"MERGE SUPPLIERS
Merge supplier records would be really handy
Merge Suppliers Accounts
Hello, it would be really useful if there was a wizard where you can merge supplier accounts.
This would be helpful due to the amount of companies out there which change their names. Currently we have to make the company inactive, losing all the data in that account and open up a new empty account. It is possible to change the company name however the A/C cannot be changed, making it difficult to remember the old name when searching for a supplier to process an invoice too.
Alternatively if you could change the A/C as well as the company name this would also be just as helpful.
Former_Member
Agree, would be great to see with functionality within Sage for both suppliers/customers. Currently we have to use a 3rd party app to achieve this "" target=""_blank"" href=""http://www.advantageservices.co.uk/development/products/code-chan"">www.advantageservices.co.uk/.../code-chan
Robert N
You do realise that by merging suppliers (or customers) you'll be able to rename a supplier (or customer) - create a new one with the correct account code and merge the incorrect account code (eg because changed name).
But is appears Sage will never let this be released; see: Amend customer supplier account name (12 votes) where they comment that in doing so it will destroy historic data, despite the many calls for it, see: Amend Customer or Supplier name (347 votes - the most requested feature)
Offline Robert N 17 days ago
Hell is no where near freezing over yet.
See also:
Posted 04/11/2022 12:22 Merge Customer Records
Posted 09/11/2022 11:43 It would be helpful is both Supplier and Customer accounts offered a merge option
Posted 20/07/2022 10:06 MERGE SUPPLIERS
Posted 28/07/2016 12:55 Merge Duplicated Supplier Records
Posted 28/07/2016 12:48 Amend Customer or Supplier Account Reference
If you sort by most votes, the last one comes up with 350 votes (at time of writing) as the first entry!
See also Make it possible to change Account Codes (closed with 15 votes transferred elsewhere) where it is commented:
We do have a working version of Sage Accounts with the ability to change account references but due to legal and compliance reasons around keeping historical data with the original account reference, we're unable to release it as an update or take it further into production at the moment.
[Emphasis added]. 3rd parties have software which do this change (by changing all records), but Sage seem totally unconcerned about blocking their ability to change the reference on ""historical data"" and seem to be happy for them to break ""legal and compliance reasons""; I could even go so far as to say Aid and Abet them in this breach...
I can effectively swap two customers or suppliers by swapping all the data except the key field. Now when I look at Jones01 I see Smith05's data, and when I look at Smith05 I see Jones01's data, including invoices and payments, but in the future any transaction for Jones01 and Smith05 will be in the correct account, totally breaking links to historic data - they also need to ban changing name, address, etc...
As far as I understand it the Account reference is a shorthand way for a user to reference an account in one of the memorandum ledgers. As long as the name that is used always points to the same memorandum account, it doesn't matter what it's called. Miss A Jones marries Mr J Smith and becomes Mrs J Smith. Having to remember that when you get Mrs J Smith wanting to order you need to use Miss A Jones account it, to put it bluntly is ridiculous - it is taking us back to the early 1990s when I worked in mail order retail and everyone just had a customer number as the systems were not very powerful (in comparison to today's desktop machines). Back then, multiple accounts were often opened for customers as the sales people couldn't be bothered to try and find their account.
Sage clearly has a database design flaw in that it uses the Account reference as the key field between an account and the data, instead of some hidden number which is unique for every memorandum account, allowing the Account reference to be a user shorthand way to access any account, and allowing it to change
The flaw is serious enough in that I have a couple of reports picking up both sales and purchase data instead of just one or the other as we have pairs of totally unrelated customers and suppliers which have the same account code.
Ken Fillmore 2
Offline Ken Fillmore 2 14 days ago in reply to Robert N
We do have a working version of Sage Accounts with the ability to change account references but due to legal and compliance reasons around keeping historical data with the original account reference, we're unable to release it as an update or take it further into production at the moment.
Interesting. Isn't this covered by making an archive before changing the account reference?
Ken Fillmore 2
Offline Ken Fillmore 2 This has been suggested multiple times over the 30 years I have used Sage. There are tools that allow you to change the AccRef and maintain history. Adept Tools do a good job. It would be nice if Sage were to redesign the database to allow the AccRef to be unique but have a hidden key field, but my guess is it is never going to happen"
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