Huge invoice problem
Discussion
I am appealing to the PH collective for advice on how to resolve the following problem.
Company XYZ uses Sage line 50, however the Sales invoices are produced outside of the system. ie Excel spreadsheet then mail merge into Word.
The problem is this, invoices have been issued then partially uploaded to Sage daybook then the source document (excel) has been changed and invoices have been re issued with different invoice numbers and again partially uploaded. This has gone on for 4 months and I have a VAT return to do and do not know where to start.
There are about 2,500 invoices in total.
Any help and suggestions would be welcome !
Company XYZ uses Sage line 50, however the Sales invoices are produced outside of the system. ie Excel spreadsheet then mail merge into Word.
The problem is this, invoices have been issued then partially uploaded to Sage daybook then the source document (excel) has been changed and invoices have been re issued with different invoice numbers and again partially uploaded. This has gone on for 4 months and I have a VAT return to do and do not know where to start.
There are about 2,500 invoices in total.
Any help and suggestions would be welcome !
Because it's a data loss/version control problem you may be better asking the IT chaps across on Computer Forum for file recovery assistance, I'm sure that Norton do a recover program that has version built in.
I thought you were using Line 100 or is this another company?
If you need help today phone or drop me a line
I thought you were using Line 100 or is this another company?
If you need help today phone or drop me a line
Eric Mc said:
Which source of invoices is the correct one - the Excel or the Sage?
Sounds like his excel list was changed, and they uploaded incorrect invoice numbers to sage.Is it possible to roll back sage and re-upload correct excel invoices?
Most definitely get away from using excel and word as an invoice generation system ASAP.
stuart-b said:
Eric Mc said:
Which source of invoices is the correct one - the Excel or the Sage?
Sounds like his excel list was changed, and they uploaded incorrect invoice numbers to sage.Is it possible to roll back sage and re-upload correct excel invoices?
Most definitely get away from using excel and word as an invoice generation system ASAP.
Which is correct ? excel is more accurate than Sage as excel say £6m turnover Sage daybook only showing £3m some invoices have been issued to customers dont know which and some uploaded to Sage but not all
As suggested if Sage could be rolled back and start again but some customers have already paid and many invoices already issued
HIS LM said:
stuart-b said:
Eric Mc said:
Which source of invoices is the correct one - the Excel or the Sage?
Sounds like his excel list was changed, and they uploaded incorrect invoice numbers to sage.Is it possible to roll back sage and re-upload correct excel invoices?
Most definitely get away from using excel and word as an invoice generation system ASAP.
Which is correct ? excel is more accurate than Sage as excel say £6m turnover Sage daybook only showing £3m some invoices have been issued to customers dont know which and some uploaded to Sage but not all
As suggested if Sage could be rolled back and start again but some customers have already paid and many invoices already issued
stuart-b said:
HIS LM said:
stuart-b said:
Eric Mc said:
Which source of invoices is the correct one - the Excel or the Sage?
Sounds like his excel list was changed, and they uploaded incorrect invoice numbers to sage.Is it possible to roll back sage and re-upload correct excel invoices?
Most definitely get away from using excel and word as an invoice generation system ASAP.
Which is correct ? excel is more accurate than Sage as excel say £6m turnover Sage daybook only showing £3m some invoices have been issued to customers dont know which and some uploaded to Sage but not all
As suggested if Sage could be rolled back and start again but some customers have already paid and many invoices already issued
as mentioned import via csv
HIS LM said:
stuart-b said:
HIS LM said:
stuart-b said:
Eric Mc said:
Which source of invoices is the correct one - the Excel or the Sage?
Sounds like his excel list was changed, and they uploaded incorrect invoice numbers to sage.Is it possible to roll back sage and re-upload correct excel invoices?
Most definitely get away from using excel and word as an invoice generation system ASAP.
Which is correct ? excel is more accurate than Sage as excel say £6m turnover Sage daybook only showing £3m some invoices have been issued to customers dont know which and some uploaded to Sage but not all
As suggested if Sage could be rolled back and start again but some customers have already paid and many invoices already issued
as mentioned import via csv
but i wrote a procedure which prevents any user ammending the record after export/import
i suppose another way would be to ODBC the data from your excel sheet into Sage
HIS LM said:
Invoices numbers appear to be random
ooh feck, that's going to be a problemHIS LM said:
From now on invoices will be created within Sage.
that's ok if all your products or bill of materials are in Sage tooours aren't, which is why we do a export/import procedure
but, whatever is used, make sure it is a unique and sequenced field
HIS LM said:
However the immediate problem is where to start ?
how about create a new dummy company in Sage, and use this to enter the invoices already paidthen start chasing customers for outstanding payments on invoice xxxxx
if they ask for a copy invoice, then send either excel or original sage one, and enter that data onto dummy Sage
[
ours aren't, which is why we do a export/import procedure
but, whatever is used, make sure it is a unique and sequenced field
then start chasing customers for outstanding payments on invoice xxxxx
if they ask for a copy invoice, then send either excel or original sage one, and enter that data onto dummy Sage
Fortunately there are no product sales it is a service provided.HIS LM said:
From now on invoices will be created within Sage.
that's ok if all your products or bill of materials are in Sage tooours aren't, which is why we do a export/import procedure
but, whatever is used, make sure it is a unique and sequenced field
HIS LM said:
However the immediate problem is where to start ?
how about create a new dummy company in Sage, and use this to enter the invoices already paidthen start chasing customers for outstanding payments on invoice xxxxx
if they ask for a copy invoice, then send either excel or original sage one, and enter that data onto dummy Sage
HIS LM said:
[
ours aren't, which is why we do a export/import procedure
but, whatever is used, make sure it is a unique and sequenced field
then start chasing customers for outstanding payments on invoice xxxxx
if they ask for a copy invoice, then send either excel or original sage one, and enter that data onto dummy Sage
Fortunately there are no product sales it is a service provided.
What do you actually use sage for? You don't need to use it to track individual invoices, it isn't a front of house application. As long as your figures match that in the excel you should be fine presenting the excel + sage list to the accountant. Sage is used by accountants for tax computation and expense tracking, but I wouldn't get too hung up on each individual invoice.HIS LM said:
From now on invoices will be created within Sage.
that's ok if all your products or bill of materials are in Sage tooours aren't, which is why we do a export/import procedure
but, whatever is used, make sure it is a unique and sequenced field
HIS LM said:
However the immediate problem is where to start ?
how about create a new dummy company in Sage, and use this to enter the invoices already paidthen start chasing customers for outstanding payments on invoice xxxxx
if they ask for a copy invoice, then send either excel or original sage one, and enter that data onto dummy Sage
Fortunately there are no product sales it is a service provided.
We wrote our own application to manage invoices, stock control + debtor analysis - we then export the totals for sage. Our accountant is an old school chartered accountant and has no problem with this.
I would however investigate something more robust, so that the invoices can't be amended after the event without some journaling or logging. The problem you have is being able to modify/delete invoices after the event in excel.
Edited by stuart-b on Saturday 27th March 15:15
HIS LM said:
We use Sage for everything other than Sales invoice production, ie cash book, purchase ledger, nominal, VAT
reports etc.
Then can't you just enter the sales totals into sage for a given period, rather than invoices line by line? You have the excel list to backup the sage data, then you won't have duplication/errors with the data. Once you've bought it all up to date, use a new invoicing system to do your front of house work, and set up a sage sync program to download the data every night to sage. As previously mentioned we've worked with a chap at Skyewright and he has a good connector.reports etc.
Yes but the excel list used to generate the invoices has been changed, and we dont know what invoices were issued to customers as nobody kept a hard copy,
and only some of them have been uploaded to Sage via csv. and some of the invoices have subsequently been paid.
So technically speaking I am up s
t creek without a paddle !
and only some of them have been uploaded to Sage via csv. and some of the invoices have subsequently been paid.
So technically speaking I am up s
t creek without a paddle !There is a way but it requires you to contact customers stating you have had IT issues meaning that the Invoicing has been corrupted, could they let you know what invoices are outstanding. This requires honesty and may cause issues with customers.
Also would it be possible using bank statements to identify what has been paid, and if electronic transfer has been used by whom.
Also would it be possible using bank statements to identify what has been paid, and if electronic transfer has been used by whom.
Edited by Engineer1 on Saturday 27th March 18:59
P924 said:
Do you not have a backup of the excel file, Volume shadow copy or anything available?
Do you know when the changes were made to the excel file?
Yep- this is what I said originally and the way to go. It doesn't matter what the invoice sequence/number is, what's important is the data on the original worksheet, which is Excel and where the problem lies- need to go to the route of the problem and work back from thereDo you know when the changes were made to the excel file?
I suggested getting the techy guys involved, restoring the archive,shadow copies,then export the Sage data to Excel and recompile your Master Invoice schedule; but it all starts with retrieving the overwritten Excel copies
Edited by Carsie on Monday 29th March 00:36
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