Actinic Link csv files

[ajfish]

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Hi guys,
I am using Actinic Link v2.1.1.0.2 EJEA and want to generate my own csv files based on the 4 files that Actinic generates; "person", "orders", "orderlines" and "payments" and I want to process orders with discounts. All I am trying to do is generate orders with 10% discount and create the appropriate fields in the csv files to transfer to Sage. I have tried to get this to work on a number of Actinic sites I manage, but the discount regime doesn't seem to work within catalog and for other reasons also, I need to generate the files outside catalog using scripting.
There are a couple of fields in the orders.csv Discount Percentage and Discount Cost but in the orders.csv file there is only one line per order. Some line items may well have different discount percentages.
In the orderlines.csv there are the filelds Discount, Discount Rate, Original Discount and Original Discount Rate which are applied to each orderline item, but I am not sure what these refer to. Can anyone help me please? I assume 10% would be represented with the value 1000 but what do these fields refer to?
Thanks,
AJ

[cdicken]

Hi Andrew

I'm afraid your question falls rather outside the remit of Actinic Support, but as a tip, the best way to figure out what each field does is to place some test orders for products with different types of discount and see what values end up in those fields.

[ajfish]

CSV files Actinic Link

Hi Chris, still there then!?
I have been trying that of course. Creating a discount in Actinic seems to put a discount in the Orders.csv but not in the OrderLines.csv which I find a little strange. The discount percent doesn't get into Sage and looking at the product which was discounted the percentage value remains at 0% discount in Sage.
I am wondering if there is a bug somewhere and wondered if anyone else was using percentage discounts in Actinic and feeding that information (successfully) into Sage. Manually editting the csv files with what I think should be the right values and the right columns and sending to Sage using the Link software still doesn't make a difference in Sage, so I don't know if there is a bug or not. Does that make sense?
AJ

[cdicken]

The discount percent doesn't get into Sage and looking at the product which was discounted the percentage value remains at 0% discount in Sage.

The order total is correct, but the way discounts are stored in the 'Order Lines' file is that Actinic stores the full value of the order line, and uses the discount columns to work out the discounted price for display within Actinic and the reports. It's this which makes it incompatible with Sage's way of doing discounts.

[ajfish]

Actinic Link Discounts in Sage

Hi Chris,
Now you say! ;-) Okay, so basically what you are saying is that Actinic doesn't transfer any discount information over to Sage, but instead relies on the price being paid for the product (which will vary depending on discount level) and it's this which is being passed over. Once in Sage the product will appear to have been sold at all sorts of different prices with no indication that discount has been given?
If this is the case then at least I know where we stand with the information that we can use from Sage and why, when the discount columns in the ordelines.csv are manually populated, no difference is seen at the Sage end. What are these columns in the orderlines.csv file used for then? Not used at all?
Are there any plans to change this do you know? It seems a bit limiting if Actinic is able to discount but this information cannot be passed to Sage.
Thanks for the quick reply.
AJ

[cdicken]

I think you might just need to upgrade to the latest version of Sage Link. We are up to version 2.3.3 now, and support for discounts being transferred was added in version 2.3.1. The only thing it doesn't work on is if you have a load of components set up with 'No Order Line For Main Product' - there's an outstanding bug to do with discounts with those types of products not working.

[ajfish]

Item not in current collection

Chris,
Thanks for the reply again, I know you must be snowed under.
I downloaded the latest Sage Link (2.4) and loaded on top or the existing Link software I have. First of all is this correct or do I have to completely remove the older version? The reason I ask is because when I start the ActinicLink software it finds the existing profile but when I try and edit it (because some of the fields have been blanked out and need re-populating) it gives me an "Item not found in this collection" error which smacks to me of something not being found in a record set which is collected from the ActinicCatalog.mdb. It still allows me to populate the fileds and the connection to the Sage ACCDATA directory is successful.
I am using version 7 Actinic Catalog. Is this version of Sage Link compatible with this version of Catalog? All the documentation I have read seems to suggest it is?
Have you any idea what can be causing the item not found error. This error also happens when you click OK to save the profile changes you have made but with an additional error code of 3265 (I think that's the right number as I am not at that pc at the moment), but the error text, item not found in this collection, is the same error text - presumably because Link writes back to the ActinicCatalog.mdb?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Ad<Thanks>vance
AJ

[cdicken]

To be perfectly honest, if it was me I would take screengrabs of each panel of your current Actinic Link interface and save them to a Word doc. Then I would uninstall completely, then reinstall and use the screenshots to help you set up your Actinic Link again.

[ajfish]

Chris,
Funny you should say that. I have such a document already with each tab's parameters shown. So I will do as you suggest and completly remove the old Link and install Actinic Link 2.4 from scratch. I will let you know how I get on.
Thanks
AJ