Method Community

Hi there,

I am trying to create an Invoice from a Work Order in Field Service Center, and the resulting invoice has no BILL TO or SHIP TO addresses. I am using the Method Screens, so I am not sure if I am doing something wrong, or if I am supposed to customize the FieldService_CreateInvoices screen by myself?

The steps I used were:

TAB - Field Service Center >> SCREEN - TemplateFieldServicesOnline-ScreenID189 >>

SECTION - Existing Work Orders >> Edit... a Work Order (marked "To Be Invoiced" & Status = "Completed")

BUTTON - Activities >> OPTION -  Create Invoice...

In POPUP SCREEN - "Set to Wait to Sync Approval" is YES & "Fill All Invoice Details?" is YES

BUTTON - Create New Invoice... >> POPUP DIALOG "1 Invoice(s) have been created. (etc.) >> Click [OK]

TAB - Customer Center >> SCREEN TemplateStarterEditionOnline-ScreenID153 >>

SECTION - Existing Invoices >> Select... the just created Invoice

The BILL TO and SHIP TO Address Fields are empty

BUTTON - Print Preview

The pdf Invoice has the BILL TO and SHIP TO Address Fields are empty.

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Any thoughts? Could you point me in the right direction to get these address fields filled up from the Work Order?

Thank you,

Hi acidemac,

Regarding this issue, I've tested this on my account and I also experience the same issue, so you've found a bug - thank you! We will forward this onto our developers and provide you with an update the moment it is resolved.

Regards,
Denis

Hi acidemac,

My apologies, but we've done a little more digging, and this is actually by design. The reason that this happens is that QuickBooks provides this information upon sync as it first needs to generate an invoice number that Method pulls. Therefore it would be a duplication of effort to pre-fill this data.

We all learn something new every day here at Method

Cheers,
Denis

Thank you Denis, for the update.

Cheers,

Hi Denis,

I still have an issue with this matter.

I only use Method to do the whole [Estimate --> Work Order --> Invoice] process, and I dont use QB to control the invoice numbers.

This way, I dont have QB open all the time, BUT I need to produce and email invoices directly from Method, with all the data properly filled, so I can invoice the customer from Method, anytime, without previous sync with QB.

Can you suggest any solution for that, as I can't depend on having QB open all the time.

Thanks,

Antonio

Hi Antonio,

This previous thread should point you in the right direction http://www.methodintegration.com/cs/forums/t/1331.aspx. The steps in the mentioned thread are for estimates but can be easily adapted to work with invoices.

-Michael

Thank you Michael, for your prompot answer.

I had the invoice number already sorted out; my question isthat I am trying to create an Invoice from a Work Order in Field Service Center, and the resulting invoice has no BILL TO or SHIP TO addresses. I am using the Method Screens, so I am not sure if I am doing something wrong, or if I am supposed to customize the FieldService_CreateInvoices screen by myself.

Denis was kind enough to explain that this is a design issue, and that I would need to sync with QB to obtain the BILL TO and SHIP TO addresses for the customer.

If this information is already in Method, at least on the estimate, if not on the work order, why do i have to depend on sync with QB to retriueve again the same information?

This is of paramount importance, as the main benefit of Method that was sold to this customer was that we could do the whole porocess [estimate -> work order -> invoice] from Method without the need to have QB open.

It was working fine with Estimates and Invoices - (Customer Center) with system and customized screens - but just started doing otherwise, after last week.

Could you please comment on this, Michale, as it is a show stopper for the customer, if we need now to sync with QB before sending an invoice out.

Thank you,

 Hi Antonio,

I have gotten some feedback from our team on the Work Order to Invoice process and I have been told is being revamped to populate the Bill To information without going into QuickBooks and should be pushed out in the near future, :)

acldemac:

It was working fine with Estimates and Invoices - (Customer Center) with system and customized screens - but just started doing otherwise, after last week.

Can you please elaborate further on this? Is the Bill To info not automatically populating upon selecting a customer when creating an invoice on the standard screen?

-Michael

Sorry -Michael, I mislead you on this one...

The Bill TO is not automatically populating on the standard screen after created from the Work Order.

What I meant is that I have been preparing the Field Services for my customer, and I am almost certain that the Bill To was populating when invoice created from W/O, until last week. Since then, it is when I realized this was not happening anymore. Did you introduce any changes on this process since last week?

Anyway, you did answer to this on your last post.

Any timeline I can pass to my customer, in regards to when we can expect the revamp to populate the Address and Bill To informationw/out going into QB on the W/O to Invoice process?

Thank you,

Antonio,

I can't give you an exact timeline on this but I know it should be in the works. I will update this thread once I get any further information.

-Michael

This has been a problem with my account also.

The Bill to Address is not populating in the Print Preview or the invoice data on the CRM display.

I can provide screen shots if needed but it sounds like you understand the problem.

However we are invoicing about 100 invoices per month and this needs immediate attention

Jeff.douglas@mvisolutions.com

Michael  

We are new customer to Method CRM and I wanted to clerify the problem we see.  When we create an invoice on Method CRM the Bill to info does not fill.  

It seem you know about this problem and never fixed.  My problem is that has been 10 months now.  

Per the forum Method_Michael  the problem was known about in November 201o

Since this has gone on 10 months I am wondering why it is not finished yet.

Please advise 

Hi Jeff,

This is actually a different issue then the one discussed above, the issue above was specific to Field Services for Method for QuickBooks Desktop. The issue you are having seems to only be occuring for Method for QuickBooks online, I have been able to duplicate this issue and will create a ticket.

-Michael

Just my two cents.  QB does some weird things with addresses in terms of whether the Company Name is stored with the first line of the address, how it appears on checks, etc.  QB also has a bug that appears when testing that if you use the text "Street" or "State" or something in your test records it will actually interpret the bogus test data as field names instead of string data.  Bottom line, is that I think it can be a good strategy to use method to copy over Bill To, Ship To, and other address data by using the Action Sequence so you can completely control this behaviour.  I am doing this for Estimate to Order to Invoice conversion and it works fine in both QB and Method.  I have Method assign the ref number without waiting for QB synch.  I created a very large Invoice number such that Method creates invoices above the largest number (make sure to remove weird numbers from your entire Invoice number population as it can send Method's highest number algorythm for a loop) and I can also create Invoices in QB in the sequence gap.  QB supports an unlimited number ( I believe) of Ship To addresses, but I have abandoned the standard Method Screen and some of this QB functionality that gets weird in the synch process (nothing Method can solve) and instead I customized all the screens so can control behaviour.  The standard Method screens are a really good start, but they have some strange workarounds in the Action Sequences that you can do without and you'll inherit Method upgrades potentially unexpectadely.

To update Jeff,

Intuit changed the way that invoices, estimates and customers are returned to Third Party Apps from QBO which is what is causing this issue. Once the issue is resolved I will update this forum post.

-Michael