Importing sales invoices to the correct client accounts and future proofing for use of APIs

If when importing standard sales invoices from an e-commerce shop you have two clients with the same name (2 x Joe Bloggs), what is the best way to ensure the invoices go to separate client accounts and that future orders goes to the correct account. Also, our website will probably want to make use of the API features in the future (our client info includes a client numeric ID and first, second name, email, address etc) so could the numeric ID on our side be used to properly identify the client on the Quickfile end before and after using the API?

I see that on import it states that the client name has to be the same otherwise a new client is created, could the client name be our numeric ID… would that solve the issue or is there a better way?

Many thanks as always

If you are using the API I would probably just make client name == firstname, lastname, numericID. Easily human readable but also should be unique.

You would need to make an adjustment to the clients name somehow - Joe Bloggs vs Joseph Bloggs vs J Bloggs, otherwise, as you say, the system will assume they’re all the same. I guess adding your ID there somewhere would help with this.

All clients, suppliers, invoices, etc are stored within QuickFile using a unique ID, so when the API creates the invoice, you would specify the QuickFile ID for the client. It would mean an extra bit of data to store your end. The API works with the IDs rather than names, so maybe it would be worth getting the IDs in place now ready for when you do use the API.

The ID is visible in the web address when viewing that client:

And it’s also visible in account back ups too.

The trouble at the moment (whilst not using the API) is that the client could change their name our end (if they get married or something) so I think using a combination of name and our numeric ID can still easily go wrong when importing sales invoices. Like I said, I think it’s going to have to be something as simple as our numeric client ID on it’s own then it’s guaranteed to tally for now. Then when going over to using the APIs, export the Quickfile clients and insert the corresponding Quickfile IDs at our end. Sound logical?

That does sound logical to me.

Do you use QuickFile for the actual invoicing, or is that done by the e-commerce system itself, and you just import them for accounting purposes?

The website creates customer invoices so just importing for accounts and maybe statements for trade/account customers.

If the web site is creating invoices, maybe it would be worth looking at logging them in QuickFile as more of a retail shop record - logging them daily/weekly as a lump sum rather than individual?

This article outlines how to do this:
http://community.quickfile.co.uk/t/accounting-for-daily-takings/8911/1

That would certainly get around the duplicate customer name :slight_smile:

Mmmm it’s an idea… I think we need all the invoices in both systems. It should be easy to do now we know the best way of doing it. It was more an issue of future proofing for when we start integrating the APIs - keeping some sort client account sync before APIs that will work after the switch!

Many thanks for your help - and you Lurch!

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