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"Object reference not set to an instance of an object" jumbles data

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gdoherty

Technical User
Aug 1, 2007
1
IE
Hello Act!ers...

I've downloaded the trial version of Sage Act! 2007 (9.0) to put my small company's clients & prospects into and I keep running into an error "Object reference not set to an instance of an object". I understand it's a generic .NET error, and I'd applied the Sage Act! update (now I'm at version 9.0.1.162 Hotfix1 on Windows XP Pro, SP2) but now it's caused me some problems with my data:
If I go to Company -> New Company and accidentally insert a letter (say 'B') into the Hierarchy box, I can't remove it - I make sure all other fields are empty, right click on the Hierarchy, select "Delete", say "Yes" to "Deleting companies cannot be undone. Would you like to delete the current company?", then get the "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" error. After this happened, the first company (alphabetically, we'll call it 'ABC') has been replaced by this orphan Hierarchy/company ('B'), and all its associated Contacts have now moved association (ie their "Company" shows 'B' when I view them in the Contacts window)... it seems I can't remove or edit the Hierarchy - I can only remove the whole company, which I assume will remove any Notes/History that I have with that company... is this the case?

I decided to accept that I'd lose one company and its History/Notes & tried to delete the company (right click on the 'B' Hierarchy, select "delete", say "Yes" to "Deleting companies cannot be undone. Would you like to delete the current company?" and then I get "Object reference not set to an instance of an object".
I now find that my original company name is back ('ABC'), but it now has the notes associated with the next company down ('Cara'), which has disappeared from the Companies list... but there is an empty 'Untitled Company' that has appeared further down the list.

I also see that another contact from another company ('Abb..') has been moved to company 'B' - it looks like Act! is randomly jumbling my Contacts and Companies about....

I'm not in any way comfortable with this software - at least this is early days and I can still throw it out. If I was 6 months into using it, and saw the "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" I'd be pretty annoyed if my Contacts/Companies were jumbled about.

Questions:
What am I doing wrong? Is this normal? It shouldn't be possible for a system to screw up data, no matter what kind of idiot is using it...were previous version of Act! more stable (I see that act.com allows you to test-drive Act! 2006, not 2007 - I don't want a 'Hierarchy', I only deal with people in companies, so how can I get rid of it, or at least tame it...?

Any comments/suggestions welcome to help me make up my mind about Sage Act!


Thanks!
 
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