“Tracking Code” missing in multiple forms

[Brucanna]

The below post is a duplicate from another topic, but is also relevant to this topic.

@lubos

since no built-in report is using this information in any way.

Isn’t Custom Reports a built-in report, it being listed under the Reports tab, it’s just that Users determine the reporting parameters instead of being pre-set (fixed) by Manager.

It is clearly evident from the various comments above and in other related topics that quite a number of Users have adopted BS Tracking Codes, because they were "always" available, to assist them in there various workflows and the “built-in Custom Reports” provided reports on those workflows.

And this has been acknowledge by @lubos in the topic “Tracking Code” missing in multiple forms with “OK, I get it now. So this is not as much of a reporting issue. It’s more of a workflow issue where you record tracking code during purchase”

Manager, as it did with the BS account removal from Non-inventory items, has now disrupted / stripped / pulled the rug from under those User workflows for no valid reason, even though Manager itself has enabled Users the flexibility to develop those workflows over the past 5 years of so.

So once again, either Manager doesn’t understand the power and flexibility of its own software that it has provided to Users, or it is acting without regard to how it disrupts / interrupts Users with the withdrawal of a feature previously and legitimately provided.

To be quite frank, I don’t buy the bulls…t about screen space being saved as it’s nonsense.
Firstly, Tracking Codes ONLY appeared if Tracking Codes were activated.
Secondly, once a P&L account is selected the Tracking Code appears even though that P&L account may not require a Tracking Code entry, so where is the screen space being saved.
Thirdly, saving screen space just for BS entries seems in to be inconsequential.

If Tracking Codes were tied to precise P&L account then the argument may have some basis but then why should Users be handcuffed to such a restrictive restraint.

In my opinion, Manager is becoming increasingly restrictive from a User input perspective without any accounting justification, yet it is an accounting software, If Manager had introduced divisional and/or project accounting features with this withdrawal of BS Tracking Codes then the change would be understandable, but it didn’t, therefore BS Tracking Codes should be re-instated until they are available.

Then perhaps, a conversion facility could be provided for historical data. And for the forum purist who want to argue, BS Tracking Codes were never intended, that is bl…dy irrelevant.

I am going to duplicate this post into other related topics.

[Mesquire]

I use tracking codes on line items for sales and purchases (inventory items) as a management tool to allocate individual income and cost to each staff to aid calculate contribution ratios. When I generate a PnL report by tracking codes, I can see which staff has been generating the most income as well as contribution (after direct cost).

Tracking codes on operating expenses and overheads - not useful at all.

With the tracking code gone on sales and purchases, I have lost a very valuable management tool. Guys, if it works, please don’t change it - it doesn’t always improve on productivity.

What can I do NOW to track these income and costs?

[Joe91]

Tracking codes are available on sales.

Cost of sales will have them, I believe

[Mesquire]

not purcahsing inventory items - it used to be available

[Joe91]

Two different items purchased and sold each with a different Tracking code

Sales and Cost of Sales allocate the correct values to both income and expense

[Mesquire]

We don’t assign tracking codes to inventory items like your screen capture, but we assign a staff to each item (sales or purchase) using a tracking code, ie., each item sold or puchase can have a different staff.

Just to provide more details, we are a service company so we do not have any physical inventory.

We use inventory as a control to track our cost of service, eg., we pay filing fee when we file a statutory return for a client. When we invoice the client, the invoice package will deduct 1 unit from the inventory item. This inventory quantity becomes -1. We then create a dummy purchase invoice for 1 unit of statutory return, thus adding the quantity back to zero, with a Payable which we then issue a payment when we submit the return for the client. (Update: so if inventory quantity is negative, we know someone has forgotten to include the cost of service by creating a dummy invoice).

By ensuring that all inventory items have a zero quantity, we can be certain that we have captured all costs involved with our service invoice.

Before Manager, we were using Peachtree, and we use its job code function to record which staff is performing which service to a client - we can have several tasks being invoiced and performed for a client, each being conducted by a separate staff, so the job costing helps us identify who is performing the task but how much income the staff is generating. Likewise, we did the same with direct costs like filing fees.

When we migrated to Manager 3 years ago, we found there was no job costing function, but we tested it and found the tracking code function can be adapted for this purpose because it is available on every single PnL form.

Questions:

1. With this new implementation, am I correct to assume the tracking code will not apply to purchases since we create the invoice first?

2. Assuming we change the workflow by creating the dummy purchase (inventory item) first, followed by creating the service invoice, will the tracking code apply to the inventory item in accordance to which tracking code is applied to the sales item?

[Joe91]

I suggest that you import a backup of your current business into a test business where you can try out different options without impacting your real accounts.

Have you looked the the Billable Time & Billable Expenses modules which are designed for this type of business?

[Mesquire]

Billable time and expense will create too much admin work since we do not bill our client for time. Other billable expenses, eg., filing fee I mentioned, are already taken care of through inventory/ sales packages.

[AJD]

@Mesquire

We then create a dummy purchase invoice for 1 unit of statutory return

Why is it a dummy invoice? You are making the payment for the filing fee(s) to the statutory authority at some point, so you would need to create a Purchase invoice and Payment transaction combination or just a Payment transaction. Both these methods record the item in inventory, the former by the Purchase invoice or the latter by the payment. The tracking code is not required at this point as nothing is going to the P&L.

The Tracking code can be nominated in the sales invoice and will be allocated to both the Inventory sale and the Inventory cost accounts.

It is best if the purchase part is done prior to the sale part.

The other option is not to use inventory for the filing fees but to use Non-Inventory items.

[Joe91]

They are using inventory items to track whether their expenses have been billed or not to the client

Who said accountants were boring!

[Mesquire]

Dummy invoice - because there is no invoice. We simply file the statutory return with fixed payment.

Strictly speaking, we could just record the payment in PnL directly without involving inventory but we found going through inventory is the best way to create a trail. (We had an initial version using Non Inventory Item function but we didn’t like results).

[Mesquire]

@Joe91

They are using inventory items to track whether their expenses have been billed or not to the client

Who said accountants were boring!

Haha. Not quite.

Like I said earlier, we have already billed the client for expenses - included in our sales packages.

Inventory items help us track of relevant and pending payments - we don’t have dedicated accounting personnel so we need a way to make sure our staff enters everything.

[UPDATE]
After testing a few entries, it seems Manager will assign tracking code to the inventory item according to the ones assigned to the sales invoice. It works even on multiple tracking code on a single invoice! Save us time to assign tracking code to each purchase - so far so good.

But this assignment is FIFO?

Sometimes our staff would create dummy purchase invoice not in order, will the tracking code be assigned in accordance to the order of the invoices?

I assume when all purchase invoices have been entered (and inventory quantity is zero) that all tracking codes are matched correctly to sales tracking code?

[AJD]

@Mesquire

Dummy invoice - because there is no invoice. We simply file the statutory return with fixed payment.

It could be called a “dummy invoice”.

@Mesquire

Like I said earlier, we have already billed the client for expenses - included in our sales packages.

When you create a Sale Invoice for your customer, with the filing fee included, (obviously prior to filing the return or paying the filing fee) you are creating a liability to pay that fee at some point in the future. Therefore it is appropriate to record that liability by creating a Purchase invoice for it at the time of issuing the customer Sales invoice. When you do make the filing fee payment to the statutory authority no doubt you will receive a receipt docket for the payment which provides the documentation to justify the Purchase invoice.

[Mesquire]

exactly - we have the receipt to document the payment.

[AJD]

@Mesquire

Sometimes our staff would create dummy purchase invoice not in order, will the tracking code be assigned in accordance to the order of the invoices?

The tracking code is not recorded against the Purchase invoice so I don’t think that is relevant.

If there is negative stock the sale is not allocated until the stock is replenished. That is why it is best to record the purchase invoice prior to the Sales invoice, but it should still be correct if it is not entered first.

@Mesquire

I assume when all purchase invoices have been entered (and inventory quantity is zero) that all tracking codes are matched correctly to sales tracking code?

Yes that is what will occur.