Hello Adagio Community,

We use OE 8.1D along with AR 9.0B. The issue I am confronted with is with the Salesperson field when entering a new order. This has always been a mandatory field; we could not leave the Header screen without entering a Salesperson code. Suddenly, this is no longer the case. The salesperson does not have to be entered to proceed with the order. I have checked the Order Entry Template and the Group settings and it all seems to be in order, with the field not being set to be skipped or anything.

I recently deleted a couple of salespersons and then had to add one back in order to view an old invoice, although I doubt that has any relevance.

I must be missing something. Any advice appreciated!

Thanks,
Jody

Hi Jody,

This changed in version 8.1D. This is the second line of the things 'fixed in version 8.1D' as outlined in the readme or the release notes:

The Salesperson field can now be left blank in documents. This may be desired in the case of credit notes.

Salespersons are required on orders and invoices to calculate commissions and such, but it is no longer an error if the salesperson field is left blank on any of the Order Entry document types.

Softrak Support:

I think R&D needs to re-think this "The Salesperson field can now be left blank in documents. This may be desired in the case of credit notes."

It is not very desirable, except maybe for credit notes. My guess is that most users would prefer the old method as it is very important that the correct salesperson gets credit for each order, esspecially if commissions are turned on.

On another note; why is this listed as a fix? Nothing was broken (that I'm aware of).

It should not have been an error to leave the field blank. Salesperson can be defaulted from the Customer record, Ship-to record and/or entry template. Some companies do not make use of this field at all.

I understand both sides of the issue.

I would like to suggest as a solution that the salesperson code be added to the list of fields that can be edited on an invoice. That way if a salesperson code is mistakenly left blank, it can be rectified after the fact.

Steve

We only allow you to edit fields that have no accounting impact. Salesperson codes are used in the calculation of the commission report, so cannot be changed after the invoice has been posted. How about creating a Filter that highlights Orders with no salesperson assigned in a bright color? That would make the error pretty obvious.

Hi Andrew

OK, then, how about only allowing the salesperson field to be edited if the "Analyze commission data" box is unchecked in Company Profile. Then it would have no "accounting" impact. I would venture to say that 99% of OE users do not use that function, even if it is turned on. I don't have a single client that does.

It's one thing to be able to identify orders with a blank salesperson field, but a totally different issue to be able to change a salesperson on an invoice after-the-fact. They are both nice, but the latter is a request I have received many times.

I would like to hear others' opinions on this.

Steve

Well, if there's no accounting impact, then you can change the salesperson field in SalesAnalysis. However, we'll look at the implications of allowing the change if the company profile option to track commissions is disabled.

Maybe a simpler solution would be an option to make the field "Manditory" or "Optional" when creating new orders.

The problem with editing the salesperson after the invoice has been posted is the fact that this change would then also need to be made in Sales Analysis (where it is used more often than it is for commission tracking).

We are trying hard to remove options of this nature from our products. As mentioned previously, there are defaults for this field in the customer, ship-to and order entry template records (settable by user), to make sure that this field is set. Finally, is a pretty simple mater to code a Filter to highlight an order that has not been coded correctly.

We'd just recommend making the change in the SalesAnalysis record.