Bug?

[IanS]

Hi,
I have the default Tax setting for VAT set to 0% in the business settings as most of my products are not vat rated. This worked fine. However, each time I open the program to add a new product, the setting resets itself to the Standard setting (in our case 21%). This is rather annoying. When I go looking in the Tax tab in Business settings, both zero-rated and standard rate radio buttons are highlighted. The only way to reset the default to zero rate is to highlight another option (in our case the reduced 13.5% option), which results in all radio buttons being blanked out, and then highlight the zero rate again. The system holds this as long as I keep working away. And then I need to put in another book, I open the program again and I have to do this all over again, because the system has decided that our default setting is the standard 21% rate anyway. Anybody any ideas as to what is causing this?

Thanks
Ian

[simonwar]

Hi Ian,

Can you simply create a template Product, hide on website and simply COPY and PASTE it. (Avoid PASTE as duplicate).

This saved me hours of time on my site which has over a thousand very similarly set up products.

Just a thought, Simon.

[cdicken]

Hi Ian

What version of v7 are you using (you can check in 'Help | About'). If it's anythng earlier than 7.0.6, it might be worth upgrading.

Just FYI, it doesn't seem to do this in v8 - you can restart the software and the 'Default' tax settings are still honoured.

[IanS]

Hi Chris,
no, the version is 7.06 (we just upgraded!). simon's suggestion would work if the products were indeed very similar. Unfortunately, the only common denominator between the products is the zero vat rate.
Ian

[cdicken]

Ian - could you try a 'Housekeeping | Compact Databases' for me as this often unlocks sticky little problems like the one you are experiencing.

Failing that, I suggest you register an email support query at http://www.actinic.co.uk/support/register.htm as Actinic is misbehaving, and it might be something that can be fixed by a technician.

[IanS]

Hi Chris,
sorry for the delay in replying, been away from it all for a while! We did compact the database, as you requested. Since we have not had the problem, or so it would seem. But then, it never was a regular problem, it just happened when it felt like it.
Having said that, if you care to have a look at our site and search for "User's Manual for the Brain, Vol 1" (no pun or offence intended!) you can see the result of the system picking two vat rates. The "Excluding vat at 0%" caption should not appear when the VAT rate is indeed 0%. So, somehow the system seems to be able to confuse itself.
Any ideas?

Ian

[cdicken]

Is it possible to set the VAT rate as being 'zero-rated' for these products? This would be the correct way to do it - and it would hide the VAT message from appearing in the store.

[IanS]

Hi Chris,

the Vat rating is set to 0, which is my default setting. However, now and again the system seems to decide otherwise and messages like this appear. They are of course only visible AFTER uploading. Once this appears on the live site, I have to go to View-->Business Settings--> Tax and invariably find that under the VAT default settings BOTH 0% and 21% are ticked as a default setting. The only way to fix this is to select the reduced vat rate (the 3rd possible vat rating we have) as a default, save this, then go back into the settings and select the zero rating as a default, and save this. The system then behaves until the next time it decides to mess around with the Vat settings, and I have to do this procedure all over again. There is no pattern or regularity to this behaviour, it is quite random in nature, but seriously annoying. When this happens, and we upload, it does not reset all vat settings for all products, as I would expect it to do as it is a global setting. It only affects those products entered and uploaded when the system decides its play time again.
Thanks
Ian

[cdicken]

What I meant my 'Zero Rated' is that in the 'Details' tab of a product, there is a drop down list where products can be set as 'Zero Rated' when they are created. This is probably a better way to do it than trying to change the default Tax rate. Hope that makes sense.

[IanS]

Hi Chris,

It does indeed make sense as a stop-gap measure, but.... as I have over 6,000 booktitles to eventually make it on to the site, all of which are 0-rated.....
And of course, the option of a default 0-rate is there, but obviously not all the time. A default rate that actually holds would be the obvious way to go, it is built into the system as a option, so why is it not working?

Ian

[cdicken]

Hi Ian

Are you adding them via an import file? If so you can include a field called 'Tax Treatment' set to '0' that will do this automatically for you.

You can also contact support and see whether there is any reason your default tax stuff keeps getting reset. If you don't have Actinic Cover, you can register at http://www.actinic.co.uk/support/register.htm.

[IanS]

Hi Chris,

she would love to be able to upload via a CSV file, but no such luck! These books need to be added, one by one, in the good old fashioned way! It just baffles me why it will not hold the default setting. BTW, this was never a problem until we upgraded to this version.
Ian