Hello Support:
A client has just pointed something out. We're not certain if it's intended behaviour or not.

In AR, if they want to search by Invoice #, they open the Customer list and click on "Find". When they type the Invoice number into the "Document #" field, they sometimes end up at the wrong Customer. The reason is that the search is looking at all transactions including Cash. In their case they type in the Customer's cheque number when doing a Receipt and, in some cases, that is the same as an Invoice #. In those cases the search may find the Cash transaction first.

Is that deliberate? The help screen refers to searching for "Invoices and Credit Notes". Thank you.

Hi Bruce,

The 'document number' field in the Customer Find function shows all document types, including invoices, credit notes, debit notes, cash, adjustments, and so on. The Help file notes says 'eg Invoice or credit note', which wasn't meant to indicate the exhaustive list of possible document types to search on. Cash is valid - why wouldn't you want to find a customer based on a check number?

If you are concerned about picking the wrong customer based on the transaction type, remember that these finder grids are configurable, and the Trx Type field can be added to the grid.

Also remember that document numbers don't have to be unique in AR, so it is possible for two customers to have the same invoice number - perhaps in different years or for whatever reason. Using the document number to find a customer isn't guaranteed to be unique and find the specific customer. For that matter, neither is the customer name or phone number, but naturally it is not likely for 2 customers to have the same name or phone number.

Support:
Thanks for your response. That makes sense.

Support:
The theory was convincing, the reality, not so much!

I advised my client to use the finder to select the document they want. However here's what happens: If there are 2 documents with the same document number and they want the 2nd one, they highlight it and select it. The Find dialogue box shows the correct Customer name and looks correct. However as soon as the "Ok" button is selected, the first match in the list is used and that Customer becomes the current one. I've been able to reproduce this in sample data.

Bruce:

Your client should not be allowing duplicate numbers.

Doug:
You might issue Invoice #14521 and then some customer at some point in the future submits a payment using their cheque #14521. And if you are the type of user that enters the actual cheque # for AR Receipt entry, you've got duplicate document numbers as soon as you post. That's what has happened in this case, more than once it turns out.

Hi Bruce,

There's a simple work around for this.

If there are duplicate document numbers in the file, and you select any one of them, then the Finder on document number will position you to the first customer with that number, regardless of which one you selected.

If, after selecting the client you want, you clear the document number by pressing "Delete" before pressing the "Enter" key (or clicking the OK button), then you will be positioned to the customer you have selected off the Finder.

Hi Andrew:
That works and it's pretty easy to do, once one knows to do it! Does "work-around" mean that a change will be considered for the next AR version? While the technique is simple, it's definitely not obvious to the user.

If this is a constant issue, may I suggest that the user be instructed to enter cheque numbers as #14321 or somthing similar to avoid any possibility of duplication wiht invoice numbers?

Hi Bruce,

I agree it's not obvious, and I had to find the time to make sure it would work. I realized thinking about this post what was happening in the background.

This is a very common piece of code used in a lot of modules. I've asked R&D to see whether we can make it work the way the user expects.