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Xact Link for ACT! and MYOB FAQ's

General

What is Xact Link for ACT! and AccountRight?
Xact Link for ACT! is an add-on to the popular ACT! contact management system; the Link is developed by Xact software solutions.

What does the link do?
The link connects ACT! with your AccountRight product, by doing so it provides the ability to create AccountRight customer cards from ACT! in addition to exposing some of AccountRight functions to ACT!.

What is the goal behind linking ACT! with AccountRight?
The idea is to streamline the process of creating customers and managing their information within the business as well as providing the front office staff with controlled access to customers financial data so that the staff can serve the customers more efficiently.

What are the benefits of linking ACT! and AccountRight?
Connecting your different office systems together has a number of benefits such as:

Elimination of duplicate data entry (e.g. entering the details of a customer more than once in more than one place).
Eliminating the need to jump between multiple systems to do a common work task (e.g. record your conversations with your customers in ACT! then jump to your accounting system to raise a quote).
Reduce the chances of your data being out of date (e.g. sales staff that process orders using a price list that is out of date.)
Providing your customer facing staff with the tools and information they need to help them provide a higher level of service (e.g. your staff can answer customer queries about prices, status of their orders or even check and see if the customers has any un-paid invoices).

What features does the link provide?
The link adds the following features to ACT:

Live connection to your AccountRight data file including a direct integration between AccountRight Items list and the ACT! Sales & Opportunities area.
Import AccountRight Customer Cards into ACT!
Export ACT! Contacts to AccountRight as Customer Cards
Create AccountRight customer cards directly from within ACT!
Link any ACT! contacts to their AccountRight customer cards
Update AccountRight customers details directly from ACT!
View customer card details and sales history live, and directly from within ACT!
Create Quotes, Sales Orders and Invoices direct from ACT!
Convert ACT! Sales Opportunities to Quotes, Sales Orders or Invoices
Create. Print & Email highly customizable documents using Sales data from MYOB AccountRight and ACT! Contact details
Integrated Lookup which allows you to search for Customers Cards and Sales records direct from ACT!, you can also convert Customer Cards lookups to ACT! Contact lookups
Full reporting functionality allows you to create visually rich charts and tables using SQL statements or a query builder. Users can create tables, pie charts, bar charts or even display address details on a Google map!

How does the link work?
Once installed the Link adds a new Tab to the ACT! contact detail screen, it also adds a two new menu items under the ACT! Tools menu.

Is the data imported into and/or synchronised to ACT! ?
With the exception of importing AccountRight Customer Cards into ACT! there is no requirement to synchronise your data. This is because the product uses live link technology which keeps data up-to-date at all times.

How does your link support the various MYOB Address sets?
MYOB has 6 or so MYOB address sets and the Xact Link for MYOB supports full mapping and editing to the first three address sets in MYOB. You can import data into ACT! via the link from these three MYOB address sets. By default, on install, the ACT! postal address (Address Line 1 etc.) is mapped to the MYOB postal (where you send invoices to) and the ACT! home address maps to the MYOB default delivery address. That leaves you to create another set of addresses in ACT! (custom fields) that can be mapped to the 3rd MYOB address set.

The 4th, 5th and 6th MYOB address sets are supported from the Xact Link for MYOB when you create a document from ACT! (e.g. an invoice). Supported, in that you can select within the document form which MYOB address set to choose from in creating the invoice, there is an MYOB address set picker window that lists all six MYOB address sets so you can choose any of the six or type the address freeform. In typing in directly this address is only applied to that document, it does not write to any of the MYOB address sets.

Compatibility

View system requirements here

Prerequisites

What are the prerequisites for running the link?
The following is a list of software and software components that need to be in place before you can successfully install and use the link:

A supported version of ACT! is installed and working with no issues
A supported version of MYOB accounting software is installed and working with no issues
Both installation of ACT and the MYOB software have the latest patches applied
Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1 (optional but highly recommended)
A supported version of the MYOB ODBC Write Back Drivers is installed.

It is also recommended that anyone attempting to install the Xact Link for ACT! and MYOB should be experienced in:

ACT! administration
Windows Administration
Has knowledge of MYOB AccountRight administration
Has knowledge of IIS & Client / Server environments
Has knowledge of windows services administration

What are the MYOB ODBC Write back drivers?
The MYOB ODBC write back drivers are software components which allow 3rd party applications (e.g. the Link) to connect to MYOB accounting products.

Are the MYOB ODBC drivers installed by default?
If you are running the 2008 line of the MYOB accounting products or higher (e.g. Premier 12, Premier 12.5), then you should have the Write back drivers installed already. For the 2007 line of MYOB products you may need to install these drivers separately.

I don't have the drivers installed, where can download them from?
If you don't have these drivers installed already then contact us or your MYOB product consultant and we will provide you with a link to download the correct drivers for your MYOB accounting product.

Installation

How do I install the link?
Installation is simple; all you need to do is to un-zip the software package and run the Setup.exe file then simply follow the installation instructions and make sure that the link is installed to the right directory.

What are my installation options?
It is advisable that you work out the best way to setup and deploy the Xact Link for ACT! and MYOB. There are multiple ways to connect ACT! to MYOB AccountRight, each method is ideal for certain environments. The following is a description of each connection method:

Local (direct connection to your Accounting data file) , this method is best used in scenarios where both the MYOB AccountRight application and data file reside on the same machine where ACT! is (e.g. Single user setups or Terminal Server environments).
Remote through IIS, this connection method uses Internet Information Services and Windows Services to allow ACT! to connect to your AccountRight data file, this method is ideal for large organizations and for users who might require access to the accounting data file from outside of the organization (e.g. across the internet).
.Net Remoting , this method uses client / server architecture to connect ACT! to your AccountRight data file , it is similar to #2 however it is easier to setup and it is ideal for small workgroups and environments which are low on resources (e.g. small networks with 2-5 users and / or no servers etc.).

Consult the installation guide for further details on how to setup the link to work in each of the scenarios.

Can I have ACT! running while installing the link?
It is strongly recommended that neither ACT! nor your MYOB accounting software are running when installing the link.

Where should the link be installed?
The installation directory is the Plugins sub directory which can be found under the ACT! for windows or ACT! for Web Folders. The default path for these folders (respectively) is:

C:\Program Files\ACT\ACT For Windows\Plugins\
C:\Program Files\ACT\ACT For Web\Plugins\

Do I need to be a windows administrator when installing the link?
Yes you need to be logged onto your PC as a windows administrator when installing the link.

Can I install the link without having ACT! on my machine?
Since the link is an integrated addon for ACT! you must have a compatible version of ACT! installed and running in order to use the link.

Configuration

I have installed the link, how do I configure it to work with my MYOB accounting software?

Provided the installation was complete and your system meets the prerequisites the link will prompt you to configure its settings the first time you start up ACT!.

You can also access the configuration screen from ACT! by going through Tools >> Xact Link for Act (Xact Link M)

What do I need to fill in the configuration screen to get the link to work?
You need to supply the following:

A valid logon and password for your MYOB software
The path to your MYOB company data file
The path to your MYOB product executable (.exe)

How do I setup the Xact Link to Link an ACT contact record with my MYOB company data file?
Using the ACT! Card ID field (which is accessible through the Link's configuration screen) you can assign a contact field which will hold the link information between ACT! and your MYOB accounting product.

Can I assign any field to hold this information?
Yes, however it is very important that you choose a field that is not used to enter data at all or create a new field to hold the link information between ACT! and your MYOB product data file.

Troubleshooting

I configured the link and I tested the connection, I can see the Link's Tab but nothing seems to be working, what is wrong?
After configuring the link you need to restart ACT! for the changes to apply.

I am using the link to connect to a data file over a network and the link seems to be very slow.
When running MYOB over a network, make sure that you have setup your firewall and anti-virus software to allow MYOB to communicate un-hindered, also ensure that you are accessing your data file through a mapped network drive.

Note when running a peer-peer network with more than 3-4 connections expect performance to be slow, this is unfortunately due to the nature of Peer- Peer networks and is out of anyone's control.

I am using windows vista and I get an error message whenever I try to start ACT! after installing the link.
If running under windows Vista, make sure to run ACT! as a windows administrator.

I have setup the link and it seems to be configured properly but whenever I try to use it I get an error message.
This is possibly due to assigning an ID field that already contains data, make sure to assign an ID field that is used for nothing but the link, this field should be hidden from the contact detail view.

I am connecting to the MYOB data file over a network and I get the error message "Error [40000] [MYOB ODBC] unable to determine if the import was finished"
This issue can be related to the permissions your user account has against the data file, check your network security permissions and ensure you have sufficient access rights when connecting to a data file over a network.

I am getting an error message along the lines of [Error getting the Literal value of the right operand]
This can happen due to one of the following reasons:

Your Card Id field in is mapped to a field which has alpha numeric characters in it
The link's system date settings are not compatible with your machine's date time settings

To check for #1, find the ACT! field which is used to store the AccountRight Customer card ID by going to Tools >> Xact Link M >> Preferences , do a look in ACT! to show all the ACT! contact records where the record id field contains data, find any records where the value in this field is alpha numeric and then update the contact records so that the values in the record id field are blank.

To Check for #2, go to the ACT! tools menu >> Xact Link M >> Preferences >> Advanced options , ensure that the date time settings are set to MM/dd/yyyy , MYOB AccountRight seems to use this date format when writing data as opposed to the dd/MM/yyyy format which is generally used for NZ / Australia.

I am connecting to the MYOB data file and getting the following Error: message "Error [HZ080] [MYOB ODBC] RDA Error: Resource Not Available - the MYOB Application is not Responding"
This error is usually an indicator of low system resources, it occurs when the 3rd party application attempts to connect to a MYOB Data file and the connection attempt times out. It is recommended that you upgrade your system or free some resources by closing un-used applications and services.

I have changed the contact layout in ACT! and now all of my tabs are duplicates / cannot be accessed.
This seems to be an issue that occurs from time to time in older versions ACT!, the workaround is to restart ACT!.

When switching between ACT! Databases during the same session, some of the link features become disabled.
This seems to be an issue with the way ACT! handles some of its plugins, the workaround is to restart ACT!.

I am connecting to the MYOB data file across a network, if more than one user tries to access the file they get a message saying that the file is open exclusively by another application.
This issue can happen if you are connecting to the MYOB company file using the raw UNC path, we recommend that you Map the directory where the file is located to a mapped network drive and give sufficient permissions to the users who intend to access the data file.

I have more than one user accessing the MYOB company file if one user is using the link and another user tries to access the company file through the MYOB application I get a message saying that the company file has reached the maximum number of connections allowed.
This is due to how the MYOB accounting products operate in terms of licensing and connections, to avoid this issue ensure that anyone who needs to access your company file through the MYOB accounting application does so first then have your link users connect to the accounting file afterwards.

I have my MYOB AccountRight data file on a separate server from my ACT database the connection between the two seems to be very slow.
This issue is due to how the current versions of MYOB AccountRight products operate across a network, the solution to this is to setup our optional server components on the machine hosting the accounting database and configure the link to connect through our server instead.

I can see the link's menu item under the tools menu but the tab is not showing!
Make sure that your startup view is set to contact detail then restart ACT

Help, the link and its tab have disappeared from my screen!
A possible cause for this would be ACT! preventing the link from loading, in some cases ACT! disables addons from running on startup for a number of reasons and from time to time it is possible that fully working addons do get disabled by accident.

To check if the link has been disabled by ACT!:

Close ACT! if its running
Go to your App data folder (Start menu >> Run >> %AppData%) , if you can't see this folder then you will need to show hidden files and folders through windows explorer
Go to the ACT! folder >> ACT Data , find the file named DependentDlls.xml , rename it to DependentDlls.old
Start ACT!

I can’t write to the MYOB Accounting file
This can happen for one of the following reasons:

If you are running a single user version of MYOB AccountRight , in this case only one connection is allowed full read / write access to the data file so in order to allow the link to write to your accounting system it needs to be the only application connecting to your accounting data file
There are file system restrictions on your accounting data file, consider relaxing the file system permissions on the folder containing your accounting data file.
You have exceeded the number of users allowed to login to your accounting system, in this case you can work around this issue by running MYOB AccountRight first and logging into your data file then starting ACT! afterwards.

When trying to create a new MYOB card from an ACT! record I get an error that reads "Value for Company / Last name is null or is not available"
To fix this issue make sure that the Last Name field in MYOB is mapped to the Last Name / Surname field in ACT!.

I am getting an error message that reads "Cannot set column "ItemName". The value violates the MaxLength limit of this column."
There is a 255 character limit on the size of the Item Name field in MYOB, in this case this limit has been exceeded. This issue typically occurs when the "Use Item description as the item name" option is selected in the link settings; if this is the case you can either un-check this option or make the description shorter. If the "Use Item description as the item name" option is not checked and the item name is still too long you will need to make the item name shorter.

The MYOB link server has been stopped and ACT! is not open on the server but MYOB still seems to think that ACT! is connected.
MYOB may still be running in the background even if the server has been stopped, to close MYOB open the Task Manager find "MYOBP.exe" and choose the "end task".

Contact and Support

I have a question that is not answered here, how can I contact you?
You can get our contact details through our website www.Xactsoftware.co.nz or you can E-mail us at support@Xactsoftware.co.nz , for sales you can email sales@Xactsoftware.co.nz

Do you offer any support packages?
We do support on case by case basis, all support requests are subject to Xact Software's terms of service, you are welcome to contact us if you wish to obtain a copy of our Terms of Trade document.

What support methods do you offer?
We offer Phone support, Remote support and on-site visits; please note that in some cases we may need to arrange a time in advance to assist with your support queries.

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