Shared Custom Fields

1

Dear @lubos,

after few days of playing with the new reporting tools I can say that probabily you are crating a perfect tool to match all the localization needs. I think that Manager, together with custom fields for the chart of accounts that I’ve already suggested, is still missing the possibility to share custom fields through different typology of data.

I try to explain better what I am suggesting through an example.

As already exposed, in Italy, under certain conditions, we can change (anticipate) the accrural period of the VAT of the fiscal documents (ie invoices and notes) without altering the accrual period of the invoices. To do this we have created two custom fileds, one that sets the VAT period (ie, for quarters 1Q2020, 2Q2020, 3Q2020, 4Q2020) and one that set the Anticipation (Anticipated or blank).

Obviously we had to create these custom fields for all the typologies of fiscal documents (Sales Invoices, Credit Notes, Purchase Invoices, Debit Notes). The problem is that when we create the query we have eight columns: four columns of “VAT Period” and four columns of “Anticipation”. To be functional, usable, coherent and also understandable there should be only two columns that goes through all the different fiscal documents.

Any solution for this problem?

Thanks for the great work you are doing.

2

This is something I had in mind for quite some time. New custom reports only reinforce the need for this.

3

A report displaying a value from one of several variables (where the sub variable has the same name) requires

  • The variable sets to be mutually exclusive, which maybe none trivial for the program to ascertain in the general case

  • The report to not combine variable with the same name when that is what the user wants

The alternative is a localisation combines variables when that is what is wanted.

Btw I’m not saying it wont work or is not possible, just that it maybe harder than it sounds

4

I think this may be the same as idea suggestion made by @generalegend on March 8th.

5

The solutions can be different (and I don’t know how Manager’s engine works!):

  1. Revert the perspective of how custom fields works. Now you choose the tab you want to assign them and then you create the custom field. In the new implementation one can create first the custom field and then assign it to many different tabs.
  2. Add the possibility to link different custom fields like a sort of CONCAT() in the SQL language. In the reporting tab there should be a place to link these fields.

The second solution is much easier and faster but the first one, from a functional point of view, is the best solution. For example, if you think of a drop down field, with the second solution you cannot have the guarantee that the list is the same in all the Tabs. The first one maybe can have problem with the legacy of the old custom fields implementation and can imply a big work on the whole Manager way of working.

1 Like
6

I used Accounting system before, where the system provide you with tags that can be enabled in any transaction screen. You may rename the tag, but the system will still recognize it as tag 1, tag 2,…etc. Maybe this is one way to do it. Just thought of sharing this.

7

Dear @lubos,

any update about this idea?

8

This has been implemented in the latest version (22.8.12).

It is now possible to have single custom field that can span multiple transaction types

image

3 Likes
9

Thanks @lubos. Any idea on how to merge the duplicate ones now that they spread across different items?

10

The best solution to assist with transition would be generic find & recode which I didn’t implement yet. Currently it can be done with Batch Update but that is quite rough to use.

11

I’ve managed to use Batch Update to merge all my custom fields except for the one that is placed in lines in sales invoices and purchase invoices. This doesn’t appear as a column when in the Sales Invoices or Purchase Invoices tabs. Thankfully for me I’ve only used this a handful of times, so it won’t take long to change them individually. But is there an easy way to quickly find all sales invoices and purchase invoices that use this custom field so that I can be sure I don’t miss any?

12

@lubos will there be an option to select a shared custom field in custom reports only once to cover all transaction types and report in one column across all transaction types? (At the moment the shared custom field needs to be selected for each transaction over multiple columns.)

13

I’m working on new implementation of custom reports which will be simpler to use. So not really looking at how this shared custom fields concept affects current implementation.

14

Thanks.

15

For sales invoices, you could create a Sales Invoice Totals by Custom Field report if this was a standard custom field. There is no similar report for purchase invoices. But since you are looking for a line-item custom field, you are out of luck anyway.

16

OK, thanks. I’m actually not sure if I ever did use the field in a purchase invoice, and it will be no great loss if I do lose one or two entries that I did make. So I think I’ll go ahead and replace the field in purchase invoices with the one from sales invoices.

17

Can you please consider in the new implementation:

  1. the possibility to have logical operators (AND, OR) in the queries
  2. the possibility to create groups of custom reports
1 Like
18

@Davide, can you explain yourself further? What queries are you referring to? And what is the use case for a group of custom reports?

19

I also agree about logical operators for where.. statements. But I don’t understand what’s the suggested grouping for custom reports.

20

Tipically a SQL query syntax is:

SELECT column1 , column2, …
FROM table_name
WHERE condition1 AND/OR condition2 AND/OR condition3 …

Custom Report is a sort of reduced preconfigued SQL query with a graphical interface. Right now WHERE conditions are linked only with AND and OR is not selectable. I’m asking to have this function implemented

About groups… we have many custom reports in our businesses. It’s a big list which makes them hard to find. Having the possibility to group them (ie putting them inside sort of folders) will help find them and get rid of this mess.