Method Community

I'm looking to clean up some customer/contact data and I'd like confirmation that what I'm changing is comprehensive. I'm looking to do the following

1. Customers Table:
1. Clean up Contact field
2. Clean up CompanyName Field
3. Clean Up Name field

These fields also appear in the Contacts, Activities and Entity tables.

If I change some of these values oin the Customers table, do I need to change the associated fields in the Contacts, Activities and Entity tables as well? Or will those be updated automatically?

For example, if I change some Name entries, can I assume that the Fullname field is Method-generated, will update itself in the Customer table and that those changes will cascade down to the Entity and Contacts tables?. Furthermore, will I need to manually change the Entity field in the Activities table (which displays fields from the Fullname field from the Entity table)? . And should I even bother changing the Fullname/Customer fields in the Invoice table?

Thanks

Hi Mike, 

The Customer, Vendor, Employee, and Other Name tables are all different views of the Entity table. If you change a record in the Entity table, it will automatically make the change in the Customer table (or one of the other three tables depending on the EntityType) and vice versa. The Contact field in the Customer table will not copy the Name field as the contact name may be different from the customer name (e.g. customer is Home Depot and contact is John Smith). There is a Contact field in the Entity, Customer, Vendor, and Other Name tables. If you change this field it will update the name in the Contact table. 

The FullName field is auto generated like you said and it will update correctly across all tables. Also, you will not need to change Entity field in the Activity table as it updates automatically. 

Basically you should understand that many fields are interconnected throughout multiple tables in Method. For example, the Customer field in the Invoice table is a dropdown of all the customers in the Customer table. If you update the name in the Customer table, it will automatically update in the Invoice table because the Invoice table is pulling the data from the Customer table. 

Hope this makes some sense. Let me know if you have more questions. 

- Jason

For customers, I am trying to change the "Contact" field to be the same as the "Name" field for all records (parent accounts and subaccounts).

I'm importing only 2 columns into the Customers table:

1. RecordID
2. Contact

My changes are not being accepted when uploaded, and I don't see anything in the Audit Trail or Resolve Conflicts tabs.

Furthermore, it appears that the changes may be initially accepted but then rejected on syncronization, but again, I see no conflicts or audit trails.

Am I changing the wrong field in the wrong table? Should I change the appropriate Contact field in the Contacts (or Entity) tables for the record IDs?

Your help is much appreciated.

Changing the Contact and Name fields individually in the Edit Customer screen works, however.

Why would the upload not work?

In this case, changing entries individually is not a viable solution.

Hi Mike, 

If you want to update current records in your Customer table with an import, make sure you check the Update existing records by matching the key fields box. Then, you can choose the RecordID as the field used to match the records. See my screenshots below. I tested this using the Customer table and I changed the Contact field for a few records and it worked great. I suggest changing just a few records the first time to make sure it is set up properly. Let me know if this solved the issue or not. 

- Jason 

Yes, I did that with the RecordID

Note - Your screenshot above has "Do Not Import" set for RecordID, which results in this message for me:

ERROR:One of the columns you've selected in where statement was 'RecordID' which was not added in step 'Prepare Data' of importing. Please add the specified column and continue.

So I import RecordID and get this message on import:

Your data has passed validation. Click Begin Import to continue.
You attempted to update values in the field 'RecordID' which does not support edit. All columns except for 'RecordID' column were updated
100%

Successfully imported 4 record(s).

Anyway, I think that's a side issue.

What could possible be preventing this? Again, if I change the entries manually and individually in the Customer Edit screen, they are fine. But uploading doesn't work.

Extremely frustrating.

So I did it with 4 records, and it didn't work.

For example, in the Audit Trail I see the following entry for a MaethodAPIUpdateV2:

The following query was created in MethodAPIInsert:Update accEntity Set [Contact] = @paramMain account Where RecordID = 537 at 4/25/2013 9:54:53 AM.

But then I go into the account and it's not changed.

Mike, 

My screenshot said Do Not Import on RecordID on my earlier screenshot because I hadn't selected Update existing records by matching the key fields yet. Once you check this box you should be able to choose RecordID as a field to import to. My new screenshot below should be what it looks like before you import. 

- Jason 

Well, I tried it again and it initually worked. I exported the Customer table and the changes were in it. But after a few minutes (synchronization, I guess), I exported the Customer table again and all Contact entries that I had imported had reverted to their original states.

Also strangely, when I pressed the "Changes Only Sync" button on the QB tab and then hit refresh, the time for the last sync remained at 11:30AM for over 90 minutes. Only at 1:04 did this change.

And still my imports didn't stick. To reiterate, manually typing into the Contact field results in permanent changes, while the upload doesn't work.

And finally, I have no conflicts in my Resolve conflicts, but who knows, one may pop up randomly in 15 minutes or so.

Please help - I've spent 5 hours today trying to get this crucial data update implemented but it doesn't work.

This seems like a basic function that should work.

Hi Mike, 

I've been following up with you regarding this case via email. 

- Jason