BambooInvoice Forums

I need to set it up to send out invoices on the 15th and the last day of each month. Is there an easy way to go about this?

jvolker - Dec 03, 2008 08:15am

I need to set it up to send out invoices on the 15th and the last day of each month. Is there an easy way to go about this?

Not currently, sorry.

Hows the integration of recurring invoices to the main system going?

Anything else I can do to help?

Also I released a new version of my modification, fixes/adds a few things.

So I’m wondering how I would call the email function in the Invoices class in recur.php script ...

Or should I not bother because you are adding a recurring feature to the next version?

I’m not currently working on this.

You’ll probably want to latch into the current email functionality, rather then creatinga new one… now sure.  I’d start by reading over the CodeIgniter docs (http://codeigniter.com/user_guide).  If you have specific questions I’d be happy to hear them.

Alright I’ve created a new controller that handles recurring invoices. It runs when someone browses to http://website.com/invoices/index.php/recur. Works great.

So now I’m wondering how do I call the email function in the invoice controller without having to have a user logged in?

Hello. I’m here because I’ve been looking for an invoice system like this for some time now! There is an article in this month’s Linux Pro Magazine about your product! Congrats! Very nice. I was extremely happy to run across the article. The idea presented for hosting is to use XAMPP, making it a portable solution as well. I’m going to attempt it and I’m also going to run it on my Red Hat server. This looks very promising so far.

Bamboo Invoice lacks just one feature that I need and that is the automatic emailing of invoices on a monthly (or annual) basis. I’m hoping that when you consider the admin email feature that you also implement this for customer invoicing, so that I can sit back and let the emails go to my customers at the same time every month.

Cron is accessible in my hosting environment (from the command line or CPanel), so I don’t think there are too many worries there. I think more people DO have access to cron and CPanel makes it easy. Let me know if you need testing space for this project or if there’s anything I can do to help expidite the implementation of this feature.

Thanks again!
Eric

Welcome aboard Eric, happy Bamboo’ing!

eharvey - Dec 16, 2008 03:55pm

Bamboo Invoice lacks just one feature that I need and that is the automatic emailing of invoices on a monthly (or annual) basis. I’m hoping that when you consider the admin email feature that you also implement this for customer invoicing, so that I can sit back and let the emails go to my customers at the same time every month.

I’m working on having my recur modification send automatic e-mails out when a new invoice is created. Look forward to it in then next version.

Hello,

I see everybody is working on a “recurring” payment method, is it not better to create something that would work for everybody and that will be added to the core of bamboo. i don’t want to check/re-check if bamboo has an update if the new “recurring” features will work.

So some features that i would like. Please add more.

1. how many times to recur (99=unlimited)
2. Recurring options (daily, monthly, quarterly, yearly or insert a amount of day’s)
3. E-mail admin and user when invoice is sent
4. If invoice not payed, recur every week after payment needed to be received.

Anything more? Is there already a update that does this?

p.s. how good is the dompdf? can it convert any page to pdf? I am thinking about a simple templating system or are you already working on that?

Greetings Gijs

@Derek: I take it the recurring invoices haven’t been implemented into the current version yet? Last I saw you were trying to get that feature into the next update of bamboo?

Aeolun - Dec 27, 2008 04:34pm

@Derek: I take it the recurring invoices haven’t been implemented into the current version yet? Last I saw you were trying to get that feature into the next update of bamboo?

Its not something I’m working on right now.  There are too other factors to hone in on a good solution for me right now.

Derek Allard - Dec 28, 2008 06:42pm

Aeolun - Dec 27, 2008 04:34pm

@Derek: I take it the recurring invoices haven’t been implemented into the current version yet? Last I saw you were trying to get that feature into the next update of bamboo?

Its not something I’m working on right now.  There are too other factors to hone in on a good solution for me right now.

Hi Derek,

This would be a really handy feature.

If your community of users banded together and “donated” money to have you prioritise this feature, how much would it cost?

Cheers,

Forkie

Hey Forkie, bribery is very effective with me… good call

In truth, I don’t know.  There are issues that still need to be sorted out in my head, specifically, what is the EXACT behaviour going to be.  Programming it will probably be the “easy” (in quotes of course) part of this.  For example, here are some things that come quickly off the top of my head.

1) What will the interface do to indicate an invoice is recurring?
2) How (specifically) can the admin control this?  I don’t need “admin can turn it on or off”, I need, HOW do they do this, and what would it look like?  A new page?  A modal window?
3) Should recurring invoices be automatically sent out? Always? If there’s an admin trigger, what does it look like, where does it go?
4) How should admins be notified (if at all) that an invoice went out?
5) How should an invoice indicate it was sent out via recurrance?
6) What if cron isn’t available?  Bamboo will need to go with a “trigger on each pageview” method.  I’m comfortable with this, but what if an invoice won’t be triggered until 6 days later?

This is not an exhaustive list… just trying to list some of the barriers off the top of my head.

What would be compelling for me to want to add it in is someone building (non-functioning) screen captures of what this would look like - then I would have a better grasp in my head for this, and could modify to suit.

Oh also, I’m grateful for any donations users care to make, and thanks for the plug - Bamboo represents a massive chunk of my time and energy, and people recognizing that always makes me feel great.

In truth, I don’t know.  There are issues that still need to be sorted out in my head, specifically, what is the EXACT behaviour going to be.

Derek,

I’m prepared to put my money where my mouth is, but that won’t fund your entire development of this feature (I’m a computer-nerd by trade as well, so I know how time intensive these things can be!)

Perhaps putting a poll/questionaire to your entire membership (or at least the followers of this thread) to answer some of the questions you’ve raised above will help you define your requirements for this feature, hence having a handle on potential development costs.

I’m happy to throw my 2cents worth in…

6) What if cron isn’t available?  Bamboo will need to go with a “trigger on each pageview” method.  I’m comfortable with this, but what if an invoice won’t be triggered until 6 days later?

I think the “triggered” approach would be fine, and also the most portable for your users. I’m sure checking your billing system once a week isn’t too much effort.

Also, I’d like to talk you off topic regarding your solution for a few of my clients if possible? Just PM or email me directly regarding this.

Cheers,

Forkie