Intermittent VAT exempt problem

[TraceyHand]

Just a word of warning if anyone else has the problem and goes for the 'remove all associated products' route to fix it.
If your associated products have different weights, to calculate shipping, you'll lose those (as we just found out when we've undercharged shipping on something as it's been worked out on the main product now, not the associated product (which has extra parts and weighs more!)

I did get another workaround from support, however.

In your permutations, if you leave "tax from associated product" UNticked, it should work ok (untested as yet, just used that method on this problem product, however, so can report back in time)

This tells Actinic to use the tax STATUS from the main product (ie standard, zero, exempt etc) rather than the associated product and, unless your ass. prods have a different tax status to the original, should provide a decent, usable workaround....I hope

[gabrielcrowe]

ass prods?

oh wait, i get it. Silly me.

[TraceyHand]

FS..ok, having used that "workaround" for a product with different weight associated products, I can now report that it does NOT work.

Don't know why (don't much care) suffice to say that I'll have to set up individual products to replace this instead



Just a heads up for anyone else it might affect anyway (starting to think I'm the only person who ever uses Actinic like this)

[Mike Hughes]

Hi Tracey,

I'm not using V9 yet, but expect I will be shortly.

IIRC the structure you're describing

For products which have
"Sum of component prices"
"component on separate orderline" checked
"No Orderline for main product" checked

It is calculating incorrect vat exemption on the downloaded order

is what's used to associate products with choices, which is key for stock control. I have lots of products set up like this.

When you say it is incorrectly calculating VAT exemption on the downloaded order what does this mean? That the product is being marked as VAT exempt and hence no VAT is included for that product (even if prices are entered as VAT inclusive?).

Mike

[TraceyHand]

I guess so.
I'll do a few screenshots of where it's all going wrong, when I get a minute.
Your setup assumptions are correct (and, I agree, absolutely ESSENTIAL for stock control which, luckily, we don't use on this site!)

I think that simply leaving the "no orderline for main product" UNticked might fix it (it's my next thing to try) but this makes for untidy orderlines both online and on invoices

However, until it is fixed (in whichever decade that may be) it's better than having to completely mess up the order with manual adjustments to get it to complete Fully Paid (and don't even get me started on how that messes with Actinic's reports)

[Mike Hughes]

I think that simply leaving the "no orderline for main product" UNticked might fix it (it's my next thing to try) but this makes for untidy orderlines both online and on invoices

This isn't really an option for me. It would make a mess of the whole product presentation.

This sounds like another problem with the way actinic is handling orders. Because it's bringing in the order line info from the database and filtering / massaging the data there might be no way of manually fixing the database or order as the problem probably lies with the way the data is being handled in the program itself.

It needs to be fixed. Is this included in 9.0.4?

Mike

[TraceyHand]

I think I was first to report it, Mike, so it's VERY unlikely for 9.0.4. Too late, I would imagine.

It's interesting to note that, when the order is first downloaded, it's shows as "Full Payment Received" (ie, no problems with it)
It's only after Actinic has looked at the order (in our case, when we "complete" it..no editting etc) that it decides that something is wrong and marks is "Partial Payment Received"

It's a mess, I agree.
It could potentially affect SO many people/sites too

*sigh*

[Mike Hughes]

It's a pretty major bug though.

I did get another workaround from support, however.

In your permutations, if you leave "tax from associated product" UNticked, it should work ok (untested as yet, just used that method on this problem product, however, so can report back in time)

This tells Actinic to use the tax STATUS from the main product (ie standard, zero, exempt etc) rather than the associated product and, unless your ass. prods have a different tax status to the original, should provide a decent, usable workaround....I hope

You say this workaround didn't work. What was the problem there? Did it still mess up the tax?

Mike

[TraceyHand]

I didn't see any change between what was happening originally and what happened when I had this box unticked.
Exactly the same bug/error/outcome

[Mike Hughes]

I've just spoken to support and they tell me the fix for this should be in 9.0.4.

I don't see it on the list here http://www.actinic.co.uk/support/changes-v904.htm so can someone in the know please confirm if there's a fix for this or not.

Thanks

Mike

[TraceyHand]

that's interesting!
I hadn't seen it on the 9.0.4 fix list either which is why I presumed it wasn't included
So, either they'd come across it before (and it'd just been kept quiet) and it is included or they considered it serious enough (and easy enough) to fix?

who knows!?

[Mike Hughes]

The guy I spoke to in support did seem to know the issue and was pretty clear that it was down for inclusion.

You just never know until it's confirmed as it's quite easy to confuse one issue with another.

Mike

[Mike Hughes]

OK. I've just checked this problem myself on a test V9 site and can confirm:

Using the normal way of associating product with choices, ie:

"Sum of component prices"
"component on separate orderline" checked
"No Orderline for main product" checked

Then overseas order that should be VAT exempt get marked as NOT being treated as VAT exempt as soon as you open the order in Actinic. This can be seen by looking at the 'Totals' tab for the order and Actinic subsequently marks the order as underpaid.

On the products I've tested, it makes no difference whether the 'Associated Tax' or 'Associated shipping' boxes are ticked or not. The same thing happens.

I stopped taking most International orders a while back so won't be immediately impacted by this. It can't be nice for anyone who is though.

Any feedback from Actinic on whether the fix is identified and implemented in V9.0.4?

Mike

[TraceyHand]

Thanks for confirming it, Mike.
To be honest, I'm surprised it doesn't affect more people.
I've not had anything back from support (apart from "I'll pass it on to development") since I reported that the workaround didn't work so I don't know what's happening with it or if it's being fixed or not.
In all honesty, I can't see it being fixed in 9.0.4 but hey, happy to be proved wrong!!

[cbarling]

Tracey, I know that this has been logged by Actinic as a bug. I'm afraid that it isn't fixed in v9.0.4.

Chris