Documentation/ Checking the line items/ Editing, adding and deleting lines
Editing, adding and deleting lines
Item lines are edited straight on the table. There is no editing mode to switch on: every cell you can see is a field you can type in. What you type stays on screen while you work and reaches the server only when you press Save.
Document › items tab › the bar above the table
On this page
Editing a line
Put the cursor in the cell and type. Every visible column can be edited, with two exceptions: Registration no., which the system sets, and the ERP badge, which reflects the reference code given to the item and is changed from the assignment dialog.
Each kind of field behaves as you would expect:
| Column | Kind of field | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Code, Product, Order no., Vehicle, Batch, Expiry | Free text | No format is forced on you. |
| Qty, Price, Disc., Amount | Numeric | A comma or a full stop both work as the decimal separator. |
| Packaging and Family on sales delivery notes | Drop-down | They also let you type a value that is not on the list. |
| Country of origin | Free text | Only on customs documents. |
| Registration no. | Read only | The system returns it. |
Leaving the items tab without saving throws away what you typed. It is the commonest reason "the changes were not saved".
Save: what it writes and what it tells you
Save on the bar above the table writes every line of the document, not just the one you touched and not just the ones on the page you can see. Existing lines are updated and new ones created, in one operation.
You are always told what happened:
| Message | What it means |
|---|---|
| All items were saved | Every line went in. |
| X of Y items were saved | Partly saved: some lines failed. The rest are still unsaved. |
| An error occurred saving the items | Nothing went in. Do it again. |
| There are no items to save | The document has no lines. |
After saving, the list is read back from the server. What you see at that moment is what went in: it is the most reliable check that the change took.
After a partial save, do not retype the lines that worked: they are already in. Fix only the ones that do not show the value you expected, and save again.
Adding a line
The + button adds an empty line at the end of the table. While that line is waiting to be saved the button is greyed out: you can only have one new line at a time. Fill it in, save, and the button comes back.
A new line needs at least a description, a quantity and an amount to be any use. The unit price and the discount can be left empty if the amount is already right.
It is what you do when the reading lost a line off the document, typical where the table runs across two pages, or when you have to record something the supplier never set out.
Deleting a line
The bin icon on each row removes the line. What happens depends on whether the line had been saved:
- A line already saved: the application asks you to confirm and, when you accept, deletes it on the server. It then confirms the line was removed.
- A new unsaved line: it just comes off the table with nothing asked, because it does not exist on the server yet.
Deleting a saved line happens at once and has no undo. If the line was right and you deleted it by mistake, you have to create it again by hand.
How numbers are read
Numeric fields take a comma or a full stop as the decimal separator: both are read the same way. What is worth knowing is how much precision each value keeps, because it explains small differences when a document does not quite tie up:
| Field | Decimals kept |
|---|---|
| Unit price | Four |
| First discount | Four |
| Second and third discount | Two |
| Quantity and amount | As many as you type |
The unit price and the first discount keep four decimals on purpose. The automatic discount correction produces percentages like 49.8333, and cutting those to two decimals would stop the line adding up. On screen you still see two.
Choosing the columns
The column selector, on the left of the bar, decides which columns you see. Your choice is kept in the browser: it survives between sessions on that machine, but it does not travel with your account. On another computer or another browser you have to choose again.
Some columns ignore that choice because they depend on the document type:
| Column | Rule |
|---|---|
| Batch | Always shown on purchase invoices and always hidden on every other type. |
| Expiry | Always hidden on transport invoices. |
| Country of origin | Always shown on customs documents and hidden elsewhere. |
| Packaging and Family | Depend on how the account is set up. |
| Vehicle | Appears on transport invoices and on accounts with agricultural management. |
The totals bar
Under the action bar you get total quantities and total amount, worked out across every line of the document. It is the quickest check that the lines agree with the header: the amount total has to match the document's net amount.
If it does not, the system flags the document for a look at the sum of the lines. The cause is usually a line whose amount was read wrongly, an extra line picked up from the document's header, or an overall discount the supplier applied outside the lines.
The table pages in fifties, and says at the bottom which stretch you are seeing out of the total. The totals bar is not about the page you can see, it is about the whole document.
What changes when you save
Saving lines is not a thing on its own. When it finishes:
- The document's totals are worked out again from the lines.
- The document's status can change. A document flagged for the sum of its lines goes clean as soon as the lines agree.
- The document header and the row in the list update without you reloading anything.
Things that come up
| What you see | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Your changes are gone when you come back | Save was not pressed before leaving the tab. | Type them again and save. |
| The + button does nothing | There is already a new unsaved line. | Finish and save that line, or remove it with the bin. |
| The total does not tie up after editing | You changed the price but not the amount, or the other way round: they do not recalculate each other. | Set whichever is missing. The totals bar confirms it. |
| Every line has the same value read wrongly | That supplier's layout is misread every time. | Use the column correction, which fixes it across the document and on that supplier's future ones. |
| Columns you used to see have gone | The column choice is kept per browser. | Tick them again in the selector. |