I've had a quick look a the demo of Billings, and it looks like it is designed to work with products or services that have very short descriptions. However, I am a photographer and my estimates usually have fairly long Project Descriptions and Licensing Terms, plus several shorter line items for Production Charges, followed by the complete Terms and Conditions section, and then a place for the client's name and signature at the bottom of each page.

Is Billings appropriate for these kinds of estimates and invoices, or can it be modified to work this way?

Thanks,

Andrew

Absolutely, Billings is a fine choice. I'm a Filemaker Consultant and regularly have lengthy line item descriptions in my estimates. I have payment terms and copyright notices pinned to the bottom of the last page of my estimates and invoices.

Thanks for your reply. I can see that you can put a long block of text in the name field, but the area provided is so small I can never see the entire field at once. This would make it very difficult to compose and edit lengthy licensing terms and project descriptions.

The only time I can see the entire name field is when I choose Send Estimate and Preview, but then I can't edit anything.

Am I missing something? Is there an easier way to create estimates like this, and is there a tutorial anywhere?

Cheers,

Andrew

The "Comments" field of each line item (slip), PLUS the same field on the actual Estimate (which you can fill out when go to create the estimate) can both take lots and lots of text.

The name is a good place for a short, descriptive name. I would read the Quick Start Guide and run through the steps outlined in it (see the Help menu in Billings) to get the hang of it.

In your case, basically there are a few ways of doing it. If each "line item" has a charge (cost) associated with it, then you can use a new slip for each line item. The "Name" can be decsriptive--like "Production Charges"--and the "Comments" can contain details of what that means. I'm certain in that case a flat-rate slip would be a fine representation.

HTH,