More Questions Accounts Receivable and Billing

[Robert Smits]

On Tuesday 17 April 2007 22:12, Derek Atkins wrote:

> Quoting Robert Smits <bob at rsmits.ca>:


> > And how do you actually make an invoice?
>
> Business -> Customer -> New Invoice

> > When I try to go to my customer list, instead of a list of customers
> > to choose
> > from, I have to search for each customer by name, which is both slow and
> > a real pain. But even when I do that, I still don't see any place to
> > enter a dollar amount that I want to invoice for. Instead I get a window
> > that allows me to view an invoice, but I haven't created one yet and
> > there doesn't seem to be any way to create one!
>
> Right, there is no "Create New Invoice" from the "Find Customer" dialog.
> Yes, the searching is a little annoying.  But I wouldn't call it "slow"..
> The Query itself is quick.  However the interface is a little more complex
> than it needs to be.

That's certainly a more diplomatic way to put it. I would prefer to just see a 
dropdown list of customers I could select from to having to search. That 
brings me to the next problem, though. Now that I ask to create a new 
invoice, I have to go business, customer, new invoice and I get the invoice 
window. I can select the customer, but I can't see where to enter an amount 
anywhere. Even if I go to the job entry, there's no place to add an amount to 
bill anyone. How do I actually create an invoice if I can't input an amount 
anywhere?

> >> So, if you want to use SX you cannot use the business features..
> >
> > What is SX?  is this the scheduler? Surely there must be some way I can
> > schedule a transaction for each account I want to bill every month so
> > that this doesn't have to be done manually - it's a show stopper for me.
>
> See the FAQ <http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/FAQ>
> SX == Scheduled Transaction.

I see the FAQ says   Scheduled Transactions are templates for entries that 
will occur in the future: for example, regularly recurring bills, such as 
utility or mortgage payments. SX's are meant to make it easier to enter in 
anything that recurs on a regular basis.

> And no, you cannot schedule invoices or payments-to-invoices.
> Sorry if it's a showstopper for you, but it's where we are.
> feel free to donate code if it's that important to you.

I guess my frustration at having invested many many hours of setting up 
Gnucash, and possibly having to go to something else was showing. 
I understand, but my skills don't lie in that area, or I would be happy to. Is 
there anything else I can schedule that would make it possible for me to 
create a regular amount I want to bill each month ? I really want to show 
both what the arrears if any, are, and what overpayments or credits have 
occurred. 

> > I'm sorry if I seem to be asking basic questions, but I still haven't
> > been able to get Gnucash docs to install, and even though I've printed
> > off the html version on the gnucash website, I can't find anything that
> > walks me through how to do this.
>
> What Distro?  

I ended up changing my guru repository and it actually installed, and I have 
now to decipher the instructions for fixing the docs location for suse 10.1, 
and that may help. 

> > Thanks, Bob
>
> -derek

-- 
Bob Smits, Director, Coastal Community Credit Union 
E-mail bob at rsmits.ca Ph 250-245-2553 Cell 250-246-7812
A Credit Union is not an ordinary financial concern, seeking to enrich its 
members at the expense of the general public. Neither is it a loan company, 
seeking to make a profit at the expense of the unfortunates...The credit 
union is nothing of the kind; it is the expression in the field of economics 
of a high social ideal." 
- Alphonse Desjardins