[GNC] Some basic questions about bills and invoices

[Adrien Monteleone]

Eric,

Not sure what you mean by 'modify and save the templates' and then not 
being sure how to use them again.

First, there are four Invoices in Reports > Business—Easy, Fancy, 
Printable, and Tax. A cursory glance at the options and they all look 
the same to me, but detailed testing would have to reveal their differences.

Second, just like any other report, you can use the Save Configuration 
button.

Third, you will probably want to combine the Saved Configuration with 
some stylesheet tweaks. You can edit an existing stylesheet, or make a 
new one. Then assign this stylesheet in Options for that Invoice Report 
before saving that config.

Fourth, here's the not so fun part, I don't think you can use the normal 
methods to generate an invoice using the saved config by default. You 
have to go to Reports > Saved Configurations > {desired invoice report} 
and then Options > General > Invoice Number to choose which invoice you 
want to generate the custom 'invoice' for.

I don't know if this is filed already, but a good enhancement request 
would be to have the ability to set a Saved Configuration as the default 
for *any* report, but especially invoices.

Of course in your case, if you want the special Quote and PO versions, 
you'd still need to go to the Saved Configurations window first as you 
do currently since there is no way for GnuCash to know which one you want.

Beyond this, you could duplicate one of the existing invoice.scm files, 
customize it to your liking, and then make it available in GnuCash using 
a config-usr.scm file. I think for one of these you can then set it as 
the default for regular invoices. (But you can save a click or so by 
including your PO and Quote versions in the menu as well, skipping the 
Saved Config dialog) In the case of the latter two, you'll always have 
to choose the invoice after running the report initially.

----

As for the multi-document payment, when using the Process Payment 
window, simply select each document the payment is applying to, without 
regard to if the payment covers them all in their entirety, or is an 
overpayment of all available documents.

If the payment covers them all exactly, they will all be marked paid and 
removed from the Pending list.

If one invoice is still shy, it will continue to age for the remaining 
balance and that remainder will be on your pending list. (and can be 
easily closed out with a subsequent payment)

If an overpayment, the remainder will be held as a credit balance in the 
the AR/AP account and can be applied to a subsequent document. Be sure 
when closing that document, to choose both it and the overpayment credit 
so it can be applied properly.

Regards,
Adrien

On 12/12/20 6:58 AM, Eric H. Bowen via gnucash-user wrote:
> Sorry if this comes across as too elementary; I'm using GnuCash in a
> home-based business and I'd like to take advantage of billing and
> invoicing capabilities more fully.
> 
> First: I'd like to be able to generate custom "printable invoice"
> formats for specific purposes. Say, I'd like to have a "Price Quote
> Request" bill template which I can submit to a vendor with item
> information shown but pricing columns omitted. Plus a "Purchase Order"
> template with appropriate verbiage, and on the jobs/customer side a
> "Price Quote" template...all of these from unposted invoices and bills,
> of course. I can do this; I was able to modify and save the
> templates...but I can't figure out how to access the saved templates! I
> have to go back and re-invent the wheel each time; is there a way to add
> my custom templates to the menus for easy access?
> 
> Secondly: If a customer submits one check or electronic payment to cover
> two or three invoices, how do I split it when applying the payments?
>