Need an invoice feature

OvertheBrick

I think this has been discussed already but an invoice feature would really help.
I have more and more customers asking for special orders (sometimes hunting for parts occasionally for parts in very large quantities). Figuring out how to charge them for it has been challenging.
I have been using Paypal but this only work if a payment was done to start with through it (this is also a loss for BO, fees are not collected)

Hoddie

Isn't there a danger that some stores would use such a feature to start adding miscellaneous charges and fees a la BL?

Ems Bricks

I know this has been discussed and Lawrence doesn't have any plans, but I go back to my earlier forums posts about reserving items. In cases where you have sourced parts for buyers, they could go through checkout and be able to pay through Brick Owl. Fees are also collected then. I agree an invoice feature would be useful.

OvertheBrick

Isn't there a danger that some stores would use such a feature to start adding miscellaneous charges and fees a la BL?

I think there is more chance of this today because there is no built in feature. I have to bypass the site altogether so I could be dishonest and add miscellaneous charges.

Reserving items could solve a lot of use cases indeed

Hoddie

Isn't there a danger that some stores would use such a feature to start adding miscellaneous charges and fees a la BL?

I think there is more chance of this today because there is no built in feature. I have to bypass the site altogether so I could be dishonest and add miscellaneous charges.

Reserving items could solve a lot of use cases indeed

But what you do external to the site doesn't concern BrickOwl. The whole idea behind the parts + S&H prices is that it's the same experience no matter which store the buyer chooses. If you allow some stores to offer variants on this theme then you're taking it the BL route. That might be a good or a bad thing, but it's not what BO has always been about - clear, up-front pricing.

Teup

Isn't there a danger that some stores would use such a feature to start adding miscellaneous charges and fees a la BL?

I think there is more chance of this today because there is no built in feature. I have to bypass the site altogether so I could be dishonest and add miscellaneous charges.

Reserving items could solve a lot of use cases indeed

But what you do external to the site doesn't concern BrickOwl. The whole idea behind the parts + S&H prices is that it's the same experience no matter which store the buyer chooses. If you allow some stores to offer variants on this theme then you're taking it the BL route. That might be a good or a bad thing, but it's not what BO has always been about - clear, up-front pricing.

Why would that change with an invoice function? The whole procedure of the auto checkout remains the same. You shop, you see how much it's gonna cost, you check out, you do your payment. The the seller sorts the order and compiles an invoice.

I too am creating my invoices externally because there's no way to do it in BrickOwl. I used to send them as messages to the buyers, but I recently stopped doing that because I kind of feel like I'm spamming them. I frankly wouldn't know how to use BrickOwl in a legal way without my own software. Luckily the API is awesome.

Hoddie

Creating an invoice of an order generated through the normal shopping process is one thing, but creating an invoice so you can create, add and/or edit prices, charges and fees is quite different, which is what I thought OP was requesting.

Teup

Creating an invoice of an order generated through the normal shopping process is one thing, but creating an invoice so you can create, add and/or edit prices, charges and fees is quite different, which is what I thought OP was requesting.

Hmm yes, it's a but confusing. An invoice is typically something sent after an order has been placed. What the OP seems to be referring to is a quotation rather than an invoice.

OvertheBrick

Good point, quotation is maybe a better wording.

I was thinking along the line of @Teup.
I am not sure how this would be implemented exactly but something along the line of creating a cart on behalf of the customer so he can go ahead with the regular checkout process would be perfect. The main difference would be that we would also need a reserve function to go with it or that we allow items to not be listed in the store at the time of checkout

Teup

What you could do is of course create a coupon for that buyer, after you've agreed some kind of deal. They can then compile the shopping cart and apply the discount themselves.

I guess BrickOwl doesn't have custom items in a shop? Because then you could also temporarily create an article for that buyer to add to their shopping cart which represents the deal you made. That can still be done using just a random item from the catalog. Of course, this would mess up the site's statistics for that item a bit, but if you'd pick a pointless item that nobody ever buys, it shouldn't be a big deal..

But yes, what you described sounds like a nice addition, though I personally wouldn't really need it.

OvertheBrick

Funny you mention this I just discussed creating a "special" pin with a customer. Other than the fact that it is not very professional, it also would probably affect the stats of that item (if we ever can see them in more details)

Teup

Funny you mention this I just discussed creating a "special" pin with a customer. Other than the fact that it is not very professional, it also would probably affect the stats of that item (if we ever can see them in more details)

Well, it's professional to the extend that your administration is fiscally sound :P But otherwise, yes, it is of course a bit messy. But if you'd just select like a piece of paper that was found in some promo sets that were sold in some random event in some random country, of which there are 0 in the world and nobody cares, it wouldn't matter for the stats

Another thing you could do is tell the customer to check out asking a shipping quote. You can't exactly give a discount that way, but you can let the buyer put all the ordinary parts of their order in their cart and have the additional charges through the quote represent some item that you made a special deal on.