Hi Guys,

Simple Invoices 2009.1 beta 4 has been released!

This is the second last beta release before the stable 2009.1 release

You can grab the download from: http://simpleinvoices.googlecode.com/files/simpleinvoices.2009.1.beta4-3.zip

• Simple Invoices now works with E_STRICT error reporting (ie. the 'Manage' pages now work for E_STRICT people)
• sql port number added into config.ini
• UI updates
• First Run wizard - work started
• Default landing page is Manage Invoices if there is already an invoice in the db
• backup db - menu fix
• customer view info tabs - redone in jquery UI
• Extensions can now be managed within Simple Invoices and not in the config file - thanks Marcel
• System defaults table updated to include both domain_id and extension_id fields - so can have different values for a default depending on extension or domain - thanks Marcel

• If creating a new database use the files in ./databases/MySQL
  • import 1-Structure.sql and 2-EssentialDate.sql
• If you want some same data import 3-SampleData.sql
• edit your config settinsg in ./config.ini
  • refer http://simpleinvoices.org/config for some details re config file (not this is still a work-in-progress)

• UI of Manage Extensions needs updating
• not all the extensions work
• front page/dashboard not complete
• Total style invoice not selectable
• Invoice edit needs work

If you have any problems please post here on the forum: http://simpleinvoices.org/forum/discussion/788/simple-invoices-20091-beta-4-release/

Cheers

Justin

Hi Guys,

I'm very happy to announce the availability of Simple Invoices 2009.1 beta 3

http://simpleinvoices.googlecode.com/files/simpleinvoices.2009.1.beta3.zip

1. users management - you can now add/edit users in Simple Invoices - no more phpmyadmin nonsense
2. multiple taxes per line item - just adjust the number of taxes per line item in System Preferences to show the number you require
3. UI updates - Simple Invoices is now using 970px wide layout instead of 100% width
4. email as pdf working now
5. email - now allow multiple email addresses in to or bcc and can be delimited via , or ; - thanks stella
6. add system pref for number of taxes per line item
7. sql patch 163 - tax conversion patch updated

1. customer view info tabs - not happy - need to be redone in jquery UI
2. can't close yellow text
3. backup db - once db backed up - menu goes wierd
4. IE - menu not all nice
5. no data validation on form input
6. postgres version not complete
7. total style invoice not selectable
8. Help link - top right - not working
9. Reports - not localised - ie. in 6 decimal places
10. PHP.ini max memory needs to be min 64M to handle new PDF

1. If using a new database for beta2 please restore using ./database/MySQL/Strucutre.sql and then Essentials.sql) - if you want the sample data also restore SampleData.sql
2. chmod -Rv 777 ./tmp; as cache, log, and dbbackups directories have been moved into this folder

1. try upgrading a database from an older version (pre 2009.1 beta2) and make sure all the invoices are still OK
2. create invoices using a few different scenarios and then edit them - etc.. - make sure the invoice is 100% ok in all the differents
3. are you a css guru? i need someone to help fix the css round the menus - issue in IE and also with side borders
4. post on the forum - http://simpleinvoices.org if you find any issues

Cheers

Justin

Hi Guys,

Its been a nightmare here in Victoria this week - it got upto 48 degrees Celsius / 118.4 degrees Fahrenheit in country Victoria on Saturday. This plus years of drought, 100km p/h winds, and lightning strikes resulted in a series of bushfires across the state.

The fires have so far resulted in at least 181 deaths, and 100 people have been admitted to hospitals across Victoria with burns, at least 20 in a critical condition, and 9 on life support or in intensive care.

The fires have destroyed at least 1,033 homes. Many towns northeast of Melbourne have been almost completely destroyed, including Kinglake, Marysville, Narbethong and Strathewen. 5000+ are now homeless.

People always ask me how to dontate to Simple Invoices and I always say that we don't need money - If you have wanted to donate please donate to the Red Cross bushfire appeal instead now.

Donate now: http://www.redcross.org.au/vic/services_emergencyservices_victorian-bushfires-appeal-2009.htm

For a nice way for developers to dontate check out http://5for1.aws.sitepoint.com/ - all proceeds of the sale of the books go to the appeal

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Victorian_bushfires
• http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/bushfires/
• http://www.theage.com.au/national/bushfires
• http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/02/bushfires_in_victoria_australi.html

Cheers

Justin

source: http://justin.kelly.org.au

Hi Guys,

after a long wait the beta 2 version of Simple Invoices 2009.1 is now available for download and testing

grab it from here: http://simpleinvoices.googlecode.com/files/simpleinvoices.2009.1.beta2.zip

• You can now dynamically add/remove as many line items as you want in an invoice
• New UI designed to make things simpler - note - this is still a work in progress
• tax rates are now specified per line item
• consulting and itemised invoice styles have been merged
• tax rates can now be either $ or % based - ie. postage of $20 ot VAT of 10% etc..
• PDF system rewritten - no longer needs to use any url info - this should make PDF 'just work' for alot more people

Note:

• If using a new database for beta2 please restore using ./database/MySQL/Strucutre.sql and then Essentials.sql) - if you want the sample data also restore SampleData.sql
• chmod -Rv 777 ./tmp; as cache, log, and dbbackups directories have been moved into this folder

Please refer to the Known issues at the bottom of this post - some important things are still a work in progress

• SimpleInvoices.sql is now split in 3 (Strucutre.sql, Essentials.sql, and SampleData,sql)
• sample data now removed from main .sql - this is now in SampleDate.sql
• Zend Framework upgraded to version 1.7.2
• monthly sales/payments per year report fixed not to repeat first year
• quick view cleanup
• cache move to tmp/cache
• database_backup move to tmp/database_backup
• Simple Invoices log file added - tmp/log/si.log
• customer total calcs updated
• Upgrade issue fixed - if auth on upgrade now works ok
• Simplify invoice layout - remove item tax and item total - now shows: qty, item, unit_cost, price
• Tax rates can be % or $ figure based - ie can be used for Sales Tax (10%) or Postage ($10)
• New UI
• Qty now trims zeros from decimal places - so no longer have 2 decimal places for Qty
• Make buttons look pretty
• Make fields look pretty
• Fix problem with selecting language
• set domain_id in session
• change Unit Price to Unit Cost - change gross to Price
• si_account_payments table changed to si_payment
• si_user table changed to si_user
• Consulting style - if desciptoin null then don;t show Description heading thing on the invoice
• language select now works again
• javascript logging added - set debug.level = All in config.ini and press F2 in invoice creation - add some new line items to see it in action
• merge itemised and consulting invoice styles
• add new line items on the fly in invoice creation
• updates Taxes - add % or $ option
• Default tax per product
• PDF - change system from requiring the url of the invoice - this should fix lots of peoples PDF problems
  • note: PDF in email is still a work-in-progress

• customer view info tabs - not happy - need to be redone in jquery UI
• can't close yellow text
• text in yellow section not correct
• backup db - once db backed up - menu goes weird
• IE - buttons not all nice
• no data validation on form input
• only 1 tax per line item
• postgres version not complete
• no manage users
• total style invoice not selectable
• Help link - top right - not working
• Email as PDF not working
• Reports - not localised - ie. in 6 decimal places
• PHP.ini max memory needs to be min 64M to handle new PDF

If you find any issues with please reply to this post or in the forum

Cheers

Justin

Hi Guys

for a while we've been having problems with generating PDF that contain utf8/non-latin tyle characters - accented/euro symbol etc..

i've just put in a small fix onto our demo site http://www.simpleinvoices.org/demo

if you have had PDF and non-latin character problems please login to the demo site and create some new invoices and try to PDF - let us know if it now works or still has problems - and which characters you used

for the fix refer: http://simpleinvoices.org/forum/discussion/689/mysql-utf8-compatibility-bug/#Item_5

Noet: this fix will mess the display of previously entered accented characters. They will have to be fixed manually.

Cheers

Justin

Hi Guys

I've just uploaded a preview of the next beta (Beta 2) release of Simple Invoices

• http://www.simpleinvoices.org/beta/
• http://www.simpleinvoices.org/beta/index.php?module=invoices&view=itemised

Also as a result of the Dec 08 vote - http://www.simpleinvoices.org/roadmap/vote#december_2008_vote there have been some changes to invoice creations. Basically me and 2 other people are the only ones using the Total style invoices :( - most other people uses Itemised and the rest use Consulting (note: theres been a late charge in the votes for Consulting).

What this means for you is when you click New Invoice it'll default to Itemised style - if you want to add in notes per line item (consulting style) just click the 'Notes Add' to the right of the Unit Price heading and all the description fields will be displayed. How Total style will be selected is stilla work in progress.

Whats new since beta 1?

1. new line item rows can be added dynamically during invoice creation
2. merger of itemised and consulting invoice types
   • to add a description to the line item just click the 'Notes add' icon on the right of unit price
3. tax rates per invoice item
   • note:
     • you can have muliptle taxes per line item
     • taxes can be dollar based or percentage based
     • as an exmaple during invoice creation you can select as many different addon tax rates as you want per line item
     • ie. Product : IBM server - you can select the following GST (10%) | State tax (3%) | Admin fee ($25) | Postage ($50) etc
       • note: in the demo its set at 1 tax per item - a GUI to adjust this is stall a work in progress
4. new UI : in an effort to simplify the UI as much as possible i've removed the old drop down menus with a simple click/tab based menu
5. new invoice template

Note:

• there will probably be 1 or 2 more beta releases of Simple Invoices before the next major release is made public
• theres still another week or so work to be done before Beta 2 will be released

For a status update refer:

• http://simpleinvoices.org/roadmap/trunk
• http://code.google.com/p/simpleinvoices/source/browse/trunk/dev/TODO.txt

Post if you have any comments

Cheers

Justin

Hi Guys,

To help us understand how you use Simple Invoices (so we can make invoice creation even better) i've put up a vote for which style invoice you use (total, itemised or consulting?) http://www.simpleinvoices.org/roadmap/vote#december_2008_vote . If you guys can let us know which style you use it would be great - this will help with the upcoming work we'll be doing on invoice creation

Also in response to July 2008 vote http://www.simpleinvoices.org/roadmap/vote#july_2008_vote there has been work started on “Better invoice creation” - namely editable prices per line item in itemised and consulting invoices and a few more nice things in the work to make this better

note: re recurring invoices (the current most requested feature) - some work has been done by one of our community members (Grungy) refer http://simpleinvoices.org/forum/discussion/127/recurring-billing-for-eg-services/#Item_17 for details and a download - more work will be done on this

Cheers

Justin

Hi Guys

I'm starting to look at tax rate/markup/discount per item in an invoice - just wondering how the different tax system work each each country (as want to be able to handle as many different locales as possible)

If you can post what country your from and how you are supposed to handle different taxes in 1 invoice it would be great

some questions i have are:

1. if we have multiple tax rates per line items is there still a need for an invoice level tax rate?
2. how many tax rates are you supposed to have for your line items. ie 1, 2 or 3 - if so detail what they are
3. if there is a need for an invoice level tax rate (assuming that you can set whatever tax rates per item ) is this invoice level tax calculated inc/ex the line item tax(es)?

hopefully the below example explains that i mean better :)

ie.

also do you guys have a need for just % based rate - or would you also need to handle misc. $ markup/downs per line item?

just post here in the discussion section or in the forum: http://simpleinvoices.org/forum/discussion/672/item-level-tax-rates/ Cheers

Justin

Hi Guys,

Some Simple Invoices news:

Progress on the Beta 2 release of Simple Invoices is going slow

• documentation, fixing and completing the postgres code, and make database backup work with PDO are the main things to get done
• there will be a release for Beta 2 pre xmas though

New UI

• i've been thinking about a new UI for Simple Invoices for a long time. i find the current UI - nice looking but to clunky and not intuitive with all those drop down menues and the like
• i'm working on an extension for Simple Invoices to redo the UI in a very simple and friendly way - think wordpress admin page with a mix inspiration from the design provded by Januz in

http://simpleinvoices.org/forum/discussion/608/design-for-the-interface-designer-offers-his-skills-/#Item_10

• i'll upload a demo once more work is done
• or you can svn checkout trunk and enable the tab_menu extension

Simple Invoices to hard to install

• given that getting Simple Invoices installed on your server needs some knowledge of mysql/apache/php - this limits our audience quite alot
• i'm working on 2 things to make a change to this
  • 1 - we've been invited to join the beta testing of the new bitnami.org
    • Bitnami makes installing apps like Simple Invoices just a couple of clicks for all platforms - windows uses get a .exe and follow the promts and it'll isntall and config everything etc..
    • If anyone want to help out building the bitnami/Simple Invoices package, let me know - its not that hard - just requries time and patience
  • 2 - another option im working on is offering free Simple Invoices hosting
    • this is still very much a work in progress but i hope to start offerign hosting pre xmas
    • note: this won't replace Simple Invoices from being downloadable and free/open source - just complement it - similar to wordpress.org and wordpress.com

SQLite

• now that were using PDO for database we can use a variety of database servers for Simple Invoices - not just mysql
• the postgres version just needs a few updates and it'll be ready to go
• a SQLite version is also under way - if anyone has sqlite experince or wants to learn - just let me know - i really want to get this on out asap

What to lend a hand?

• There has been some comments that the database upgrade from old versions of Simple Invoices to Beta 1 may have caused some data issues
• We need more people to test upgrading from old versions to Beta 1 and posting if the data was OK after the upgrade
• we need you to use real data and post what version you are upgrading from
• please post your results in this thread http://simpleinvoices.org/forum/discussion/670/simple-invoices-news-2008-12-01/ in the forum

Cheers

Justin

Hi Guys,

after a few dramas with dns (including simpleinvoices.org getting redirected to some dodgy pr0n type site ) we've now migrated simpleinvoices.org to a new webhost

would love to of moved to slicehost.com but the aussie dollar is in the pits against USD at the moment

in summary:

• good bye servage.net
• hello scarabweb.com

note:

• let me know if you have any dramas with the site (ie. stuff that was there - now not there etc..)
• the demo site is still being uploaded

Cheers

Justin

Hi Guys,

Its that time of year again - I'm looking to move simpleinvoices.org from our current webhost. The main things I'm looking for in a new host are speed, reliability and price. Our current webhost just seems to slow and the db server is always off-line.

Just wondering if any of you guys are resellers of any fast and reliable web host services - be that shared host/vps or other

reply to this post or send me an email

also refer the discussion from 6 months ago on this subject - http://simpleinvoices.org/forum/discussion/510/

If you not a reseller any recommendations would be appreciated

Cheers

Justin

Hi All,

I'm very pleased to announce the availablity of the first beta release (2008 09 26 Beta 1) of the next major version of Simple Invoice!! code name for this series is 'Flying Doormat' refer wiki page

This release has been under development for the last year, though there are lots of backend and frontend changes this release signifies more of a new beginning for Simple Invoices rather than an upgrade in features. The changes and work that has gone on under the hood of this release puts us in a good position to advance Simple Invoices and make it a truely kick ass invoicing system.

More will be detailed soon, there will be 3 beta releases before the final version is released.

Whats news:

• Use of PDO for database abstraction
• Addition of a PostgreSQL version of Simple Invoices
• Manage pages have been redeveloped using Flexigrid
• Product price is now editable during invoice creation and editing
• Items can be deleted from an invoice during invoice editing
• Use of various components of the Zend Framework
  • inc. ACL, Auth, DB Table, Locale, Config,..
• Config.php has been replaces with config.ini
  • refer: http:www.simpleinvoices.org/config for details
• Product matrix extension added
• Text_UI extension added

Whats still todo:

• documentation, changelog, and release note to help detail all the changes and new stuff
• testing of PostgreSQL version
• refer http://www.simpleinvoices.org/roadmap/trunk for a full list

Download Beta 1 now from http://simpleinvoices.googlecode.com/files/simpleinvoices_20080926.zip

Note:

• Documentation for this release is still a work in progress but basically there is no more config.php, all db and config details are now stored in ./config.php
• Backup your db first and I wouldnt use this as your production version just yet (unless your really game:) )

Post here for in the forum if you find an bugs with it

Also I hope everyone tunes in for tomorrows AFL ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Football_League ) Grand Final ( http://afl.com.au/ ), Cats v Hawks in a rematch of the classic 1989 Grand Final ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_VFL_Grand_Final ) - what a game, don't expect me to be in any state to answer queries :)

fyi

• the demo site http://simpleinvoices.org/demo/ has been updated to beta 1
• feel free to try it out

Cheers

Justin

Hi All,

Just a quick update re Simple Invoices

iPhone

• a version of Simple Invoices for the iPhone is underway
• initially only the sections of Simple Invoices that relate to mobile users will get developed - the later on hopefully all features of Simple Invoices will eb available for iPhone users
• refer: http://simpleinvoices.org/forum/discussion/573/mobile-simple-invoices-iphone-etc/#Item_0
  • note: also a version for the smaller HTC Touch is also underway
  • also thanks to James Mandy for kicking this off

Zend Framework

• the very usefull Zend Framework is now being used in Simple Invoices
• we will start with the Zend components: Config, Session, DB, Auth, and ACL , and include more as needed
• what this means is that therer will be no more config.php file - it will be replaces with a config.ini file - making the config file easier to use/read and also help with the upcoming Simple Invoices installer and admin page - so you wont have to edit the config file yourself anymore :)
• also a new login system is under-development using zend auth and acl - with will enable a real multi-user, multi-permissions login system - think client logins, individual biller logins, read only for some users etc…

Voting

• to help us understand what you want to see in future versions of Simple Invoices i've included a voting section in the website
• each month or so i'll add a new poll, results from these polls will help define the direction of future development of Simple Invoices
• refer:
  • http://simpleinvoices.org/roadmap/vote
  • http://simpleinvoices.org/roadmap

Cheers

Justin

Hi Guys,

Simple Invoices 2008 06 29 has been released.

This is just a maintenance release to fix the problem with adding an item in the edit view of an invoice – refer this forum post

You can grab the download from : http://simpleinvoices.googlecode.com/files/simpleinvoices_20080629.zip

Let me know if you have any issues with this release

Cheers

Justin

Hey Guys,

We've just upgraded the Simple Invoices blog from drupal to dokuwiki. Though drupal is more suited to blogging than dokuwiki, the simplicity and ease of use of dokuwiki out shines any issue it may have. Now our website, blog and wiki are all integrated and run off the same dokuwiki install - so the 1 username will work through all sections

You may experience some feedburner emails issues in the next day or so - some old posts may get emailed to you again

let me know if you have any issues

Note: If you want to write some blog post just register a username and send me an email - i'll add you to the blog group

Cheers

Justin