Multibook business partners#

Getting There#

Go to Settings → Multibook business partners, or click Business partners at the top of Settings → Multibook. It only appears once the company is connected to Multibook. If ANTE could not read the connection for a moment (a short outage on ANTE's side), the page says Could not read the Multibook connection instead of telling you to connect Multibook; try again in a moment, nothing needs reconnecting.

What a partner is#

Multibook has no separate customer and vendor lists. A partner has a category that your company defines, plus two flags: it can be a Customer, a Vendor, or both. A partner in the company's employee category tied to a login is an Employee. ANTE shows these as badges in the Type column.

Sync with Multibook#

Nothing is exchanged until someone runs the Business partners step on Multibook sync (this page has an Open Multibook sync link in its header; the sync button that used to be here is gone). The sync creates records on both sides. Run it once, with the chart of accounts ticked before it. Afterwards ANTE keeps in step on its own, as set in Settings → Multibook: new clients and suppliers are created in Multibook, and later edits to their name, email, phone and country are sent within about a minute.

1. ANTE reads every partner in Multibook.
2. It links each partner to the ANTE client, supplier or employee it matches. When it is not sure, it holds the partner for you to decide.
3. For each Multibook customer or vendor with no ANTE record, it creates an ANTE client or supplier.
4. If Create ANTE clients and suppliers in Multibook is on, it creates a Multibook partner for each ANTE client or supplier that has none.

The progress is shown live (reading, then creating). You can close the window; the sync keeps running. The report at the end shows how many partners were linked, created in ANTE, created in Multibook, need a decision and unchanged.

If creating partners in Multibook is not ready (for example no category is chosen yet), a notice lists what is missing with a link to the settings. The categories normally fix themselves: the partner sync fills the empty ones with the categories your Multibook customers and vendors already use. Reading Multibook's partners still works, so you can sync anyway.

The partner list#

The counters at the top show how many partners there are and how many are Linked, Need a decision, Not linked, Deleted in Multibook, Archived in ANTE and Could not be created. Click a counter to filter the list to it. Below them the list can be filtered by status (the Status filter has the same values, including Archived in ANTE) and searched by code or name.

Edits keep flowing to Multibook#

Once the first sync has run and Create ANTE clients and suppliers in Multibook is on, saving a client (Projects → Clients) or a supplier (Assets → Purchasing → Suppliers or Treasury → Payables → Suppliers) creates its Multibook partner, and later edits to its name, email, phone and country reach Multibook within about a minute. The client or supplier detail page shows Changes sync to Multibook under the partner code while this is active.

• Only what was changed in ANTE is sent. A value someone corrected inside Multibook is not overwritten; if the name was changed in Multibook, ANTE's rename is held and the other fields still go.
• Clearing a field in ANTE does not clear it in Multibook.
• Category, posting flags, TIN and anything else kept in Multibook are never changed from ANTE.
• When a linked client or supplier is archived or deleted in ANTE, the link is marked Archived in ANTE and shown with that badge. If Also delete in Multibook when archived in ANTE is on in Settings → Multibook, ANTE flags the Multibook partner as deleted instead (Multibook keeps the record).

What held means#

ANTE links a partner by itself only when the match is clear, such as the same name or the same email on one record. When two ANTE records fit, or the match is doubtful, the partner is held and shows Needs a decision. ANTE never guesses between records, because a wrong link would send journals and invoices to the wrong party.

Link a partner#

A held partner has a Choose... button. It lists the ANTE records ANTE found, each with the reason it was considered (such as "same name"). Pick the right one and click Link. If none is right, choose Someone else to search ANTE yourself.

An unlinked partner has a Link... button. Choose the side (Client, Supplier or Employee, limited to what the partner is in Multibook), search for the ANTE record and click Link. A Multibook code can be tied to only one record on each side, so ANTE refuses a record that already belongs to another code. A linked partner has an Unlink button; the next sync may link it again.

Partners that could not be created in Multibook#

When ANTE cannot create a partner in Multibook, the counter and the status line show Could not be created in Multibook. Click it to open Partners that could not be sent to Multibook. Each row shows the client or supplier, the code it would get, why it failed, and a tag saying what ANTE was sending: Create, Update (with "Sends: name, email, …"), Delete or Restore. Fix the cause (for example choose a category in Settings) and click Retry, or click Discard to stop trying. Discarding an update keeps what Multibook has; ANTE asks you to confirm, and the next edit in ANTE queues the update again.

Using partners on journal lines#

On a journal entry, an account that requires a business partner shows a search box on each line. Type a code or a name and pick the partner from the list ("CODE — Name"). If your company has not synced partners, the code you type is kept as it is.

Common Tasks#

How It Connects#