Invoices created for Quickbooks

[AN-Tech]

When I have CommitCRM create an invoice in Quickbooks it is not marking the box for "To be printed" or "To be e-mailed". Is there a way to get this turned on for all invoices created byCommitCRM?

If I manually create an invoice inside of Quickbooks it checks the appropriate box.

The problem I have is that I have CommitCRM create all of my invoices then go into Quickbooks and cannot tell which have been printed/mailed, emailed, or never sent to the customer.

Thanks

[Support Team]

Good question. In RangerMSP there aren't any specific settings for this. I'll forward this so we'll check whether the QuickBooks API supports such options and enable us to set it automatically for you.

Thanks,
Neta

[AN-Tech]

Quickbooks has a field in the customer details section under the additional info tab called Preferred Send Method. The field has the options of E-mail, Mail, and None. New customers created get this set to None by default. CommitCRM could utilize this field to define which check box to mark when creating invoices. If set to E-mail mark the To be e-mailed box, and if set to None or Mail mark the To be printed box. We'd never need to worry about whether an invoice was sent again.

I'm surprised nobody using the Quickbooks Link has asked about this before.

[Support Team]

Interesting suggestion, I'll add it to the request. I'm not sure the QuickBooks API allows using this field in this way, but if is possible, it sounds like it will make sense.

Neta

[AN-Tech]

I appreciate you looking into this for me. Please keep me posted with any other suggestions you might have. I just want to be sure I don't miss sending out an invoice.

[JoshuaB]

ascendnet,

I was just about to ask about this myself. Now that I know there isn't an option for this I have to wonder how everyone else does billing with QuickBooks! Do you visit each invoice and individually check the send method? What if you miss even one?

I have explored options for sending statements, but no task details are transferred this way.

This is a very important feature for me. I'm finishing my trial and seriously considering purchasingCommitCRM.

Would love to know how other use QB to bill withCommitCRM. I'm happy to share invoice examples as well.

[AN-Tech]

That's what I was wondering, how is everyone handling this now?

[ajgyomber]

I'd like to put the ability to set the invoice printed preference from within CommitCRM on the top of the development hotlist. This is a huge pain for anyone that does large or even small amounts of invoicing through CommitCRM and wants to print/email them.

The QuickBooks SDK supports the ability to set this flag as shown here:

Go to: https://developer.intuit.com/qbsdk-current/Common/newOSR/index.html

Choose "InvoiceAdd" in the "select message" drop-down.
Scroll down to see "IsToBePrinted" and "IsToBeEmailed" in the list below.

This confirms that CommitCRM CAN support setting this flag during invoice creation. Please consider this for 5.2 or the QuickBooks plug-in as this causes invoices to never be mailed to clients.

--AJ

[lpopejoy]

I totally agree. It is extremely painful having to remember what invoices were created in Quickbooks. We have developed process to remember, but it would be great if CommitCRM could add this to the developement list!

--Luke

[smeggar]

Another vote for this option. I just completed a billing run and it was a bit more time consuming than I had hoped for. At best it should just inherit the setting from the customer account in QB, but a bare minumum would be to set it during creation (with the default setting defined in the account detail in commit).

I was also slightly surprised I couldn't batch create all customer invoices for unbilled charges between certain dates, i.e the previous month, this would be handy!

[JoshuaB]

ajgyomber,

Great link. Hope this helps speed things along. We really need this option.

[Support Team]

Thanks for keep reminding us on this :-) I'll add your votes to this so it will push this feature request up on the list.

Ethan

[ajgyomber]

Ethan, anything related to the billing process should be at the top of the list by default. If you can further streamline that process every time we do billing and make money we'll always think highly of the CommitCRM team. :) Seriously though, this is a big deal. Everyone is working around the way it should be.

--AJ

[WTIQuest]

I would like to see this at the top of the list for improvements as well. After creating invoices I have to manually go through each one and choose the send method.

[swallservices]

Just adding another vote to push this feature request up the list :)

The following is my personal vision in order of importance to me:

The GUI for Step 3 - Invoice Lines when creating a QuickBooks invoice would include the two to be printed and to be e-mailed checkboxes we are familiar with in QB. Their default checked/unchecked status could be set by...

A new e-mailed/printed flag saved as part of the Account record in the CommitCRM DB. If that new flag can be synced with QB's preferred send method as part of the account sync that's great, but for myself not required.

[JoshuaB]

CommitCRM Support:

We need a voting system for feature requests. I know you have a forum topic for it, but I'm sure it is still difficult to track. Have you seen getsatisfaction.com? Their system rocks, but is pricey. (See in use at www.trackthepack.com). Anyone know a decent alternative? If I find one I'll post. We could use it also.

[Support Team]

Thanks for the suggestion.

We're familiar with GetSatisfaction, a nice tool indeed. I'm not familiar with its pricing, anyway, there's another thing that we are not too excited about using it - the fact that it almost creates a parallel forum to this one (not exactly but close). This will make users visit two, completely separate, "forums", each requires its own user credentials etc. We consider running feature request surveys, however, it is different than a dynamic voting system (which we prefer). A dynamic voting system also helps with prioritizing as there's limited number of votes to each user - a fact that forces everyone to really prioritize their needs. We'll be happy to learn about similar tools or other implementation ideas for this (please use a separate to reply as this is completely off-topic to the current thread).

Thanks,
Dina

[ajgyomber]

Vernon has already set something up.

http://commitusers.uservoice.com

[Support Team]

Thanks ajgyomber.

I just want to clarify that this is not an official RangerMSP site, i.e. it is not managed by us (great initiative though! thanks Vernon)

Dina

[AN-Tech]

And on that note can we move this to another thread? :-)

[lpopejoy]

I was really hoping to see such an easy feature added to 5.2. Is there any possiblity it will appear in 5.3?

Let's see where is that product development roadmap / voting system again? :)

--Luke

[Support Team]

Hi Luke,



Thanks for that last post...

If you're referring to automatic marking of invoices in QuickBooks "to be printed", then we have it on our list. :-)

I've added your vote to it.



As always, thanks for the great feedback, and keep it coming.



Reno Breen

[JoshuaB]

CommitCRM Team,

"to be emailed" also - we rarely print! I hope this will be an option.

We also use classes in QuickBooks, but this may be too much to ask. However, an alternative plan might be to have a settings page of variables or options you can pass to QB and let the CommitCRM user decide which they want to send values with.

Can't wait - thanks!

[andyapst]

Add me to the vote as well. I was wondering about this feature and glad I found this thread. I hope this comes out soon.

[issltd]

I am in the process of testing CommitCRM CRM 5.2.0.3 and found that my invoices were being created with "To be printed" set in QuickBooks 2009 R8P. I did some testing and it seems to be setting it as a default from the last invoice created from within QuickBooks just as occurs when just using QuickBooks alone. This doesn't appear to be the case with "To be e-mailed" though.

This doesn't negate the need for this feature but may be a workaround for some... at least those that still snail mail like me. :-)

It could also be used as a marker for invoices that need to be manually changed to "To be e-mailed". Not a great workaround but better than guessing which invoices need to be sent to customers.

[JoshuaB]

issltd,

Great tip! Thank you! I'm on QB 2007 but planning to upgrade to 2010 now that it has released. Hope I see the same results as you.

CommitCRM CRM meets our ever need. As you can tell from the forums, the support and communication from the company is superior. We're happy customers here.

Best wishes in your testing and decision process.

[lpopejoy]

This behavior is the save for all Quickbooks versions, I believe. It works if you check the box "To be Printed" and then save and close the invoice. Your next invoice will automatically have the box checked.

However, this doesn't work if you every have to "uncheck" that box. (Like if you don't want to print the invoice.) - like most of us probably do.

I still do not understand, as simple as this would be to implement, why this wasn't there from day 1.

Maybe a cup of coffee will help...

--Luke

[issltd]

Hi Luke,

It does actually work when you uncheck the box. CommitCRM invoices will use whatever state the "To be printed" box was in from the last invoice manually created in QuickBooks. Going back and editing an existing invoice does not change this "default", it only changes after creating and saving a new invoice.

You are correct, to the best of my recollection the QuickBooks only behavior has been the case for as long as I have been using it which is around 5 or 6 releases of Pro/Premier since version 1999. What I was unsure of is if this is the case when using the QB API across releases as this is the first time I have tried creating invoices in QB from another application.

No matter how you look at it, this isn’t a solution but can be used as a short term workaround. In my case, it isn’t a show stopper for me going with CommitCRM but it is a “feature” I would look forward to.

Howard

[lpopejoy]

Is this still on the development agenda. It would be nice if we could have the "to be printed" or "to be invoiced" carry over fromCommitCRM. Possibly an account "default action" could be specified, or maybe just a global default action. From the Quickbooks API reference, it does look like this field can be set via the API.

--Luke

[Support Team]

Hi Luke,

Yes, this is still on our list, we understand how it would help and we plan to implement it in one of our coming releases.
Thanks for asking.

Reno

[lpopejoy]

Thanks so much for adding this feature in the 5.4 release. That's GREAT!

[Support Team]

You are welcome :-)
--
A short status update re RangerMSP 5.4 for users that do no participate in the Beta program - RangerMSP 5.4 is in Beta. We plan to officially release it within the next two weeks. Stay tuned!

[natrat]

My quickbooks always has To Be Printed ticked by default when creating an invoice viaCommitCRM. Its the Australian version.