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ERP Background Tasks

Several ERP features depend on work happening on a schedule rather than when somebody presses Save: pulling bank feeds, mirroring postings to another accounting package, sending scheduled reports. Every one of these tasks ships switched off and in preview mode, so nothing starts running because an update was applied. Switching one on is a deliberate decision.

Where to find it

The tasks are rows on the Task Engine screen, which only architects can open. Each row has Task Log, Preview and Force Run actions. The Tasks articles explain the screen itself.

Architect Panel → ERP - Finance:

  • Feed Queue — the Connections tab's Sync now runs one connection's sync on demand
  • Accounting Outbox — what the outbound mirror has queued, sent or failed

The finance and foundation tasks

  • Accounting and Bank Feed Sync (hourly): pulls every active connection whose provider is switched on, and reads bank statement drop folders. It only brings transactions into the feed inbox; it never codes or posts anything.
  • Accounting Outbound Mirror (hourly): mirrors posted journals and invoices out to Xero, QuickBooks, Sage or Capita Integra for connections that have mirroring switched on.
  • Budget Housekeeping (daily): releases budget still held by requisitions that were raised and never ordered. It has work to do only when a company's budget settings include requisitions.
  • Calculated Field Recalculation (hourly): the consistency sweep for calculated fields and rollups, catching totals left stale by imports or direct changes.
  • Scheduled Report Distribution (hourly): sends ERP Analytics reports whose next run has passed.

Tasks other areas rely on

The other ERP areas have their own tasks, each described with its feature: Asset Depreciation and Asset Preventive Maintenance (raise due work) in Assets & Maintenance; Revenue Recognition (month end) in Time, Expenses & Projects; EDI Inbound Poll and EDI Outbound Send in EDI & Trading Partners; PunchOut Order Transmission and PunchOut Session Expiry in PunchOut Procurement; and the sales and receivables tasks (Sales: expire quotes past their date, Receivables: dunning run (send), Receivables: Paid status sync) with order to cash.

Switching a task on

  1. Open the Task Engine and find the task by name.
  2. Press Preview. A task in preview mode describes what it would do and changes nothing. Read the result.
  3. Press Force Run to run it once now, ignoring its schedule, and read its Task Log entry.
  4. Edit the task: take it out of preview mode, tick Enabled and confirm the frequency.
  5. Check the Task Log again after the next scheduled run.

Reading the log

  • A feed sync that keeps finding nothing may mean the provider is switched off, the connection is paused or its authorisation has expired, not that there is nothing to fetch. Check the connection on the Feed Queue's Connections tab.
  • A mirror that keeps failing shows on the Feed Queue's Outbox tab with its last error. The usual cause is an account code the other package will not accept.
  • A recalculation sweep that regularly corrects totals means a calculated-field rule is missing somewhere. Fix the rule rather than running the sweep more often.

Only enable what you use

No feeds means no sync or mirror. No requisition budgeting means no budget housekeeping. A task switched on for a feature you do not use clutters the log, which makes the entries that matter harder to see.

Worked example

A company imports bank statements from a drop folder and mirrors its sales invoices to Xero while its accountant still files from there. The architect previews and force-runs Accounting and Bank Feed Sync, sees the folder's files read into the inbox, and enables it hourly. Then Accounting Outbound Mirror: the preview says what it would send, the forced run sends it, the Outbox tab shows the invoices as sent, and the task is enabled. Budget housekeeping stays off because requisitions do not commit budget there.

Recommendations

  • Preview, then force-run, then enable. Never switch a task straight on.
  • Enable only what your configuration needs.
  • Check the Task Log weekly for the first month after enabling anything.
  • Use Sync now on the Feed Queue when you need a connection read immediately, rather than forcing the whole sync task.