Method Community

My accounting department was trying to cut payroll checks today.  An error occurred saying something about only one payroll user is allowed and had to abort (QB parlance) a transaction. Evidently shutting down both QB and the Method engine seemed to clear everything up.

Has anyone had any issues similar to this where QB thinks there's another user (e.g. the Method engine) working in the file and causing problems?

Regarding my setup of the Method engine. It's currently configured to use my main accounting user's QB login to manage the synching activity. Should I create another admin level QB user and configure Method to use this user instead? Is this a better practice? Maybe this is the root cause of the payroll error to begin with (even though it did clear up after restarting the apps)?

Also, I have a question regarding the Method sync engine. When syncing up with QB for the first time, I had the option to allow Method to add/update the QB file even when QB wasn't running. Does this actually happen? I thought Method sync only happens when QB is running and has the company file open?

Thanks for any help on this...it's very much appreciated.

 We have had an issue where QB's shuts down when a Method user is entering time entries and the QB user is in the payroll application (some but maybe not all of the options on the Employees tab).  It is a bit of a scare but I don't believe we have lost data.  Our process now is that when a Method user is entering payroll data (timesheet entries), QB users stay out of the Employee tab in QB.  This seems to work.

Gary

Hmmm...I'm still creating and customizing Methd screens at this point. I'm not even piloting this stuff in my business yet. So I'm the only user on Method right now...and we are not putting in time or doing anything with Employees right now.

Blake-

What version of QuickBooks are you using? Did this error come up in QB or Method? If the error comes up can you get the exact error message or take a screenshot and send it to me. I personally have not seen this issue before.

Blake C:

Also, I have a question regarding the Method sync engine. When syncing up with QB for the first time, I had the option to allow Method to add/update the QB file even when QB wasn't running. Does this actually happen? I thought Method sync only happens when QB is running and has the company file open?

QuickBooks and Method have to be open for the sync to run.

-Michael

Here's a link to a screenshot of the error:

http://bit.ly/vSxvNd

Blake-

I think you will have to just disconnect the Sync engine from that computer when you are doing Payroll, that should resolve the issue. Once the engine is reconnected any changes made while it was disconnected will sync up.

-Michael

Really? Do you have any other thoughts/speculation on root cause here? Hard to believe that others have not experienced this error since QB Payroll is such a heavily used function for all business owners.

Thx

Blake-

I will look into this further but the root cause is probably that the Method Sync is connected to the QuickBooks file which means its in use so it like having a user logged in.

-Michael

Updating this thread...

Accounting just received this error again. Apparently this issue still causes problems about once a month. We cut paychecks weekly (Monday mornings), so that's about a 1 in 4 chance of this error still causing problems.

To get actual work done, the person usually goes into the System Tray, right-click on Method Integration Engine, chooses Shut Down. This seems to fix it every time.

Today, however, the engine was not running when the error occurred...but QB still thought it was. Had to cancel out of the payroll check printing function altogether, causing the person to manually print each paycheck instead. PAIN. Luckily, *only* 17 employees...but still, that sucks.

I'm just telling the person to shut down Method Int. Engine BEFORE doing payroll to cut down the chance of these pieces of software tripping up on one another.

Blake C:

I'm just telling the person to shut down Method Int. Engine BEFORE doing payroll to cut down the chance of these pieces of software tripping up on one another.

It sounds like the computer isn't shutting down the program correctly if QB through it was still running.  I'm not sure the time delay but it could be that Method not given a chance to fully shutdown before you started your payroll process.  If you just shutdown Method and you want to run the payroll I would quickly check the task manager (ctrl-shift-esc) and make sure Method is closed before payroll is run.

~C