I have read the forum and your view on expenses within SimpleInvoices. However with Expenses included, many freelancers/one person business owners may not need any other product. You see what comes in and what goes out, plus at the end of the year you will have the TAX information done as well. A simple way would perhaps be one creates another biller (e.g. the name of your printers, or a convenient store where you've purchased stuff for your business), then create a sort of invoice, choose the biller (e.g. the printersname) and as a customer you can choose your own company as well (useally biller id #1). Put in the correct amounts and when you save it, SimpleInvoices should add the numbers as a negative I guess. Off course a way to track the difference between such an invoice and a normal one would be needed for reports and stuff..
Problem with all the accounting software is that it is (for me) way of an overkill, I need only 20% of all the stuff in there.
Anyhow, just thought I'd revive this discussion :) Perhaps someone has already did a module?
thanks for the post - Expenses are and often requested feature
i plan on creating a 'Simple Accounts' to be able to handle this and other simple but required accounting for freelancers/small business/etc..
Simple Invoices will stay as is
reason: i really want to keep Simple Invoices just focused on invoicing and push other stuff (ie, expenses, time-sheets,etc..) into separate applications that can talk together
stay tuned for any news re Simple Accounts - i'll try and release something pre June 30
I don't need the expense to be for different products, but simply to say for any particular invoice, this is the amount that I spent, and a text box for this is what I spent it on. Maybe a few of those, and, that way I can simply have my profit / loss calculated based on what I charged on the invoice minus what I spent on parts for that invoice.
Sure a separate accounts system would be handy, but for it to all be in simple invoices would be much better in my opinion.
Even if you were to add only two fields, one for the total amount I spent, the other for the description of what I spent it on, and I could even comma separate the list of what it was spent on; that would be extremely useful to me.
Right now, I basically have to enter the invoice amount, invoice number, etc, twice. Once in Simple invoices, then again in a separate system to keep track of profit / loss.
Any progress on this? Is there somewhere to sign up to help with the SimpleAccounts project?
I am an accountant and would like to help where possible. I have many gripes as a user of current accounting software and have resorted to suggesting Excel and paper ledgers to clients as most other options are too complicated for non-accountants. Accounting should not be complicated.
Having a free, self-hosted option for basic accounting would be huge for small businesses in my professional opinion. I have looked at and rejected online packages like Fresh Books but I would imagine SimpleAccounts to be similar but more flexible.
@Brian - thanks for your suggestions - i'll keep it in mind - only reason it hasn't been done is that i've been trying to just look at invoices - its very tempting to start looking at expenses, time-reporting etc.. but im conscious of feature bloat - i may look at doing something like expenses as an optional extension to Simple Invoices
@Mforcer - no progress as yet - when i start my tax return i'll look into this again - will try and get Simple Invoices 2009.1 out first - i'll post when i get more going on it
I'm going to try my hand at adding a table (actually already done that part) for expenses based on invoice number...I'll have to get the php part down...but I'll use your current work in Simple invoices as a template if you don't mind. I'll test it, and send you what I've got if I get working...how's that?
re expenses in simple invoices - i've just been comissioned to create a very simple expenses module for Simple Invoices - this will be created as an extension - and you'll be able to specify which client and/or invoice this relates to
note: this is for reporting only - you won't be able to include an expense for client X to be automatically included in an invoice you create - just to report on how much the work done for invoice/customer x cost you
once Simple Accounts gets going all invoice, payment, and expense data in Simple Invoices will be able to be exported/imported into Simple Accounts
hi, i just tried your expense module, it really does nothing. Sorry I am not complaining, but after I key in a line, there is a line there and just about it. It can't add up or show reports (yet), and there is no option to click it as paid. I think the best or probably the simpliest way is to have the expense function work just like the invoices, key in expenses, mark as paid or outstanding, ageing. Just that if the reporting is done later, its negative instead of positive.
yep - expense is very simple - mainly built so can run reports - there are a couple of expense related reports in that extension - for a very simple profit & loss type thing
re paid - it you edit the expense there should be a drop down to select Paid/Unpaid - as far as i can remember
re negative instead of positive - interesting idea - i'll keep it in mind if/when expenses gets updated
