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Oftentimes we'll use the "Description" field of the line-item section of Sales Orders or Invoices to write info that is not directly related to a line item. For example, we use a third party software which automatically writes shipping info into the Description field of the last empty row of our Invoice line item table. 

QB's invoice template didn't have a problem with this: it would print whatever was written to their screen. But I've noticed that my Method report only displayes those line items that have full information, ie an item code, a qty, etc. The Invoice screen in Method will display the Descr-only lines in the line-item grid, but not when I view that same invoice as a report.

I'm staring blankly at the salesorder->invoice screen's action lists, in the hopes that it will result in my understanding what the heck is going on with "LineItemGroupRecordIDs" (why are line items in groups?..). I think there is something going on in that screen that filters out any 0 qty items, but I can't figure out what exactly, and I don't want to start deleting actions willy nilly!

Hi smohyee, 

When you create an invoice from either an Estimate or a Sales Order in Method, you need to indicate a quantity amount of at least 1 in order for the invoice to be generated. 

As a result, the report won't be generated with just the description of the item without the other invoice information such as the item code, the rate, quantity and amount. 

I hope that this helps. 

Ronen

Ronen,

Setting QTY to 1 is not enough to get description-only line items to display in the Report... what you say in your second paragraph is more accurate: an actual item needs to be entered. This is a problem for us as we use third party software that writes in the description line only (that is, no item is entered) in our invoices.

Neither Method nor Quickbooks has an issue with description-only line items: both successfully save and display the line item in their respective screens, without needing an item code/rate/qty associated with it... it is the Report that filters those lines out, and I'd like your help as to what actions in what screen this is done so I can modify it accordingly. 

-Sam

Bump!

I'm still trying to find out if there's anything I can do in terms of customization in order to get the Report to show whats on my Invoice screen in Method. This is a pretty important deal for us!

Hey smoyhee, 

I am looking into your issue right now and going to give you a prompt response shortly.

Ronen 

Hi smoyhee,

What you could do is you can open up the report name Sales Order (Custom) and rename the report. You can then remove the [SalesOrderLine.SalesOrder.Item], [SalesOrderLine.SalesOrder.Quantity], [SalesOrderLine.SalesOrder.UnitOfMeasure], [SalesOrderLine.SalesOrder.Rate], and [SalesOrderLine.SalesOrder.Amount] fields.

You can also open up the report name Estimate (Custom) and also rename the report. You can then remove the [EstimateLine.Estimate.Quantity], [EstimateLine.Estimate.UnitOfMeasure], [EstimateLine.Estimate.Rate], and
[EstimateLine.Estimate.calcTotalAmount] fields.

You can then create a copy of either the Esimate or Sales Order screen where you can then modify the Print Preview button and modify the Generate Report action to open up the renamed report from the "Report" dropdown.

I hope that this helps.

Ronen

Thanks for the prompt reply Ronen! I'll try this out when I get home from work, because Method is my life now.

Ronen,

OK, upon closer inspection, your proposed solution would not help me. I'm not looking for a report with just description-only line items. We have regular invoices/sales orders, with regular line items with quantities, item codes, rates, etc. It's just that, in addition to regular line items, we also have a description-only line item that we need displayed in a report.

For every invoice, we will have some "complete" line items, which will have information populating all these columns:

Item Code        Item Description     QTY     Price    Line Total 

But after the actual items purchased are listed on the invoice, we have a line with UPS tracking # information written into the Quickbooks Invoice by third party software, but this info is written into the Item Description column only, without an associated item code, QTY, or price. 

When I print the invoice from Quickbooks, or save it as a PDF, it will print out everything exactly as it shows on the screen, including the description-only line. If I open that invoice up in Method, it will show the description-only line, no problem... Method will also, like Quickbooks, let me write into a description column without having anything in the associated Item Code column.

But when I try to generate the report for that invoice in Method, that last description-only line doesn't make it on there. Apparently the report shows the other related fields (Description, QTY, Price, Line Total) only if there is an Item-Code entered. Why the reporter would enforce such a limitation when neither QB nor Method proper do is a mystery to me, but I hope it is something that can be changed.

Ok, up until yesterday I was able to save description-only lines in Method screens like the Sales Order screen, and have them copy over to the Invoice screen when I created an Inv from the SO. This mirrored QB's capability

As of today, however, I am getting a warning error from Method requiring an Item to be selected before I can save a description only item.

I seriously hope you guys didn't decide to limit Method's capabilities to even less than QB's because I asked for the Report functionality to be improved! Couldn't you instead allow us to save description-only lines, then fix the Report program to actually display those lines?

Hey, just wondering what the status of this topic is after our phone conversation, as it's been a few days. 

As a reminder, you were going to confirm that it is in fact possible for the report designer to display both regular line items and description-only line items simultaneously, given the correct customization. My concern is that the report designer fundamentally limits this capability in a way I can't change.

Hi smohyee, 

Sorry for the delay in responding to your post. I have just tested the report designer to see if it was possible to add only a description to an additional line item within an invoice or any other transaction line item grid within Method, but it won't let me do that. 

Ronen

Here's something else: during our phone conversation you had determined that it was my customized Sales Order screen that prevented me from saving description-only line items in Method, and that the original Method Sales Order screen does allow you to add new line items where only the description column is populated. After attempting to find out what was different with my customized screen, I tried out the original Sales Order screen... and it turns out I can't save description-only line items to that either.

Again, this was a recent change to Method. As I said when I first started this thread, before I posted I was able to create new description-only line items directly into Method. But now, vanilla method doesn't support this feature, although QB does. The only way I can get description only line items into Method now is to create them in Quickbooks and have them synched into Method.

Hi smohyee,

I want to make sure that the sales order screen works for you properly as it did before. Can you please e-mail me your company account information at r.gaisiner@methodintegration.com and enable the MethodSupport user for me and I will be more then happy to troubleshoot the issue. 

Ronen

Done.

I have a new idea I want to try out:

As you said from the beginning, the SalesOrderLine table has two required fields: the Item and the Rate. For this reason, I can't add a record to that table with just a value in the description field.

So what if instead I created an action set for "text change" on the description column, so that if the item field was blank then the text in the description column wouldn't be saved to the SalesOrderLine table, but to some other table that I'll create specifically for storing those description-only lines....

That would probably result in a huge headache when trying to create an Invoice from the Sales Order, but I'll give it a shot.

Edit: Wait.. is it impossible to remove the "required field" property on the Item field? That checkbox is greyed out for me because I already have a bunch of item records in the table... but if i hadn't synched anything from QB yet, could I remove that required field property and just fix the problem that way? 

Smoyee,

I'm curious what you're trying to accomplish.  Are you still having your other 3rd Party software add the Description only line to QB and you just want to print the line when printing the report from Method?  Or, do you need to enter a Description only line in Method as well, and print it?

I wouldn't suggest creating a separate table just for this Description only information.

I would think the easiest way to do this would be to add some new fields to the Sales Order header table.  It would be easy to add, one, several or even a dozen new informational fields to the Estimate, Sales Order, and Invoice Header tables then customize the screens for each and the screens that handle the Create Sales Order from Estimate, Create Invoice from Order screens.  I've done this with a bunch of additional shipping logistics information.  Of course this information is not visible in QB, but you might be able to accomplish this if you use QB's new custom fields capabilities.  You would want to create those fields first in QB, if possible at the header level and then reference them in Method.

I am not surprised that Method might enforce a data integrity rule that a Sales Order Line or Invoice Line must have an Item and Rate.  Something to try though, create the record in QB, let it synch to Method then use the Method Export Tool from the Integration tab to export the Sales Order Line Items table.  Then you can inspect the contents of the fields and see if QB leaves the Item field blank.  You might expect to see a RecordID, a LineOrder, and your Description, but you might see something else that explains how QB is posting the data.

In general though, I think using a Description field isn't a good idea, but if you must you might create a generate Service or Other type item with a blank or generic description, then use that Item when you want to add the description line and just update the Description column or field after the line has been added.  As long as you modify the description field AFTER the item is added, teh unique description contents will remain.  You could even create an Action Sequence that looks for these blank item description only lines on Screen Load or other action and have the Action Sequence replace the Description only line with your generic Item plus the description so that the subsequent report runs right.

Cheers,

James