Check Order in GL Export

[CLC Peoria]

What would cause the GL Export function to scramble the order of the checks that are exported? After I found that the checks printed by ZPay did not match the check numbers in our G/L program, I viewed the CSV file using Notepad and found the checks to be in an apparently random order instead of the employee code order in which the employees were selected for payment. This worked properly until last week.
The proper order (employee code) is important to us because we need the checks to import into our G/L system (Shepherd's Staff) in the correct numerical order so the bank reconciliation program works properly.
Thank you.
Julie

[Paul Mayer]

There is no "check number order" in PayWindow. The order determined by the sort order of your employees when you pay them. And the only choices are by Employee ID and Last name.

[CLC Peoria]

Let me rephrase the previous question.
When the employees are paid in EMPLOYEE CODE order, what would cause them to end up in a different order in the export file?
Thank you.

[Paul Mayer]

When you said it that way, I looked at the export, and it exports in the order that the employees were entered in the database so there is no way to sort them during export. It dumps them from the first record to the last.

I'll add a request to the future features list to add a sort order to the export tool.

[CLC Peoria]

Thanks for taking time to look at that export process. Exporting the records in the order in which they were entered is what I expected, and it worked that way at the beginning of the year. However, now that we are using 7.0.6, the order is different.
Here are the details:
We paid 28 employees, entered in EMPLOYEE CODE order (employee code is the employee's initials, not a numeric code).
When I view the export file (csv format, before it gets imported into my G/L program), the records are in the following order:
5,6,7,8,9, 14,15,16,17,18, 24,25,26,27,28 1,2,3,4, 10,11,12,13 19,20,21,22,23
(For clarification, the 5th employee paid is the first record in the export file; the first employee paid is the 16th record in the export file.)
The bottom line here is that we print the checks in PayWindow because our accounting software won't print a proper pay stub. We then transfer the data to our accounting system to post to G/L and the check register. The biggest problem is that the check numbers have to match for our bank statement reconciliation to work properly, and that will only work if the records are imported in the same sequence in which they were paid in your system.
Thanks again for taking a look at this.

[CLC Peoria]

Addendum to earlier message from this date:

I installed updates, so I now have 7.0.18, and I can see that a sort order has been added. Thank you for the prompt response. However, the result is the same for me. The export file is in exactly the same order as it was in earlier (see previous message), and the first record in the export file is the 5th record that was created. I did not read anywhere that you required the employee code to be numeric (ours are alpha). Could that be the problem?
Thanks again.

[Paul Mayer]

I'm not sure if that is the problem as my sample files and submitted databases I have from customers all have numbers like 101, 102...

And I just did a test by taking my sample company which had numbering like above and added a new employee with 001 as an employee ID.

Then I had the employees set to sort by employee ID and paid them and then in check printing set the sort order to be the same and printed checks.

Finally I exported with it set both sort orders, by transaction date first and by Employee number next. Both ways gave me the same results, they wee in the order that the checks were printed.

Are you you using a sort by name order maybe when printing the checks? I'm guessing that might be the difference. As I just went back and did print the checks sorted by name and then exported and they are out of order if sorted by Employee Number as well as by Transaction date.

So the answer is to pay and print by Employee Number order.

If you want, you can send your database backup to me to test and verify it.

http://zpay.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=1449

[Paul Mayer]

We solved your problem by creating a sort index and the option to sort the export by Check Number for you in build 7.0.19.

[CLC Peoria]

I installed 7.0.19 and ran payroll yesterday. Everything worked perfectly.
Just for the record, I was using the correct sort order when printing the checks. I suspect my problem was caused by the use of alpha characters in the employee code because you were unable to duplicate the problem. Nevertheless, the export process is now fully operational for us, and I thank you for your persistence and quick resolution of our problem.