Actinic Link to V6

[NVL]

When linking Sage and Catalogue V6...

As Sage does not have a field for COUNTRY the default country in Link resets all your non-UK clients in Catalogue to UK, if United Kingdom set as deafult of course...

This whether you have the settings as update or replace.

We can't redesign Sage so how can we get a workaround in Link? At the moment you need to manually update each record after an import of data, otherwise the VAT and shipping can be affected...

[NVL]

Price Schedules

One more thing I've noticed...

In Sage if you have varied price schedules set, say 20% discount against a clients account the system over-writes this data... For our specific needs we have higher ranked operators whom are entitled to discount + additional bulk buying prices, these have been created in quantity dependent roles BUT if you do a Sage import the price schedule is changed back to what Sage has...

From this observation and that previous I think we need to look at the update, have some kind of flag which says "don't touch" but do import ... some complexity here I know... but it needs done.

[cdicken]

In order to set the customer country field, you need to use an analysis field within Sage and then set Actinic Link to 'Use Sage ANALYSIS field for customer specific transfer handling' within the 'Customer' tab.

I quote from the Help:
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Within Sage, each customer has three Analysis fields. You can use whichever analysis field you prefer for the Actinic Link code, but every customer must use the SAME Analysis field for this purpose. This Analysis field cannot be used for anything else.

The code you enter into the Analysis field will always start with a ‘Y’ or an ‘N’ to indicate whether the customer is to be transferred or not. If you enter a ‘Y’, you then have to supply additional information that is required by Actinic Business, but not automatically supplied by Sage.

The extra code is in the format APCCSSSSS

A = A number from 1 to 5, indicating which Sage address line contains the post code. (this is usually address line 5)

P = A number from 0 to 5, indicating which Actinic Payment method you want this customer to use:

0 = credit card

1 = cash on delivery

2 = check on delivery

3 = invoice with order

4 = invoice and payment before order

5 = send credit card details independently

CC = The two character country code. You can find this by going to ‘Advanced | Locations’ in Actinic Business, and then highlight a county and click ‘Edit’.

SSSSS = State code up to 5 characters corresponding to the state/province this customer will be ordering from (optional). You can find this by going to ‘Advanced | Locations’ in Actinic Business, and then highlight a state/province and click ‘Edit’.

Example codes are below:


N = Do not transfer this customer

Y53UK = Use this customer, they are in the UK and will be paying by ‘Invoice with Order’. Also, their postal code is in address line 5.

Y50USCA = A Californian customer, paying by credit card. Also, their postal code is in address line 5.

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You can then just use 'N' for any customers you don't want to change in Actinic.

With regards to price schedules, you cannot really adjust them in Actinic, but then Actinic Link for Sage does support all pricing variants that Sage can do.

[NVL]

Price Schedules

Ok Doh, forgot about the manual over ride for Sage Link...

One issue I can't get aroud though is the overwrite of client price schedules. As you know Sage ( also most accounts packages ) can have price schedules, price lists or blanket discounts...

As our database is big and potentially HUGE the prospect of having to create a price list / schedule for each user is daunting, even though by creating just one special price list for a faux product would give me a workaround if I disabled that product in Actinic. It would still leave me one issue...

As we offer blanket discount based upon average spend, say 20% on some accounts the Sage Link copes fine until you create a quantity dependent schedule that only authorised users can access...

You see, Sage ( I don't know about others ) will not support qty dependent pricing so I can not create the data set in Sage, it has to be in Actinic. Thus when you set the user to maximum discount, in our case 20%, in Sage the Link program updates the price schedule in Actinic back to 20% ... I have created a level in Actinic, quantity dependent that only authorised users having met certain criteria can access and that causes in my though chain a new problem overall.

So we have two schedules in Actinic, both based upon 20% discount but ONE of them has extra qty dependant prices that we don't want other 20% normal clients to see, so you set the special clients at what we've called "Regional Director " level and that works just dandy. However upon next import of Sage data the system overwrites the price schedule setting and returns the user to a normal 20%...

OK, so I could offer an extra bit of discount and get a new schedule imported and the problem would be solved ... but hey I'm a mean Scot ... and I should be able to get around this in the software, we need a setting to acheive that. Also I could create a product discount matrix in Sage, which I assume would import 100% but say I don't want every client to see that schedule ... that's why I need to create the new schedule manually and this is where the issue lies.

Am I being really dumb, spent hours on this...

[cdicken]

You see, Sage ( I don't know about others ) will not support qty dependent pricing so I can not create the data set in Sage, it has to be in Actinic.

Yes you can create qty dependent pricing in Sage. I'm no Sage expert, but in my copy I can go to the 'Discount' tab of a product and enter qty break information. You can then give customers access to specific qty break information by selecting the appropriate discount structure (A, B, C, D or E) within the 'Additional Disc' field in the 'Defaults' tab of a Customer.

Hope this helps.

[NVL]

Ammendum

I should have said "fully" support qty dependant pricing.

The global discount applied to any customer is applied to the qty dependant price in Sage, this can be fixed by grouping and applying a price list for each individual client...

No matter...

Unless you do create a price list for each client, whenever Sage Link finds a % discount price scheme the same it will overwrite the scheme to the default matching the % discount.

Say you had three operators, all on 5% discount but you only wanted operator (A) to be able to purchase the Wongergaggle online as only he / she had training or authority to sell that item. So you create a unique price schedule for that user at 5% but approve that product for sale in that schedule, disabling it in all others ... When you do a Sage data import the schedule setting for that user will default back to standard 5% discount and thus they will not be able to buy the Wongergaggle. Same applies to bulk pricing, if you approve one schedule at a matching discount to any other ALL will be reset to the standard 20%...

Surely you're not telling us that you need to create a price list for ALL clients and change the way we work Sage to accomodate Actinic Sage Link? ...because that's the only way I can see that thtis would work and it would create alot of continuing additional admin...

[cdicken]

You obviously know a lot more about Sage than I do.

There is a reference guide to how Actinic Link for Sage handles discounts in the Manual in the second chapter in a section called 'The Discounts Tab'. That pretty much covers everything I know.

[NVL]

Ok dude...

I think the only solution is the long one here.