We are agent of two different companies
We have added multiple businesses on manager software to have separate accounts, inventory, expenses and invoicing for them, is it possible to use automatic invoicing number on both of them without overlapping Invoicing numbers in business A and B?
I know we can set prefix on themes but that will not appear in report e.g tax reports
No. Right now you cannot.
Start them in a different range.
Each will increase by 1 each time and if sufficiently far apart should never overlap
how we can do this?
for one business start the series as 10000001
for another business start the series as 40000001
then another business start the series as 70000001
I think the original question carries a misunderstanding of the term “business”
I think the idea is to have multiple “businesses” within a single Business in Manager
But I could be wrong
As I understand the autonumbering system, it searches for the highest number used and adds 1
So having separate series as suggested would not work
@Joe91 is correct. I interpreted @Asif_Hussain’s original post to mean he had two distinct businesses set up in Manager, as that term is normally used within the program. So @Patch’s initial response seemed correct. Obviously, though, @Davide interpreted things the other way.
My question is why this matters if the two businesses are distinct? It only matters if you are trying to account for two different companies under one Manager business. That is would not be a good practice.
@Asif_Hussain, every aspect of different businesses in Manager is unique to that business. Numbering sequences, all settings, custom themes…everything. The only things multiple businesses would have in common are the global preferences in the top menu bar.
In Italy you can have different numbering in different “sezionali”, ie business subdivisions. And right now you have to do this manually…
How are you doing this?
Do you have multiple Manager business, one for each account? If so
Automatic numbering in Manager works by adding 1 to the largest existing number. So to start a larger number you just need to enter the first number manually. Simple, actually it is too simple as if someone later enters a number from another businesses range, all subsequent numbers will be in that range which is why I said should never overlap above.
On the other and if you have a single Manager business and are reporting separately for each, are you:
- using tracking codes or
- separate COA accounts or
- transaction exporting with external analysis.
If so a custom theme with custom variables is likely to to be more appropriate. Doing something like
-
Have a custom list variable indicating which account the transaction applies to (eg “A - Account 1”, “B - Account 2”, “C - Account 3”, “D - Account”, “E - Account 4”, “F - Account 5”).
-
In the custom theme test the first character of the account string to determine which account the current transaction applies to. Then use this to modify theme elements such as
-
Serial number: concatenate an appropriate prefix
-
Address: substitute a different address (best stored in another custom variable(s) )
Clearly doing this requires familiarity with liquid programing
My reading of the OP is they have Business A and Business B with their own inventories, accounts, expenses and invoicing.
My understanding is they would like to see unique invoice numbers that only appear in one business and not the other. My understanding of what they have and how they want to use it is as follows:
- Business A - Joe’s Lawn Mowing
- Business B - Joe’s Tree Stump Grinding
- Businesses maintain separation of accounts including invoicing
- They would like businesses to use running but not overlapping invoice numbers, such that:
- JLM could have invoice 1, 2, 5 and 7
- JTSG could have invoices 3, 4, 6 and 8
- OP want’s to create an automatic invoice number that does not get used by the other business, such invoicing would look like:
Date JLM JTSG JOther
1/1 Inv 001
1/1 Inv 002
1/1 Inv 003
1/2 Inv 003
1/2 Inv 004
1/3 Inv 005
1/4 Inv 006
I’m curious why they need such separation, couldn’t it be handled within one business? I can’t help but feel there would be a better way to create a centralised business model where the two businesses are one with some degree of separation of the required components.
I realise I am speculating on what the OP wants but if that is the case it obviously isn’t possible at this point, and probably not likely in the future unless a use-case could be put forward to make it so.
A poor example would be the fact invoicing could be centrally controlled for several businesses by a third party (eg where a business utilises the services of another business to do said invoicing, but then it is unlikely they would be using manager… UNLESS the OPs business is in the business of controlling the issuance of invoices! A third party invoice provider??) lol. like I said, possibly a poor example.
In short and as mentioned, each business is its own entity and invoice numbers are unique to that business only and not across businesses. It wouldn’t be impossible to implement (relatively simple actually if it was an all or nothing approach), but it defies normal logic on sequential invoices per business, since invoices issued do not normally have to be mindful of another businesses invoicing system.
Perhaps if the OP could give an example of how they are invoicing and why they are doing it this way, or a reason why absolutely unique invoice numbers are needed across businesses then other users may be better able to suggest how to achieve a desirable outcome.
By doing this, if you can handle custom numbering in themes, you’re not saving custom numbering in Manager’s database… this is not working at all under a legal and fiscal point of view.
The approach assumes the invoice number is stored as two parts, one auto incrementing and another fixed for each customer type in a custom field.
Both are stored in Manger. Then numbering system doesn’t use all possible numbers as the auto numbering component is unique on its own.
The suggestion is based on more flexible auto numbering fields not being easy to support in Manger when discussed earlier.
So basically your suggesting to number invoices manually…
No
You want an invoice number which contains a fixed sequence portion and an auto numbering component eg
FFFVVVVVVV
Where FFF is a fixed part specific to the subdivision
and VVVVVV is a variable automatically numbering component
FFF is stored in a custom field, and constant for a particular subdivision
VVVVVV is the current Manager Reference number with auto numbering enabled
A custom theme is then used to display FFFVVVVVV where the current reference number VVVVVV is displayed
The suggestion was to extend this as you probably want more than the reference number to change in different subdivisions, so the theme could use this transaction tagging to select several fields in the theme, hence tag the transaction with a custom field drop down list such as
The custom theme only looks at the first letter so the details of the subdivisions can change / be updated. Similarly the custom theme can be written to pull actual text from suitability named Custom fields at the “Business Details” level eg
A-ReferencePrefix
A-Address
B-ReferencePrefix
B-Address
C-ReferencePrefix
C-Address
etc
In this way you will have holes in the numbering, since the sequence is split between the two business sections, which in my country, and many other is even illegal.
Sorry I can’t help you then.
That prevents creating separate groups of numbers so there is no solution. Managers automatic numbering would also be dangerous to use as if a user accidentally entered a manual reference number a gap would be created which would be very hard to fix particularly after after several more transactions are generated.
Thanks all for your comments
Use case is this: Company xyz is agent/reseller of two companies A and B
Company A has 500 different items
Company B has 500 different items
It is better to have separate Accounting, Inventories and invoicing for them for many reasons and to avoid confusion
But when Company xyz has to submit accounts to Tax department, Invoice numbers need to be unique on each invoice, if an alphabet prefix can be added in start of auto invoice number that would be very helpful e.g A001 and B001
A custom theme which prefixes the reference number with a string.
- In Manager business for company A set the string to “A”,
- In Manager business for company B set the sting to “B”
Yes thinking to do this way, then we need to update all invoice number in tax reports aswell with prefixes.
thanks
The easier way in your case is what was initially proposed, provided you are happy with:
- Number range not alpha prefix
- If someone enters a manual number an mixes the range you don’t mind moving that companies later invoices to a larger range again.
To do it just manually enter the first invoice number in each business and auto generate all subsequent.
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