[Question] Pastel Partner recurring invoice dates

[Danny979]

Is there a way in Pastel Partner V18 to have a dynamic date line for recurring invoices, i.e. a line where the date changes as one copies the recurring invoice into a new period. What I need is for the invoice line to say "Garden Service for the month of ....." and this then automatically updates the month in a new period.

[Neville Bailey]

I'm not aware that it is possible to do that.

The closest option is to insert the "Date (System)" data field into the document with Forms Designer, but that will render today's date, e.g. 11/09/2019, not the month.

[Kevin Smith]

Hi Danny

There are some possible workarounds. There is the "make one for all" invoice option. This allows you to create an invoice with the information you need on it as the first invoice in a batch. You then select Batch - Make one for all. You can choose to do this by customer category. If you tick the checkbox to "update selling prices" the system will update the price accordingly. There are multiple ways to get the price changed. I will try explain a few options below, depending on how you invoice.

Create a customer category called "Recurring Services" (RS). Edit the customer accounts this applies to and put them in that category. Create the invoice with the line item description "Fees for August" (must be 1st invoice in batch). Batch - make one for all - select the category RS. You will now have invoices for all the customers. Repeat next month with description "Fees for September" on the first invoice. You can also create an additional user in Pastel, then jump to that user when processing recurring batches/make one for all invoicing, so we don't have to worry about other open invoices in your standard batches. You can also set the "Customer Reference" on the first invoice to "FEES FOR AUGUST", and this will repeat throughout the batch.

If you have a fixed fee per client, this is easy. If this varies per customer, you need to make some additional changes. Create an inventory item as a service item, for Garden Services. In partner you have up to 10 pricelists. Set the selling price for each price list for that item. Edit the customers, and on their terms tab, change them to the relevant pricelist. When you "Make One For all", select update selling prices, and their price will change according to their pricelist.

If you have even more price variations, you can go into Edit ... Customer ... Customer Prices. Create/Edit a customer price list, with volumetric discounts. Choose the Garden Services Item, then add each customer, with a qty of 1, and their specific price. Set the Expiry date to a date far in the future. As long as this price is lower than the selling price on the first invoice in the MOFA batch, when you MOFA and update selling prices, their individual price will reflect on the invoice.

[Danny979]

Thanks Kevin

Hi Danny

There are some possible workarounds. There is the "make one for all" invoice option. This allows you to create an invoice with the information you need on it as the first invoice in a batch. You then select Batch - Make one for all. You can choose to do this by customer category. If you tick the checkbox to "update selling prices" the system will update the price accordingly. There are multiple ways to get the price changed. I will try explain a few options below, depending on how you invoice.

Create a customer category called "Recurring Services" (RS). Edit the customer accounts this applies to and put them in that category. Create the invoice with the line item description "Fees for August" (must be 1st invoice in batch). Batch - make one for all - select the category RS. You will now have invoices for all the customers. Repeat next month with description "Fees for September" on the first invoice. You can also create an additional user in Pastel, then jump to that user when processing recurring batches/make one for all invoicing, so we don't have to worry about other open invoices in your standard batches. You can also set the "Customer Reference" on the first invoice to "FEES FOR AUGUST", and this will repeat throughout the batch.

If you have a fixed fee per client, this is easy. If this varies per customer, you need to make some additional changes. Create an inventory item as a service item, for Garden Services. In partner you have up to 10 pricelists. Set the selling price for each price list for that item. Edit the customers, and on their terms tab, change them to the relevant pricelist. When you "Make One For all", select update selling prices, and their price will change according to their pricelist.

If you have even more price variations, you can go into Edit ... Customer ... Customer Prices. Create/Edit a customer price list, with volumetric discounts. Choose the Garden Services Item, then add each customer, with a qty of 1, and their specific price. Set the Expiry date to a date far in the future. As long as this price is lower than the selling price on the first invoice in the MOFA batch, when you MOFA and update selling prices, their individual price will reflect on the invoice.

Thanks very much Kevin

Our invoices literally vary invoice by invoice so although your suggestion will work, it will be a big task for me initially.

I think I kinda figured this out which will work for me.This is to export the recurring batch to Excel, then Find & Replace all the "month" descriptions I want to change and import the batch again. Really quick.

My only hassle I now encountered was that Pastel does not like its own document date format it exports, so before I import again I have to reformat each date cell with dd/mm/yyyy. Find and replace does not work with this but maybe my Excel knowledge is not that advanced as I think this should work. I will persevere!

[Kevin Smith]

If all you want to change is the date on the exported batch, export the file and open it using notepad, rather than excel. You still have the find and replace function, but the date formats won't change.

[Mercury8486]

Hi Everyone.

I might be able to help here.

When we run our recurring invoices, we have found that if you include [.] on an item line in a recurring invoice template, the month will be substituted into the description when you copy the recurring invoice batch into the normal batch.
eg: "Rent for [.] - thank you" would print as "Rent for May - thank you" if the recurring batch is copied in May.

A fuller explanation can be found in the pastel help file under Journals and Cash Books - Transaction Line Fields

[Kevin Smith]

Hi Mercury

Thanks for the reminder - I had forgotten about that function - it has been so long since I used it.

Our problem was that we invoiced in advance - ie you would get the invoice for "Service Fees - February" on the 25th of January, so that function didn't work.

We ended up using the script below to change the Month (Jan) into the month we wanted (Feb) on the recurring invoices, before we converted them to normal invoices, where the month was in the lines of the document:

Update "historylines"
Set "description" = REPLACE("description", 'January', 'February') where documenttype = '203' #

If the month was in the order number field

Update "historyheader"
Set "OrderNumber" = REPLACE("OrderNumber", 'January', 'February') where documenttype = '203' #

You will need access to PCC, but the scripts are just a copy paste. Might also be a solution if you not scared to work in the database. (Just remember - backup before trying this).

[Danny979]

Hi Mercury

You're my hero. When last I worked with huge recurring batches I used this [.] function, but 20 years later (not working with Pastel - and with old age!), I knew it was there but couldn't remember what it was. After a lot of trial and error I managed to find a way:
1. Copy recurring batch as usual.
2. Export normal batch to Notepad (per Kevin Smith's tip)
3. Change month
4. Import batch to normal batch again and process
5. Delete existing recurring batch
6. Import latest invoice batch back into recurring batch
7. add new invoices coming in the new month
8 Repeat the whole process next month.

With your solution (and it works, I tested it) you have saved me all the above effort!

What a star. Thank you!