Sage 100

Does anyone know what logic is used during ""Purge Obsolete Extended Descriptions""? If a client edits the extended description when entering sales orders and needs to reprint an invoice from history with that edited extended description, will running the Purge Obsolete Extended Descriptions utility remove those records and cause issues?

I believe the utility looks at CI_Item for a match. If none found, deletes the Extended Description in CI_ExtendedDescription. I don't think AR InvoiceHistoryDetail is affected.

I agree with @KathrynScofield.

That tells me that an extended description created during invoice data entry would be lost; so I'm reluctant to use it

I don't think so as it gets written to the AR Invoice History Detail and is permanent. You should be able to easily test this. Create the Invoice, change the Ext Desc, update and then go purge and check it all in dfdm. An Extended Description created or edited during Invoice Entry does not write back to the CI_ExtendedItemDescription, so it's not saved other than to the Invoice History File.

I'm apparently confused. All I see in AR_InvoicHistoryDetail file layout is the extended Description **key**. are you saying the extended description text is saved?

No, you're not, I was wrong! however, I would take backups before doing this purge. in my testing, I added an Ext Desc during SO Invoice, updated, it didn't not write to the item, but created a record in CI_ExtDesc. then I created the Ext Desc in Item Maint. it created another record and wrote to Ci_Item. I then changed it in SO Invoice again, updated, then modified in Item Maint again. Ran the Purge. Only the record I originally created in Item Maint purged. In CI_Item the last modification I did in Item Maint was written to the item. CI_Ext Desc kept the 2 records I modified in SO Invoice. So it looks like when you modify the Ext Desc in Item Maint, it orphans the existing Ext Desc record and the Purge then purges it out.

Thanks Nancy! It sounds like it works the way we would want it to work, but I will make a backup if the client wants to do the purge.