changes to commitment accounting

I have been requested to look into the below by accountants - any advice? I am extremely reluctant to any of the below due to potential work involved and the minimum benefit that could possibly be gained also we have been doing this for 10 years without issue and would have problems with open items etc i expect.

EXPENDITURE EXAMPLE:

Currently when something is ordered on SAP it shows in the Commitment colum

n. When the invoice is matched to the order the expenditure is moved the Ac

tual column. The problem is that when matched, expenditure is moved to the

Actual column even if the invoice has not been paid, e.g. price/qty varianc

e. This can be quite misleading for accountants as you need to drill throug

h several screens on each individual transaction to determine whether or no

t it has actually been paid.

INCOME EXAMPLE:

Currently when a debtor is raised it goes straight into the Actual column.

This can be misleading as anyone looking at the cost centre would assume th

at the income has been received.

My proposal is that all unpaid invoices stay in the commitment column until

they are paid. This will increase transparency for accountants and budget

managers alike. Basically anything in the actual column has been paid or re

ceived; anything in the commitment column is outstanding.