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And similarly with invoices, would be useful to search for a particular invoice based on ID, client name/email address etc etc.
Planned for V1.1
Will see how it looks now - there are quite a few buttons to be added and things to be tidied up.
Yes, definitely.
I should add that option, good idea.
Probably one account in v1, more in v1.1, not sure though - haven't written the login system yet.
I mean complying with Mexican laws... the "Digital invoices by internet". It works by sending a hash to a server and then getting another hash back, and attaching it to the invoice.
Could you clarify how this needs to work exactly? Break it down for me please.
Yes. Mexican law now requires something like this:
When making the invoice, you need to generate an "original key" that is the data from the invoice, like this: "Company name|Address|Somestupidstuff|1|Superproduct|Superprice|etcetcetc", then it generates a SHA hash from it, and then sends it to a server (authorized by the goverment), and it will send you back another hash. Then, you put this on your invoice, and that's all :P
I got some examples of it, but not the "internet" side yet, just the hashes
Is this in some standard format?
How? Where?
Yes! But I want to talk a little bit with you via email. Can you send me yours via PM?
It seems is SOAP. where? Depends on where you buy the service, several servers.
@netomx PM is on its way now.
Do the freemium route. Offer the core software for free and sell addons (example: graphs, invoice templates, remove "invoiced by OpenBill" text in the footer of invoices).
Anyways I'd love to check it out so PM me if you have a test version.
Not keen on this
Another video will be online very shortly with some neat new features. A demo will be online probably on launch day.
Logo is up @ www.openbill.co.uk
New: the initial release will feature unlimited admin profiles, with their own picture and hourly rate. Each project can be worked on by multiple people at their own hourly rate with time tracked automatically (or manually) then invoiced can be generated automatically based on time spent by different people at different hourly rates. There will also be a functionality to help you stay within your client's budget for the project.
Invoices can also be associated with a particular member of staff.
I reviewed the video. Being a european business owner myself, here are my comments:
The basics are there for sure, but there's so much missing.
For starters, how about:
To put this in perspective - the software I am using right now is about the same yearly cost as yours but aside from being much more polished it also fills out all my paperwork and gives me a neat printout that I can send to the tax agency at the end of the year.
Just saying what you have right now is basically worth nil. I hope I don't come off as too harsh - if you have the passion to develop this, do it. But there's a reason the market looks like it does, and the points I made are the reason this kind of software is hard to develop, maintain and profit from.
Edit: This is also why I think the freemium route is the only way to go for you if you ever want anyone to purchase this. Or make the price about 90% cheaper during development. ("beta" pricing!)
@littleguy the video showed a small percentage of what will be available in the initial release. It was meant to be a teaser, not an exhaustive demonstration. See my comments below:
Will feature in v1.1
Will feature in v1.1
Will feature in v1.1
Will feature in v1.1
Will feature in initial release
Any tax rate can already be set for each invoice
Not planned yet
Will feature in initial release
Not planned yet
Everything will be tested
Which is...?
Once the initial release is out, I'll be looking into Sage integration.
To the points you have answered - good on you. The rest:
Items have tax classes, not invoices. If you sell someone a book and a web site and bill it in the same invoice, they have different tax percentages. Also shipping can have a different tax percentage.
Are you gonna write exhausting unit tests? You should make the tests public, at least to customers.
What is Sage?
No phpDocs won't do. You don't need a plugin infrastructure but you need robust documentation.
http://www.visma.com/
They're pretty big in the nordic market and have custom-tailored software for each country.
Visma does what its supposed to do in terms that you get the end results needed but the integration part has more to ask for.
Visma is also pretty fast with the reply "if you do that you are in violation of the support contract and it will be declared void"
I have had that answer more then once when we wanted to integrate one software from visma with our other softwares.
For sure. They have a lot of different programs and services and the quality is mixed. They'll always do what it says on the tin but your mileage may vary depending on which service you use. As you say, some services are governed by really harsh contracts that you have to sign before using them.
I'm pretty curious about the support contract violation - what were you trying to do?
We wanted to export their database from foxpro(?) to mssql.
Using ms sql integration services instead of using their api.
It would have saved us some money.
@littleguy I had a quick look at visma and it looks like its geared towards a completely different market. It's hosted by them and 100x more expensive than OpenBill is at the moment (assuming I have the right link) with volume limitations, and rather than integrating with de facto standard software (like Sage in the UK - it's accounting software), it tries and forces you to make it do everything. Their website also seems to suggest they're unapproachable by the layman.
Interesting!
They're geared towards both Small/Medium businesses and corporations. Aside from providing hosted solutions (like the ones you are referring to) they also provide regular software that you run on your PC. And it's not "100x" more expensive. I pay ~90GBP/year for the service I have outlined earlier, which includes updates.
If you're a layman, why would you need billing software at all? In many (most?) countries you can't legally send a bill to someone unless you have a company.
@littleguy I'm primarily building this for people from the UK (but not forgetting other countries) who either do freelance design, consultancy, sysadmin work, hosting etc., where it is perfectly legal for anyone to bill anyone as far as I'm aware, with minimal tax requirements ("Self Assessment"). Also I'm not going to pretend that every last OB user will even be registered for SA, just like how so many 'hosts' 'forget' tax.
@jhadley Seeing as the mods closed the other thread, isn't £5.99/mo a bit much? It still has pretty basic features, I could probably reverse engineer the whole thing in a few hours.
omment/132987#Comment_132987): isn't £5.99/mo a bit much?
It's half price at the moment - £3
I don't see what that has to do with anything.
Will that price be locked in? £3/mo isn't bad.
Why is it called OpenBill if it's not open source?
IMHO using GBP as the base currency for the product would be confusing / not very convenient for the majority of your potential customers.
Please consider setting the price in some other more popular currency.
Yes it's locked in.
There's an open source version
Please consider setting the price in some other more popular currency.
I'll add approximate conversions, but I'd rather not have to do accounting in more than 1 currency.
Cool, I'll try the open source version out and may buy a copy if it's any good.
Pain in the ass.. your bookkeeper and accountant will hate you.
Sorry for the confusion - by open source I didn't mean free - I meant it comes with the source code. I'll add a free trial version shortly though so you can test it out.
@jhadley Are you using the WHMCS license plugin to manage licensing? How about a free seven day trial, or free version with limits (20 customers or something)?
Yes I am and will add one very shortly. Check it in an hour
Cool, thanks. If you haven't seen SPBAS, it's a pretty cool piece of licensing software. The phpAudit and Iono guys created it.
Looks good, but already got WHMCS.