Here are some simple ideas I've had about Billings2.

1) In the list of clients, indicate the clients that have active, uninvoiced projects/slips - perhaps a small circle with 1/5 (1 representing projects and the 5 uninvoiced slips).

2) A way to "reclaim" an invoice number after accidentally creating an invoice so that there are no gaps in the numbers. I know I shouldn't be creating invoices without being certain, but as a beginner user, it is bound to happen once or twice. ;-)

3) The invoice design system. I know it is a complex thing allow such flexibility - but I think it is really too complicated. There is such a stark contrast of between the ease of use of Billings vs the invoice design software.. I've read elsewhere that some applications allow HTML invoices - which being a web developer, would be fine and dandy for me, but just as mystifying for others.

Unfortunately, I don't have any good suggestions for how to fix the design software, but if they come, I'll certainly pass them along.

Thanks for the great application!

4) Windows support. I wish your beautiful software was availible to us windows users as well. Any plans? Or perhaps there already exist something comparable on windows ? Although I doubt that.

Thank you for your feedback.

I've noted your first two points.

With regards to using the invoice design system we do have some instructional training videos on our website. Yes the person in the video is creating reports in Daylite but essentially it uses the same structure just different data.

If you could maybe explain what difficulties you're having with the design system in more detail it would help us understand what we can do to benefit you and our other customers. It could be anything from improving the user interface to providing more instructional videos or documentation.

Thanks!

quote:

Originally posted by fred ninja:
4) Windows support. I wish your beautiful software was availible to us windows users as well. Any plans? Or perhaps there already exist something comparable on windows ? Although I doubt that.

We have no current plans to support Windows.

quote:

Originally posted by Oscar:
Thank you for your feedback.

I've noted your first two points.

Excellent, thanks.

quote:

With regards to using the invoice design system we do have some instructional training videos on our website. Yes the person in the video is creating reports in Daylite but essentially it uses the same structure just different data.

I'll hunt that video down and watch it to see if it solves my troubles. I didn't watch the Daylite videos because I don't use Daylite. ;-)

quote:

If you could maybe explain what difficulties you're having with the design system in more detail it would help us understand what we can do to benefit you and our other customers. It could be anything from improving the user interface to providing more instructional videos or documentation.

I used the Raspberry default and hit it with a stick a few times. It is okay, and I'll use it for now until I have time to design something better and figure out how to put it into Billings.

4) Support for different hourly rates for
a) different clients and
b) for different job definitions.

Some things I charge $60/hour, others $30, and have a couple of clients whom I charge in USD.

5) Some way to manage multiple currencies - being Canadian, I work in Canadian dollars, but for my US clients, but when I get the cheque, it gets converted into Canadian dollars, resulting in the payment not matching the invoice...

I second the request for different hourly rates for different clients / job types.

I'd like to add a few thoughts to what's been said already...

Things I find difficult or puzzling...

Project sorting--When I open Billings, it seems to have its own idea about how to sort my projects. No matter how many times I try to get it to sort in descending order of project, it reverts to its weird ways the next time I restart the app.

Due date--The Due Date column is needlessly labour intensive. I use that column to flag when an invoice is due rather than when a project is due (which to me seems the more logical purpose of this application since I manage due dates and milestone using iCal). This ought to generate automatically, just as it does on my invoice, showing the net-30 due date.

Active vs completed--Related to that above point, it should be a lot easier to discern between projects that are completed and paid compared to those that are completed and unpaid. Right now, I leave a project marked as "Active" until I get paid, otherwise using "completed" gets confusing.


Features I'd like to see...

Clients--it would be great if I were able to assign more than one client to a project, even as a cc.

Invoicing--After an invoice has been sent, there ought to be some kind of way of tagging these projects so that it's easy to tell at a glance which have been sent and which have not. As it stands now, I have to drill down into Account Status to find that out. Way too many steps. Which leads me to my most important request.

Colour label support--There's no reason I can see what this support hasn't already been built into Billings. It's easy to do and absolutely essential. That way, users could instantly flag things that matter to them on a particular project--overdue invoices, special projects, ongoing work...whatever the particular needs. Please, please, please give us colour labels.

Hot key support--Since I have no use for the timer in my line of work (I quote by the project), it makes no sense for me to have that timer pop up when all I want to do is add a new slip via the hot key. Unless I'm missing something, there's no way to launch a new slip via the hotkey without having to contend with that timer.

Emailing an invoice/quote--I wish there was a way to modify the boilerplate message that gets added to the new Mail message that gets created when I generate an invoice or quote. Ideally, I'd like it to say "Quote" instead of "Estimate" and include a one sentence introduction to the attachment. Right now, I manage this using the signature feature in Mail. But Billings ought to have the better solution to this.

I would like to have the ability to sort the client list by last name, instead of first name. Also, I'd like the ability to select on a client-by-client basis whether I want them listed by name or by organziation (some of my clients are individuals, and others are companies).

Here's what I'd like to see changed:

When adding / editing a Timed slip - I would like to be able to put in the amount of time I want NOT adding to the existing total. I find that I need to change this number and it is impossible to reduce the number and inconvenient to increase.

When adding a Quantity slip - it defaults to a quantity of 0 - a default of 1 would make much more sense.

Allow me to change the order of slips - drag up or down. I like to group labor charges and parts (quantity) charges.

Allow the date of slips to be shown on invoice. If I am billing for multiple labor charges it would sometimes be helpful to have a date column on the invoice for each line.

Be able to choose address for a client (work / home). I do work for clients for their work & personal. My address book card shows Work & Home addresses but it seems to default to first address on card.

The ability to add a Paid stamp. I very often take payment at job and then send invoice / receipt of payment after the fact. I know create invoice & add watermark. A multiple step process - it would be great if I could do it all in Billings.