Method:API Q&A

Re: Total Balance

nick_warren — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 22:23:49 GMT

Paul,

I do not understand why Method doesn't keep track of this Balanace until the Sync. Once a refund/payment is entered to Method, you can automatically determine the new Balance, then update it if needed when Syncing with QuickBooks. The balance though is a simple calculation of Debit-Credit transactions.

Nick

Re: Total Balance

Method_Paul — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 15:54:21 GMT

Nick & Dave -

The tweak is up there now. The total balance will be updated for the direct parent customer on the subsequent changes-only sync, so you are now looking at a 20 minute delay instead of full sync every morning.

The problem stems from a limitation (bug?) in the QuickBooks SDK. The parent customer is not flagged as having been modified, even though the total balance changed. In QuickBooks 2008 they fixed this issue somewhat, by finally flagging the base customer as having been modified if they had a transaction pass through involving them. But they never extended this tweak up the Customer:Job hierarchy. We query QuickBooks for any customer that has changed since last time we did a changes-only sync, and since the parent customer hasn't changed, it doesn't get picked up by the query. The tweak I made was that if a customer has a balance change, and they are a sub customer, then flag its parent as needing to be updated on the next sync.

Paul

Re: Total Balance

Method_Paul — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 01:24:22 GMT

Nick & Dave -

I have an idea for how we could get the TotalBalance from QuickBooks on a changes-only sync, rather than having to wait for a full sync.

I'll see if my idea holds water, and post back with my findings.

Paul

Re: Total Balance

Method_David — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 22:19:42 GMT

Hi nick_warren,

Sorry about the delay, it's been a busy week.

The API can only access data in your method account. In the scenario discussed above. After method syncs the refund to quickbooks, quickbooks updates a balance record. Method does not know this. The only way it can know about the change in quickbooks is if a sync from quickbooks back to method happens.

That's why after the full sync method has the correct data. You've told the sync engine to pass all quickbooks changes back to method

Dave

Re: Total Balance

nick_warren — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 13:56:56 GMT

I just confirmed it - The balance in Method only updates after a Full Sync.

1) Is there an override for this?

2) It makes no sense :) Here is the process:

I issue a refund in Method
Method syncs QuickBooks
QuickBooks updates the Balance record and shows the correct balance.
Method still shows the OLD balance.
Issuing a Full sync updates Method to the correct balance.

Dave - is this correct?

Re: Total Balance

nick_warren — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 13:42:50 GMT

David,

I ran the query again today. Seems like the query returns the correct amounts now. As we did not change ANYTHING on our side and simply ran the query, I can only assume one of two things:

1) You guys changed something on your end.

2) Updating the balance of a customer requires a "Full Sync", which probably happened overnight. Is this true?

Re: Total Balance

Method_David — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 00:40:14 GMT

Hi nick_warren and lacrews,

For the record, no one at method ever gives up on a client and their forum questions....but the sad fact of the matter is sometimes we have other things to do that delay when we reply to a forum post.

I am currently working on trying to reproduce this issue you are reporting.

In the meantime, Nick_warren can you confirm following:

1. The method RecordID of the customer you are querying is correct (The fastest way is just to pull all customers and verify the recordid is correct)

2. Do you have multiple records in the customer table for this customer?

3. On the Customer and contacts list....what is the balance in the grid for this customer?

4. On the Edit Customer page...what is the value of current balance?

Dave

Re: Total Balance

nick_warren — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 22:03:37 GMT

I already did - the Exported file reflects the exact thing I get from the API. As you said, the file is generated through the API, so its not a suprise.

The transactions are applied on that specific Job - there is no doubt about it as QuickBooks is showing it. Method is simply showing something else. I cannot explain it. I was hoping someone from Method would check it out, but it looks like Dave gave up :(

Nick

Re: Total Balance

LaCrews — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 21:22:56 GMT

Nick

I think I ran into a problem with this before. To make sense of this you can you export the customer table and include the fields Balance, TotalBalance, FullName, and ParentFullName?

This might shed some light.

Re: Total Balance

nick_warren — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 20:28:17 GMT

There are non at this point. Its a payment only and its applied on the customer in question. Please see the screen shot from QuickBooks as well. There is NO invoice here, just a sales order and two "Payments". These payments appear in Method under Transactions.

Again, quering the customer (Job in this case) in question only shows the $150.00. If I query the Top level Customer I see the $618 and not the $150. As you can see from both QuickBooks and the previous screenshot from Method, both transactions are applied on the JOB, so basically the balance should be the same for both the Job and the Customer.

Re: Total Balance

LaCrews — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 19:48:17 GMT

Hi Nick

I just took a closer look at your screen shot. Where are your sales transactions associated the payment receipts?

Re: Total Balance

LaCrews — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 19:42:20 GMT

Hi Nick

I'll add my 2 cents here. I've found it very helpful to use the import/export tool from inside method to study the data that is inside a method table.

Using this technique in combination with reports from QuickBooks I've been able to get a clear understanding of all the database relationships involved.

BTW: The import/export uses the API to get at the data.

HTH

Re: Total Balance

nick_warren — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 19:26:28 GMT

Ok, I found the transaction table - was looking at the wrong place.

I'm still awaiting your response on the balance issue though.

Thanks,

Nick

Re: Total Balance

nick_warren — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 18:24:43 GMT

Dave,

Thank you for your response.

First, I would appreciate if you could guide me on how to query this "balance" column in the transactions table. I do not see any "transactions" table inside Method.

Second, what bothers me is the fact that the customer's balance in QuickBooks is showing $761 (Just like the Transations summary) and the result of the query only shows $150.

QuickBooks is SYNCED and all trnsactions are posted. Can you maybe check this out specifically on our account? I can email you the RecordID of the customer so you can run the query and see for yourself.

Nick

Re: Total Balance

Method_David — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 16:11:11 GMT

Nick_Warren,

The transactions tab shows data from the transactions table, not the customer table. To see how this was accomplished I suggest you look into the design of the screen and the underlying table of that grid. There is a summary column there for the balance column of the transactions grid (i.e. the balance column of the transactions table)

The field 'total balance' from the table customer is not displayed on the screen.

Dave