swallservices
July 11th, 2009, 02:44 PM
This is a feature request for the QB link.
In Short:
Create an additional default item in QB for discounts and show discounts as a separate line item on the QB invoice.
The Details:
Technical Details:
As it currently appears to work, CommitCRM takes two pieces of information from the charge to transfer to the invoice: the quantity and the total. CommitCRM then calculates the proper item rate that when multiplied with the quantity will result in the total desired. This method results in multiple problems; one of those problems would be addressed by this feature request.
CommitCRM currently creates a few default items in the QB database. My suggestion is the addition of a new default Discount item. When a charge is being processed by the Generate QuickBooks Invoice wizard additional logic could be added to see if the charge contains a discount set to Discount. If it does, the resultant Invoice Lines would be added:
A line for the charge copying over the quantity and rate from the charge (no calculation required)
A line using the default discount item copying over the flat rate or percentage from the discount attached to the charge (as QB discounts can handle both methods)
Additional logic would likely also be required to check if a discount is set to Markup. If it is, the existing calculation method would be preferred as I don't feel most of us would prefer this amount shown on a separate line item :)
Reason for Change:
Using the current method, we field several calls wondering why we aren't honoring our listed hourly prices. As an example, a client is charged $59.95 / hour for a service call that lasts three hours. We decide to give this client an hour for free resulting in a discount of 33.33% on the charge. The invoice generated shows a charge with a quantity of 3 and a rate of 39.96662 per hour.
As a result the client is confused and frustrated. They don't understand our billing methodology and the five decimal places just confuses them further. Additionally the next time we bill that client we run the chance of getting an irate phone call saying that last time we did work for them we only charged them $39.97 an hour and now we're charging them $59.95 and that they refuse to pay the higher bill.
Additional Benefits:
By adding these two pieces of logic to the Generate QuickBooks Invoice wizard the default behavior of how charges without discounts/markups are added to an invoice could be altered to simply copy over the quantity and rate as opposed to calculating the rate based on the desired total. The current method of calculating the rate based on the desired total can result in rounding issues even on charges without a discount/markup.
For instance a charge with a quantity of 0.5 at a rate of $59.95 when transferred to QB will become a charge with a rate of $59.96. This occurs because CommitCRM is calculating the rate based on the total prior to being transferred to QB instead of allowing QB to perform the rounding calculations itself. Technically with either method the total is the same, however clients can feel that we are not being true to our stated pricing and are charging them an "extra penny here and and extra penny there". Although financially this is amount insignificant, it can develop ill-will between client and service provider as they feel we are nickle and dimeing them - literally one penny at a time.
In Short:
Create an additional default item in QB for discounts and show discounts as a separate line item on the QB invoice.
The Details:
Technical Details:
As it currently appears to work, CommitCRM takes two pieces of information from the charge to transfer to the invoice: the quantity and the total. CommitCRM then calculates the proper item rate that when multiplied with the quantity will result in the total desired. This method results in multiple problems; one of those problems would be addressed by this feature request.
CommitCRM currently creates a few default items in the QB database. My suggestion is the addition of a new default Discount item. When a charge is being processed by the Generate QuickBooks Invoice wizard additional logic could be added to see if the charge contains a discount set to Discount. If it does, the resultant Invoice Lines would be added:
A line for the charge copying over the quantity and rate from the charge (no calculation required)
A line using the default discount item copying over the flat rate or percentage from the discount attached to the charge (as QB discounts can handle both methods)
Additional logic would likely also be required to check if a discount is set to Markup. If it is, the existing calculation method would be preferred as I don't feel most of us would prefer this amount shown on a separate line item :)
Reason for Change:
Using the current method, we field several calls wondering why we aren't honoring our listed hourly prices. As an example, a client is charged $59.95 / hour for a service call that lasts three hours. We decide to give this client an hour for free resulting in a discount of 33.33% on the charge. The invoice generated shows a charge with a quantity of 3 and a rate of 39.96662 per hour.
As a result the client is confused and frustrated. They don't understand our billing methodology and the five decimal places just confuses them further. Additionally the next time we bill that client we run the chance of getting an irate phone call saying that last time we did work for them we only charged them $39.97 an hour and now we're charging them $59.95 and that they refuse to pay the higher bill.
Additional Benefits:
By adding these two pieces of logic to the Generate QuickBooks Invoice wizard the default behavior of how charges without discounts/markups are added to an invoice could be altered to simply copy over the quantity and rate as opposed to calculating the rate based on the desired total. The current method of calculating the rate based on the desired total can result in rounding issues even on charges without a discount/markup.
For instance a charge with a quantity of 0.5 at a rate of $59.95 when transferred to QB will become a charge with a rate of $59.96. This occurs because CommitCRM is calculating the rate based on the total prior to being transferred to QB instead of allowing QB to perform the rounding calculations itself. Technically with either method the total is the same, however clients can feel that we are not being true to our stated pricing and are charging them an "extra penny here and and extra penny there". Although financially this is amount insignificant, it can develop ill-will between client and service provider as they feel we are nickle and dimeing them - literally one penny at a time.