I have just entered 103 inventory items via Batch Create. everything seemed to go fine with 2 exceptions. I had the ‘Tax Code’ set to Exempt (which is already added in Manager as a tax code) and I had the ‘Tracking Code’ set to MS which is also already in the program as a tracking code.
Neither of those two items were filled in for the inventory items when I looked at the items individually in the program. Yikes! I’m using version 18.12.12. Is this a bug?! I still have another 200+ items to add and would rather not have to go through each of them manually to set those items.
Thanks!
No, it is not a bug. You cannot enter plain-language names for tax codes, tracking codes, etc. If you follow the Batch Update process and look at what is actually there, you will see that all these things appear in the database as hexadecimal strings.
This has been discussed numerous times in the forum. Please search before posting new questions.
Just as an FYI for you - I read the Guide about Batch Create Use Batch Create and Batch Update functions | Manager.
No where in that Guide does it mention that there are ‘hex codes’ you will need to somehow need to put in initial listings. It does suggest that if you don’t understand what the columns are you can put an item in and do a Batch Update but the columns seemed obvious so I didn’t do that. The Guide needs additional clarification.
I also did a search here in the forum for ‘Batch Create’. there was one post regarding an error which had never had a response and all other appeared to be in regards to sales invoice and suppliers, not inventory items. I did not see any specific forum posting which dealt specifically with this.
I’m sorry you’re annoyed with my asking the question, but, just saying, I truly thought I’d done research before I asked.
I am not annoyed.
A search of the forum with “hexadecimal batch” just returned 16 topics. “batch create key” returns 18. Probably not all are relevant, and some refer to other types of records, but the situations are similar. In fact, this was just discussed earlier today: Batch update Sales Invoice, Receive money, Spend money - #6 by JayThaker.
The problem here is that I’m brand new to the program and wouldn’t (based on the guide) have known to even look for ‘hexadecimal’ in any forum posts. (and I wouldn’t have looked at Sales & Money posting discussions since that didn’t seem to apply at all to what I was trying to do.
Please consider updating the Batch Create/Update Guide to mention these codes so people just initially adding items know that they HAVE to enter an item manually (tax & tracking and any others that use hexadecimal), then do an Update to see the code(s) and only then go back and use the Create function to actually add items.
Thanks from future newbies!
Your point is a good one. One difficulty is that users are from all over the world. For many, English (the language the forum) is a second or third one. And many are accounting neophytes. So terminology can be quite vague. Subjects are often misleading. I guess forum members who read everything would know search terms likely to return good results. Less frequent readers could certainly have trouble.
As for updating the Guide, I can personally take action on that. The problem is most modules were just opened to batch operations recently as part of ongoing preparation for wider program changes. This highlighted the difficulties caused by the hexadecimal keys. A fix for that problem has been promised, but no schedule announced. The current advice—creating a test entr and looking at it with Batch Update—was really meant for simpler things like transferring customer lists to new businesses. Now users are doing all sorts of exotic things and some of the program framework is simply not up to it. But a lot of it is being rewritten. That’s where the effort is going.
Thanks for your action on the Guide.
As both a manufacturer and an active software beta tester, I know how disconcerting it can be when people take off and do things with your product that you never expected (or even dreamed of). Keeps life interesting!
Keep up the good work!
It isn’t my work. I’m a forum moderator, a user, not the developer.