DDE poke of cashoutj. with discount not working

[benicetomeok]

I have a Purchase Invoice of an item that costs $1,000 with discount terms of "2% 10, net 30"... ready to be paid. The test example has a purchase date of 06/01/2003.
G/L Acct. 75500 was debited $1,000
and A/P Acct. was credited $1,000

After a couple days, I try using DDE with Visual Basic and poke a cashoutjournal entry with the following fields:

invoice=ACH-06/03/2003
vendor=TRAFFIC
date=06/03/2003
firstdistribution:
account=75500
amount=980.00
discountamount=-20.00
description=
ItemId=
Quantity=1
JobId=

(I left the items with no values as blanks)
However, the DDE result keeps coming back with "Cannot save when out of balance". I have tried several ways to get the payment to enter with the discount, but am not able to do it.

Anybody know what may be wrong??? Or, have an example to go by?

This example is very similar to the one offered by Peachtree, but the difference being there was no invoice the Cash disbursement was actually paying towards.

[Jim Dale]

Originally posted by benicetomeok
I have a Purchase Invoice of an item that costs $1,000 with discount terms of "2% 10, net 30"... ready to be paid. The test example has a purchase date of 06/01/2003.
G/L Acct. 75500 was debited $1,000
and A/P Acct. was credited $1,000

After a couple days, I try using DDE with Visual Basic and poke a cashoutjournal entry with the following fields:

invoice=ACH-06/03/2003
vendor=TRAFFIC
date=06/03/2003
firstdistribution:
account=75500
amount=980.00
discountamount=-20.00
description=
ItemId=
Quantity=1
JobId=

(I left the items with no values as blanks)
However, the DDE result keeps coming back with "Cannot save when out of balance". I have tried several ways to get the payment to enter with the discount, but am not able to do it.

Anybody know what may be wrong??? Or, have an example to go by?

This example is very similar to the one offered by Peachtree, but the difference being there was no invoice the Cash disbursement was actually paying towards.
I don't work with dde, but where is the part of the entry for ap? You are showing only one side in your example.

[dringstrom]

Take another look at the help file. You're missing some key fields. Some additional DDE examples and paid support are available at www.acctadv.com/dde.

[benicetomeok]

Yes, in my original post, I forgot to a couple of my Cashoutjournal entries. Actually, I have attempted a myriad of ways to poke this in, but have been unsuccessful.

Here is the complete list is items I am using in my DDE poke:

invoice=ACH-06/03/2003
prepayment=N
vendor=TRAFFIC
date=06/03/2003
account=20000
amount=-980.00

firstdistribution:
account=75500
amount=980.00
discountamount=-20.00
description=
ItemId=
Quantity=1
JobId=

Mr. Jim I did have a reference to the AP account 20000, my apologies for missing that the first time around.

I have tried:
changing all the positive amounts to negative or vice versa.
omitting the top portion of account and/or amount
omitting discountamount
adding an additional distribution with only discount info in it
for account 49000 (which is the default)

I was under the idea that DDE or should I say, Peachtree would automatically handle the Discounting of the purchase when payment arrived.

Mr. Ringstrom, you say I am missing some DDE fields of which you must be correct. I checked your website and wouldn't mind paying $10 for the email answer, but I am not sure what the question actually is and am not willing to afford much higher than that for no guarantees of an answer. Unless you can provide me with a code or a special way to flag my email question for the proper response... that would be most helpful.

Thanks for your time!!!!

Jim Butterfield
butterfj@yahoo.com

[dringstrom]

Shouldn't your amount be $960?

[benicetomeok]

My original purchase was for $1,000 with a 2% discount or $20 discount. That should leave me to try and poke $980 payment with a $20 discount.

By the way, I have no problems poking only the $980... that works like a champ! However, my original purchase still says "Partially Paid" (DOH!!!)

Even now I am going over several combinations of possibilities and am just befuddled on this one.

Thanks,
Jim Butterfield
butterfj@yahoo.com

[dringstrom]

The sum of your distribution amount and discount should match the amount of the transaction. You're incorrectly trying to post a $980 purchase with a $20 discount for a net of $960. This isn't a DDE problem...it's a math error. :-) Try posting a $1,000 purchase with a $20 discount.

[benicetomeok]

Mr. Ringstrom... what you say makes a ton of sense. I have just tried what you have recommended with similar results.... Out of balance errors.

Here are a few examples... I have only included the key fields I have changed. (I would love to provide screen shots so you don't think my brain has fallen out of my head.)

1.
amount=-980.00

firstdistribution:
amount=1000.00
discountamount=-20.00

2. (This is what I tried in response to what you recommeded!)
amount=-980.00

firstdistribution:
amount=1000.00
discountamount=20.00

3.
amount=-1000.00

firstdistribution:
amount=1000.00
discountamount=20.00

4.
amount=980.00

firstdistribution:
amount=1000.00
discountamount=20.00

5.
amount=1000.00

firstdistribution:
amount=1000.00
discountamount=20.00

(Unfortunately, this list could actually go on a little longer)

There is only one case where Peachtree gives me a "funny" error and the Peachtree program actually responds and says it is out of balance and my VB program DDE response says "incomplete information" is when I omit "account=20000" and "amount=-980.00"... so... omitting this is not good. Except, when doing a simple poke w/o a dicount amount, the DDE works just fine. I hope that makes sense?

Do you have any other suggestions???
I do appreciate your responses!!!

Jim Butterfield
butterfj@yahoo.com

[dringstrom]

Two options...just post a net transaction for $980, or use two distributions, first for $1000, second for -$20, post first to purchase GL acct, second to discount GL acct, leave the official Discount field blank in both cases.

[benicetomeok]

"Two options...just post a net transaction for $980, or use two distributions, first for $1000, second for -$20, post first to purchase GL acct, second to discount GL acct, leave the official Discount field blank in both cases."

I am only able to poke $980 when I leave off the "header" part, that is... the amount=-980.00 and account=20000. The $980 goes in just fine... I can see the red check mark showing $980.00 Paid, except that the discount is not taking hold or, should I say, there is no $20 discount displaying. Plus, I am still left with a Partially paid note on my Purchase Invoice. (This is the method I thought should have worked from the very beginning. Just poke the $980 and the discount would automatically appear.)

I tried your idea for two distributions, the view on the Cash Disbursement Journal shows the correct GL account in the right places, though the wording "Discount Taken" does not appear. Plus, the Paid Invoice is checked showing $980.00 was paid, but no discount amount of $20 is showing.

Am I supposed to "select for payment" somehow before trying to poke a Cash Disbursement for a discounted item?

As a note, I clicked on Payments icon and pulled up the Invoice to pay manually and, at this point, I do see the $20 discount in the proper place. Without doing anymore, I saved it. I went back to the VB program and tried poking the $980 and $1000, but these show up on another Journal entry and was completely separate from the manual entry (of couse, no discount).... I guess I suspected that would happen. (As a note, Most anything I try manually works and discount appears.)

It seems to me, whenever I have the header amount and account included on the poke, I automatically get the out of balance error via DDE. When I leave them off and only have the payment in the distribution, it works fine. Finally, when I have headers off and have a discount, the error will initially show up in the Peachtree application and then transfer to DDE.

I have tried to poke with 2 distributions in many variations, for example, with $1000 payment in one and $20 discount in the next (with discount blank and payment blank respectively)... with no successes.

Any more ideas???

Thanks for you responses!
Jim Butterfield
butterfj@yahoo.com

[dringstrom]

I'm afraid that I can't devote any more time to this thread. You may want to take a different tack and create an import file for your transactions. It's not as elegant, but works much more reliably than poking transactions with DDE.