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Will providers be kind enough to display invoices in descending order of date in WHMCS?
I have noticed that the invoice lists on WHMCS are not sorted in any particularly order (unless it is some order known to the providers).
Will they be kind enough to display invoices in a proper manner? I would have thought that by now enough complaints would have been made for it to be changed. What's going on? Is it WHMCS, the providers,or what?
Comments
I've honestly never looked to see the default sorting method in WHMCS.. however I'm fairly sure that you can apply your own sorting from the client portal.
Changing this would be a simple .tpl edit. Though I must admit that having worked with WHMCS for ~5 years now, yours is actually the first time I've seen this request.
Yep just had a look, never even considered this in the past.
There is a sort filter available on it...
Just looked for myself, all 7 fields of the invoice list are sortable...
Did the OP mean something else? I mean, this seems quite obvious, so I'm thinking he meant something else...
I'm assuming he meant sorted by standard. While it wouldn't be overly difficult to add a 'default sort option', I personally am not going to worry about writing that in unless there's an excessive demand.
Not all of them offer the ability to sort the columns by click the headers. How does something so basic get past the software designers?
The option may be present on your installations. I have checked 4 different providers and only one of them give the option to sort on column headers?
I guess you providers need to pressure WHMCS for it. I don't see this as something customers need to ask for. It just common sense. How would credit card or bank statements feel if the entries were sorted in a random order.
Not every provider uses stock WHMCS, nor even the same versions of WHMCS.
http://forum.whmcs.com/forumdisplay.php?f=12 You want it, you go ask for it. No reason to flaunt around "just common sense", which is really just a very thinly veiled insult.
If an issue is important enough that you deem it appropriate to demand action from others, at least have the courtesy to ask politely. "Hey, do you guys think you could request X?". See how easy that was?
I am not a WHMCS subscriber or customer, it is their customers who should be asking.
I don't know why expecting invoices to be in sorted order is something to be requested in any industry, unless you feel providers using WHMCS should be an exception.
I am quite certain that whenever you ask any supplier for a statement of your transactions going back a few months or years they are presented in a meaningful order because the IT systems are simply configured that way, not because they think to themselves that the customer will find it awkward if they are not sorted sensibly.
I can't see how WHMCS designers could fail to do implement something so basic as a default, and their customers not noticed it and demanded it.
You may be one of the exceptions but I see too much amateurism in the LEB hosting environment in both technical and administrative issues and it does get irritating.
Wow, you have some serious OCD going on there. You do make a valid point, until you get to the fact, it's a Low End Box, every corner is cut to keep costs down, yet you wish to yammer on how funds/manhours should be squandered on some trivial task that provides nothing to the provider or customer.
How many man hours does it take to configure a query as "select * from invoices order by invoice_date desc where invoice_date >= xxx or invoice_date <= yyyy limit 20"?.
See how quickly I replied?
Yeah @miTgiB that is obviously what that guy wants. Stop being so anal all the time. He wasn't telling you to do anything. You must be working too hard, squandering your time to complain here on LET about that guy's innocent question. Take a vacation.
I do, but I also see you are the only person to ever raise the issue, so it is safe to assume you wish an entire industry change on your single whim.
I would like for providers using an older instance of WHMCS to add this sorting as well, if they have the time. I suggest you re-read the title of this discussion, @miTgiB
I'd like a couple of examples of companies where you can't apply a sort on invoices, @rchurch ;m
@miTgiB Is the LEB industry a cottage industry or a hobby industry? Don't LEB providers pay subscriptions to WHMCS? The fact that margins are so low in the industry is even greater reason for expecting a more organized, disciplined and methodical approach, because the slightest error means you are going to the wall. Witness the lxadmin and Rus Foster debacle.
LEB <> poor organization
vps6.net is an example. I cannot sort my invoices and they aren't in any particular order.
It's really no need to jump on op because he brought to our attention something what most people would consider as logical but as it seems in WHMCS isn't (yet). Just think a bit about "how would credit card or bank statements feel if the entries were sorted in a random order" and then tell us that he doesn't have point and he needs to be crucified...
Aren't suggestions and ideas by individuals part of a constant software development in industry?
I agree with this, I do not agree with bashing the industry of LEB while trying to accomplish it.
When did anyone do this?
Bashing the LEB community. =/
Wait, you forgot to shill vps6
u mad b/c you're mean and got called on it.
@miTgiB I am not bashing the LEB industry. It is only reasonable to expect an amount an element of numeracy and organization in a computer related industry as the purpose of computers is to organize stuff.
I remember a few months back a provider was having some problems with a server which couldn't start properly and his customers where stuck. I suggested that that being the case he should mount the disks in other server and extract the images for the customers to download. Some of his customers chimed in and the job was done, even then it wasn't done in the best possible manner. It wasn't even my problem.
If I say something like that is so basic and that it doesn't need an onlooker to make such a suggestion some people here might be offended. It is basic, pulling the data of a disk and ensuring that there are proper backups is the first thing that comes to the mind of any IT technician when there are any signs of trouble.
Is knowledge of basic procedures whether technical or administrative too much to ask of LEB providers, no matter how new they are to the business?
Well, I did read your suggestion, and looked at a few customers as them in WHMCS, and couldn't see any problem. You are right that you cannot sort invoices, but they are in order via a few rules.
1st they are sorted, unpaid, paid, cancelled
2nd they are sorted by date, newest to oldest
So yes, having it sortable I guess could mean something to someone, but who? Is it needed to be any more sorted?
Are you suggesting providers maintain backups of client data? I'm not sure what exactly you are suggesting here. While I mostly keep backups of client data, 99.9% of providers do not in the LEB industry.
Home now, and can actually make a proper reply.
@rchurch - I did a bit of research for you (you're welcome), and have noticed that Invoice Sorting is done by Payment Status by default. So yes, if you have unpaid invoices, these will appear at the top of the list as priority items. The remainder of the list is typically sorted by InvoiceID/Issue Date, or Due Date. It is very likely that you did not take the unpaid status into consideration, or simply overlooked it.
If this is not the case, could you cite an example (and screenshot + source capture would be nice) of a specific host that lists invoices in seemingly random order? If you're unfamiliar with MySQL... 'random' sorting only happens when you specify ORDER BY RAND(). So unless the template is intentionally calling them in a random order, there is a pattern. You may just have to look closer to see it.
VPS is not a dedicated server. I expect providers to take regular backups of their production servers as part of their OWN administrative procedures. Client data gets backed up as a welcome side effect. If they want to charge customers for making data or images from those backups if something goes wrong with the clients files that is fine by me. If their terms with the customer do not include taking backups and they don't want to that is fine. Commercial sense indicates that if their hardware fails and they lose clients images, they also lose customers. It should be a no brainer.
Explain this:
Agreed, and also way off topic, but @Aldryic confirmed my findings as well about invoices, so I still see this topic as a non-issue.
@Naruto - my best guess there is that it's sorting by transaction date. (Since unpaid invoices have no transactions, "0" naturally come before 2012-04-18). Check your payment date on each invoice if you would, see if those are sequential.
I pay my invoices as I get them. I don't believe that's the case because look at the invoice numbers.
I did take a look at the invoice numbers. But humour me and check the paid dates anyways, please?Nevermind. I really don't have enough time to be doing someone else's research for them.
I did it anyway and found they are sorted by the time you paid, descending order.
Your first-paid will be on top, last-paid on bottom.