Data Steward
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Limitations and troubleshooting

What Data Steward's tools do not do, and the messages they show, with the cause and the fix for each.

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Limitations

  • Clearance changes skip the document's own validation. The date is checked the way ERPNext's Bank Clearance tool checks it, not before the cheque date, and then written straight to the database. ERPNext does not re-check it against the bank account, the Bank Transaction or the Bank Reconciliation.

  • A Payment Entry's clearance date cannot be removed. Set Clearance Date requires a date. Only a Journal Entry has Remove Clearance.

  • Manually Clear takes the first match. When more than one Bank Transaction lists a Journal Entry, the date of whichever one the database returns first is used.

  • The form is not reloaded after a clearance change. Reload it to see the new Clearance Date.

  • A merge cannot be undone. The merged records are deleted, and their own field values and child table rows are not copied to the record you keep. At most 500 records can be merged in one run, and a submitted document cannot be merged.

  • A file merge cannot be undone. The merged files are deleted and their content is removed once no file uses it. Only Attach, Attach Image, Text Editor, HTML Editor, Markdown Editor, Long Text and Code fields are searched for their URLs, and the documents changed are written straight to the database, submitted ones included. Files stored in different places (on the site, in cloud storage, at an external address) cannot be merged into each other. See Merge duplicate files.

  • Convert to Variant copies only the attributes and the stock unit. Nothing else comes from the template, and ERPNext's check for another variant with the same attribute values does not run on a converted Item. A template based on Manufacturer, or one with a numeric attribute, cannot be used.

  • Buttons do not check roles. While a tool is enabled, its button is shown to everyone who can open the form or list; the server refuses the call from a user without the role.

  • The side panel runs no form scripts. Link filters, fetched values and recalculations that a DocType's form script adds do not happen in the panel; the server's validation is what checks a change. Child tables are read-only there. See Edit in the side panel.

  • The editable side panel has no setting. Who may change what is decided by the user's permissions on the document, as in its form.

  • The full-width default has no setting. It applies in every browser that has no layout stored yet. Each user can switch back to Compact under Settings → Appearance → Layout.

Troubleshooting

A tool's button is missing

The tool is off in Data Steward Settings, or the document is not in a state the tool works on. Check that:

  • the tool's check box is ticked in Data Steward Settings (see Configuration);

  • for Merge Selected, the DocType has Allow Rename set, and you ticked at least one row so the Actions menu shows;

  • for Merge Files, you are in the File list and ticked at least one file; for Merge into..., the file is saved and is not a folder;

  • for Convert to Variant, the Item is saved;

  • for the clearance tools, the entry is submitted.

The desk asks whether a tool is enabled when the form or list loads. After changing a setting, reload the page.

"The Bulk Merge capability is not enabled."

The tool is off in Data Steward Settings, possibly switched off while the page was open. The other tools give the same message with their own name: "The Convert to Variant capability is not enabled.", "The Payment Entry Set Clearance Date capability is not enabled.", "The Journal Entry Manually Clear capability is not enabled." and "The Journal Entry Remove Clearance capability is not enabled."

Fix: ask a System Manager to tick the tool in Data Steward Settings.

"This action is only allowed for System Manager"

The message comes from Frappe, under the title Not Permitted, and names the roles the tool accepts: System Manager for bulk merge and file merge, Item Manager or System Manager for Convert to Variant, Accounts Manager or System Manager for the clearance tools.

Fix: give the user one of those roles, or have someone who has one make the change.

A permission error naming the document

You have the role, but not write permission on this document. For a merge, the failure is a line in the Merge Log instead: "You need write permission on Customer <NAME> to rename" for a record being merged, or "You need write permission on Customer <NAME> to merge" for the record you keep. A merge also needs delete permission on each record being merged.

Fix: give the user's role write (and for merging, delete) permission on the DocType in the Role Permission Manager, or check the user permissions that restrict this record.

"Only a submitted Payment Entry can have a clearance date."

Or "Only a submitted Journal Entry can have a clearance date." The entry is a draft or cancelled. Bank clearance applies to submitted entries only.

Fix: submit the entry first. A cancelled entry cannot be cleared; clear its amendment instead.

"Clearance date <DATE> must be after cheque date <DATE>."

Shown under the title Invalid Clearance Date. The clearance date is before the entry's Cheque/Reference Date (Payment Entry) or Reference Date (Journal Entry). For Manually Clear, the date is the matched Bank Transaction's, so the transaction is dated before the cheque.

Fix: pick a date on or after the cheque date. If the cheque date itself is wrong, correct it on the entry (cancel and amend), or check that the Bank Transaction matched to the Journal Entry is the right one.

"No matching bank transaction found."

Manually Clear found no Bank Transaction whose Payment Entries table lists this Journal Entry. Nothing was changed.

Fix: match the Journal Entry to its Bank Transaction in ERPNext's bank reconciliation first, then click Manually Clear again.

"Please select at least two records to merge."

You clicked Merge Selected with fewer than two rows ticked.

Fix: tick the duplicates and the record to keep, then try again.

A "** Failed" line in the Merge Log

The line ends with the error Frappe raised for that record, and that record was left as it was. Common causes: missing write or delete permission, a submitted document (Frappe cannot delete it), or a rule of the DocType itself that refuses the rename.

Fix: correct the cause named in the line and merge that record again.

"Please select at least two files to merge."

You clicked Merge Files with fewer than two files ticked, or "Only files can be merged. Untick the folders." with a folder among them.

Fix: tick the duplicate files and the one to keep, and no folders.

A "Failed" line in the File Merge Log

That file was left as it was, and the line says why: it is the file you keep, it is a folder, it no longer exists, it is private while the kept file is public (or the other way around), it is stored in a different place, or you lack delete permission on it. Frappe gives that permission on a file you uploaded or on one attached to a document you may change. Sharing a file does not give it, and the System Manager role alone is not enough.

Fix: correct the cause, or merge that file as the user who uploaded it or as Administrator.

"The content of <FILE> (<URL>) is missing, so nothing can be merged into it."

The file you chose to keep has no content on the site's disk or in the cloud storage bucket, so merging into it would leave every document pointing at nothing. Nothing was changed.

Fix: keep another file, or upload the content again first.

"Maximum 500 rows allowed"

You tried to merge more than 500 records into one in a single run. Frappe's bulk rename refuses the whole request, so nothing was merged and no Merge Log is shown.

Fix: tick fewer records and merge them in several runs.

"This template has no attributes."

The template you picked has no Variant Attributes, for example because its variants are based on Manufacturer.

Fix: choose a template with attributes, or add them to the template first.

ERPNext refuses the converted Item

The Item is saved with ERPNext's Item validation, and whatever it refuses rolls the whole conversion back. Messages you can see include:

  • "Item <TEMPLATE> is not a template item.": the template no longer has Has Variants ticked.

  • "Default Unit of Measure for Item <ITEM> cannot be changed directly because you have already made some transaction(s) with another UOM. …": the Item's Default Unit of Measure differs from the template's, and the Item has stock transactions in its own unit. ERPNext does not allow changing it; create a new variant from the template instead.

  • "Attribute <ATTRIBUTE> is disabled.": the attribute is disabled on the template's Variant Attributes.

Fix: correct the template or the Item as the message says, then convert again.

"has been modified after you have opened it" when saving in the side panel

Someone saved the document after the panel loaded it. Your changes are still in the panel. Close it, choose Discard, and open the document again to start from the saved version, or note your changes first.

"… cannot be changed from the side panel."

The save named a child table or a field the document does not have. The panel never sends those; the message comes from a script calling data_steward.side_panel.save directly. Change child tables in the form.

The desk went full width

That is the app's full-width default. Open Settings from the user menu, go to Appearance and choose Compact under Layout; the app does not change it again in that browser.