[17.9.0] Added 3 new tabs in relation to bank & cash accounts

1

The latest version (17.9.0) introduces three new tabs:

  • Bank Transactions
  • Cash Transactions
  • Inter Account Transfers

Let me explain why this is being done and what issues are being solved.

Improving usability by being consistent

When you look at most of the tabs

Every tab has one primary button which creates a row within the tab. For example, when you go to Customers tab, there is a button New Customer.

Create new customer will create new row within the tab and increase the counter in the left navigation by 1.

Bank Accounts and Cash Accounts tabs have been exception to this rule. For example, Bank Accounts tab contained 4 buttons.

Clicking on Receive money button wouldn’t create new row under Bank Accounts tab and wouldn’t increase counter in the left navigation.

This leads to usability issues. Many new users struggle to realize where their new transaction has been created because it is only accessible deeper within Bank Accounts tab.

The solution is to simply enforce the consistency by dedicating a tab to bank and cash transactions.

We don’t hide sales invoices, sales quotes, sales orders, credit notes within Customers tab. They all get separate tabs.

Going by the same principle, we shouldn’t hide bank transactions within Bank Accounts tab.

This is important especially for new users who are trying to figure out their way around. When they experiment with Manager and “receive money” while viewing an invoice, they can easily see “receiving money” is separate transaction from invoice itself because the transaction is added under different tab on its own.

Greater support for custom fields

Previously you were able to create custom fields on payments & receipts but you weren’t able to show them as columns.

This issue is now resolved with addition of these new tabs. When you create custom fields on Bank transaction or Cash transaction, they can show as columns under their tabs.

This will allow you to quickly find bank transaction or cash transaction by custom field just like on other tabs.

Less columns on bank accounts tab

Previously, bank accounts tab would have columns which might have been irrelevant to your business or workflow.

Even if you were not creating pending deposits or withdrawals, columns must have been there so you could click on - symbol in future and create them if one day necessary.

By adding Bank Transactions tab, these columns no longer need to be there. If you don’t have any pending deposits or pending withdrawals, all three columns:

  • Pending deposits
  • Pending withdrawals
  • Actual balance

Will be hidden. This is because if you need to create pending deposit or withdrawal, you can simply do that under Bank Transactions tab by creating transaction with pending status.

This will automatically add relevant columns to Bank Accounts tab.

Isolating inter account transfers

Transfer money function has been always confusing. The problem with this function is that it conflicts with workflow for many businesses.

Even if you have many bank accounts and you make frequent transfers between them, it doesn’t mean you need Transfer money button.

This is because when you are importing bank statements, Manager cannot identify which transactions are inter account transfers. Every imported transaction is either receipt or payment. Using bank rules, you can automatically categorize all bank transfers into common clearing account.

If you adopt this workflow, you shouldn’t be using Transfer money function at all.

This brings me to Inter Account Transfers tab:

This tab would be typically used only by businesses who have multiple cash accounts (for making transfers between them) or if they have multiple bank accounts and entering all transactions manually (not importing).

A lot of businesses are probably not meant to use Inter Account Transfers but the option is there for those who need it.

Automatic reference numbers for cash transactions

Unlike bank transactions, cash transactions are always created manually one by one. Every cash transaction under Cash Transactions tab will have automatically generated reference number (similar to sales invoices, sales quotes etc.)

So by having dedicated Cash Transactions tab, you can easily see all cash transactions across all your cash accounts sorted by reference number.

3 Likes
3

Hmm, I’ve been using ‘Transfer money’ to send money between my Bank and Cash on hand.

This gives me the impression that I’ve been doing this the wrong way?

It implies it’s only used between accounts of the same type.

4

@ShaneAU if you are not importing bank statements, then using transfer money between bank accounts and cash accounts is the easiest way so it should be used.

5

Okay, thanks for the clarification. I have a low number of transactions so I’ve only imported from bank once or twice - most are entered manually. I’ll continue using ‘Transfer money’.

6

Is there a way to revert back to the old system?

7

No.

9

@Lubos, there is a bug with this new update. My assets are negative. The cash on hand is negative. I think it has to do with the way different currencies are handled and payments for reimbursements are also handled incorrectly. Pls fix as it’s the 31st and need to submit an end of month report. Thanks!

10

I also found my bank account balances to be incorrect, especially those involving inter account transfers.

11

Same here. All accounts are in negative. Please fix as soon as possible

12

@ChrisLai @erik @Matthew_Kalahan

Hopefully the issue will be resolved soon for you.

However, for future reference: it is always worthwhile performing a backup before updating Manager: Backup, restore, import, and transfer businesses | Manager

For Cloud Edition (where updates are automatic), it’s worthwhile doing this once a week, or every 1-2 days if you’re expecting to submit an earnings report in the near future.

That way, you can protect yourself against an update that has any critical issues, and you can temporarily load your backup into the previous version of the Desktop Edition in order to generate your reports… and fulfill your reporting obligations.

However, backups should never be loaded into a version older than when they were made. If you make your backup in version XX, then only import it into version XX or greater.

@lubos Maybe it’s worthwhile the Cloud Edition having a ‘pause’ for updates, which users can enable if they’re coming up to the end of a reporting period. That way, even if they’re inactive for more than 20 minutes no update will be released? It would mitigate some of the risk.

13

Hi there. Is there any workaround solution to this? All of our cash and bank account is in negative figure. Manager.io is the only means accounting system for our company.

Now that it’s all messed up, it is really a havoc for us to back track all transaction. Appreciate if you could allow transfer and inter account transfer as an optional function - enable and disable.

NOTE: furthermore we are doing end month closing accounts. how are we going to submit the month end report to the management with such negative figures!

14

There was a bug related to multi-currency and inter account transfers. It should be fixed in the latest version (17.9.6).

2 Likes
15

@lubos is it possible to show the Payee as a column in both Bank & Cash Transactions? Only the description shows as a column and unless there is a predefined customer or supplier selected in the row, it is difficult to track to whom the payment was made.

16

@lubos
though it is a step forward to identify the inter account transfers easily, i believe this should have been just an extra feature. the transaction made between a bank account and a cash account is by withdrawal from the bank or by deposit to the bank. either way it is still a bank or cash transaction which should show in the statement. so why is this transaction removed from Manager now? Manager does not show this transaction now in Bank or Cash transactions. Previously it was easier to manually cross-check the transactions with the bank statement. now omitting these transactions just makes it more difficult.

Also, now the Bank Accounts and Cash Accounts tab do not have any frequent use sitting on the left pane as they just show the number of accounts under them and their balance. though the emphasis have been always to improve the features of Manager, there has been no emphasis on a user-friendly UI. As the number of features are added, a user has to scroll all over the screen to get what they use frequently. Please consider improving the tabs with sub-tabs, floating tabs, re-arrange, hover text, etc which had so many ideas and suggestions previously.

17

Hi lubos,

I noticed the Cash Account already reverted back to previous setting. However, Bank Account is still in a huge mess. Much appreciate your kind assistance.

18

the existing cash transactions do not have an automatically generated reference number. only the new transactions are automatically serialized.

19

Is there any work around to this?

20

@EugeneC the issue with bank accounts should be fixed now too.

21

as per new update 17.9.7
my bank account are shown under cash account tab.
how to change it