binarymonkey's dashboard

A comment on the problem "Creating a Project from Contact screen should then go to view the Project, not back to Contacts" in FreeAgent Central:

That's fantastic, thank you! – binarymonkey, on March 12, 2010 17:01

binarymonkey marked one of Olly's replies in FreeAgent Central as useful. Olly replied to the problem "Creating a Project from Contact screen should then go to view the Project, not back to Contacts".

binarymonkey reported a problem in FreeAgent Central on March 10, 2010 09:34:

Creating a Project from Contact screen should then go to view the Project, not back to Contacts

When creating a Project from the Contact screen, we should then be redirected to view that new Project. At the moment we get a message saying the Project was created, but then we have to dig through the menus to actually get to it!

If I'm adding a new Project, it's pretty much certain I want to add something to it, so it makes sense to show the new Project.

Matthew

binarymonkey started following the idea "OTA (over-the-air) Digital TV Transmissions - DVB-T, Freeview..." in boxee.

binarymonkey replied on March 08, 2010 14:15 to the question "More status options for a project (On Hold, Inactive, etc)" in FreeAgent Central:

I'm also placing estimates within projects at the quotation time too. So it would be great to select other more appropriate statuses.

binarymonkey replied on March 03, 2010 18:47 to the idea "Customer Statements" in FreeAgent Central:

In my mind Invoice & Bill tagging is much higher priority than this, although statements would still be very cool.

Feature request : Categorise individual invoice items to generate nice report

binarymonkey started following the question "Accepting deposits/part payments" in FreeAgent Central.

binarymonkey replied on February 25, 2010 17:25 to the idea "Client login and payment facility" in FreeAgent Central:

This would be a great feature, even if they could just see account history online to begin with.

Payment online would be nice, but I don't accept credit cards (or PayPal for that matter) because of the ridiculous percentage based pricing they have. Debit cards are fine (not through PayPal) as they are a flat rate of like 50p, but a 4% charge with a credit card on a £2000 bill isn't worth it!

Dunno if you'd be able to filter to debit cards only (I suspect that would be down to the payment processing company though).

binarymonkey replied on February 25, 2010 09:20 to the problem "Draft invoice should not be allocated invoice number" in FreeAgent Central:

I think it would simply be a case of placing it under a status labelled appropriately. Perhaps it would be good to indicate the status 'CANCELLED' in red text when previewing the invoice / exporting to PDF.

That way we won't get confused between invoices we are building up and intend to send (i.e. drafts) and cancelled invoices. What do you think?

Whilst this would be the least effort to technically implement, I still think invoice numbers shouldn't be allocated until they are 'Sent'. That would be the overall best solution in my opinion.

Matthew

binarymonkey replied on February 25, 2010 09:07 to the problem "Draft invoice should not be allocated invoice number" in FreeAgent Central:

And it still doesn't address the issue of numbering sequences being in date order as well? But then I'm 100% sure if that is a strict HMRC requirement or not.

binarymonkey replied on February 25, 2010 09:05 to the problem "Draft invoice should not be allocated invoice number" in FreeAgent Central:

That would be a workaround, but not really a fix. What we really need is a cancelled status maybe?

Matthew

binarymonkey reported a problem in FreeAgent Central on February 17, 2010 17:46:

Draft invoice should not be allocated invoice number

When an invoice is created, it's set to Draft until you send it.

Let's say I start building up an invoice, then leave it a few days to finish it later.

In between that, I issue more invoices. As far as I have seen, the draft invoice gets issued an invoice number, which means these other invoices will have out of order invoice numbers.

The problem is made worse if I decide that that draft invoice actually doesnt need to be sent and is deleted.

From what I understand, HMRC are pretty strict about invoice numbers being in date and consecutive order and should never have missing numbers in the sequence (for VAT registered businesses).

From HMRC web site:

"What if there is a break in sequence, for example where I cancel an invoice or it is spoiled and never issued to a customer?

As long as you retain the cancelled or spoiled invoice in your accounting records, or you can provide an explanation for the break in sequence, this is acceptable."

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPo...

Of course, the deleted invoice is not retained, FreeAgent just bins it.

I guess the solution is not to allocate an invoice number until the invoice is marked as Sent if one has not been generated already. Similar to the way recurring profiles work.

Matthew

binarymonkey started following the question "Invoice due date calculated from invoice 'draft' creation date, not invoice 'issue' date" in FreeAgent Central.

A comment on the idea "Feature request : Categorise individual invoice items to generate nice report" in FreeAgent Central:

Hi Roan, can you say whether you guys are working on this feature yet or not? – binarymonkey, on February 14, 2010 18:39

binarymonkey replied to "Feature request : Categorise individual invoice items to generate nice report", but it was removed. see the change log

A comment on the question "Overpayment needs explanation" in FreeAgent Central:

Is this still the best way to approach this issue? – binarymonkey, on February 14, 2010 17:14

A comment on the idea "Store default payment terms in project details." in FreeAgent Central:

I see your point. The amount of projects that get done without contracts is pretty shocking - we make sure everything is contracted before we open up our code editors or creative suite! Our contracts don't state exact terms, however they do bind the customer into adhering to the terms shown on subsequent invoices generated for that project. I suppose some clients might insist on having it in the contract, but we've (thankfully) not hit that one yet.

In my experience, most businesses assign terms to clients on a client level rather than a contract level, usually as a result of credit referencing. The type of project they want doesn't normally affect their perceived credit worthiness. Now if you are talking about allowing for instalment payments to spread the cost of large projects (which we do), then ideally you'd issue an invoice for each instalment. As opposed to one huge invoice with terms to cover the repayment period.

At the end of the day, everyone works differently. I guess it's up to the guys at FreeAgent to choose a solution that fits the most common approach.

Matthew – binarymonkey, on February 11, 2010 19:01

A comment on the idea "Store default payment terms in project details." in FreeAgent Central:

Hmmm, I'm afraid I have to disagree! Most people will think in terms of 'the Project is based on my client, who has X days terms'. I'm sure one would would expect the terms default to come from an logical tree path (like the one I suggested).

What happens when your client rings up and says: "Can we have different payment terms?". In your scenario, now you've got to remember to override the terms when you get around to creating that Project (or Invoice without project). As soon as you've got to remember to do that for more than one client, things get forgotten and you're back with the same problem. In my solution, you could go straight to the Contact record and change the terms after you get the call, safe in the knowledge that future Projects and Invoices will use that default. And if you really want to, you could override them on a one by one basis.

Just my opinion :P – binarymonkey, on February 11, 2010 17:43

binarymonkey replied on February 11, 2010 14:07 to the idea "Store default payment terms in project details." in FreeAgent Central:

I would also like to see this. Except I think the default terms should be set on multiple levels.

1. Default terms at My Account level
2. Default terms at Contact level
3. Default terms at Project level

A new Contact would default to the terms set at level 1, but could be overridden.
A new Project would default to the terms set at level 2, but could be overridden.
A new Invoice attached to a Project would default to terms set at level 3, but could be overridden.
A new Invoice (not attached to a Project) would default to terms set at level 2, but could be overridden.

Personally I think that is the best way to manage it. I'm constantly using the wrong terms on invoices by mistake because I forget to check. If I could set it up like this then I wouldn't have to think about it, and I'd get paid quicker!

Matthew

A comment on the idea "Feature Request: Add terms & conditions (page 2) to invoices" in FreeAgent Central:

Cool! – binarymonkey, on January 18, 2010 10:39