My invoices are changing!

[cbauer50]

Help! I went to enter some new invoices and went back to look at a couple that I had entered earlier. Much to my surprise, they were not correct. The first one I noticed had different amounts in the total due and amount received. Then I looked at the items that were in the purchased area. 1 had 3 separate entries of the same item and some had items that were never entered when I originally did the invoices.

I started going back to a month ago and found a few others that were incorrect.

I always check my invoices when I am finished to make sure the total due and the amount received are the same (as all my items are paid for at the time of purchase, either through Paypal or a credit card) so I know that they were correct originally.

How can this be happening? I always make sure the invoice is saved before I go on to the next one.

I am about ready to stop using v.9 and go back to my old v.4.

I am sorry now that I spent $100 to upgrade.

I also have problems once in a while when I try to do a new invoice and there is already an item appearing in the products purchased. I have to stop, cancel the invoice and go in to pack the tables to correct it.

Is there a solution to stop these problems from happening again or is it something I have to live with in v.9.

Thanks.

carol

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: My invoices are changing!

Troubleshooting this kind of thing is either very easy or very very difficult.

Have you updated the indexes (reindexed) the tables supporting your invoicing system?

[cbauer50]

Re: My invoices are changing!

how ofen do I need to do that? I shouldn't have to do it every time I open the database, should I?

Carol

Troubleshooting this kind of thing is either very easy or very very difficult.

Have you updated the indexes (reindexed) the tables supporting your invoicing system?

[Tom Cone Jr]

Re: My invoices are changing!

Generalities are not very helpful here. I don't think you need to reindex the tables each time you open the database, no. However, I do think it's prudent to do it periodically, and to be ready to do it again if a mislinked transaction record shows up. The threshold question though is whether or not reindexing will fix your immediate issue. Does it?

[cbauer50]

Re: My invoices are changing!

I won't know until I add some more invoices and check the past invoices.

Right now I don't know if I really trust v.9. After paying $100 to upgrade, I shouldn't have to feel this nontrustworthy about the program.

I guess I should have maybe upgraded to an earlier version that was more stable, but it's too late now.

Carol

Generalities are not very helpful here. I don't think you need to reindex the tables each time you open the database, no. However, I do think it's prudent to do it periodically, and to be ready to do it again if a mislinked transaction record shows up. The threshold question though is whether or not reindexing will fix your immediate issue. Does it?

[cbauer50]

Re: My invoices are changing!

This is getting stranger by the minute.

I just went in to add some more invoices. I checked to make sure the last ones I entered were still correct.

I then updated all the indexes (indices?) and went back and looked and my last few invoices were all screwed up again!

I had then repacked the tables and everything was fine again.

Why do I have to repack the tables so often? I've had problems before trying to enter a new invoice and when I get to the area to enter the products purchased, there is something already there (on a new invoice!). I cancelled the invoice, then repacked the tables (as someone suggested) and then the problem was gone.

Why is this happening?

Carol

I won't know until I add some more invoices and check the past invoices.

Right now I don't know if I really trust v.9. After paying $100 to upgrade, I shouldn't have to feel this nontrustworthy about the program.

I guess I should have maybe upgraded to an earlier version that was more stable, but it's too late now.

Carol

[Stan Mathews]

Re: My invoices are changing!

It is unlikely that your invoices are changing. What is likely, expecially given that reindexing/packing corrects things, is that the indexes are being corrupted. This is apparently affecting the indexes on the linking field(s) between your invoice header table and your invoice items table.

If Alpha can't properly link the two tables it can't display an invoice correctly and the invoices will appear to have changed.

As Tom indicated, you seem to have isolated the cause of the invoice display problem, now we need to find out the cause of the index corruption.

[cbauer50]

Re: My invoices are changing!

I have no idea where to even start trying to find out the cause.

I have had nothing but problems with v.9. I'm sorry I spent $100 on the upgrade. I never had this many problems with v.4.

If I wouldn't have to re-enter so many invoices in my old version, I would go back to that version and try to sell this v.9 to recoup some of my money.

Carol

As Tom indicated, you seem to have isolated the cause of the invoice display problem, now we need to find out the cause of the index corruption.

[rtbtat]

Re: My invoices are changing!

Carol:

I wish you'd stop complaining about your $100 and version 9 because that isn't the cause of your invoice issue. Thousands of people use version 9 and don't have the same problem, so it' something unique to your system.

You don't have to repack your tables on a regular basis, that's only necessary when there is a problem or when you delete records.

As I mentioned above, I would bet money it's not Alpha Five. One possible cause is a power outage or improperly shutting down windows. Another possible cause is exiting Alpha Five without first closing the database. I'm sure there are several other possibilities but I would look there first.

If you are the only one using the computer, see if you can recall a recent a problem with another application that shut down your system while Alpha Five was still open. Or was there a power outage that shut down Windows will you were working with A5? I'm fairly confident one of those incidents, or something similar, was the cause of your indexes becoming corrupt.

[Bob F]

Re: My invoices are changing!

I have no idea where to even start trying to find out the cause.

I have had nothing but problems with v.9. I'm sorry I spent $100 on the upgrade. I never had this many problems with v.4.

If I wouldn't have to re-enter so many invoices in my old version, I would go back to that version and try to sell this v.9 to recoup some of my money.

Carol

Carol,

One thing you could check is your key fields in your master and child tables. They seem to need to be the same length in V9, they worked fine in V7. I've been struggling with my upgade also.

Bob

[Bob F]

Re: My invoices are changing!

I have no idea where to even start trying to find out the cause.

I have had nothing but problems with v.9. I'm sorry I spent $100 on the upgrade. I never had this many problems with v.4.

If I wouldn't have to re-enter so many invoices in my old version, I would go back to that version and try to sell this v.9 to recoup some of my money.

Carol

Carol,

One thing to check is your key fields between your master and child tables. They seem to need to be the same length in V9. it didn't seem to matter in earlier versions. I'm struggling through an upgrade too.

Bob

[cbauer50]

Re: My invoices are changing!

WOW!

I have had no power outages when using Alpha Five. I always shut down windows properly and always shut down Alpha Five properly.

I am the only person that uses my computers. No one else in this house except my husband and he has no interest in using a computer.

I will try to figure it out myself.

Thanks anyway.

Carol:

I wish you'd stop complaining about your $100 and version 9 because that isn't the cause of your invoice issue. Thousands of people use version 9 and don't have the same problem, so it' something unique to your system.

You don't have to repack your tables on a regular basis, that's only necessary when there is a problem or when you delete records.

As I mentioned above, I would bet money it's not Alpha Five. One possible cause is a power outage or improperly shutting down windows. Another possible cause is exiting Alpha Five without first closing the database. I'm sure there are several other possibilities but I would look there first.

If you are the only one using the computer, see if you can recall a recent a problem with another application that shut down your system while Alpha Five was still open. Or was there a power outage that shut down Windows will you were working with A5? I'm fairly confident one of those incidents, or something similar, was the cause of your indexes becoming corrupt.

[Ronald Anusiewicz]

Re: My invoices are changing!

Hi Carol,

The people on this board are very generous with their time an love to help people resolve their problems with Alpha.

Yes, there is something wrong as rebuilding indexes all the time is not normal. If you can, scale down your application removing sensitive data etc., and post it on this board. Let others look at your code and database structure. What you can not see may be glaringly obvious to some one else.

Regarding upgrading, some feel no need to upgrade unless a newer version offers features that are not available in older versions. If an older version is working fine, I guess there is no need to upgrade.

That said, many of the older versions do have bugs that will never be fixed.

Good Luck,

Ron

[MikeC]

Re: My invoices are changing!

Just to add a little "tidbit" of information.

no power outages

It is not necessarily a complete outage of power that causes problem with a computer...it is the low voltage than can occur. A power supply can only rectify a certain amount of voltage fluctuation. So if the symptoms are such that it indicates a power issue then don't disregard it simply because there have been no complete outages. :)

[rtbtat]

Re: My invoices are changing!

Mike C gave some good advice but let me add something else. These things can happen in the blink of an eye and you may not realize it.

Sometimes you have one application open [along with A5] and you have a problem with that other application that shuts down Windows. However, because you're so understandably focused on the other software that caused the closure of Windows, you didn't remember that A5 was open when it happened. I know that's happened to me and I'm sure others had the same experience.

But the possible causes I listed were not an exclusive list, just the most likely. There are other computer problems that might corrupt your indexes.

Let me throw in some personal opinions.

1. Version 9 is vastly superior to your old version in every way imaginable. Upgrading to this product was a smart move.

2. Many of us, including me, shelled out far more than $100, so we don't enjoy listening to you complain about the cost of a product that is worth a lot more than the $100 bargain price you paid.

3. If version 9 somehow was the cause of regularly corrupting indexes on the computers of people who use it, the product would have been a huge failure, thereby jeopardizing the financial health of Alpha Software. That wasn't the case because they have thousands of satisfied ver 9 customers.

If you decide to hang in there and try to troubleshoot the issue, I'm confident someone on this message board can help. More importantly, even if you never discover the cause of the index corruption, if it doesn't happen again, and A5 performs properly, you can be very confident your problem wasn't version nine.