Continuing the discussion from Having trouble with inventory:
I have reproduced @Scott.E’s inability to select custom inventory control accounts.
Also, the default inventory control account cannot be selected as well.
I dont think its a bug. Inventory on hand is related to Items. Whenever you select an item then whatever inventory control account it belongs to automatically gets selected.
You just have to select the items column checkbox for items to appear.
That methodology was tried. The program posted to the cost account, not the inventory control account.
I think the issue is only with journal entries.
The items field does not appear in Journal entries until you select an Inventory Control account.
I confirm that in the latest version (24.8.11.1812) it is not possible to select an Inventory Control account, so I confirm the bug exists in Journal entries.
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Maybe you are using Periodic inventory revelations. For that you have to understand how that system works. No matter how many Journal Entries you make whether debit/credit that’s going to end up in Inventory expense account. But they will help the in calculating Avg Costs in Revaluation Worksheet. Periodic inventory valuation is based on fixed cost prices from time to time which you need to enter through Inventory Revaluation Worksheet or manually through Inventory Revaluation option in settings.
I don’t know but Journal Entry was the only Form where you have to select inventory control account and then Inventory Items. After recent updates now you have check Item-column to select an item so whichever control account it belongs to automatically gets selected. And that’s how all other Forms were from start like receipts, payments, sales invoices etc, you have to only select item, not control account then item and i think now Forms design is uniform throughout.
OK, yes.
My last previous update was about mid July and this was not a requirement then.
Well not really, because Journal entry is the only form you have a tick box to show the Item field. Not consistent at all!
Also, Journal entry is the only form where you have to select Cash/Bank control account before selecting relative bank account. Again in Receipts and payments need to select AP AR control account.
Perhaps to be consistent need to select Control account in all forms.
I agree that it is not a bug but it is a change in expected behaviour.
I also agree with @shahabb that Journal entries forms are now uniform with others but the behaviour regarding inventory items is more consistent then before.
@Tut cautioned @Lubos when allowing cash & equivalent (Bank) accounts to be accessible to Journal entries that this will lead to users doing more with Journal entries that previously only could be done using functional tabs that reduced errors.
I noticed that since these accounts are now accessible through journal entries there are many more posts on this forum about Journal entries than before. I believe enabling the cash&cash equivalent was enabled mainly to facilitate easier entry of start-up balances. The former way of setting these up was more complicated, especially for new customers that for their own reasons no longer wanted to use their “old” accounting application. This kind of forged Manager to transform to what they were used to rather than keeping the limitations on Journal entries.
So even though this in my view is not a bug, I also do not see a need for it to be part of Journal entries and would encourage users to use the functional inventory tabs and related procedures.
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Dont know why you dont find it consistent. As i think it was done for consistency reasons in the first place.
Thats like you wanting to issue a Sales invoice to a Customer and then again wanting to select Customer on Lines on Sales Invoice.
When you have Inventory items all transaction forms, except the Journal entry, have the Item field available on the dissection lines. The Journal Entry is the only one in which you have to select a check/tick box to make the item field available - ie. this requirement is not consistent with the other transaction forms.
The change has made it doubly inconsistent.
- The Journal entry is not consistent with other transaction forms
- The Journal entry is no longer consistent in itself in the way you choose Control accounts in the dissection lines.
No it isn’t. You select the Control Account and then an option appears to select which of the sub-accounts of that Control account that you want to use.
i dont know how to explain. But if you want you can check that column-item in Journal Entry Form Defaults and it will appear by default.
You are mixings things up. Its consistent in terms of columns. Not what dropdown menu shows. If you want to make dropdown menus consistent that’s not possible anywhere. On Sales invoice/Purchase invoice you cant select AR and AP. Next you cant select interaccount transfers in Journal Entry because that’s no needed there. So if something is not needed or it interfere with other things its conditionally hidden from such forms.
Atleast thats what i think.
Agree.
Time will demonstrate if this change makes Manager easier or harder to use for most users.
I suspect it will increase support burden.
It was never clear to me why standard transactions dated prior or at a businesses starting date could not be used eg receipts & payments (+/- a balancing entry to Owners Equity).
It is in fact a bug. A change of behavior that causes a loss of essential functionality is a bug by definition:
- As you already mentioned, how else would you create the opening balances of Inventory Items?
- How else would you adjust the cost valuation of inventories? e.g. cost reduction to match net realizable value.
This loss of functionality that affects the completeness of accounts.
The topic has veered off the main topic, what the Item column does is completely besides the point, the item column would not affect the “Inventory on hand” account – which is the account of interest.
Inventory on hand is no longer possible to debit / credit directly anywhere. No functionality is lost because I’ve added Item column under Journal Entries.
This is related to this update:
That’s true. But Item checkbox will be added everywhere. It will be consistent. And also better because when you check Item column, then you will be able to further specify what should be shown in Item column on printed documents. It will be more intuitive rather than what we have now.
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But the item column would affect the expense account as seen in this topic
This way, it’s not possible to enter starting balances
So @lubos as there is no bug maybe it should be demoted to uncategorized?
@lubos so the new process is to create a revaluation on one hand for the costs and a separate write-on for the quantities.
While this is an improvement over manually filling in Journal Entry lines, however, now opening balances of inventories are split into two separate things:
- Automated Inventory Revaluation entry for the cost
- Manual negative Inventory Right-off for quantities.
To me that just moved the issue from Journal Entries to Inventory Write-offs.
Also, I can’t seem to find the Inventory Revaluation Worksheet anywhere anymore.
Also, as much as some users would argue for neutering Journal Entries, the fact remains that the software needs at least a single versatile tool handed to the user, otherwise, everything becomes an edge case that requires new development.
Even worse from the user side, this means that users will have to wait on such development, make unthinkable workarounds or leave for a simpler software.
I mentioned this before, this pigeonholing of transaction is exactly why people hate Quickbooks. During bank reconciliation (import & matching) the user has to guess whether this line is a “Sales Receipt”, a “Check”, a “Deposit”, a “Transfer”, an “Expense”, etc, only to find out that that transaction doesn’t fit any of those pigeonholes and the solution is to do it manually.
At least Quickbooks allows the user to manually enter a Journal Entry as a sole recourse.
Please @lubos, consider the negative consequences of leaving the software with no single versatile tool to ease the experience for the user and give you a buffer for development.
How item column is beside the point? It is the reason the topic started off as the OP didnt find Inventory on hand account which sole purpose was to select an item on Journal Entry and now its giving abilty to select it directly.
I dont know what issues this change has caused as for me its just a change of placement
Previously
Now
There is no gain/loss of functionality.
This is not related to item column placement but related to Inventory Periodic Revaluations. Item column is working perfectly the same way as it used to do when you had to select Inventory on Hand account for item selection.
You can just enter qty in JE or both qty and cost (Your choice) in Journal Entry for Starting Balance. That Journal Entry Revaluation Worksheet will use for determining unit avg cost. Then you can create Inventory revaluation Worksheet.
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If you can’t get access to posting an opening journal entry to the proper inventory control account, the system is broken. Regardless of how this ends up being solved, the inventory system has become way to confusing for me to navigate and I will find another solution. I will continue using Manager for our small business accounting that does not use inventory.
Where was mention of that? Nothing is broken, please review carefully. @Lubos and @shahabb gave clear pointers.
[Added} If yo select column item this will list and then when you select an Inventory item in that column it will rightly assign any control account you related that inventory item to. So it is actually much better now.