Since performing upgrades to 9.2A, when entering invoice detail in Payables we are getting the warning "G/L account XXXX-XXXX is marked inactive" before getting a chance to complete account selection by entering the department. In some cases, an account may be active for some departments but not others and getting this warning before having the opportunity to enter the department is slowing data entry.

To help our Accounts Payable Clerks keep their sanity, we have temporarily addressed the problem by making all accounts active. Of course this isn't ideal as the accounts were marked inactive for a reason. Is there a setting somewhere we should have activated or deactivated that would allow the entry of the department before getting a warning? Or is it really all or nothing - all active or no validating of active accounts?

Hi Sonja,

Do you mean 'active' GL account-department pairs, or 'valid' account-departments, as there is a difference between the two. I presume Active is what you mean, but please correct me if I'm wrong. There are no settings for changing how the inactive GL account warning appears, but there a place in the Payables company profile for determining if an account-department paid is valid for entry.

When selecting a GL account-department from Payables batch entry, behaviour is slightly different when typing the account as compared to selecting it from the finder. If the finder is used, there is no intermediate checking of other accounts, though of course this is slower than simply typing. When typing the account and then tabbing to the department field, the first department code for that account is pre-loaded for convenience, and perhaps this account-department pair is inactive? I can replicate this message in this configuration.

I'm not aware that this scenario changed in the Payables 9.2A release and would have worked the same way in prior versions of A/P. But I can understand the frustration when this happens as it certainly would slow things down.

Would defining a default GL account-department on the vendor records assist in your case, so that account-departments don't have to be typed in when creating an invoice for those vendors? Perhaps not. I can write up a suggestion for the programmers to not warn about inactive accounts until the distribution detail is saved, but this would be a departure from the standard to warn immediately about a status.

Hi Sonja,

OK, I found an issue back in 2010 where the same situation you are describing was identified and fixed, which I believe was version 8.1C. Perhaps something has resurfaced in the 9.2A upgrade and should be rectified.

What version of Payables did you have prior to this upgrade?

I think we were using 8.1F prior to this upgrade, will have to confirm with the person who did the upgrade...

Confirmed, we recently upgraded from 8.1F to 9.2A

Hi Sonja,

Thank you for confirming the previous version, and I can see that in A/P 8.1F there is no inactive warning in the same entry scenario.

I have a solution for you that you can do now, that does not require a program update to wait for. From the invoice batch entry screen, and when entering a detail distribution, click the finder button on the G/L account field to show the account list. Then double-click on the grey title bar of this grid to bring up the column editor. If nothing happens for you when you double-click, it is because your Adagio user ID has not been granted access to the column editor, and you'll need an admin person to give you these rights, even temporarily.

From the column editor, there is an option to show 'Active records only', meaning that inactive GL accounts will be hidden in the grid. This also means that when an account is typed into the field, tabbing into the department field will pre-populate the field with the first active department. This will allow your entry staff to not get the inactive department warning and save their sanity.

Thanks so much for your time and a great solution. Cheers!