Manage Customer and Supplier Records

Summary:

There are occasions when Accounts Receivable and Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP) are setting up and adding billing/ship-to sites to supplier records. Procurement sees these sites on the supplier record and inactivates the sites because these are created by others outside of Procurement. This then causes errors on the AR and OSP side when they try to invoice and the site is not available.

We understand that the suppliers show up when AR and OSP search under Manage Customers. If they exist, they create the new site using what is available. Is it best business practice to create a new customer vs adding it to an existing supplier record? What are the impacts of keeping these separate?