Simple Invoices - Forum

joallard

Hey, here are my recommendations to make SI better. I have 2009.1 b5 version.

1. "Remember me" checkbox at login

2. Make the quantity "1" optional.
When listing services, putting "1" is kinda awkward. One could check a box labeled "No qty", to mean that it's a "quantity-less" object and "1" should be assumed as the multiplicative neutral. The qty would appear blank on the invoice.

3. Using usernames for login instead of email.
Entering an email is longer than a short username.

4. Possibility to choose a language on the front end and the back end.
What I mean is one language for the invoice template or whatever the customer receives, and another for what the biller sees. Maybe you could choose for each individual biller/customer. Would be nice. Like me, I work in Quebec (Canada), and there are many english customers and many french customers. And I work in english. But don't necessarily like my interface to be french. So yeah.

5. Sales report decimals.
My sales "report" has 6 decimals. Make it two? Or is this a bug?

6. Possibility to have multiple taxes.
Here in Quebec (again), we have two taxes. Provincial and federal. Some things are taxed at prov, some at fed, some at both, and some just not. Having the ability to select multiple taxes would be nice. Also to note that here, the prov tax taxes the fed tax. So it means that with a fed tax of 5%, and a prov tax of 7.5%, you get taxed 12.875% when both go. (5% + 7.5% = 12.5%; 5% + 7.5% + 7.5%*5% = 12.875% or 1.05*1.075=1.12875). I dont think this is the case everywhere. Maybe an option for that.

7. Settings toggle button.
In settings, sometimes i just want to toggle a param. I dont need to go edit that one, select enable, and then save. Just a small toggle button would do fine. Take "Settings/Payment Type" for example. Click on the check mark and it's disabled! Click back and it's enabled again! As simple as that.

Now, my programming skills are weak, but I could handle doing some of that stuff. I think I could do 1, 2, 3, 5. At least.

Also, btw, don't think I don't like SI when I'm talking about all this. I think you did a terrific job, and like it so much I want to improve it.

Let me know what you think.

pvdl

Hello joallard,

I recently worked on your recommendation nr 7.
I got the same idea.
See here my posting:
http://code.google.com/p/simpleinvoices/issues/detail?id=122

To make the button click-able sounds easy. I thought also. But I jumped in the code. And I must say, it is not that "simple" as I thought.
If I have time I will have a look at it again.

justin

hey guys

thanks for the suggestions joallard

re 1
- good idea

re 2
- best option is to customise your invoice template to remove Qty or use Total style invoices (which are qty less)

re 3
- i prefer email as i didnt want yet anouther username for people to remember - everyone knows there email - so it shuold be the easiest - even if its a little longer to type

re 4
- good idea
- one thing that is a work in progress is different languages/locales per invoice
-- in invoice preference you will be able to set the language and locale and even if your default language is english you can print the invoice in french etc.
-- this should be in 2009.2

re 5
- this is a bug - reports is built using a 3rd party system and i havent set it yet to use the same amount of decimals as the rest of SI
- work in progress

re 6
- this is now possible in the 2009.1 beta series - refer blog
-- ie. change the number of taxes to 2 or 3 here http://simpleinvoices.org/demo/index.php?module=system_defaults&view=edit&submit=tax_per_line_item
-- then go to http://simpleinvoices.org/demo/index.php?module=invoices&view=itemised and you'll be able to have multiple taxes

re tax 12.875%
-- you'll have to modify the tax % to get this as the calc is (amount($) + tax 1($) + tax 2($))

re 7
- thanks - thats another good idea

let me know your thoughts on the above

if you have any more suggestions please post - the more the better!

cheers

justin

joallard

re 2:
- Removing Qty altogether prevents showing Qty of other quantifiable items.
- Using Total style removes the ability to compute a total.

re 3:
- I wouldnt mind if you had to enter your email one time, but you have to enter it everyday, which makes it annoying. Maybe we could accept both username and email for the field

--
moreover,

8. Viewing tax.
A view button for things like taxes in settings is really useless, since we already have all the info in the table.
This goes for: tax_rates, custom_fields, payment_types

9. Tax 2-decimal truncation.
My new Provincial tax is now 7.875% . System still uses 7.875% but shows 7.87. I assume that if I edit and save this tax, it will revert back to 7.870% because of the display. Try it out, it speaks for itself.

10. System preferences direct editability.
The system_defaults module UI would be better by being a big edit page with all fields open, with a general save button at the bottom.

also, I would like to contribute to the code.

justin

hi

re contribute
- great - just send me ( justin _at_ kelly org au ) your gmail username and i'll add you to the svn commit list
- feel free to work on whatever you want in Simple Invoices

re 1
- unfortunately in our invoice creation and editing code if qty = 0 then line item skipped or deleted
- you could specify in the invoice template - if qty = 1 then hide qty else show qty
-- or create an option if enabled then hide qty if 1 etc..

re tax
- the db stores to 6 decimal places - so the tax calculations should still be OK
- also in config.ini there is a precision setting - this control the number of decimal places to show - you can change to 3 but then all other figures would go to 3 places

re direct editability
- i agree would be better - if you want to look into that would be great

re view
- agreed - i just kept it for consistency

note: theres a basic list of stuff that i'll be looking into in the future
refer http://code.google.com/p/simpleinvoices/wiki/todo and the linked wiki pages
- you can work on whatever you want in Simple Invoices - not just whats on the list
- note: if you are doing a big change you can do it as an extension first (refer ./extensions/expense) in svn trunk for an example
-- then can be merged later when all OK

cheers

justin

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