Idea: Implement Cloning from Find and Recode

1

Accounting Manager has a really great feature to use when you want to find a transaction. You know the transaction involved one of your many cash accounts. It might be one of your credit cards, PayPal, or a bank account. Instead of having to open each cash account and searching, you can go to the Cash Accounts page (see picture) and click the “Find & Recode” button in the bottom right.

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I wanted to clone a transaction. I was not sure which cash account was involved or when the transaction was. So, in the Cash Accounts page, I clicked “Find & Recode”. The Find and Recode page appeared (see picture).

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The picture shows an example of typing in “Mile” to get all the transactions, regardless of cash account, for Seven Mile Market. What I actually typed was “Shab” to find transactions for Shabsi’s. I found the transaction I wanted to clone was about 3 months ago. However, I cannot clone it from here. I can see which cash account to search, view, and clone. That is useful. However, I will still have to do something like go back to the cash accounts page, go into the desired cash account and do exactly the same search again.

I think it would be nifty to have View buttons on the “Find & Recode” page. So, if I am looking for a transaction to clone, I could view, then edit or clone, whichever I want.

I don’t know, but maybe this idea is already on the list to implement. Or maybe there are some better ideas than this one to accomplish the same purpose. I have found several times that once I try the Manager Accounting way to do something, I prefer it. Cloning is just such an example. Once I tried cloning, I did not miss the “Memorized Transactions” that I used in my previous accounting program.

So, I’m interested whether others also would like View and Clone from the Find and Recode page, or whether there’s an even nicer shortcut to cloning already implemented.

2

I think the difficulty with your idea is that Find & Recode is a specific process with several steps. You’re asking to interrupt and divert that process for an entirely different purpose. The screen you are showing is a transaction entry screen, designed to allow you to edit account allocations for transactions, then recode them in a second step. If you divert from that process, you’ve got half-completed changes that don’t go anywhere. Good recipe for problems.

A better solution might be to look at Customers or Suppliers tabs and drill down on the Accounts reeivable/payable balances to find your transaction. From there, you can both Edit and View. No search entry necessary. And you can sort by date, transaction type, description, amount, etc., with just a click on the heading.

3

I think you are right that if we make a change to Manager Accounting, it should not be the place that I was thinking. I see your point that such a change would confuse things, because the find and recode is a different function than what I seek.

I tried adding the Customers and Suppliers tabs in Customization. Looks to me that I would have to enter each customer and supplier to be up to date. I did not see a way to convert payees into suppliers and payers into customers. So, I think I probably did not understand.

But what you said gave me the idea to check the various reports. Most every report that I checked (balance sheet, profit and loss, trial balance, and several others), when I drill down, I almost always get a View button and the ability to clone right there in the from the transactions. The General Ledger Transactions report does not lead to View and Clone. I see that I get to View and Clone from the Summary Tab.

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I suppose this is the situation: I have a payment to someone to enter. I want to View and Clone if possible. My problems are:

  1. I have a lot of cash accounts. I don’t want to check each cash account individually.
  2. Once I find the transaction I want to Clone and Modify, I don’t like backing out so I can find the transaction some other way that allows me to View and Clone.

So, I’m not sure what would make sense. Maybe we could have a Payees report and a Payers report in the Reports tab. That would work like the other reports to give me the ability to locate all transactions by Payee or Payer, and then View, Clone, and modify a transaction.

Or maybe the General Ledger Transactions report could have View and Clone? Maybe that makes less sense than having a Payees report.

Or maybe there is a way or should be a way to convert Payers into Customers and Payees into Suppliers? I like the capabilities you described for sorting by date, transaction type, description, etc.

Anyway, I’m interested how we can avoid relinquishing a transaction that I found to clone and then trying to find some other way to get to the same transaction to clone it.

I admit that this problem is a small problem. Once I have the details of a transaction, finding it some other way is quick and easy in Manager Accounting. It’s just that I seem to do this for so many transactions. So, if we add some item to an enhancement list, the enhancement should do more than make cloning easier. Maybe having a Payers report and a Payees report with ability to drill down to transactions of a payer or payee would be a way to go?

4

Yes, you can’t add them from other locations.

It sounds as though you have been posting everything as a cash transaction, hence the need to find and duplicate the previous - correct.

However, by creating the Customer / Supplier first, you then process their Sales / Purchase invoice and lastly enter the payment against the Invoice.

If you do this, then you can always find a previous related transaction by going to the respective tab, selecting the customer / supplier and drill down

5

One characteristic of Manager is that it’s strongly dependent on what are called control accounts. These control accounts have subsidiary ledgers. And the most important and pervasive are probably Accounts receivable and Accounts payable, for which the subsidiary ledgers are Customers and Suppliers. Many of the other modules require selection of a customer or supplier before a form can be entered. The advantage, though, is that the Customers and Suppliers tabs then give you quick access to all important information. I admit, though, it takes a certain mindset.

The most frustrating aspect of Manager to me is that Payers and Payees from the receipt and payment functions are not connected to customers and suppliers ledgers. So if a regular customer buys something directly (not on credit), you still have to raise a sales invoice first if you want that transaction to be in the customer’s history. And likewise with cash purchases from suppliers.