On May 26, 2013 11:59 PM, "Brian Wolf" <..hidden..> wrote:
>
> >>I am trying to figure out the best way to support easy shipping after billing. The big problem right now is that unless and until we >>completely re-engineer both the invoice and order logic, getting a perfect solution in place is going to be a prohibitively large amount of >>work. The basic point is that ideally unshipped orders should enter the system as orders, and only after they are shipped/delivered >>should they be invoiced.
>> Unfortunately, that's not how most companies operate. Instead, they will not ship the product until it's paid for.
> Perhaps the issue here is whether to look at it as an accounting workflow (the current sequence, which you've described) or a business operations workflow (the way most companies actually operate).Well, I do think we should support the "pay before shipping" workflow. The question is how to best map the required business workflow to a valid accounting workflow though.
Reading the wikipedia page on invoices confirms my understanding of the position of the invoice document. If you want to receive money in advance, a proforma invoice can be used, or an order can state pre-payment is required before shipment will take place.
If LSMB could automatically pay invoices for pre-paid orders, that might help, I'd say. Wouldn't it?