Andrew,

If you're response to Bruce is for this

you're incorrect.

Even when the Validate Ledger Account Option in Company Profile>Batch Options tab is set to Account-Department, it does not warn of the invalid account department pair if the account is there by default from the vendor master file with a blank department UNLESS you tab through the field. If you use the mouse (as Bruce said) to go directly to the amount field and type your dollar value and then click okay on the detail window, it saves the detail line without validating. Although this issue would only exist with an old vendor record or if the default GL account was edited by GV-RW since I was unable to populate a vendor record with a GL account and a blank department even if the profile option to validate was set to None.

And as far as the original post goes, I agree with Steve that some clients don't want the first available department to populate automatically when typing the account code and tabbing, even if it's highlighted and can be typed over. The selecting of an account-department pair from the finder is different in that you had to select that pair. When typing it and tabbing you didn't make a conscious choice to select that department.

Should people pay more attention? Yes. But that's not realistic in some high volume cases. The option to have it so the department starts out as blank on a tab would "force" them as you said to enter the department.

However, would implementing that option mean that selecting from the finder would make you select an account and then a department? Or would you still be able to select a pair?

I would say it should be a company profile option and AP and PO would need it most. Although I could see it being a consistency issue if other modules didn't have it as an option.