Method Community

I need to add an area for a shipping tracking number on the Method Invoice as well as a couple of other items.... can someone advise me?

Thanks,

Shane

Hi Shane,

The first thing you need to do is add fields to the Invoice table. You can add fields by doing the following:

1. Go to Customize>Tables/Fields
2. Click on the Invoice table
3. Type in the name of the field in the "Field Name" field and select the "Field Type" from the dropdown. You can choose from: Text, Decimal, Integer, DateTime, Dropdown, Money, YesNo, FileAttachment, and Picture.
   

The second thing that you need do is make a copy of the original invoice screen. You can do that by doing the following:

1. Go to Customize>Screen
2. Click on the QuickBooks_Invoice screen and click on the Copy link.
   
3. In the Copy Screen Wizard that appears, in Step 1 of 3: Choose Screen, you need to select This Account and then click the Next button.
   
4. In Step 2 of 3: Choose Screen, you can then give this screen a new name within the Save as: field.
   
5. In Step 3 of 3: Tab Link, I recommend that you select the option of Add a Tab Link, and then select the Tab to add the screen to and the Tab Link caption for that specific tab.
   

You can then go to Customize>Screens, select the screen that you have just created, and click Edit which will open up the designer screen for you where you can add those fields that you have previously added from the ToolBox section.

I hope that this helps.

Ronen

Thanks Ronen,

I’m simply trying to get the phone contact info for my customer to appear after the Bill To address info. Seems simple enough but can’t quite figure it out. Is the BillAddressInfo4 supposed to be that info?

thanks

Shane,

There's already a field for that in the Customer Table and I think in the Invoice Table since I think I even remember having this on my old QB Invoice report.  Not sure if Method's default Invoice screen has this, but you should just be able to add the field to the screen without adding any fields to tables.  I think the field has an obvious name like Phone.

There should be a way to having multiple contacts with associated phone, fax, and e-mail addresses and think these fields are all already in all the table structures.  I think you want to avoid creating this new in a table, versus finding out what's already there and just using in the screens.

One of the easiest ways to see what data is in what fields is to export a table to Excel using the Export tool on the Integration tab.  QB does some weird stuff with address fields and it can be useful to see what all the Address1,2,3,4 are about.  Personally, I think I only use Address1 and 2, since it's hard to get good formatting with 4 lines of Address plus City, State, and Zip.  Plus since I use separate Bill To, Deliver To, addresses, I force the convention that you can only have either a P.O. Box, or a Street Address, but not both in a single address.  And, Blg, Suite, etc. just goes on the same line as Street.  No need for so many lines.

Good luck,

James

Shane,

It's a bit hard for me to tell what default Method supports since I've customized my tables and screens, but I've confirmed that Quickbooks already has a field for Phone, Fax, E-mail, Alt. Phone, Alt Fax, and CC in the Customer table.  If QB has the data, so will Method.

But, I cannot tell if the Method default configuration has these fields for the Invoice header.  Mine does, but I've customized all my tables and screens.  The Method Invoice screen does not have this field, nor does it retrieve this value from the Customer Record.

The steps to add this to the Invoice Header are pretty straightforward, but you'll need to make several customizations.  Here's my recommendation about how to do this.

1.  Export the Customer List table from Method to Excel using Method's Export Tool under the Integration Tools Tab of Customize.  By looking at your data from QB as it is stored in Method you can get a very good understanding of which fields are holding which kind of data.

2.  Do this also for the Invoice table.

3.  Add the fields you need to the Invoice table.  Try to use the same field names as the Customer Table as it will make your life easier down the line.

4.  Customize the Invoice Screen to add the fields you need on the screen.

5.  All of the customer specific information to an invoice is pulled from the Customer Table when you enter the customer name into the screen.  You'll need to edit the Action Sequence tied to the Customer field of the default screen.  You will see a bunch of statements that retrieve data from the Customer Table and then place the data into the active Invoice screen.  You can copy one of these statements, move it into the same group and then modify it so that it retrieves your phone numbers, etc. and puts them into the invoice header.

6.  You will then also need to add these fields to the Invoice report.

Of course, none of this will do you any good if you create an Invoice from a Sales Order since in that case the Invoice Header gets it's information from the Sales Order Header and not the Customer Table.  In that case you'll need to also do all of the above to the Sales Order Screen and also modify the Create Invoice from Sales Order Screen to make sure this data get's copied from the Sales Order to the Invoice.

And, if you use the Estimates functionality, you will also need to do this to that screen as well.

It's a bit cumbersome, but for good reason.  Whenever you create an Estimate, Sales Order, or Invoice you can pull all the Customer information from the Customer table, but you can also then modify that information for that specific Estimate, Sales Order, Invoice etc.  Then you also want the system to copy that information from Estimate to Sales Order, from Sales Order to Invoice exactly as entered at any previous step.  If, for some reason you select a new Customer or just reselect the same customer, any screen Estimate, Sales Order, or Invoice will pull in the customer data fresh from the Customer Table.

Clear as mud?