Invoice Payment Problem, + A/R question

[Geert Janssens]

On Friday 07 March 2014 12:54:34 W Geoffrey O Black wrote:
> I recently changed computers and upgraded to GnuCash 2.6.1, with Mac
> OSX 10.9.1. I had previously been running the 2.4 series (most
> recently 2.4.15), on OSX 10.7. I was pleased to find that after
> upgrading, I could open my data file and take up where I had left off
> before the upgrade, with only a few minor preferences tweaks needed
> to make the registers display the way I wanted.
> 
> However, I’ve run into an issue with invoices and payments that I
> can’t seem to resolve. A regular part of my workflow is to create and
> print invoice reports. When I do this, I always select the checkbox
> to display payments (in the display tab of the report options
> window). (It is mysterious to me why this is not selected by default,
> since I don’t understand why anyone would want to send an invoice
> showing an Amount Due that does not reflect payments the customer has
> already made. But that’s beside the point.) Since upgrading to 2.6.1,
> when I create an invoice report (Reports—Business—Fancy Invoice), it
> ONLY works if the invoice number I select is an unpaid invoice. As
> soon as I choose an invoice number that has payments associated with
> it, I get the message "An error occurred while running the report.”
> The error message goes away if I uncheck the box to display payments,
> but that really doesn’t help me, as I want the payments included on
> the invoice I print!
> 
> Can anyone tell me why this is happening and what I can do to fix it?
> I have reproduced the problem both with pre-existing invoices
> originally created in version 2.4.x, and with newly created invoices.
> The payments are there (they show up in A/receivable, and the
> invoices are marked “paid” in the “Find Invoice” window), but somehow
> trying to display them on a report is making GnuCash freak out. Any
> ideas?
> 
Hi Geoffrey,

This was a bug in GnuCash 2.6.1 and has been fixed in the just released 2.6.2.
> 
> A second question which may or may not be related: I have noticed that
> since upgrading to 2.6.1, when I process a payment, it creates two
> separate transactions in Accounts Receivable: one labeled “Payment,”
> one labeled “Lot Link” (with the memo line "Internal link between
> invoice and payment lots”). Is this a new behavior introduced in 2.6?
> And what is the purpose of it? This “link” type of transaction never
> showed up when I was using 2.4. I am willing to put up with it if
> it’s doing something useful, but it’s annoying to have extra
> “transactions” that don’t affect the balance cluttering up the A/R
> register.
> 
Lot links were introduced to allow handling of credit notes and more flexible payment options. 
They are plainly visible because the accounts payable register was never intended for direct 
user manipulation/consultation. However you are not the first to trip over them. It's on my list 
to try and reduce its use to a minimum.

Geert