Re: [GNC] The custom invoice problem

[Simon Roberts]

I second this... Even the simple ability to save the configuration of one
invoice so the next one comes out the same would help. I am willing to work
with the basic layout, but gave to go through all the tabs of configuration
with every invoice I send. Treating each as a different report seems like
an accident of development route, not a deliberate design choice.

But hey, I still prefer all this to being held hostage by Intuit, so my
grateful thanks to the developers all the same.

On Sun, Mar 5, 2023, 08:26 Roland Giesler via gnucash-user <
gnucash-user@gnucash.org> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Since 2016 (and probably before that), there are have been questions
> about the lack of reasonably accessible tools for small business users
> to create invoices that contain the company logo and a customised layout
> for a particular setting.
>
> https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2016-June/065750.html
> https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2022-January/099232.html
>
> I sure there are many more of these and they have been raised years ago
> already.
>
> A software developer of a someone seasoned in the internals of eguile
> and css is probably able to hack something together, but an ordinary
> user (albeit somewhat technically proficient in css, html and some
> scripting languages) has little chance of addressing this issue.
>
> Questions I have are:
>
> 1. Do people in other parts of the world not want to send professional
> looking invoice to their clients?  Are they even using GNUCash for
> invoicing?  This seems like a core feature of GNUCash that is just being
> ignored. (2016 is 7 years ago!)
>
> 2. The GNUCash roadmap pages  say
> regarding Scheme: /"Scheme is impenetrable to most programmers.
> Expecting users to be able to write reports in Scheme is completely
> unreasonable."/  This is true, but the general usability of GNUCash
> reports must be expanded so that any report can be selected as the
> default for a particular feature (like invoicing). /*Surely this is a
> core requirement, is it not?*/ If we have the feature to add a menu
> option ,
> then it could be a fairly trivial matter for a developer to add the
> functionality to select a saved report (or some customised invoice) as
> the default when the "print invoice" button is pressed?
>
> 3. Is there some bounty system where one could contribute to speed up
> this feature?
>
> I'm a huge FOSS fan and if there is some way in which I could help to
> get this implemented, please let me know!
>
> regards
>
> Roland
>
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Re: [GNC] The custom invoice problem

[Vincent Dawans]

To build on what Simon Roberts is saying. I use a saved report
configuration for my invoices, based on a customized easy invoice report
(because it's the closest one to what I want). But then I don't access it
from the print invoice feature nor do I think I can. What I do is run my
saved report configuration directly from the Report - Saved Report
Configurations menu, and then in the option I choose the invoice I was to
display. In truth, there is a way to select which report to use for
printing invoices by default, under Edit - Preferences - Business but then
it only seems to show standard reports, not custom ones. If at least we
could fix that part then we could select a custom report by default, that
would be an improvement.

As for customizing, I used a combination of:
1. Correct info in File - Properties - Business since some of the info is
reused on the invoice
2. A specific stylesheet for my invoices under options under Edit -
Stylesheet, including the heading banner for my logo at the top; this
stylesheet is then selected in my custom report options
3. My custom report options which are then saved as a "saved report
configuration". I don't use the picture option (instead I use the heading
banner above). I can't recall why but it must have given me a better result
I assume.
4. In 3 above, I use custom CSS in the CSS section under layout. You can
see my CSS below. It has been so long I can't recall why I used each
setting but mostly it was about spacing and table width.
5. For 4 to really work, I avoid using the Make PDF option. Instead I use
the export to create an html version, then open it in Chrome and print to
pdf from there. In Chrome it allows me to use the scale option when
printing which really helps make the invoice fit on the page.

I agree it's all rather convoluted. But there is a lot going on in making
the process more streamlined, so for now these are some of the things that
could help.

Here is my css. I can't even recall if I wrote this or copied it from
somewhere else (most likely a mix of both):

.div-align-right { float: right; }
.div-align-right .maybe-align-right { text-align: right }
.entries-table * { border-width: 1px; border-style:solid; border-collapse:
collapse}
.entries-table > table { width: 100% }
.company-table > table * { padding: 0px; }
.client-table > table * { padding: 0px; }
.invoice-details-table > table * { padding: 0px; }
@media print { .main-table > table { width: 100%; }}
.invoice-in-progress { color:red }
.invoice-title { font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline }
.main-table > table { margin: auto }
.invoice-details-table > table { display: block; }
.invoice-notes { margin-top: 20px }
.entries-table > table { min-width: 600px }

On Sun, Mar 5, 2023 at 12:36 PM Simon Roberts <
si...@dancingcloudservices.com> wrote:

> I second this... Even the simple ability to save the configuration of one
> invoice so the next one comes out the same would help. I am willing to work
> with the basic layout, but gave to go through all the tabs of configuration
> with every invoice I send. Treating each as a different report seems like
> an accident of development route, not a deliberate design choice.
>
> But hey, I still prefer all this to being held hostage by Intuit, so my
> grateful thanks to the developers all the same.
>
> On Sun, Mar 5, 2023, 08:26 Roland Giesler via gnucash-user <
> gnucash-user@gnucash.org> wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
> >
> > Since 2016 (and probably before that), there are have been questions
> > about the lack of reasonably accessible tools for small business users
> > to create invoices that contain the company logo and a customised layout
> > for a particular setting.
> >
> > https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2016-June/065750.html
> >
> https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2022-January/099232.html
> >
> > I sure there are many more of these and they have been raised years ago
> > already.
> >
> > A software developer of a someone seasoned in the internals of eguile
> > and css is probably able to hack something together, but an ordinary
> > user (albeit somewhat technically proficient in css, html and some
> > scripting languages) has little chance of addressing this issue.
> >
> > Questions I have are:
> >
> > 1. Do people in other parts of the world not want to send professional
> > looking invoice to their clients?  Are they even using GNUCash for
> > invoicing?  This seems like a core feature of GNUCash that is just being
> > ignored. (2016 is 7 years ago!)
> >
> > 2. The GNUCash roadmap pages  say
> > regarding Scheme: /"Scheme is impenetrable to most programmers.
> > Expecting users to be able to write reports in Scheme is completely
> > unreasonable."/  This is true, but the general usability of GNUCash
> > reports must be expanded so that any report can be selected as the
> > default for a particular feature (like invoicing). /*Surely this is a
> > core requirement, is it no

Re: [GNC] The custom invoice problem

[Adrien Monteleone]

Simon, this change is coming in 5.0 (and maybe 4.14?) due out at the end 
of March.


You will be able to set a Saved Configuration as the default for invoices.

The beta version should already include this change for testing. 
(version 4.902)


Regards,
Adrien

On 3/5/23 2:35 PM, Simon Roberts wrote:

I second this... Even the simple ability to save the configuration of one
invoice so the next one comes out the same would help. I am willing to work
with the basic layout, but gave to go through all the tabs of configuration
with every invoice I send. Treating each as a different report seems like
an accident of development route, not a deliberate design choice.


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Re: [GNC] The custom invoice problem

[john]

5.0 only.

Regards,
John Ralls


> On Mar 5, 2023, at 8:20 PM, Adrien Monteleone 
>  wrote:
> 
> Simon, this change is coming in 5.0 (and maybe 4.14?) due out at the end of 
> March.
> 
> You will be able to set a Saved Configuration as the default for invoices.
> 
> The beta version should already include this change for testing. (version 
> 4.902)
> 
> Regards,
> Adrien
> 
> On 3/5/23 2:35 PM, Simon Roberts wrote:
>> I second this... Even the simple ability to save the configuration of one
>> invoice so the next one comes out the same would help. I am willing to work
>> with the basic layout, but gave to go through all the tabs of configuration
>> with every invoice I send. Treating each as a different report seems like
>> an accident of development route, not a deliberate design choice.
> 
> ___
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