Importing disbursements

In MYOB Practice Manager, you can import disbursements entries from products such as Softlog, BankLink or BillBack and re-charge them to clients.

This option can be found via Timesheet icon drop down > Import > Disbursement.

Import disbursement file format

The format of the disbursement file to import is a .TXT file. Examples are:

30/5/2004 VALUE/ACC Fax 0.10 58 0.70 Photocopying

30/5/2004 VALUE/ACC AC 0.0 0 100.00 Accommodation

The columns in the table below represent the fields from left to right. They must be in this order and each field is separated by a tab and the import file should not include column headings.

Column	Mandatory/Optional
Date in dd/mm/yyyy format	Mandatory
(AE) Client code/assignment code (AO) Client code/job code/Year	Mandatory (where Year is optional) Example: Client Client/[None] adds the entry to the Client. Client/Tax/2017 adds the entry to the 2017 year.
(AE) AE disbursement code (AO) AO disbursement code	Mandatory The alphanumeric value is left justified up to 10 characters and is case sensitive.
Rate	Must contain a value of zero (0) as a minimum. It cannot be blank.
Quantity	Must contain a value of zero (0) as a minimum, cannot be blank.
Charge amount	Mandatory and must be entered as a number with 2 decimal places and without a $ sign. Any entries with 0.00 amounts must be removed from the file before importing.
Narration	Optional—but must be replaced with a tab if no value is entered. Maximum of 255 characters allowed

At the end of the import disbursement file there must be a carriage return after the last line to create a blank record.

To import a disbursement

From within AE/AO Practice Manager, click drop-down arrow underneath the Timesheet icon > Import > Disbursement. The Import Disbursements tab appears.
In the File Name field, click the ellipsis
button. The Open screen appears.
Select the Import.txt file to be imported. The file displays in the File Name field.
In the Employee field, click the magnifying glass button
. The Find Employee screen appears.
Type the employee name or code in the Search for field and click Search.
Highlight the relevant employee and press ENTER. The employee's name appears in the Employee field.
Press the TAB key on the keyboard. The list of Time Processing Categories appears.
Highlight the date for the disbursement import entry and click Import. The message "Your file was imported successfully. View log file?" appears.
Click Yes to view or Close to exit.

Once the disbursements import and the disbursement sheet opens, you can then amend and add the job/year if required. Click Save to post the entries.

Importing errors

If the formatting of the import disbursement file is incorrect, the following errors may be displayed:

"Index was outside the bounds of the array."
"Importing Disbursements—Some of the transactions were not processed successfully. View log file?"

The log file will list the details of the lines that failed to import and the reasons why.

If you receive any of these errors, review the format of the import file and adjust it.

A suggested troubleshooting method, is to add only one line initially in the text file using the correct format and confirm that this file will import successfully. Then you can import multiple lines of transactions.

Common solutions:

For a charge amount to populate the disbursement sheet when importing, ensure the Disbursement code has a Markup of 1.0000 before commencing the import. See Creating a new task code for timesheet/disbursement entry > To edit a task code on how to edit your disbursement code.
Check the disbursement code in your import sheet is the correct disbursement code and the Availability is set to Timesheets.
Ensure the import date you have selected is in the current period or prior period and these periods are open.
Check the client is open.
AE sites - check the assignment code you are importing to has the status of Open. Refer to Re-opening a client to find out how to change the status of an assignment if it's held or closed.
AO sites - check the correct Job Type has been used in the import file i.e. CLIENT/[None] where the charge should go to the main code or the jobtype name and job year i.e. CLIENT/BAS/2018 (where the job year is open and not marked as complete).

The format of the text file used to import disbursements allows the job/year of the client/job to be specified. The second field in the import file accepts a job/ year.
This year parameter is optional. For example, you can specify the client/job ABC123/TAX where there is no current job/year or the client/job/year ABC123/TAX/2013.