a three digit alpha, followed by system-assigned numbers. "We have found that we don't use the three alpha characters, said Engel. "We would not spend the money to do it again. Our customer list is greater than 10,000."
Kari Killers added that, in her experience, "Alpha codes relating to vendors' names are problematic at best. Not only do you have to deal with similarly named vendors and vendors who change their name, but if you don't have the same person setting up the vendor code from now until eternity, you will always end up with different methods of...