Invoice software

[tedheath]

Could some one help me with what I will require for a computer generated invoice.

This is the scenario.

I am in the hydraulic repair business, I have two trucks we do on average 15 jobs a day.
Most of the jobs say 12 will be on account. We just note in notebook parts used etc. Of the other 3 or so the customers some might want to pay straight away or they need to know how much right away so they can on charge their customer. An example of this is a power steering hose they take it out we repair they fit it.
For the people who want an invoice immediately I fill out from a triplicated book no problems here.
At night I get my notebook out and the faxed jobsheets from other truck and write up invoices in same triplicate invoice book.
Top copy goes into rubbish tin as the customer doesnt see it, second copy goes to lady who does my books, third stays in pad.
About half are priced that night and faxed to customers who want to know price asap.

First problem the invoice pads are expensive. The lady who does my books gets the second copy and using MYOB I think she sends out the bills. The triplicate pads get thrown in a box and put in the roof of my house.

Second problem is I handwrite the invoices, using a calculator and I get errors, remember its late at night.

What I want is a jobsheet on the computer which would be like half data base and half spreadsheet.
I would have entered into this program the part number, description and cost.

So the plan is to enter the customers name, order number, machinery model and serial number etc. Then type in the part number and quantity.
The sheet would automaticaly ping up the description and compute cost add gst etc.
I would then email these to my accounts lady.

I dont need any inventory system as we order what we use during the day.

What sort of software is there around that could do this could MS Acess do this? I know its a database could it compute the costings as well? Excel I am familar with but its not a database it wont bring up the description and price will it?
I have spent a year searching for free stuff on internet to no avail and please dont say use MYOB or similar its too expensive.
Like I said the problem is, it costs thousands for dumb invoice pads per year and manualy filling them out is error prone.
Are there people who can quickly and cheaply design a program to do this.
Thanks for any help.

tedheath

[Lohsing]

> I have spent a year searching for free stuff on
> internet to no avail and please dont say use MYOB or
> similar its too expensive.
> Like I said the problem is, it costs thousands for
> dumb invoice pads per year and manualy filling them
> out is error prone.
> Are there people who can quickly and cheaply design a
> program to do this.
> Thanks for any help.
>
> tedheath

Hi Ted - Well if invoice pads cost thousands a year, MYOB certainly doesn't cost that much at all.

I think Quickbooks might do the job though?

Lo.

[tedheath]

I dont want to use MYOB or NZA gold they are an overkill.
Thanks I will research quicken

tedheath

[andrew93]

Hi Ted
What version of MS Office Pro have you got?
I personally have written all of my own billing software using Access - it's not in a sufficiently robust state to let loose (yet, but your post will re-ignite this wee project of mine) but depensing on your programming experience, have you tried the wizards in Access to set up a database? I recommend having a few goes at it because you can get some degree of customisation with the wizard - not sure about GST handling though (it's been a while since I mucked around with the wizards) - and beware these projects that you reckon might take 10-15 hours to DIY end up taking 10 times longer (but they are still satisfying nonethless).

[andrew93]

D'Oh! "depensing" is another way of saying "depending" in this part of the country

[mikebartnz]

Just use a spreadsheet. Make up a template. If MYOB has invoicing capabilities why not use that as it saves having to enter all the data again.

[wotz]

Depending on how many parts you have, how often the prices change and how many new ones you would need to add on a regular basis you could use lookup tables in excel.

[tedheath]

I have office 97

tedheath

[Elephant]

> Like I said the problem is, it costs thousands for
> dumb invoice pads per year and manualy filling them
> out is error prone.
> Are there people who can quickly and cheaply design a
> program to do this.
> Thanks for any help.
This sort of thing can be done using Access but it is not a simple throw it together exercise. You could get a professional guru to knock together an application that will do what you want. That sort of thing will likely cost more than similar that are already up and running.

Try here for software that should work for you:-
http://www.ezyinvoice.com/

They have two programs for sale.
Looking at them I would suggest InstantInvoice™ 3

I have taken the trouble to wade through the screenshots and it appears to be able to handle GST and some fairly useful reports.

There is a free download on their site for a 30 day trial. An Australian Company. They also appear to have good support.

Cost you ask? US$ 69.00

That's far less than I would charge to do a custom Access app.

Hope this helps.

[theother1]

you don't say if this lady is an employee or an agent. If she is an employee what is to stop you using the MYOB to input the invoices/orders and letting her take care of the other stuff she does. If she is an agent (i.e someone doing your books) if you get an accounting/invoicing program such as Cashbook Complete or MYOB you can reduce the amount of work you send her way(saving money) and have control of all your own invoicing and finances. (How do you know the lady isn't making mistakes?) There is a trial version of Cashbook on the disc with PCWorld and a free home version (it doesn't write the reports you might need if you decide to use it) The complete version is about $200.00
Just a thought.