Missing Item Descriptions in General Ledger

[VACUUMDOG]

@lubos As it has been declared to not be a bug, I would like to request that the ‘Item Description’ once again be included in both the ‘Inventory Cost’ and ‘Inventory on hand’ sections of the General Ledger Transactions Report.

The way it is at the moment, if there are multiple items in the transaction, you cannot determine which costs are associated with each item on the report.

The following images show an example of a receipt, how it was back at the start of June and how it is now. I would assume that as it is involving inventory, knowing exactly what the inventory was would be relevant.

[k11]

I don’t know if this might help you. But, you can set-up your chart of accounts with your product details under COGS (Cost of good sold / Inventory Cost). Then, set each inventory under those cost categories. It is a little tedious but it will get the job done. Or, you can set up tracking codes. Currently, inventory only has average cost which is the only downside. I have been using the program to track stocks (see below). So, set your proper income account and expense account.

[lubos]

@VACUUMDOG I can’t show descriptions on general ledger report because many businesses use them differently - they make them quite extensive. For this reason, I’m planning to improve custom report so these “transactional reports” such as general ledger transactions or tax transactions won’t be needed and custom reports will allow you to select which columns to show.

[VACUUMDOG]

@lubos, Thanks. I just thought it strange that they do appear under ‘Inventory sales’ and ‘Tax payable’.
Maybe I’m using the term ‘Item Description’ when I should be using ‘Item name’. In my case they both contain the same text?

[Brucanna]

@lubos

I’m planning to improve custom report so these “transactional reports” such as general ledger transactions or tax transactions won’t be needed and custom reports will allow you to select which columns to show.

Then you are going to disenfranchise an entire a group of Manager Users.
For myself, even though I know accounting inside out and back to front, I have never yet, even after dozens of attempts, managed to get any Custom Report to achieve a result that I expected. I just seem to be incapable of inputting the right “recipe”.

The fantastic thing about Manager is that its accounting software for the novice, yet with the above suggested removal of “transactional reports such as general ledger transactions or tax transactions” then it will increasing become the accounting software for the techno savvy’s.

What next, the removal of P&L and BS reports in lieu of “designer” reports? Manager at its core needs to maintain fundamental accounting reporting for the novice and can’t abrogate that responsibility because it is not “on trend”.

Putting more energy into addressing / resolving ACTUAL user requirements, the Ideas category, would in my opinion be more beneficial for Manager, than fiddling around the edges with abstract reporting, unless it’s the re-instatement of of the custom reporting’s ability to generate lists, non transactional custom reporting.

[Davide]

@Brucanna

Then you are going to disenfranchise an entire a group of Manager Users.

I think that there will be pre-saved custom reports that will reflect the actual standard reports. Starting from these, each one will be able to make their personalizations.

[clive]

Let us hope and pray that we get pre-saved custom reports then - because the whole thing around custom reports just baffles me completely. It is far too complicated in my opinion.

[lubos]

@Brucanna

Putting more energy into addressing / resolving ACTUAL user requirements, the Ideas category, would in my opinion be more beneficial for Manager, than fiddling around the edges with abstract reporting, unless it’s the re-instatement of of the custom reporting’s ability to generate lists, non transactional custom reporting.

There are 22 topics in ideas category which mention custom reports.

https://forum.manager.io/search?q=%22custom%20reports%22%20category%3A29

Custom reports are going to solve so many feature requests (current and future ones) - it is an actual user requirement. And big one.

This is not about fiddling around the edges. Custom reports are being improved. At some point, custom reports will be good enough to replace built-in reports such as Tax Transactions or General Ledger Transactions and will do better job than built-in reports at that. I do not specifically work on custom reports to replace these two reports. It will be just side-effect of custom reports maturing.

@Brucanna

For myself, even though I know accounting inside out and back to front, I have never yet, even after dozens of attempts, managed to get any Custom Report to achieve a result that I expected. I just seem to be incapable of inputting the right “recipe”.

Custom reports in Manager are inspired by SQL which is industry standard for querying data. Perhaps it’s not user-friendly but it’s complete solution which means in combination with custom fields, there are unlimited possibilities. I don’t expect people to start learning SQL so they can get creative with custom reports on their own. There are going to be recipes people can use. E.g. how do I get list of sales for the month per sales person or how do I get inventory items sold with serial number ending XYZ.

Custom reports giving you list of tax transactions or general ledger transactions is just scratching the surface.

Actually, when I’m thinking about this now, custom reports is really the new General Ledger Transactions report with all the knobs and dials.

[VACUUMDOG]

@lubos

Actually, when I’m thinking about this now, custom reports is really the new General Ledger Transactions report with all the knobs and dials.

Then please, please make the General Ledger (and others too I suppose) available as a report that can be truly customised. If the query parameters for the current reports were available now to be imported/copied and modified as required, like the themes can, then I believe it would solve a lot of users angst.
SQL may be the standard but the naming of indexes and fields etc. in Manager needs to be user friendly, not just programmer friendly in this situation.
I use SQL database with my store and often have to modify items etc manually using ‘MySQL® Databases’ via control panel. This is no where near as complicated as trying to create a custom report in Manager.

[clive]

Please keep the General Ledger Transactions report and ALL the existing re-determined reports.
I have zero desire to start learning SQL - it may be industry standard for techies but not for business people. I have neither the time nor the brain capacity at my age to be learning this.

[Davide]

@VACUUMDOG

This is no where near as complicated as trying to create a custom report in Manager.

Creating a query in Manager is nowhere more complicated than creating it in SQL being Custom Report a subset of SQL language even with a graphic interface.

In SQL you have to take care of joining tables and many other tasks that are already done in Custom Reports. On the opposite side, Custom Reports is and will never be as flexible as SQL. That’s the reason, for example, we still don’t see any result from tables that are not linked to GLT since we cannot set an OUTER JOIN.

By the way it is already possible to batch create and batch update Custom Reports. So it will be possible to save and share all kind of reports starting from the standard one.

[VACUUMDOG]

It doesn’t really matter how reports are obtained, if I can’t get what I want or need then custom reports are useless. I still fail to see how the development of a custom report feature leads to the breaking of the standard reports we were accessing. You should not break something then offer up an alternative that does not offer comparable results.
I’m now spending hours back and forth between Manager and Excel trying to get just a few things that were included in the report only two months ago, and not having much luck.
Like @Brucanna, I have yet to get a successful output I need from a custom report, especially something as simple as including the Item name in an Inventory cost report!

[Davide]

That’s completely a different thing and I’m with you 100%.

I still cannot get a report of all the inventory kits, even the unsold ones, that I used to in previous Custom Reports.

[VACUUMDOG]

And how long before we start getting told that this is not a coding forum when asking for help designing custom reports that may or may not still work after program updates?

[Davide]

We will create an underground parallel market of custom reports. LOL

[Tut]

@Davide

Creating a query in Manager is nowhere more complicated than creating it in SQL

I think the problem is that many users cannot do anything more than spell SQL. They don’t understand what it is, how it works, or the first thing about how to use it. I don’t think you should be required to understand SQL queries to obtain a report from your accounting software.

@Davide

we still don’t see any result from tables that are not linked to GLT since we cannot set an OUTER JOIN.

An excellent example. I suspect 95% of Manager users do not know what the tables are that you refer to, nor what an OUTER JOIN is.

@VACUUMDOG

Like @Brucanna, I have yet to get a successful output I need from a custom report, especially something as simple as including the Item name in an Inventory cost report!

I suspect this experience is very common. And I think it would be more common except that most users are bewildered by the entire concept of custom reports and have never tried to create one—so they have never failed.

[Davide]

@Tut

I think the problem is that many users cannot do anything more than spell SQL. They don’t understand what it is, how it works, or the first thing about how to use it. I don’t think you should be required to understand SQL queries to obtain a report from your accounting software.

I think that this is why @lubos is working so much on them. He cannot face all the needs of the users. So, after he will have reproduced Standard Reports into Custom Report it will be up to the community to develop further the other ones and share them.

[VACUUMDOG]

@lubos I know this thread is getting dated but I really need this fixed, the General Ledger Transaction Report, back to the way it was.
In inventory sales, A, I get the item description. In Inventory cost and Inventory on hand, B & C, I get the receipt description, not the item description?
I need the item description there like it was a couple of months ago!

@lubos

@VACUUMDOG I can’t show descriptions on general ledger report because many businesses use them differently - they make them quite extensive.

Please tell me why you used to be able have the item descriptions there (B & C), and they still appear under Inventory sales, but no longer can.
I now have to go through nearly three months of trading to provide the auditor with the information they have requested or fork out extra money, and quite a bit, for them to match up figures.

[lubos]

@VACUUMDOG would this custom report help?

Here is an example:

Basically you want 4 columns

• Transaction (this will show transaction type and reference)
• Description (this will show description you are after)
• Debit
• Credit

then you group it by General Ledger Account as per the screenshot.

[VACUUMDOG]

Close, I just changed the description parameter and got sort of what I need. Still not as good as the ‘old’ report but hopefully it will satisfy the auditor.