Options

Having trouble with the upgrade.

ClarkeyClarkey Member Posts: 16

I am really sorry I am so frustrated with the upgrade. I just want to cry. The old version was perfect for me and now I can't move anything, I can't find anything, I can't print ..... why does everything have to change for the worse.

edited November 21, 2019 in Upgraded Accounting Experience
«1

Comments

  • Options
    BarsinBarsin Member, Moderator Posts: 2,041 ✭✭✭

    Hey @Clarkey

    I know that change can be frustrating, but our intent of course is to get everyone onto the new platform. In regards to moving transactions, I'm assuming you mean from business to personal or business to business. In our previous accounting software, we allowed this to happen, however it wasn't proper bookkeeping and it wasn't good for your books. Our previous discussions which can be found HERE discuss how to properly move these transactions and account for them according to a standard accounting practice.

    In regards to finding anything, or printing, if you could elaborate on what you mean by this, we'd be happy to elaborate a bit further.

    We are pleased with the upgrade and look forward to future upgrades to make our robust platform even more compliant with an ISO for accounting software and practices. Don't hesitate to reach out if you have any specific questions about the upgrade.

    Here is a beneficial article from our help center to show you how that transaction should look.

    https://support.waveapps.com/hc/en-us/articles/208622836-Handling-business-expenses-with-a-personal-bank-account

    edited July 2, 2019
  • Options
    ClarkeyClarkey Member Posts: 16

    Hi

    In the old version I was able to move any transaction between any business or to a personal account. I have one business account for 3 small business. I don't want to have 3 separate bank accounts for each small business. I would then link the bank account to the business that has the most transactions and them move any other transactions to one of the other businesses in Wave. I am now unable to do this. I have to physically delete the transaction and rekey it into the correct Wave business.

    This might not be best 'accounting' practice but you allowed it for many years so don't see why it cant be available now. I am just a very small business and am not looking for a classic accountancy experience. I just want a quick way to categorise my income and expenditure so I am ready for my tax return. I am only a sole trader.

    I know alot of people are unhappy with this change especially as it has happened in the middle of a financial year so it difficult for us to start again with another product. This is a case of not listening to what your users really want and telling us how it 'should' be done, even though your solution is long winded procedure. It is such as disappointment as Wave is really a fantastic piece of software, but to loose this functionality is really sad.

    As for the printing I want to be able to print a list of the transactions I can see on the transaction screen and there is no way to do this. I use this to print out to as a reference to other software package I am trying to reconcile it with.

    The only solution I have been offered is the Account report but that is not what I want as I don't what to have to print a report for every category.

    I also miss the page numbers. They were really useful.

  • Options
    ZoeCZoeC Member Posts: 388 admin

    Hi @Clarkey , thank you for following up with us and thank you for providing that context.

    I completely understand that this is a huge change and that it is going to take a lot of getting used to. Every decision that went into the update was made with great care and we did it with the sole intention of providing a much better, much more robust product for our users. The fact that the older software was allowing imperfect accounting practices was not good enough and something that had to change. Unfortunately there is no perfect time for a huge update like this.

    I do understand that being able to print your transactions directly from your transactions page was something that was beneficial to you, but now, the best next option is to head to your Account Transactions Report and export from there.

    We are more than happy to help you with any issues you are having in getting used to the new software, so please, do not hesitate to reach out!

  • Options
    TahzeebTahzeeb Member Posts: 2
    1. In old Version there were text suggestion for the descriptions in entries. but now i dont get that.
    2. The doing a new Juornal transaction is very congested and messy.

    Atleast restore this feature in previous version. please. Its killing me. made me slow at work.

  • Options
    JamieDJamieD Administrator Posts: 1,156 admin

    @Tahzeeb Appreciate the feedback that you've provided here, but I'm afraid there isn't a way to revert back to the previous version of our software. When making improvements in the future for when we migrate our users over to the latest software, this are some things that we can take into consideration as we want our users to have the best experience as possible.

  • Options
    John_MacJohn_Mac Member Posts: 5

    I'm with Clarkey, very frustrated that I can no longer use this software. All monies go into one account then I could previously allocated them to the correct Business within my Wave account. My accountant sees nothing wrong with this so I don't see where you are coming from with your statement that you have removed this function because its not good accounting practice.

  • Options
    BarsinBarsin Member, Moderator Posts: 2,041 ✭✭✭

    Hey @John_Mac

    I apologize that this new change doesn't suit your businesses needs anymore. As mentioned previously I think the idea of instating an automated transactional movement from one business into another business is a great idea which our team knows about. We appreciate you reaching out with your opinion. Take care and have a great weekend.

  • Options
    SteveTrowellSteveTrowell Member Posts: 3

    I completely agree with Clarkey in the sense that everything I enjoyed about WAVE for has now disappeared..! I understand why the automatic bank connections feature had to be stopped but there are lots of other things I hate...
    Most significantly - I signed in today for the first time since the updates & loads of my previously uploaded receipts are missing from merged transactions..! It's now impossible to see what transactions/uploaded receipts have been merged. So if I happened to merge an upload receipt with a bank transaction in the old version (so that my accountant could see both elements) the new version of WAVE is only showing my linked receipt if I previously left the entry on the receipt element rather than the bank transaction element. If I happened to leave the entry on the bank transaction element then the receipt is nowhere to be found..! Does this mean I will have to go through my entire accounts, work out which receipts are missing & upload them all again..?!?
    Really disappointed & very worried that my workload is going to multiply dramatically. Not only that, but my accountants are going to wonder where half of my receipts have gone from my recently submitted books..!

  • Options
    ChelseaKChelseaK Member Posts: 261 ✭✭

    @SteveTrowell Looks like there is another conversation here about this where we've answered your post: https://community.waveapps.com/discussion/comment/22290#Comment_22290

    edited September 17, 2019
  • Options
    SunnyOfficeSunnyOffice Member Posts: 10

    Totally totally disappointed with this new version of Wave. Everything that I liked about Wave - it's simplicity, ease of use, opportunity to grow accounting knowledge through use of software...is now gone with one simple change. You call this upgrade; I would like to call it downgrade (downgrade on user experience & simplicity...and also on accounting best practices (read point 3 below for this)).
    I have summed up my experience with new wave as under:
    1. Reports -> Transactions by Accounts: Earlier there was a section on the Reports page to view "Transactions by Account." We used it so frequently to see Debit, Credit and Balance values for a specific account/ledger for a given date range. We could also export the transactions easily in Excel/CSV/PDF. It was a wonderful feature. Now we don't see any such section on the Reports page. The nearest workaround in new wave is to go through Reports -> Account Transactions (General Ledger), which unfortunately first takes me to a summary view of all accounts (from Chart of Accounts), and from there I am supposed to go to a particular account. You see the downgrade -> the same task was being performed meticulously in only 2 steps earlier, now requires 4 steps. Here also, the Report is not working as expected (just raised a defect yesterday with the wave team) - even when you select a particular account in place of "All Accounts" in the drop down and click on update report, it reverts to "All Account" erroneously and never shows you your selected account's transactions. See screenshot here
    2. Creating journals was a breeze earlier. Just two steps - click on Transactions dropdown and open Journals in a new tab. Now, click on Transactions, then select a dropdown on top "More", then click on Add a Journal...and then a cramped up Journal opens in half a screen where you first struggle with finding where to debit and where to credit. (From 2 steps earlier... again to 4 now - upgrade, is it?)
    3. Transactions - An accounting software is meant to talk the language of accounting and not the simplistic withdrawl/deposit language of a layman. Ofcourse, most of the users of wave are small businesses, but we small businessmen/women also understand the language of Debit and Credit for Assets, Liabilities, Income, Expense. When you change that to say Withdrawl and Deposits, this is what happens as we see on the new Transactions page. When you try adding an Expense using the Transactions page, you no longer see entries for debit/credit. Instead, you see withdrawl/deposit.
    In true accounting terms (and also in previous good version of wave), I knew that I have to Debit the Expense and Credit the Asset or liability. Now, in the new wave, can you please explain what should I do when I have an expense and I use my liability account for payment. How can you deposit or withdraw to a liability. Withdrawl and Deposit simply do not fit in here.
    Unfortunately, this upgrade is coming bang in the middle of a financial year and we cannot even think of migrating to a another software.
    **For Team at Wave **- Guys, please consider reverting to the wave that it was. Even if you want to bring in change, as every software does, do it one step at a time. Atleast, then you'll have the opportunity to get feedback and act on it. Please don't change everything all at once and don't fix something that is not broken.

    Best,
    Sunny

  • Options
    DaveSGDaveSG Member Posts: 5

    What a total mess the new reconciliation process is.

    What happened to the ability to split transactions and then match them separately ->> which I used every month whenever a customer pays multiple invoices with one bank transfer....

    What happened to the fact that verifying a transaction controlled wheter it counted against the wave balance? The ticks seem to have no effect whatsoever now...
    ->> I used this every month when I receive a payment by cheque, mark the invoice as paid, but the cheque has not been deposited yet so cannot be reconciled.

    This seems like a massive step backward - I too hate the upgrade...

  • Options
    scotchydogscotchydog Member Posts: 1

    Totally agree - The new upgrade is a big step backwards. Splitting a transaction was so easy and now it's a pain. I get lump sum payments from Stripe made up of multiple customers payments with the Stripe fees removed. In the past I was able to split the transaction into the debits and credits simply ... it always showed the amount still out of balance ... now you can't combine expenses with income during the split ... why the hell not ????? ... please don't say it's bad accounting practice again because it simply isn't !!

  • Options
    AlexLAlexL Member Posts: 2,869 ✭✭✭

    @SunnyOffice Thanks for this in-depth review on the new platform. Although I think we've made many improvements to the system, there are definitely some things that can still be improved. I'll take your feedback and pass it along to the team. They're super interested in how our users are finding things and this is great feedback.

    In regards to your question, you should be thinking about deposits and withdrawals as income and expenses. If you made a purchase with your credit card, this would be an expense/withdrawal with your Credit Card (liability) account.

    @IrateDave The reconciliation process has definitely changed from the older version. I'd encourage you to play around with it some more and come back a month or two from now with your opinions on it. If you still don't like it then, we'd love to hear about it. I totally understand that change can be frustrating, especially when you get used to how something works already.

    @scotchydog we have a super handy help center article that helps in explaining how to account for merchant transaction fees in the new platform. Check it out: https://support.waveapps.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000472306-How-to-account-for-transaction-fees

  • Options
    JforjaseJforjase Member Posts: 1

    Can we pls have the old journal transactions screen back? Really difficult to pass any entries with the new very cramped journal screen. This is especially so for long journals.

  • Options
    EmmaPEmmaP Member Posts: 639 ✭✭✭

    Hey @Jforjase! Thanks for your feedback! We are not able to revert users back to features in the old version. If you do have any particular feedback about the new setup, we are happy to pass that on! To give our team a better understanding, it is great to have some insight into your business and your workflow. In terms of the new process, is it just the layout of the new journal transactions you do not like, or are there are factors? How often do you enter in journal transactions and how long are they typically? Let us know!

  • Options
    ClarkeyClarkey Member Posts: 16

    We also have lost the ability to sort by transaction description which I found really useful for checking. Another step backwards. Yes please reinstate the old view.

  • Options
    CraftyZombieCraftyZombie Member Posts: 2

    Agree, this update is terrible and is incredibly frustrating. I marked an invoice as paid, but when I went to merge it with the corresponding bank deposit I couldn't, because I made several deposits on the same day. Previously, I could truly split the bank deposit transaction and merge. I had to delete the deposit transactions in order for my books to be in order and to not record me as having earned the income twice. Now I can't mark invoices as paid first. I have to wait for deposits to clear and then match them up with invoices. This makes it very confusing to keep track of which invoices have been paid and which have not and makes more work for me! I liked being able to mark invoices as paid as soon as I received the check, and could quickly and easily tell who sent in a payment, and which invoices were still outstanding. Today I deposited several checks, but now have to wait until the deposit clears before I can mark the invoices as paid.

    I mean, what business makes separate deposits for each transaction? That's ridiculous. When I go to the bank, even if I deposit multiple checks and/or cash, it shows up as one single deposit on my bank statement. Also, many customers will pay multiple invoices with one check. I'm an independent contractor who does multiple jobs per month for the same company, and they will process multiple invoices together and send out a single check. Do you expect them to pay me in separate checks?

    Please, please, please let us truly split transactions. Your software is practically useless without this feature.

  • Options
    BarsinBarsin Member, Moderator Posts: 2,041 ✭✭✭

    Hey there @CraftyZombie

    I understand that change to a software you knew so well can be a bit frustrating and I apologize if it all seems very confusing. Let's address a few things:

    1. The split deposit feature in the previous version never really aligned with previous reconciliation practices. Imagine you make a lump some deposit of 5 $200 checks and they get deposited as $1000. Splitting these up into 5 $200 income payments did not make sense as it is not what happens in the real world bank account. This is why our new split deposit feature on the income should still allow you to split your income into multiple invoices.
    2. Marking your invoice as paid, and merging with the income is another non-real world transaction that we should take into consideration as well. Since our new system is accrual based, your accounts receivable reports are up to date from the moment you create the invoice. However I understand you may forget to mark an invoice as paid and waiting might be annoying, this is why most accountants may recommend you create a money in transit asset account to credit that invoice payment ↓ then when the income lands in your account you can debit the asset account from which is came from ↑. Once again our intent was to recreate actions in the real world bank accounts. See this article on Bookkeeping undeposited checks for more info.

    Again I apologize that our new system may be a bit confusing with the update but we're always here to help if you have any further questions or recommendations.

  • Options
    CraftyZombieCraftyZombie Member Posts: 2

    I am a sole proprietor with a very tiny business. My accounting is on a cash basis, not accrual.

    Your 1 - I have to mark in my books where all my money comes from, I can't just have lump deposits and say "I got a bunch of monies". Also, I earn money from sales and from teaching and need to make sure they are marked as such. I do like the fact that your invoices allow me to do this on the same invoice as I frequently send one invoice for teaching and supplies.

    Your 2 - I don't forget to mark an invoice as paid. I mark it as paid the same day I deposit the check. Then it takes a couple of days for the deposit to clear, and then I have 2 transactions in Wave, one from the marked invoice and one from the bank. I then merge the two as they are the same. There is no way I'm setting up a money in transit account. Small. Sole. Proprietor. I need it as simple as possible. Honestly, I'm probably just going to have to stick with my custom spreadsheets. I was mostly using your software for the invoicing, the reports, and as a double check to my spreadsheets.

    Your changes have made it pretty much useless for the really small business person. Based on the comments in this thread and others, I'm not the only one who finds these recent changes a major problem.

  • Options
    Jose_2019Jose_2019 Member Posts: 0

    This is exactly why I advise my team against using "cloud based software"... We have no control over the changes... The software was working really well and now everything is a mess, completely useless!!! Not sure who provided advise on the new features and functionality of the software but I am sure 99% of users will agree with my opinion. A few issues that stand out:

    1- New transfer feature only works with a limited number of accounts... I used to be able transfer from/to any two accounts.
    2- Transaction view now requires an additional "filter" step to see transactions from a specific account (other than income accounts).

  • Options
    BarsinBarsin Member, Moderator Posts: 2,041 ✭✭✭

    Hey again @CraftyZombie

    I appreciate going into further detail to let us know how this affects your business. This always gives our team more insight into how our users operate and what features are pertinent to their specific type of business. Thanks for this productive feedback.

  • Options
    AlexLAlexL Member Posts: 2,869 ✭✭✭

    Hey @Jose_2019 . I totally understand your frustration surrounding the new version as changes to any system can be very difficult to learn.

    If you'd like to give me an example of what you're looking to transfer in Wave and the reason behind it so I have a better understanding? I may be able to give you an alternative or a different way to handle it.

  • Options
    AlexLAlexL Member Posts: 2,869 ✭✭✭

    Hey @TeamADW . There's no way to go back to the old version as we head towards moving the remaining users on on our older version to the new one.

    I'd love to hear some more feedback on where you find yourself clicking and scrolling more. The accounting team is looking to make improvements once we've finished moving users over to the upgraded version and any feedback from our users is encouraged.

    Let me know!

  • Options
    TimKTimK Member Posts: 41 ✭✭

    I absolutely HATE the new system. Saying "give it time" or "best accounting practices" is a cop out. You can make changes that are better and easier and don't require "taking time". There's a difference between a learning curve and unnecessarily changing the way we do business. Wave was a fantastic tool as it was....did you have tons of customers asking for these changes or did you just decide this was "what was best" without asking? Seems like TONS of small business customers are not happy with these changes.
    The inability to split transactions is extremely frustrating.

    edited November 10, 2019
  • Options
    AMBAMB Member Posts: 3

    Let me just join the chorus of small business owners who despise this change. As a sole proprietor, Wave is now completely useless to me.

    I don't even know where to begin. The design of the new transaction page is so difficult to read. And why am I seeing a single transaction three separate times?? Previously when someone paid an invoice, I saw the paid invoice then I saw it go into my back account. I merged the two and approved. Boom! Done. Now there are three transactions, none of them will merge together, and one is supposedly a withdrawal? What is this nonsense?

    Not being able to split transactions is 100% unacceptable. Sometimes I deposit several checks at once. Now I'm supposed to tell the bank teller they each need to go in as a separate transaction because my junky accounting software won't let me categorize the funds properly otherwise?

    It seems to me like Wave needs to acknowledge that their product needs to work FOR THE PEOPLE who actually use it. I think an apology and a return to some previous functionality is in order. (Don't even bother responding with the line about not being able to go backwards. You can program your product to do whatever you want it to do, you're just choosing not to).

    As for me, I'm immediately searching for new accounting software. I don't care that it's in the middle of the fiscal year (though you should have thought of that before you made this switch on us). Wave is totally useless to me now.

  • Options
    EmmaPEmmaP Member Posts: 639 ✭✭✭

    Hi @TimK, thanks for reaching out. In the old version, when you split a transaction it would create two (or more) new transactions. If you wish to follow the same workflow in the new version you can. You'd create the 'splits' manually by entering in the withdrawal/deposit transactions and then deleting the original. If you want to use the newer version of splitting, this Wave guide has good steps to follow: How to Split a Transaction.

    Hey @AMB, we know the upgrade does involve a lot of changes in workflow. If you want to read a little further into the bookkeeping behind the multiple transactions you view for 'Payments by Wave' this guide goes into some great detail: Bookkeeping changes to Payments by Wave. As for splitting transactions, this is still possible in the new version but the workflow has changed (mentioned in the comment above). If you are depositing several cheques at once, you can 'split' the deposit transaction as many times as you need and categorize each split line.

This discussion has been closed.