I am running Manager Desktop on a Windows 10 version 20H2 64 bit PC. In Desktop version 21.2.95, in the Reports tab, when I view a report in the Profit and Loss Statement (Actual vs Budget) section I notice that the Expense account amounts in the Actual & Budget columns all display as positive amounts. However, when I click the Copy to clipboard button & paste it into a blank Excel 365 spreadsheet the Expense account amounts all display as negative. I downloaded & installed the latest desktop version, 21.3.36 & see the same result.
Previous to the 21.2.95 version the Expense account amounts displayed as positive amounts, like the Revenue account amounts. I opened a browser version of Manager in another window & still see the same negative amounts.
Please advise what has changed.
That is because the group heading is Less: Expenses, emphasis on “Less”. The display of both income and expense account balances as positive numbers is just an accounting convention.
That is because, in the context of this report, they are negative numbers. When the TSV file is copied, the negative signs are not suppressed. This makes it easier to manipulate numbers in a spreadsheet.
What has changed is exactly what you have observed. There are also reports that display Dr and Cr symbols (for debits and credits). Those now also show positive and negative numbers for the same reason.
If you really want more information than you were ready for, here is a tidbit. The numbers on your budget report all have their signs reversed to begin with. Manager uses a convention of credits being negative and debits positive. (You can design accounting software either way.) So income account balances are actually negative and expense account balances are actually positive. They are flipped for the report to conform to common presentation.
Thank you. I can work with that as long as the Copy to clipboard function in Manager never reverts back to the way it worked before.
Never say never. But it probably will not happen. Previously, the TSV copy was a copy of the output, a physical representation of the displayed form. Now it is a copy of the numbers making up the report.
I am investigating associated problems:
- Yes, the expense values are negative. However, the Totals are positive. I would have expected the values to be consistently negative.
- The negative value is displayed with a space between the neg sign and the $ value. I don’t know how excel processes this, but Libre Office Calc doesn’t. Removing the space fixes the display.
Could you please comment. I am using v 21.3.54 on Windows 10, desktop.
Using Windows and Excel I just right click on the report and click export to excel.
This for me has helped overcome a lot of the inconsistencies in the way the program behaves and gives me the required flexibility for my custom reports.
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That is a menu item Microsoft excel adds to Microsoft web browsers.
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There are addon for most browsers to add “Table copy” functionality to the browser.
No, not using a WEB browser!
Using Manager Desktop alone under WINDOWS EXPLORER. I normally do not have any browsers running on my accounts computer.
Yes, it is added by Excel.
I think this is only if your (default?) web browser is IE
Windows 10 Task manager shows NO browser running. IE has been removed, (Firefox is the default IF I use a browser window) although the windows explorer dependencies are still there, naturally, as part of it. I’m not going to get into the common understanding here again that Manager Desktop is running using a web browser. IE and windows explorer are two different things although they both rely on certain common components.
I think it comes as part of Firefox so
I have Windows 10 and Microsoft Excel but no “Export to Microsoft Excel” as an option if I right click
When you click on the Properties link what does it say?
No, that option doesn’t show when viewing a report in a browser window on FF, only when using Desktop manager alone.
Rob
Later versions of Manager desktop on Windows require Webview2 (use Microsoft Edge) to function.
If you want to keep using the version of Microsoft Internet Explorer built into Microsoft Windows you will not be able to use current version of Manager desktop on Windows.
See Should Manager Desktop run in browser instead of standalone application - #50 by Patch
To demonstrate the copy to excel menu option
- re enable IE (it is on your computer with normal user access hidden)
- start IE the menu option will be there when looking at pages with tables
- change the printing options, doing so will change Manager desktop behaviour
I do not understand the logic in forcing users to install a bug ridden program that creates so many problems, not just with manager!
because
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Microsoft has made Microsoft internet explorer end of life and are replacing it with Microsoft Edge.
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I believe IE has become increasingly non compliant with the standards used by other modern browsers (which other versions of Manager must support), which has made it increasingly difficult for Manager to continue to support IE
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Looking at what has been done to Manager recently, my guess is Lubos is in the process of completely rewriting all the reports and editing screens, possibly to support electronic reporting becoming mandatory in multiple jurisdictions and possibly unify the interface for custom themes and localisations (but that is just my guess)
The only other alternative would be for Manger desktop to include another specific third party web browser during installation.