Val,
 
I don't know about switching companies, but I have definitely seen various instances where fields look like they stay populated on a screen even if they are not truly there - for example - in IN-B enter a new part number, fill out everything including user defined field (which we use always), finish adding the part, the screen clears except for that field, you add the next new part (which uses the same user defined field), you enter down thru it all and it looks like that field is populated (BUT IT ISN'T) and you get a subsequent error in other modules if it is not.  I think it may be a "Windows" screen artifact of some sort, but Allen could verify that, so perhaps you could make sure that Walter is actually closing the screen as you mentioned.