Product Sales Nominal Codes being ignored

[SF_Chris]

Hi

We use an extensive list of products, with products allocated to their correct Nominal Sales codes (eg 400x). However, in some instances recently, when posting the invoices to the ledgers the product's default sales nominal code is being ignored and the sales are being blindly posted to 4000.

Why is this happening and how do I stop it from re-occurring?

I am using Sage 50 Accounts Pro 2011, version number 17.0.15.208 on Windows 7 32 bit. It is a multi user licence however, although I am pretty sure the other users are all using Windows 7 too.

Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Chris

[brucedenney]

The things I can imagine :-

Someone has used the global code to override the individual line coding.
The items were entered before the nominal codes had been set so at that time had been on the default nominal code 4000.

Suggestions:-

First set the default product nominal code to a code that you do not use eg 4999, this way if anyone forgets to set up a nominal it should jump out at you and not hide in a haystack of other items.

Second go back and look at the invoices that did not update, was it just the older ones,do the line items have the correct nominal code, is the global code set?

[SF_Chris]

Hi Bruce

Thanks for your reply.

Through invoicing, when I look at the invoices and click on the product lines, the correct product codes are shown. However, when the ledgers were updated the nominal sales code changed to 4000 and the transactions ended up posted there. N/C 4000 is often the customer's default code, but simply changing the customer default won't help because every one of our customers purchases different products.

When you speak of a global product code - I am not sure what you are referring to? This only appears to be happening to certain customers at the moment. Most of the product lines are posting to the correct places when the ledgers are updated.

Thanks

Chris

[brucedenney]

There are 2 checks yo need to do.

On the invoice look on the footer tab, see if the Global section N/C field has anything in it.

If it is just a few customers, then it is possible that this is an over-ride to use the customers nominal code.

To check this open the customer record goto the defaults tab next to the Default nominal Code is a check box labelled "Use default nominal code for Sales" if this is checked then the default code for that customer rather than the code for the product will be used.

[SF_Chris]

Hi

For some reason there is an entry of 4000 in Global Section N/C field of the footer of one of the invoices affected. - If this is the cause of the issue how do I amend this?

However, re your second point, the "Use default n/c for sales" box is unchecked on same customer.

Thanks

[brucedenney]

It is too late to change it, the invoice has been updated to the ledger.

You can fix it by journalling out of 4000 and into the other accounts the correct amounts.

Going forward, you need to tell people not to put anything in the global value as it messes things up for you. The Taken By field in the order will tell you who created the order, but it may have been someone else at a later point in time that altered it.

To spot this sort of error, I suggest setting the defaults for the accounts (and products) to something "abnormal" eg 4999 then is someone doesn't set a code and uses the default it will stick out like a sore thumb and be easy to spot.

[SF_Chris]

On the theme of avoiding a repeat of this mistake - Why did that global value appear in the footer of the invoice? It doesn't appear to have come from the default nominal sales code in the customer record - is it automatically empty on the invoice and requires manual entry?

This is the crux I feel, somebody other than me raises sales invoices and updates the ledger and I want to ensure it doesn't happen again.

[brucedenney]

It was "user error" in all probability.

[SF_Chris]

Thank you for your help Bruce!