Home Forums WordPress Web Invoice – Invoicing and billing for WordPress Suggestions for next version(s) of WP-invoice

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  • #3388
    james
    Member

    Wp-Invoice is a fantastic plugin with massive potential.

    I appreciate all your time and effort put into creating this plugin however I do have a few suggestions for future updates:

    1.) When a user logs in who has an invoive to pay there is an option (maybe a widget??) to show them they have outstanding invoices and a link to each one.

    2.) The option to pay more than one invoice in one go (ties in with the list of invoices).

    3.) The option to restrict access to the invoice page to users who are logged in (and include a list of other invoices on that page?)

    4.) For PayPal payments, to skip the form with Name, Address etc and just have the button (which currently shows PayPal form) take the user to PayPal to pay.

    5.) The option to ‘hand craft’ the emails sent to users and format an HTML output.

    6.) If a user stumbles on the Invoice page without an invoice ID an automatic redirect to a specified page (maybe from a drop down listing all pages plus the home page?)

    #4264

    @james thank you for your input. Not many will make it into the next release, but release cycles are short, so you should see most of the requested features implemented soon. See my responses bellow.

    1) Nice feature. I’ll implement it soon.

    2) I was considering tracking payments separate from the invoice. It would definitely reduce processing costs. This will definitely make into the next release.

    3) IMHO, it would be inconvenience, and doesn’t add any useful security. I would like to hear what others have to say.

    4) I’ll make it an option. As it is not critical it will not be implemented in the current release.

    5) I’m working on it, so definitely in the next release.

    6) This is not implementable unless I do 3) . Then again what’s the chance of user coming into the billing site without the invoice id. If you have come across such an instance please let me know. Also if others have any thoughts please shout.

    #4267

    @james I just noticed, you had confused WP Invoice and Web Invoice. They are 2 discrete projects doing basically the same thing. But Web Invoice has more features you want :)

    #4270
    senlin09
    Member

    Hi admin,

    To comment on the above list from @james:

    1) users do not always have a login-id and pass. Yes, I have to make them to be able to send them an invoice, but that doesn’t mean that I send them that user-id and pass.

    Unless it would be possible to send them their id (and pass) in the same email as the invoice (your login id is: abcdef and your pass is: ******)

    2) wouldn’t know, could be handy on a site that has a lot of clients :)

    3) I like the restriction, was already thinking of placing some main content on the invoice page, perhaps making it a password-protected page, because then I can add the password to the invoice email, which would mean that you do not need 1)

    4) agree with @james

    5) you’re already working on that one :)

    6) see 3)

    Hope this helps, please let me know if you need more thinking :)

    Piet

    #4273

    Instead of making the client log in, allow them to provide the e-mail and the invoice ID to authenticate. I’m planning on dropping the need to create a user. Not having to create a user will definitely improve the usability/flow.

    I still think username and password is redundant when you can use a hash of the invoice id to authenticate the user. The invoice id and the has is only known by your self and the client. And invoice doesn’t have much of a life until paid.

    What do you think about that? If not (IMHO) I have to continue to have the disjointed flow of creating a user before creating an invoice.

    #4276
    senlin09
    Member

    brilliant idea!

    I totally agree that not having to create a user will improve usability lots. And you’re right of course that

    A. the invoice# can be used as id#

    B. the invoice in itself is not really info that has to be guarded at all cost, if a 3rd party finds it one way or another, will he/she pay it for your client? Guess not :D

    #4279
    james
    Member

    @ admin: I started using WP-invoice and quickly switched to web-invoice :)

    1.) Thanks, I look forward to it!

    2.) It can be frustrating when PayPal charged a fixed fee plus a % for individual payments when it could be taken care of in one go.

    3.) / 6.) I can put some static content (maybe make it look like a 404 error?) to get users on their way.

    4.) I know it’s not critical, but if clients have a PayPal account they don’t want to fill in all that info just to be directed to the PayPal site and login. And it seems a little messy that you click ‘PayPal’ to then fill in more info and click ‘Pay Now’.

    5.) Looking forward to it!

    Instead of making the client log in, allow them to provide the e-mail and the invoice ID to authenticate. I’m planning on dropping the need to create a user. Not having to create a user will definitely improve the usability/flow.

    So would this mean the link in the email would look something like this: www.foo.com/invoice?invoice_id={whatever}&email={[email protected]}?

    I still think username and password is redundant when you can use a hash of the invoice id to authenticate the user. The invoice id and the has is only known by your self and the client. And invoice doesn’t have much of a life until paid.

    That’s true, maybe I’m just complicating things? But since (at the moment) you have to register a user anyway it would definately allow more flexibility.

    #4282
    james
    Member

    Just had another thought for 3 & 6:

    Make a separate page template to do just what I need it to….

    #4285

    @james

    URLs will be of the format, http://www.foo.com/invoice?invoice_id={whatever} . Hash is really hard to guess (if not impossible). And a conflict in the hash is very rare (if not never).

    A definite +1 for aggregated invoices (i.e. settle multiple invoiced at once) and just the PayPal button. Come to think of it, it’s totally redundant. Of course it’s heritage from WP-Invoice.

    If anyone has a use case for PayPal form (not just the button), please put your idea in writing :)

    3 & 6 , let’s see. I’m sure you’ll love the new flow when you see it. Logging in is a big turn off for anyone. When someone is trying to pay, it shouldn’t be too hard :)

    #4288

    @james, I just released 1.7.0 with the following changes.

    * States are no longer selectable (it’s just a text box)

    * AlertPay API bug fix

    * AlertPay IP range added (more security)

    * AlertPay country code (ISO_3166-1 alpha-3 country code) to ISO_3166-1 alpha-2 country code mapping

    * Allow just the button payments for PayPal

    * E-mail templates

    * E-mail hooks (add you own variables via another plugin)

    #4291
    james
    Member

    @ admin: Thanks for the update, particuarly customising the emails!

    I looking forward to future updates.

    #4294
    KevinHeath
    Member

    Having played with this for a while, I would like to offer some feedback.

    The email sent out states that invoices can be printed, but they are not printer friendly. It would be good to have that option.

    Also to really make the plug-in brilliant, if it could send a PDF of the invoice with the email, it would be perfect.

    #4297

    @KevinHeath sorry for the delay in replying. My RSS reader had stopped checking the latest posts for some reason.

    Thanks for the suggestion. This will be something I’ll implement soon :)

    #4300
    jester
    Member

    Cheers,

    You really worked great! but i’ve got something to share and i want something more in this plugin, First thing is ,as mentioned by KevinHeath, sending invoice in pdf, with easy customization of pdf template as well as OWN Address should be managed, i mean if you allow author/contributors or whoever in your blog to send invoice using this plugin so they must have thier own database setup, so it will be more extend, i’m sure, this extention will fire and will be more famous.

    Anyways, wish you all the best, work good,

    #4303

    @jester thanks for the idea. Do you feel WPMU support may be more appropriate for your scenario?

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