Status
Resolved
Who's Affected
ConnectWise customers syncing COGS Inventory, where a warning is displayed for a failure to insert the cost of goods sold (COGS) journal.
Issue
The error below was displayed as a warning, which may inadvertently be ignored or missed by the user if the sync results are not carefully inspected.
Failed to insert the COGS journal for this batch: {reason}
Based on the warning, the resulting COGS Journal will need to be manually created in Xero. If action is not taken, this will result in incorrect Cost of Goods Sold reporting on the Profit & Loss statement. It has become evident that this warning has not been effective in its intent to warn customers that action is required.
What did we do about it?
The issue was originally reported by a customer on the 24th of August, 2019 on the basis of the warning below.
Failed to insert the COGS journal for this batch: Item code 'xxxxxxxx' is not valid.
Considering the importance of the COGS Journal in the Inventory Accounting basis, it prompted a deeper investigation into our sync logs, to find out how long this specific warning had been reported for and whether the incidence of the failure to insert the COGS Journal was apparent. It became evident that this warning appeared for a number of customers consistently for many months.
It was recognised that the use of the warning needed higher elevation to an error, to ensure that the batch for the impacted record (Invoice) was not posted, highlighting the critical impact of the record that could not be created. In some cases the failure to create the COGS journal was reported for other reasons, such as the result of a transient API error, that could be resolved by simply syncing the invoice again.
We elevated the Failed to insert the COGS journal for this batch: message from a Warning to an Error, within 48 hours of the issue being reported. This update was released to production on the 28th of August, 2019 (Wise-Sync Version 4.6.7).
In addition to this, we identified the customers who encountered the Failed to insert the COGS journal for this batch: warning. Although this warning was present in the sync logs, we are notifying those customers, as a courtesy, that they may be impacted by this issue.
What do I need to do?
If you have not been contacted, you don't need to do anything. However, we do recommend that you carefully inspect all sync results to ensure that other issues are not present in the creation of records. If you encounter the Failed to insert the COGS journal for this batch: error in future, please refer to Failed to insert the COGS journal for this batch. This article contains troubleshooting tips for the different reasons we've seen reported with it in the past.
If you have been contacted, you will have received a list of impacted transactions that you need to review. It's recommended that these transactions be reviewed to ensure they have been accounted for in your accounting package by following the process below, provided you have detailed logging switched on. If you review warnings and errors with each sync and these have been corrected as needed, then you won't need to do anything.
Obtain the XML from the Sync Results
- From the sync screen, navigate to Sync Results and search for the BatchID provided to you in the list of transactions.
- Enter the entire BatchID.
- Click Search.
- Click the Logs number to view the detailed log.
- Click i next to the CreateBatch entry.
- Copy the XML Result to the clipboard.
View XML and obtain cost - Open your browser and navigate to xmlgrid.net or any other tool you use to format your xml into a readable format. Paste the XML contents into the Input field.
- Click Submit.
- Expand the transaction nodes to Detail.
- Obtain Cost from the Detail node.
- Calculate Cost
- Cost Amount
- Cost Account Number (COGS Account)
- Inventory Part (would post to Inventory Account), you would credit the Inventory Warehouse Asset Account for the journal.
- Serialized (whether parts are serialised - not required unless you want to record serials)
- Drop Shipped - When Drop Ship COGS Override is set (will post from Drop Ship Asset Account)
- QTY Qty x Cost = Total Cost
Adjust Inventory Value in Xero
There are a couple of options to adjust inventory values in Xero, however we recommend you seek advise from your accounting professional about the best method to use.
Option 1 - Create a single journal entry for the sum of all costs not posted.
You may choose this option:
- If journals are in previous period and may be closed if lock dates are set.
- If changing P&L for prior periods is undesirable
- If there are payments applied to invoices, which would need to be removed and re-applied should you choose to re-sync them (option 2).
Option 2 - Re-sync invoices
This option may be favourable if journals apply to the current period and invoices have no payments applied.
If you require some assistance in resolving these issues, please contact support@wise-sync.com.