This is how our hosted companies operate. … The item code is usually the barcode which appears on the Invoice and the Item name is for internal Lookup, not on Invoice. The Description is what appears on the Invoice / Sales Order etc.
The complaints we face are shown in this post below:
Imo out of the box Manager should be optimised to make it simple for the new user not to accommodate the many creative ways users have applied it in the past. But Manger still needs to maintain flexibility to support a wide range of new (and past) applications.
A way of achieving this maybe
Show / Hide on customer facing belongs on custom fields as does all business or country specific data
A smart “External description” to present meaningful information even when left blank. Thus ensuring all line items have at least some description
Internal description field maybe useful to demonstrate to new users the functionality is available
Automatic sequence number fields maybe useful if not available via custom fields
Batch update or other mapping to move old data to current field labels.
I would second VaccuumDog’s suggestion that Form Defaults should be used to allow users to decide what should show on each form by default.
I use Item Code for product code, Item Name to make it easy to find a product and I copy the Item Name to description because historically the Item Name never showed on the invoice. So the legacy way, I am duplicating the Item Name because the program left me no choice and because I need the Item Code on the invoice, it had to show on the sales quote as well even though I would prefer not to show the item code. I personally would prefer to have the following on my quotes and invoices
Quotes:
Item Code: (Hidden), Item Name: Laptop Fujitsu A3510, Description: 8Gb RAM, 256 SSD etc…
Invoices:
Item Code: FXY12ADX, Item Name: Laptop Fujitsu A3510, Description: 8Gb RAM, 256 SSD etc…
So I would request a form default option for quotes and invoices to hide Item Code on quotes and display on Invoices.
I have always wanted the option to split the table into three columns and show part code in column one, product being sold in column two and a technical description of the product in column three. Currently (I am still using an older version of Manager), I have always had to copy the internal name to the description, make that bold and then enter the description.
However the new changes are addressing this issue for me as you seem to have merged the part code and product name into one field.
I don’t understand the logic of combining the Item Code and Item Name into one field as shown in this topic - Suppress Name field - Invoice, Sales Order Layout
What is the point of merging this field. It makes it inconsistent with every other form as no other fields are merged. I agree with many, putting the option for showing/hiding a field in inventory items is not working. It needs to be in form fields to apply to each form as required.
Actually, the point of all the changes was to make forms consistent. Explore this with your test business.
I have not updated to the latest version yet. But I am not aware of any form where two fields have been merged into one. Regardless, my point is that merging those two fields does not make any sense to me and actually is counterproductive. I need a product code field and a product name field. The customer is interested in the name of the laptop, not the part code.
Yeah. I was thinking about this that some businesses have inventory item where they desire to show item code on purchase orders but not on sales invoices (item codes are for suppliers, not for customers). So I think it needs to be done on transaction level to determine how item should be presented.
It’s part of making the software intuitive. There are so many ways how people want to present their data on printed documents and what I’m trying to do here is to make it so Edit screen and View screens are as similar as possible. This makes it easier to experiment on Edit screen because what you see on edit screen will roughly show on View screen.
So no random Code column coming out of nowhere.
In this particular case, Item Code and Item Name are presented together under Item column on Edit screen. That’s why they are also merged on View screen. WYSIWYG.
That doesn’t mean we can’t have separate Code column. We can and I might implement it. But if I do, then I will definitely need to present Code column as separate on Edit screen too and then have ability to be able to hide it. Then View screen replicates what you have on Edit screen.
Please do, it is really upsetting by our businesses that this all of a sudden became merged, thanks!
@eko but it’s still possible to have it separate.
Just make sure Hide item name on printed documents is checked and then in Autofill - Line description enter what customer should see (could be the same as your Item Name).
Then it will be presented on printed documents separately so Item will contain your Item Code and Description will contain your Autofill - Line description
Can you post screenshot of what is desirable outcome for your invoices to show?
Please allow me to disagree. I/We have always used item code and item name on the invoices, and I know I’m not the only one. This merging is strange and IMO takes away flexibility.
In addition we hardly if ever use description as when using item name it would become the description and item code was on its own. I am a bit surprised that you ask us to defend why things that were there should stay there while in essence you should better explain to us why this change is to our benefit.
I have had a look at various invoices from my suppliers as well as my own invoices. I will amend my request slightly.
I think that having three columns for code, name and description is not practical space wise. Most suppliers and the older version of Manager just shows Description and we are all putting in the product name and description in that column. While I have always wanted the Item Name to show on the Quotes and Invoices as I am currently duplicating the name in both fields, I think having looked at suppliers invoices, spacing requirements for three columns instead of two as well as how the invoice looks. The modern look is to not have a tables look about the invoice. What I will do is put the name at the top and do carriage returns and enter the description underneath. This will look better than my current format which is to have name in bold and then - and then description. I am also going to make a new request as I have an idea about this.
So for me (and presumably others) I just want the item code to be in a column on it’s own because this is information that rarely interests the customer. The relevant information for them is in the description. In the current version of Manager this can be accomplished by hiding the Item Name field. However, currently this has to be done for each inventory item. I am not seeing the benefit of adding the Item Name field at all, upon reflection. I think this should remain an internal search name only.
In addition, I would still like to have the ability to hide the product code on Quotes (so clients don’t take my recommendation and shop around), whilst still providing that information on the Sales Invoice.
I believe that the main concerns of users could be solved by moving the “Hide Item Name” to form defaults for all the relevant forms and creating a new option to hide the Item code for each form in form defaults. Inventory Items is not a good place for these options.
I withdraw my request to have 3 columns Code, Name and Description. Upon reflection, I think just Code and Description is better and is the format that most companies are using. Too many columns look dated and old fashioned.
A brief scenario of how I have been using these fields, set up according to how I interpretted the guides.
I have a bearing which is ordered as Code=627ZZ, Name=Bearing, as used by my supplier
It is sold as Code=627ZZ, Description=Rear Bearing Electrolux Motor. This gives my customers the desciption they require and lets me know what the bearing was for.
Being able to set it as required in forms and form defaults, either by ‘include’ or ‘hide’ checkbox would save some time editing, even under the legacy style.
AGREED
Automatically joining Code and Item Name on forms makes the entering of these fields separately in inventory items sensless.
I believe we should have the option to include Code/Name/Description as required.
Imo having data in separate fields helps data analysis and gives display flexibility to having item code, serial number, description etc in separate fields is better. Batch operations, data copy etc should maintain the separate fields.
A separate issue is how this data is best displayed on documents. It is likely the option to concatenate the data, selectively include fields, with added formatting (new line, bold etc) would produce better looking documents.
@Lubos I deleted my initial response because you are right that for inventory items hiding item name on printed documents and copying it to Autofill - Line description will show the code separately from the description.
Columns to show on sales quotes and invoices should be set under form defaults, not inventory items.
The columns we require are:
• Item code (part number)
• Description
• Qty
We do not use item name and as yet have had no need for it.
Yes, just to be clear. The three fields should remain three separate fields. However on printed documents, I think there is a case to be made for showing the Item Name and Description in one column - with suitable formatting to differentiate between the two.
Sorry this post was meant to be a reply to @Patch
