Old-style paper invoice (how would I?)

I will admit I am rather n00bish with Mod X. I did search for anything similar and no such luck. But I was probably looking with the wrong keywords.
...and I am probably posting in the wrong section.. well it is general :p

I had an idea to create some type of form that would resemble the classic invoice forms. All I could think of was a custom template and a lot of TV’s. This would work ok but there would be a limitation, either every item would need another template and the item list would be created by ditto, or the items would have to be manually formatted in a text field.

- Not so bad for what I do, considering I usually write an invoice up all at once. But there are times that the customer wants more or different items at the last minute. This is not tied to any type of ’e-shop’ - it is all manual entry.

What I would like is a way to input every item with a description, price, qty, maybe an item# - without a new document for each item. I would also like a way to create a total (kinda hard to do with a text field). Each customer would have their own parent document and the invoices would be the child. Sounds like a simple way to organize it to me, but I am open to options.

So, how crazy am I thinking, and what would be a good way to structure the back-end for ease of data entry and simplicity? I can enter all the data from the manager because my clients would not be giving their info to the front-end.

Thanks!

Out of curiosity, why do you want to do this with MODx?

I’d personally look at Quickbooks, Quickbooks online or Freshbooks.

I am not sure why you would want to reinvent the wheel.

Freshbooks!

There is another app that I have been courted by the dev of called Cashboard. I tried it out at his request but even though Freshbooks was not as slick I found it easier to use faults and all.

Cheers,
Jay

Hmm.. both of those look a little intense for my needs. Cashboard looks like MS Money WEB (if there was such a thing!). I want to keep it simple and integrated with the modx site. I guess my theory would work, I would just need some advanced help with the sql queries and data manipulation.

I’ll keep dreaming..

Thanks!

@fruitwerks
The thing about the DIY approach that security of your financial details should be a priority. These two apps (although I use Freshbooks) may seem overkill on first review but where security of data is concerned they have it handled. In addition they offer at least two ways for clients to review their account and even if you never use any of the estimating or support portions of Freshbooks you will find it a real winner.

That being said if you want to do it your self I am sure that you could figure it out in MODx. You will need lots of TVs and I agree that ditto could handle the data display.

Cheers,

Jay

Well the only problem with my proposed method is the multiple item / totals issue - I would have to research on that. The clients do not need to see anything but the final invoice. As far as security I have modx configured to only allow back-end access from the LAN and I have two levels of NAT on the internal net. I tried to login remotely and I was not able to. If I tried I could probably tunnel in via SSH... I mean there are always new security issues popping up and nothing is really truly secure.

I will look into freshbooks closer when i get a day off.

Thanks!

Check out our new app - http://www.LessAccounting.com --- if you try it out and have feedback let us know, we would love to hear it.

Yes, there are lots of pros and cons, but personally I prefer to buy an accounting package for a fixed price rather than pay out each month for who knows how many years. I guess they hope most people will compare the cost of a package with just the first month or two of their service, which isn’t like with like really. What is to stop these services from raising their prices at any time or going out of business overnight? Better to be in control when it comes to financials IMO...

If all you need is a simple way to create invoices then I say go for it! At a minimum you will learn more about MODx, which is never a waste of time. However you might want to consider using Open Office with a custom document template as well.

Another idea if your invoice related data is stored in your website, is to write a piece of code to export the necessary data from the MODx database to a CSV file, which you can then use in a mail-merge in Word, Open Office, etc.

Andy

If you don’t need the banking feature, there are inexpensive invoicing software such as iBiz (Mac only I think)  and Invoice2go that are quite powerful, and almost all of them can generate invoice to PDF.

Freshbooks freatures:
- Easily create, send and manage invoices
- Track time (for you and your staff) Totally Redesigned
- Send invoices by snail mail or email
- Accept payment with PayPal, Authorize.Net, & more
- Automatically send invoices & late payment notices
- Create robust reports and import/export your data


Benefits of Using FreshBooks
- Save time billing. Serious time.
- Get paid faster
- Easy, easy, easy to use
- Customize it and look professional
- Quick set up
- Free account or 30 day money back guarantee

I honestly can’t fathom how and why people willing to pay for monthly subscription fee for an invoicing software. iBiz costs just $45 and it has all the features Freshbooks has, besides, your senstive financial data is in your harddisk, that eliminate a security issue.


tgp

Thanks for all the info. I must say that this has stirred up many points I am not concerned with One of them being security - I am concerned with security but the information one could get if the system was compromised would be rather useless. I only deal with cash and check, or paypal, but none of the details would really be stored in the db, more what I will store is going to be something like....

Payment -date- -type- -amount-

very simple

It looks like I will be writing this on my own after doing some research and many more posts making me look stupid. When i get something working I will share the code if I feel it will be useful. Likely it will be very basic and boring

Thanks