Forum Message

Autofill of fields

Mark - as you know I have been using Solar for a while now and am a big fan. I have also seen a number of suggestions I have made come through as new features - thank you.

One area which I wish could be made an option is the autofill of the price field on an invoice. It is irritating (and causes errors) when Solar automatically autofills the 'Unit Price' last used for a particular item - for example, if I enter 'Tree Surgery' in the 'Description' field, Solar autofills the price of the last job I did at that price - which is not at all what I want. This happens on entering a new invoice or (even worse) if I amend a description on an existing invoice - then the price changes.

A second area that could be improved would be to provide an option to enter a Date to be used for Invoices or Payments Received without Solar defaulting to today's date. I am sure there are other users who enter transactions which may be prior to today's date - and it is very inefficient to have to keep changing the date.

Mark - could you please look at providing options for these two items.

Best wishes, Alan


Posted by Alan Rick on Aug 28, 2010 1:51 PM BST

Hi Mark and Alan (not me, t'other one!)

We really like the fact that Solar "remembers" the last payment details, as the majority of the time, this is ok for us as we have a lot of invoices based on standard priced items. The auto entry of the date is also fine - although I accept that it is not ALWAYS what I want, but with the ease of editing available, not a problem. Personally, I prefer things the way they are.

Perhaps there may be an oportunity in the default settings to switch these features on or off, but for me, please don't take away the feature completely, we prefer it the way it is....(I'm sure that's what Alan#1 is requesting)


Posted by Alan Eastough on Aug 29, 2010 10:52 AM BST

Hi Alan Rick:

Thanks for your feedback - I've noted your suggestions as options for future development of Solar Accounts. One 'workaround' for the date problem is to change the system clock at the bottom of the screen - this date will then be used as the default on new transactions. A 'workaround' for the auto-fill of price on invoices is to add the price to the description - the drop list would then have multiple entries such as 'Tree Surgery £90', 'Tree Surgery £150' etc. However, I accept that neither of these workarounds is ideal.

Alan E: Don't worry - if we make any of these changes they will be optional.

Regards,


Posted by Mark McLaren (Solar Accounts) on Aug 29, 2010 11:09 AM BST

Mark & Alan E - If you read my post I was definitely asking for the two features I suggested to be made 'options' - and NOT to replace the default behaviour that I am sure many Solar users have become used to. I mention the word 'option' at least three times in my post :-)

Mark - referring to your suggested workaround of changing the system date - I would strongly caution your users NOT to do that as you cannot predict the effect this may have on other running applications.

I look forward to seeing a future version of Solar with optional functionality in the areas I have mentioned.

Best wishes, Alam


Posted by Alan Rick on Aug 29, 2010 12:14 PM BST

Hi Alan,

Thanks again for your suggestions - I have recorded your email address to be notified in case we implement either of them in future. However, please keep in mind that we cannot make promises about future development of Solar Accounts.

Regards,


Posted by Mark McLaren (Solar Accounts) on Aug 29, 2010 1:00 PM BST