Issues Tracking - Ebola Preparedness

I'm considering having an accounting unit/account setup to order and expense supplies to along with a new Requesting Location. For existing stock items, our storeroom would issue to the new Req Loc (AU/Acct). For non-stock supplies, the PO would be expensed to the new AU/Acct. What do others think of this?

That's similar to what we've done in the past with H1N1 and other emergency preparadness setups. In terms of identifying the items, you could create an Ebola or PUI template on PO15 and then anyone ordering would know to use that template if they are ordering specifically for this need.

If I wanted to track supplies being used for a specific event or procedure I would have the requesters use a user field to identify that purpose. For instance they could enter E in PO User Field 1 on the req header to identify that the supplies on this req are for Ebola readiness or actual patient treatment if it comes to that. No need to muck up the general ledger. Puts the responsibility on the requester and the proper departments are charged for the supplies. Just create a report using Crystal or Addins to see all req lines for reqs with that user field = E.

Best to establish a corporate AU and requesting location for issues related to emergency preparedness.

Thanks for all the responses. At this time, I believe we are running with having a AU set up with req loc tied to the new AU. Until this is in place, we are using a user field in PO20.2 to flag PO's driven for this need, & I have a Crystal Report built for tracking.

Is that really best practice? Is there an advantage to separating this expense on the income statement? Does the expense need to be reported through financials or is this just for internal reporting? 15 years in supply chain and we've never done this.

We have an AU for emergency preparedness and as we are in FL we use it annually for the hurricane season. As I understand it, a separate AU is convenient for determining specific impact of an event. In our hurricane example, we can use it to determine how much over we went to deal with impact. Last time we had a storm make landfall, FEMA wanted such numbers from us.

Even if it's later dispersed to the expense accounts, Finance likes it to start in one spot.

That makes sense. I can see the need to have that information on the books for government reporting. Fortunately, we don't get hit with major disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes or huge tornados in Michigan.

Hello - just to update, while Finance is considering setting up an AU it was decided to bring a Business Manager into the Ebola loop & they would be responsible for tracking. Thanks to all!