"Send Invoice" feature

Graham

This is a follow up to a thread way back about invoices etc

I would see a "send invoice" as a useful feature - basically send the customer an electronic copy of the invoice (that can already be printed and sent with each order). Could be automatic on selecting "shipped" OR require a manual button push

Hey lets help "save the planet" less ink and paper = more profit!!

What say you @Admin??

Teup

Well, my invoices are generated by my administration software, currently I'm just sending each customer a message with a link to a copy of the invoice on my dropbox. I would love an invoice feature like on BL, but I hope it'll allow some manual input then.. (What BO creates does not have all the legally required fields for me and doesn't involve PayPal fees..)

Lawrence

@Teup is this still an issue with the invoices on Brick owl? I'd be interested to hear if there's something they're missing

Stellar

At least 2 things missing to be a legal one:

Invoice number: it should be sequential and unique to the seller.
Bottom or side line with registry info.

In some countries the first word of the invoice should be "Invoice".

Download as PDF would be grateful, but can be done printing page and disabling header and foot info.

Lawrence

How would sequential invoice numbers work if you sell in multiple places? As in, I can put an incremental number one every invoice, but if we have invoice 001 on Brick Owl, and you also have invoice 001 on eBay, is that not an issue? Could you let me know what you mean by registry info?

You can print the page as a PDF, and it should be formatted properly, but we will add a button to download as a PDF as many people aren't aware of that

NelisSolis

I do not see how sequential invoice numbers will work over multiple platforms / places.
The way I do it: the required sequential number is in my accounting software and I put the BrickOwl-number / Bricklink-number / other platform-id in the "reference" field of the invoice. Just to link the invoice from my accounting software to the sales order on any of the platforms I use. In this way I have generic invoices for all sales on all platforms (and even for the theoretical case someone knocks on my door to buy some lego directly from my storage) and I am in control of the (required) information and the layout of the invoice.

Stellar

At least here, companies can have different sequential numbers for different things at the same time, in this case, different platforms.
The thing is, inside one sequential invoice list, the dates from a new invoice must be later than the previous invoice.

Maybe you can put a settings for the seller input a short prefix for it's invoices, it is 6 characters in my software for example but it can vary. A example would be me putting there "FBO20-" that means for me Factura Brick Owl 2020.

Also, there can be another input from the seller that is "Next invoice number" that by default is 1 and each time an invoice is created it adds++ 1. So next year I can change my prefix to FBO21- and make it start from 1 again.

I think Invoice numbers doesn't need 0 at the left, so you don't need to start with 0001. You could go from FBO20-9 to FBO20-10 etc.

The registry info is this in my country for me: Tomo-10427, Libro-7708, Folio-38, Hoja-V-179648, REGISTRO MERCANTIL VALENCIA CIF B98953078.

It is were my company details are saved. I don't know why it is needed if you already have the CIF identifier... Just old things carried one.

It can be implemented by letting the seller a blank footer box for a message.

Hoddie

Allowing sellers to enter a custom reference number for each order should suffice for what Stellar needs. It's true that the UK's VAT law used to require sequential numbers on invoices, though I'm not sure this is still the case - my knowledge is 10ish years out of date. The idea was that it helped officers quickly detect if a business was trying to defraud VAT by pulling invoices from their records.

Stellar is also correct that company law usually requires that retailers include a company address, at least one method contact (email/telephone) and any relevant registration numbers. (Ltd Co, VAT, UTR, etc.).

The problem with forcing standards on a global marketplace is that they'll never work for everyone. A custom reference number field and a footer field would probably work for almost all (though I'd suggest a character limit on both fields to prevent abuse.

Lawrence

@Hoddie I agree. I'd probably go with an user settable invoice prefix, system sequential invoice IDs, and a 256 character user settable footer.

@Stellar for my own understanding, could you explain a little what all that information is? I understand company IDs and VAT IDs but I wasn't expecting the rest.