Inventory and updates

[Minaji]

1. Please can you guys bring back the goods to received, goods to delivery to display in inventory section. I think is best to know which goods is in the warehouse and which one is still to come after payment. This inventory section in the system now is very stressful
2. Please can you guys add possibility for the purchase invoice to show goods received when the good received has been recorded. I mean just the same way sales invoice show paid in full when receipt is recorded.
3. Please can you bring back customer name display when the click on quantity own under inventory section, Its very useful.
4. Also for us using cloud version, please can you make it possible for us to choice when to update if there is a new version. Because when the system is changing all the time. It get confusing. We are big business with many workers. We also teach them how to use the system. Changing it all the time is confusing and stressful

[lubos]

1. You can do it. I’m not quite sure what’s the issue here. Under Inventory Items tab, you can enable Qty to receive and Qty to deliver columns.

   See: https://www.manager.io/guides?inventory-items

2. I came to conclusion that doing it on invoice level is not the right approach. Tracking qty to receive and qty on deliver needs to be on order level. The workflow should be like this… customer makes an order - the order is created under Sales Orders tab. Then sales order tracks whether goods are being delivered and whether order is being properly invoiced. The same applies to Purchase Orders too where it’s even more important because you can’t control when supplier issues you an invoice. You can make an order to supplier, receive goods and not receive invoice until later date. Now what? Before businesses would have to add into the system fake purchase invoices. That’s when I’ve realized that tracking qty to receive needs to be on order level, not on invoice level. It has other benefits too. And for consistency reasons I’ve replicated it to sales side. If you are not using Sales Orders tab, you should. That’s where you track Qty to receive on order level.

   See: https://www.manager.io/guides?sales-orders

3. You can do it. It’s just that number of possible columns in Manager is growing and everybody wants something else. So this part of Manager is now customizable using Edit Columns feature. You enable columns that you require on this screen.

   See: https://www.manager.io/guides?inventory-item-qty-owned

4. Actually a lot of recent improvements are made so the system can continue being improved without affecting current users as much. Most notably Edit Columns feature so I can continue adding new functionality without existing users noticing. See: https://www.manager.io/guides?edit-columns

   So let me put this way. Even the rapid pace at which the system is evolving is a problem for many users. I recognize it and taking steps to address it. If users are still asking for version freeze then it seems like I didn’t solve this issue quite well yet.

[Minaji]

1. Solved
2. As an accountant, purchase order for me is use to send order to the supplier but conclusion on payment has not been made, that is why it should not affect the inventory quantity or track good to receive. purchase order should just be a document send to the supplier indicating product to buy and quantity then when goods have been paid or confirm to pay even though not received, we have the right to prepare fake purchase invoice because the goods is ours already even though not received. this will now affect the quantity and price of the inventory, and from there we can track goods to receive. The truth is sometimes we prepare purchase order but take long to pay due to management decision. that means with the present situation of the system, it will start tracking goods to receive even though we have not paid or confirm to pay. This is same with sales order. We prepare sale order and sent to customer based on their request to know their total amount to pay and this should not affect our inventory because sales has not been done. sometimes the customer does not conclude with sales or change order. so we prepare sale invoice for the customer only when they have conclude and ask for delivery. so i think quantity to delivery should track sale invoice not sales order. In most cases we do not prepare sales order because customers already know what to buy and it does not affect quantity own. we go straight to invoice

In conclusion, purchase order and sales order are just for information base which is very helpful in management. it should not affect inventory in anyway and we have workers whose job is just to prepare orders and we have others whose job are just to prepare invoice when order is confirm. i started using manager for about 9 years now because i love the work flow but its becoming confusing. please check this out. Hope you understand

3. solved

4. Please for my suggestion, i think you can do it in a way that a notice is send under the setting section for the customer to choose to update or not. and the notice or link should specify what the update is about. the automatic update on cloud version is not the best for me.

Thank you

[Patch]

@Minaji

choose to update or not. and the notice or link should specify what the update is about. the automatic update on cloud version is not the best for me.

I can see management of the timing of software function and interface changes could be very valuable for some companies using Manager cloud product. Implementation would require graduated management of version obsolescence as well.

Maybe worth NG Software considering give the cloud product is probably their major revenue stream, however this should be a separate idea thread if it is considered a reasonable concept.

[lubos]

@Minaji

As an accountant, purchase order for me is use to send order to the supplier but conclusion on payment has not been made, that is why it should not affect the inventory quantity or track good to receive.

Yes - purchase order has no impact on financial figures. But it absolutely should impact management figures.

Qty owned is a financial figure. Purchase order won’t change your Qty owned. We both agree on this.

Where we disagree is that you claim that purchase order should not change Qty to receive figure either. But that cannot be possibly right.

In Manager, you can configure Qty Desired figure for your inventory items. This is inventory level you wish to maintain.

If you use this feature, you can calculate Qty to order which is Qty Desired minus Qty on hand plus Qty to deliver minus Qty to receive

Currently, when you create purchase order, it immediately increases your Qty to receive figure which will in turn immediately lower (or clear) your Qty to order figure.

Now if it wouldn’t work this way and purchase order would have no impact on Qty to order figure, what stops you from making duplicate orders to suppliers? Nothing.

So that’s the reason purchase orders need to have an effect on Qty to receive. We cannot wait for invoice from supplier. You lose control over how much you’ve ordered if orders have no impact on your quantities.

If your solution is to enter dummy purchase invoices from suppliers which you haven’t actually received yet. That comes with entirely new bag of problems. In case of value added taxes, you are now at risk of claiming tax credits on expenses you didn’t acrually incur (not even on accrual basis). That’s too dangerous.

I’m aware that current mechanism is forcing people to use Purchase Orders and Sales Orders tabs if they want to track quantity to receive and deliver. And I can see people resist extra data entry, but in my view, I’m forcing users to do the right thing and stopping them from taking shortcuts. Because those shortcuts can hurt them in unexpected ways (e.g. erroneously claiming tax credits on dummy purchase invoices)

[shahabb]

@lubos

Yes - purchase order has no impact on financial figures. But it absolutely should impact management figures.

@lubos Can you suggest what to do in situation like this?

@shahabb

Those who purchase goods from foreign countries which sometime take months. You are invocied for those goods but is not equal to landed cost of the invenotry which further includes duty taxes etc, so it dilutes the unit cost and again not showing true picture of P&L and BS. For those who suggest to create purchase invoice only when you receive the invenotry. It works ok when you have only one order but make statements a mess when there are many orders and when it comes in a closing period.

[SMARTSUPPLY]

today we lost starting balance for inventory items without any warning and new journal entry have been created by someone but not by me.

[shahabb]

Already discussed.

@lubos

It’s true that the latest version has removed the concept of starting balances from the program. New approach is to simply create transactions to establish these balances which many businesses had to do anyway because starting balances could not capture everything required.

For example, even single inventory item could have number of starting balances. Qty on hand, qty to receive, qty owned, qty to deliver etc. To establish quantity to receive or quantity to deliver, you’d need to enter individual sales and purchase orders.

If you need to set up Qty Owned starting balance, you have number of options but the most straightforward one would be to record a journal entry where you select account Inventory On Hand, then inventotory item, enter quantity and total cost.

Balance can be posted to Retained Earnings account.

Typically this journal entry would contain starting balances for all your accounts, not just inventory items.

[Minaji]

Please explain to me which factor affect quantity on hand because am going crazy here. with my accounts

[lubos]

@Minaji have a look at this guide: https://www.manager.io/guides?inventory-item-qty-on-hand

[Minaji]

i check that guide already but still did not get what i wanted but do not worry i will figure it out
thanks

[eko]

The link @Lubos provided all the “factors” that affect quantity on hand in the section “…Accurately Reflecting Physical Inventory…” but let me simplify this:

To ensure an accurate quantity on hand in Manager you can only use:

• Delivery Notes and these MUST be linked to Sales orders (not quotes or invoices!), and

• Goods Receipts and these MUST be related to Purchase orders (not quotes or invoices!)

“Qty on Hand” then shows the actual inventory movements - receipts and deliveries of the items - and not just invoiced transactions.

[shahabb]

In addition to what @eko said

Invoices MUST be linked to Sales/Purchase orders too
Or else your qty on hand will show double deduction.

Inshort check your orders and check status for both delivery and invoice. When both are green you are good to go (For orders that are completed in actual).