Tip #109
Changing the Account Number
Yesterday, a long-time flowerSoft customer called me and asked me to refresh his memory on the way to change an account number.
I told him that the only way was to enter the new phone number in one of the other 2 phone number fields.
Then, after leaving the Cell/Fax Number field, flowerSoft would ask him what phone number it should use to generate the account number.
After he selected the field containing the new phone number, flowerSoft would use that number to generate the new account number.
He told me “No, there is an easier way to change an account number. I’ve done it before, but I don’t remember what I did.”
Well neither could I.
I could not remember a way to change an account number without doing what I described above, but since he is a pretty savvy user I told him I would look through the code and call him back if there was another easier way to change an account number.
I also suggested to him to give the account an alias, but that is not what he wanted to do. He wanted the account number to change.
So, I looked through the code and guess what, sure enough there is an easier way to change an account number and I had even documented it! Now, this method was not originally written with the purpose of facilitating the changing of an account number. It was written to allow flowerSoft customers to give accounts an alphanumeric account number, such as fsoft2013.000.
However, that method also works to change an account from 1111111.000 to 7186980298.000. Here is how:
Simply bring up the client record and press U to update. You will notice that at the bottom of the screen there is a message reading “Press F8 to Enter an ALPHANUMERIC Account“
After you press the F8 key, flowerSoft will open up a window asking you to enter the alphanumeric account number, but there is nothing preventing you from entering just numbers.
Then after you enter the supposedly alphanumeric account number, flowerSoft will change the account number to whatever you entered.
Please note that if you are to enter an alphanumeric account number, you are limited to 10 characters, as flowerSoft still needs to add the .000 to the account number.
So there you have it, a fairly easy way to change an account number. Be aware, however, that if the change in the account number is because the customer has a new phone number, using this method will not save the new phone number. So in those cases, it is better to use the first method, which was intended for that eventuality.
Warning! Do not use this method to combined two accounts into one.
See tip #008 or click here http://wp.me/p24nOe-2J for instructions on how to do that.
