Method Community

When adding certain customers in Method, it produces an error stating that “The Customer/Employee/Vendor/OtherName could not be sent to QuickBooks.  This Name is already in use.  Please edit the Name so that it is unique and save again.”; however, it does not exist in QuickBooks. The sync with QB produces errors and ultimately no customers are sent to QB.

The story behind the story is that we are trying to reset the data in QB and Method yet keep all the settings and screens.  Felt like it would be too much work to create a new Method account.  The QB file is basically the same but with no customers.  We wanted to re-import the customers into Method and then with QB. Here is what transpired:

1.       Created a new QB file by restoring a current backup.  This QB file is the same but with not customers.  There are no real customers in the newly restored QB file.

2.       Wrote a routine in Method to delete the Customer records.  That appeared to work fine as all the customers were deleted and there were no Customer-Entity records (though I should have done this before the prior step)

3.       Imported a few thousand Customers and Customer:jobs into Method.  Most of them converted; however, a bunch did not as it said they already existed in QuickBooks.  They don’t but Method thinks they do

4.       There are no customers in QB as a result of the import. 

5.       Receive the error noted above when trying to manually enter a customer.  The Resolve Conflicts screen shows a bunch of errors.  Here is an example:

QuickBooks returned an error when adding/modifying a accEntity record. The error was: Object "80000001-1325081693" specified in the request cannot be found. QuickBooks error message: Invalid argument. The specified record does not exist in the list.. The Request was: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="windows-1252" ?> <?qbxml version="8.0" ?> <QBXML><QBXMLMsgsRq onError="stopOnError"><CustomerAddRq requestID="qx_1"><CustomerAdd><Name>3C</Name><IsActive>0</IsActive><CompanyName>3C</CompanyName><Salutation />...</QBXMLMsgsRq></QBXML>

I obviously messed something up when trying to reset the data.  Thoughts on how to resolve?

--David

Hi David,

Aside from creating a new account and copying over your screens, you could try to associate the new restored company file.  This is merely a suggestion, and I can't confirm it will work.

If everything in Method is deleted, you may be able to sync the restored company file.  The conflict shown may not be from a customer record, it could be from a different entry in the entity table.

Again, I can't say if this will work or not, but its something to try if you don't want to sign up for a new account.  

- Adam

Hi David,

I wanted to add a little more details on what may have happened here. The message you see in the conflicts area can be broken down and explained a bit further. Please keep in mind that these conflict messages come directly from QuickBooks and not Method.

Object "XXXXXX-XXXXXX" specified in the request cannot be found. QuickBooks error message: Invalid argument. The specified record does not exist in the list.

When Method syncs with a QB Entity or transaction it does this by using the Quickbooks "List ID”. Example, if a user creates a transaction in Method, Method will ask QB to link that transaction to the Entity by using the Entity "List ID” and not the actual Entity name...although Entity names must also be unique for other purposes.

Based on your conflict, it's suggesting the Object "80000001-1325081693" no longer has a "List ID" in QB. This explains why QB sends the message back “The specified record does not exist in the list”. If we read the rest of the message it would likely provide more details on the customer, transaction and etc.

Due to the fact that our sync engine relies on these QB "List IDs" it becomes very sensitive if there is a change. We would generally ask if there was any changes to the QB file and confirm the user does not have a different company file open. The Method Engine does a good job on the 2nd part because if it's a different QB file that is open it won't allow the sync…unless of course you manually reset and force it to sync with the new QB company file. Which you might have done.

If you have created a new company file and re-imported your old data, QuickBooks would provide all new List IDs. This means, the ones Method is trying to reference won't actually exists in the new QB file. Hence the conflicts.

Then, we have a scenario where the user deletes something directly in QB which also deletes the List ID. If Method is never aware of this (no sync performed) it would still attempt to use the "List ID's" it knows upon the next sync or toss a bunch of conflicts which seems to be the case here.

For a situation like this, it is probably best to schedule a consulting session to get the fastest assistance. We would want to see the QB file, Method account and conflicts screen which may change after each sync as Method and QB try to sort things out.