Configurations or not?

ok, so currently my employer does not have a PDM system but we are getting one installed within the next month or so.  With that, we decided we need to come up with a new part numbering system.

My first question is this.  If a single part is manufactured in mulptuple colors, do you simply keep everything in a default configuration and note the color options in the file properties, or do you create a new conifuration for each of the colors with configuration specific properties?

My initial thought was multiple configurations.  So the default would be natural/colorless and each color would be a new configuration.  That way, if we have an assembly that has multiple configurations of color combinations we could more easily call out the differences.  The area i was getting hung up on is when i get to a drawing.  I wanted a single drawing page per part, but i wanted a table that listed all the configurations that the part has (along with some configuration specific details such as pantone color, generic color name, etc).

Any thoughts?

SolidworksConfigurations design Tables