Method:Classic General Q&A

Re: How to Change a Field throughout a Table

Method_Greg — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 18:16:22 GMT

Hello Josh,

I'm not sure what happened. Give Method support a call (1-888-925-6238 x2) and they can take a look. You can also email support@method.me. It's a problem I can't diagnose over the forums.

Greg

Re: How to Change a Field throughout a Table

JoshL — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 14:39:11 GMT

Greg, another clarification to my clarification: I don't have a list of varialbles in front of me, but I did use RecordID, not RecordNumber. I meant RecordID all along.

Re: How to Change a Field throughout a Table

JoshL — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 14:38:03 GMT

Hi Greg,

Sorry, I wasn't clear enough late last night, here are some clarifications:

- We call our customers "Clients", as QBO allows you to set what you call customers for your particular business (e.g. Customer, Client, Patient, etc)

- So if you look for Customer Balance Detail, you should see the same report. QBO lists this report under their "Manage Accounts Receivable" heading for "All Reports"

- No customer records were added, from what I can tell. The customers suddenly appearing on the Client Balance report are real customers. iIt's that invoice records are either lost or somehow no longer matching with their associated payments...

- Thus our Client Balance Detail Report* suddenly shows many more customers, who now have a POSITIVE (credit) balance with us. This includes customers from a very wide span of time, from 2007 and maybe earlier

- I can see no pattern to why certain customers had their invoice records affected and others didn't

- I definitely "update", but the update process appeared to hang. The screen after I pressed "update" sat at "0% Complete" for 30 minutes, so I pressed Abort. It then sat on the screen following Abort for about 30 minutes. This seemed odd to me, as the export process took just seconds. So I can't remember what I did then, but I think it was refresh the screen to another Method page.

- I used RecordNumber as the key field.

- The update worked insofar as setting the new Yes/No variable, which happens to be called IsDeliveredShipped. The right invoices were set to the right values (I set some of the records that are still in process to FALSE, setting all others to TRUE).

So I think something ancillary happened, and it may have been due to some problem with the update process, or me killing the process prematurely.

Shall I:

1. Call Intuit and ask for a reversion? If we go back 36 hours from now, we'll be safe, and I don't mind rebuilding the transactions that have occured since.

2. Call Method support, and walk through the audit on both Method & QBO?

After typing it, I realize I should play it safe, and do #1 right away. It would only be a 24 hours reversion if done in the next could of hours.

Thank you so much Greg,

Josh

Re: How to Change a Field throughout a Table

Method_Greg — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 13:40:08 GMT

Hello Josh,

In cases like these that are called into support, I would have to take a look at the Audit Trail both in Method and QuickBooks. They would say what happened to the invoices. Its unusual to have less customers when import updates. The common mistake is to add records instead of updating them. To have now five times the amount of customers is unusual. Also, the IPP doesn't allow syncing of custom fields. You are updating information in Method only.

I'm curious, the field RecordNumber. Is it a unique field on the invoice table? RecordId is the best one to use. Also, can you elaborate on what you mean by "did not do so in a consistent way" for the update? Also, where is the Client Balance Detail report in QuickBooks online? I can't find the report in my test account.

I'm not sure if a revert is possible with Intuit. If anything, it would be a full revert back to a specific date. You would have to talk to phone them. Let me know about the above. I'll see what I can do on my end.

Greg

Re: How to Change a Field throughout a Table

JoshL — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 05:32:00 GMT

Thank you for that excellent walk through Greg.

Using it, I was able to export the field I wanted to update, along with the RecordNumber, update in Excel (as CSV) then reupload.

But something has gone terrible wrong.

While the Yes/No field updated, it did not do so in a consistent way.

That is not the disaster. The big problem is that now my Invoice table in QBO must have become messed up somehow. Suddenly, we show much less revenue in months and years past.

For example, when I run the standard Client Balance Detail report, it is now 10 pages long, compared to just two pages before the update.

My current assessment is that some invoice records are simply not showing up to QBO anymore. So there are payments, but the associated invoices have "disappeared" resulting in many faux customer credit balances.

Any suggestions?

I can ask Intuit to revert our invoice table, not sure if that's possible. I sure hope so, because if not, my business is in real trouble.

Thank you for any direction.

-Josh

Re: How to Change a Field throughout a Table

Method_Greg — Mon, 18 Aug 2014 18:48:32 GMT

Hello Josh,

There are two ways of updating many records at once. You can do an import update or create a screen to mass update the records. The import update would be the best and easiest way of performing the update you need to do. All you would need to do is export the RecordID and your custom field. Then fill the values for the custom field with "TRUE". Next, use the import tool to put the data into Method, making sure you select Update existing records by matching the key fields.

The action dropdown is on a button on the Screen designer. You need to copy a screen or create a new screen to access the screen designer. You can copy a screen by right-clicking on a desired screen to duplicate or to go to Customize -> Screens and copying a screen through the Copy icon. Then you need a button to access it's Edit options. On Step 2, you can see the Action Dropdown. Try the import update first and then let me know if you would like some guidance in creating the update action.

Greg

Here is an example of button actions on the Invoice screen for the Save action.

How to Change a Field throughout a Table

JoshL — Mon, 18 Aug 2014 16:54:52 GMT

Greetings all,

I have created a yes/no variable in the Invoice table connected to QBO.

But we need the initial value of that field to be "Yes", and we have thousands of existing Invoice records.

I found Help topics that gave the "answer."

But for the life of me, I can't find WHERE I can find the "Action Dropdown."

So I'm left looking across a chasm to the promised land.

I found this solution.

I looked at every single screen in the Customize tab, but no joy.

I installed the Report app, no joy.

Where can I find the Action Dropdown?

If someone suggests a different way of updating a field across an entire table, please let me know.

Thank you for any direction.

-Josh