Method Community

Folks,

A few days ago, I noticed that the last item in a Group will duplicate itself when placed in an estimate.

For instance, when I create a Group with the following Inventory requirements:

Group A
Inventory Part A, Qty 1
Inventory Part B, Qty 1

...and place that in an estimate, I get:

Group A
Inventory Part A, Qty 1
Inventory Part B, Qty 1
Inventory Part B, Qty 1

It's important to note that this isn't appearances only.  The inventory parts figure into the Group pricing.

What's going on here?  How can I fix it?

Hi RuggedNotebooks,

Could you kindly specify the exact steps you take to reproduce this? Please mention specificially which screen syou are using, and provide screenshots if possible. Also, are inventory parts A, B, part of Group A in your example above or individual items?

I have tried reproducing your issue in the Invoices and Estimates screen but can't do so, it appears correctly in QB and Method.

Thank you,
Denis

Hi RuggedNotebooks,

Thank you for your patience and bringing up this issue. I was able to reproduce the problem, and we've fixed it!

Kindly let us know if you continue to experience this error.

Regards,
Denis

 Unfortunately the fix you introduced - whatever it was - has introduced another set of problems.

1) The LineTotal of items is being replaced by Cost.

before update... note LineTotal...

and after "Update"...

2) No estimate will sync with the system.  Newly created or freshly-edited, I'm getting sync errors on every one of them.

It's important to note that none of these errors were present when we closed business early on 11/24/10 (Thanksgiving holiday).  Only upon our return - and after your introduced fixes - did these issues appear.

Any assistance you can give on this would be greatly appreciated.

(PS - If you could give me a brief summary of what caused the initial issue, for my edification, I would be appreciative.  Specifically, I'd love to know if there was anything I could have done to prevent and/or fix it, or if it was a fix only you folks could effect.)

Hello,

We are looking into this, and will update you the moment we establish what the issues are and are able to fix them. Thank you for your patience! I will update this forum post shortly.

Regards,
Denis

Hello,

We have resolved this issue on our end. Kindly go to your account and do a full sync. Your records should show up correctly now. If you continue to experience this or other issues, please don't hesitate to post here.

Regards
Denis

I greatly appreciate the efforts you guys have gone through to address these particular issues. My testing and fiddling would indicate everything looks to be back 98% normal.

One quick question, though:  Is it by design that the LineTotal field can't be manually overridden in estimates?  See below.  When we run the "Save/Update"-whatever, after sync the values go back to their QB default.

This ability is needed on a purely practical note, as we have shipping charges that will change on a case-by-case basis.  Rarely discounted from its standard price (in which case I'd use a discount line item), it's often increased.

 Hello,

Could you kindly confirm where in the estimates table do you have LineTotal field. This field is not part of the Method default estimate table, or perhaps you renamed the label of the TotalAmount field.

In order to see which fields are listed in the Estimate screen, go to customize -> Tables/Fields -> estimate table, hit Edit Fields...

Please confirm if you find a field called LineTotal. To check whether this is just a renamed TotalAmount field (part of the default set of fields for the estimates table) go to customize -> screens -> open this estimate screen and find this field.

If this is a customized screen/table and/or field, then whatever value it outputs is entirely customizable through Method actions that apply to that field. 

If this is a TotalAmount field with a different label, then you can create a copy of the estimate screen and modify any fields or tables in it as well.

Thank you,
Denis

"LineTotal" is a re-label/badging of the default "Amount" column.

I have made no modifications to the default tables.

 Hello,

Since "LineTotal" is a relabelled "Amount" column, you cannot change the hard-coded amount as it is directly tied to the same field in QuickBooks, however if you like you can create an additional custom field "LineTotal2" (or anything that you would to call that field) that will calculate a separate value that you like using its own set of actions, however it will not be sent to QuickBooks as it is a custom field just within Method.

Hope this helps,

Denis

I'm confused now more than ever.

I only changed the Caption of the fields, not their database table fieldnames.  Why would an otherwise cosmetic change affect the database relationship?  On multiple screens - including the EstimateLineItem grid - it is still referred to as the "Amount" fieldname... so it's not like the original relationship is lost.

It should be noted that multiple other fields have captions different from their database table fieldname, including fields in the EstimateLineItem grid.

-Thomas

Hi Thomas,

Regarding changing the Labels of fields - you are correct. This is merely a cosmetic change that does not affect the database relationship. 

Your original question was whether you can override the Estimate LineTotal field, and the answer to this is no. This particular value is pulled directly from QuickBooks, it isn't calculated by Method. Therefore the values go back to "their QB default". Essentially, there is still that inherent dependancy on what QB sends over to Method.

As mentioned before, you can technically create (by customizing your screen and tables) a new field "LineTotal2" that will calculate your desired value using actions, and you can use this field to apply your shipping charges. However, because this is a custom field within Method only, it will not be carried over to QB, and can only be used within Method for your own purposes.

Regards,
Denis 

Just to update this thread, in this scenario the  LineTotal column is the Amount field in the EstimateLine table and the value for that field is calculated based on the Quantity, Rate and MarkupRate fields. Amount is the final amount for each line item therefore you can change the Amount value but unless you modify the other field's values to reflect the change, the amount field will always calculate based on Quantity, Rate and MarkupRate.

-Michael