I've been working with drupal for a couple of months. Now that i have a rock solid foundation, i'd like to start working with the ecommerce modules.

At some point i'd like to create a full blown robust ecommerce site.

However, if i only want to create an INTERNAL system for one user (me) to allow me to create trackable invoices for different customers, is this possible with the ecommerce module?

If so:

1) which submodules do i need to enable? (i imagine i don't need to all of them but maybe i do - i just thinking rather than turn everything on blindly, i could simply enable exactly and only what i want)?

2) Will the system allow me to select/display all invoices that are overdue?

3) Will the system allow me to select/display all invoices that are unpaid?

4) Can the system be configured to either automatically and or manually send invoices AS EMAILS (as well as print copy) to customers?
a) if so, must i do this one customer at a time
b) or can i have it email a subset of invoices (e.g. all invoice that are overdue OR any unpaid invoices for customer x)?

5) Does the ability exist yet for the email or print invoice be converted to pdf (for email attachment or print from the pdf)?

6) I imagine the system has to track customers so i'm assuming that i can keep all invoices for customer x related via db ids?

PAYMENT OPTIONS

Everything above assumes a customer will mail me a check and i manually go into the system and mark the invoice as 'paid'. and that's cool. i can use it just this way if i have to.

however, it would be nice to allow the customer to come to my site and pay off invoice x or invoice y, etc...

7) Is this possible with the ecomm modules right now?

8) I'm pretty sure paypal works but are their any other methods available at this moment?

9) In order for customers to do this, would they need to have accounts on my site or could they just pay to my account and i'm able to see the individual amount and who it came from and then manually update inovice as paid myself? I ask because although it wouldn't be as automated, it would allow me to not have to open my site up to other users and create accounts etc?

10) But, if i did want to reverse what i said with question #9 and then automate the process of the invoices, is this possible with ecomm. customer would have to have a user account, be able to login, see their OPEN invoices (maybe closed as well), select an invoice, pay it, and then this would AUTOMATICALLY FLAG THE INVOICE AS PAID AND GENERATE A NEW PAYMENT FLAG SO I CAN SEE THAT A PAYMENT CAME IN.

Ok.. i know that's a lot of questions but i can't find the info anywhere on the site search or in any of the ecomm documentation.

I know your busy but if you can take a stab at each of these i would mightily appreciate it. Even if it's a simple Y/N reply to each one.

There are myriad submodules in ecomm. I'm trying to figure out if it will work for my purpose without having to spend 2 weeks trying to configure it only to find out it won't do what i want?

thanks much in advance

Comments

gordon’s picture

gordon commented
Status: Active » Fixed

The short answer is yes. With v3 of E-Commerce you can do this.

Once I have the ability to enter timesheets, I am going to be doing all my billing from E-Commerce.

1) You need to enable the invoice module to do this. For something like this you may also want to use CiviCRM as the address book using the ecivicrm module.

2) Yes, in the latest dev version which will be in the final version of 3.0 you can search by due date.

3) Yes, Once again this can be done using the transaction search.

4) At this stage this does not happen, but it will be a simple module to enable this to work.

5) The default setup will only produce html invoices, but there is a theme enhancement which allows you to create a pdf invoice. see http://ecommerce.heydon.com.au/api/file/ecommerce-5--3/docs/examples/pdf...

6) Yes

7) Yes

8) There are a number of CC options, that can be used, or you can develop your own.

9) You can have it so that customers can go to your site, or a url and make the payment against an invoice, or you can receive the payment and make it as paid.

10) with v3.0 you don't have to have the customers log in, they can pay against a token which allows them access to the invoice without logging in.

newdru’s picture

newdru commented
Status: Fixed » Postponed (maintainer needs more info)

I'm just going to say one thing to start. You rock! Mostly because you actually took the time to answer my questions and i'm sure you're pretty busy with this project! thanks

I'm going to reopen this for a few followups if you could. Sorry, i know you're trying to clean up your queues.

Once I have the ability to enter timesheets, I am going to be doing all my billing from E-Commerce.

Well, i'm looking for that same functionality. What exactly IS timesheets - a seperate submodule or functionality that is currently being built into another module? When will it be done (rough ETA)? Can i see it or download play with it now? maybe i can give you some feedback on it or help with it.

(i'm going to keep the thread consistent using your numbered replies):

1 a) ok i need to enable the invoice module, anything else?

b) what module is responsible for the client/customer info if i do NOT use civic crm?

c) you mention ecivicrm as possible address book. I can't find any iteration of that name in the projects pages. The only thing close is civicrm. And it looks 4.7 based. your latest code and my platform is 5 based. i'm not sure i follow here.

also, without taking up too much of your time on civicrm, would that be fairly straightforward to configure as an address book for ecomm? more specifically ecomm 3 with drupal 5 (since that's where the invoice capability lies)? (e.g. is it basic plug and play, go to settings and configure or is it a "lost art" with little documenation - not to be sarcastic but i "think" i've seen few posts about it over the last couple of months. those posts are usually from folks trying to figure the thing out and often getting less than satisfactory replies - i almost got the feeling that the devleopers have tried to privatize the module in some sense by limiting the amount of information they made available out it and how to configure it )

d) i'm assuming product type should be service (i'm billing a service). Is there any reason why i might want to use type generic (it looks like a custom product type that i can configure however i want)?

4) a) So you're saying that invoices currently do NOT have email capability built in correct?

Which makes me believe ecomm invoices are designed more as an ONLINE system. I pull up customers periodically and see if they've paid. If they haven't i call them or print the invoice out and mail it to them or send a manual email. Would that be correct?

b) that said, are the ecomm invoices printable by default - you allude that html versions are available further in the post?

c) if so, can i batch print a series of invoices or must i print them one at at time (e.g. print all past due notices)?

d) you say email is easy to implement with a custom module.. i imagine a nodeapi type module that attaches itself to the displayed invoice (maybe a send button)? Could you recommend a module or a block of code that might get me on the right path.

fyi, i've enabled the 'send' module on my site and it's not working while the rest of my mail (contact, newsletters works). That code looks a little heavy, debugging it has proved less then fruitful and no reply for help in the issue queue.

I'd prefer something tailored specifically to this one type that pulls the customers email contact (kept in the db) and then intercepts the html one of your modules already generates and sends it off. It would also be great to flag that the email was sent (as proof/trail you've sent them for deadbeat clients).

fwiw, this seems like it might be a good feature for ecomm. Any plans for that? If you give me a leg up, i could work this thing up, get a cvs account and post it back to the community for review/inclusion in ecomm. If you're interested, after your reply to this email, we could open up a new feature and post directly there instead.

9/10) I'll play around with these to see what's available with my own eyes.

fwiw, now i know what token is for. It's not very evident from either the ecomm or the token page what that thing does. thanks for sharing that!

again, thanks for being patient. i think your reply to this thread will nip this in the bud. I should be able to get this going on my own.

Christoph C. Cemper’s picture

Christoph C. Cemper commented

Interesting thread... finally I found the answer for the "mail invoices" question I had :) it's not there,
but I got a +1 for sending clients a "soon to be due invoice", "invoice due", as well as of course "invoice overdue " mails

newdru’s picture

newdru commented

Can you explain what you mean.. how did you enable mailing on soon to be due, due and overdue. please be specific. i don't understand the nature of your post.

are you saying you just enabled 'send' module, and then mail individual invoice nodes that way?

thanks

brmassa’s picture

brmassa commented
Status: Postponed (maintainer needs more info) » Active
brmassa’s picture

brmassa commented
Status: Active » Closed (fixed)
chrislabeard’s picture

chrislabeard commented

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