Introduction of Invoicing/Billing
I have made a start on an Invoicing component and would like some general use feedback from other PP users.
At the moment, invoices can be created within the scope of a project. An invoice can contain 'completed' items with a monetary value attached. Clients may view, print and even pay for an invoice online. Unlimited numbers of invoices may be created and or set as recurring. An invoice may only contain completed items once per invoice but multiple invoices may contain the same completed item.
1) What do you use as your basic structure/layout within a Project; Milestones or Task Lists? (I ask this because I personally use Task Lists and don't use Milestones at all)
2) Based on answer to question 1, what would be the best type of completed item to add to invoices; Milestones, Task Lists, Tasks, Messages (a-la Freshbooks) etc. I don't use/need time tracking but this could also be factored in.
I would welcome any other feedback and questions on invoicing/billing within PP.
Regards MB
I am working in a global consulting company and typically we do have two types of projects/invoice times: based on time and materials and on milestone completion.
So we are tracking our time in various formats (depending on the clients requirements) from XLS to our internal SAP system. PP time tracking might replace one of the smaller ways and then invoicing based on that info would be helpful.
We normally do not bill based on tasks when a milestone is not completed.
I say go for it if you have the energy.
I'm actually interested in tying ppier into freshbooks.
dydimustk, do you mean using the Freshbooks API to draw info into PP or the other way around (export from PP in some format to pull into Freshbooks)?
I have an account with Freshbooks and have played a little with their API. Their system is almost exactly what I need except for document storage limits to distribute and collect client files.
What I don't want (anymore) is multiple systems for clients to log into and the addition of invoicing to PP means just this; for my situation and needs anyway.
@activeingredient did you make any progress on this? I just installed PP for the today and am checking it out. Invoicing would be really great to have in this.
Jeremy Douglas Media Design | Twitter
The bones of an internal invoicing system are sitting here still, waiting for some spare development time. I have also been playing with the API for AcuInvoice and have some basics in place for that as well.
Currently I use a plugin for PP that adds an extra tab to each project and I add links to invoices created in an accounting program. It is a modified version of the links plugin.
The next bit of time I get to work on this will probably be the AcuInvoice plugin.
Cool, I'd be interested in hearing what others use for invoicing. Currently I'm just using iBiz on my local system and emailing pdf's. I 'spose for the projects I manage now in PP I could just post a message with the invoicing there.
It would be nice to have an integrated system somehow. What are others using?
Jeremy Douglas Media Design | Twitter
Great idea! Invoicing/billing would be a great asset to add to ProjectPier, not only to bill clients, but it would also be great to be able to track expenditures on a per project base.
As to your questions, I believe:
*1* I use Milestones and track tasks lists of these. Most my projects are composed of very different milestones (design then develop), and each of these are divided by several different tasks
*2* Invoices and Billing would be most helpful if not necessarily tied to a milestone or task, but rather a service or product. To tie these by milestone or task might perhaps be helpful for a user who bills hourly, but not for someone who bills on a per project basis.
Ideally the user will have the ability to chose whether or not to tie a billing item to a milestone or task
I appreciate very much your initiative, and please do let me know if there's anything I can help with.
Cheers
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-V.
I agree, great idea! if it tacks expenditure even better!!! but in my instance, the task has hours of work that need to be billed, I would use the milestone to trigger the invoice? Create an invoice milestone, and assign tasks to it.