Questions about Forum login / Tab count includes inactive items

Bug One - When I am logging into Manager forum. I put in my username and password and press enter on my keyboard. For some reason this logs me in, but now also brings up the google login which I don’t want or need to use. I am using Windows 7 and Firefox.

Bug Two - may not be classified as a bug, but I think it should be. Comparing the latest version to a release prior to 01 Aug 2017 Removed ‘inactive’ button and show inactive items at the bottom in gray instead (see topic)

For Suppliers or Inventory Items for example, the tab is showing the total Suppliers and Inventory Items including inactive items, whereas the older version is showing only current number on the tab. I believe that the total on the tab should only show current not inactive. As the years go by you will drop many suppliers, retire obsolete inventory items etc. I see no value in knowing the total number of inactive and active suppliers etc, whereas I can see some value in knowing total current suppliers and inventory items.

This sounds like an issue with the forum software (Discourse): https://www.discourse.org/

Bug section seems to be here, maybe you can report the issue to them to fix? bug - Discourse Meta

It sounds like you’re talking about the change that was introduced in Manager 17.7.50:

I agree that the count of active items is more valuable information than the count of active+inactive. But I’m not sure changing the number on the tab is the best approach, that could cause some confusion?

Why would it cause confusion? Before August it always showed only the active rows. So for me its a bug as nobody is interested in the inactive accounts.

Just my humble opinion - I wonder if others agree? It might not be immediately obvious that the number represents active only, rather than everything that can be seen in the list.

Think about consistency across the program. Imagine that you have two bank accounts. The Bank Accounts tab will show 2. Close an account and make it inactive. The inactive account no longer comes up as an option when entering bank transactions. But its records are still part of your accounting records. So the Bank Accounts tab still shows 2.

The same is true of inventory items or suppliers or customers or anything else. The count of Sales Invoices does not decrease because the invoices are prior to the display period or have been paid in full. The count shows the number of records or subsidiary ledgers (as appropriate) in the tab.

I work in IT and I have found it very important to setup laptops etc in a consistent way, with same software, same look etc. The reason for consistency is that it makes it easier for people to use the system. Howver consistency is not quite the same thing as making things identical.

Knowing how many active suppliers, active inventory items etc is relevant information in that a Business Manager might say to an employee - can you review how many suppliers we currently use and review what we can consolidate. With the new version of Manager, you now have to manually count the number of active suppliers or manually deduct the number of inactive suppliers from the total. In short, for 99% of businesses, they have no interest in obsolete inventory items quantity or in old suppliers that they no longer use. They are interested in the active amount.

Even your bank accounts example is an example of where the bank tab should show one active account, not two - where one is inactive. If you want to be consistent it would make sense to only show active accounts on all tabs! That would be more useful than showing all accounts regardless of status. Invoices are different in that they are never inactive unlike suppliers, customers, inventory items etc. So its not a good example.

But my main point still stands - consistency is not about making everything arbitarily identical. Its meant to make things easier for people to use if things work in the same way within reason. Rigidly sticking to making things identical can sometimes make it more difficult to use.

I already have 250 inventory items - 50 of which are obsolete and this is just in two years using Manager. In five years, this number will be 200 obsolete inventory items - making it very difficult to know how many inventory items I actually have at quick glance. I have no interest and I cannot see anyone else having any interest in the number of active and obsolete inventory items or old suppliers that I no longer use etc.

@dalacor I agree with your argument and the latest version (17.10.69) shows count of active items only (so it applies to bank accounts, cash accounts, customers, suppliers, employees and inventory items only). However there is no reason to patronize other forum participants when presenting your argument.

@lubos Thank you for fixing the issue. Sorry I did not mean to come across as patronising. That was not my intent. Perhaps I just expressed my argument a bit more forcefully than I should have. :blush:

@Tut sorry if I came across a bit too strong as it was not meant that way.

No worries. We just have different opinions about this.