Re: Forgetting to post printed/mailed invoices: add Print+Post button?

[Luke <..hidden..>]

I haven't considered this much, but this thought just occurred to me...

I was thinking, in regards to your message below, "yeah, at least not with 
a web based interface."  In a thick interface, you could retain state, and 
not *let* the user lose/leave the invoice, until he posts, suspends, or 
cancels it.

Then I thought: why not here?  While the most recent on-page changes could 
not be preserved, if you adopt a current-document model, the most recent 
updated version would always be retained.

Workflow:

AR -> Create invoice
[Form is a blank invoice.]
Enter stuff, update.
[Form is an invoice with stuff on it (1).]
Change and add stuff, update.
[Form is an invoice with stuff on it (2).]
Back out/new window
Perform an AP transaction, a report, and other stuff.
AR -> create invoice
[Form is an invoice with stuff on it (2).]

Basically, the invoice you get, is the one you had as of the last update.
You have to either post it, put it on hold, or click a CANCEL button, in 
order to move along to a new invoice.

There is no way to create a new invoice, without first disposing of the 
old one, by editing, holding, posting, or canceling.
Localize it to the user.

That would prevent creating two invoices at once in separate windows, but 
I'm not sure you can do that now anyway.

Luke


On Wed, 18 May 2011, david wrote:

> I also forget to post sometimes because of a different human error.
> Regardless of check boxes or different buttons it would still be
> possible to forget to post, or forget to check the boxes for that matter.
>
> Perhaps the original screen could have a strong "NOT POSTED" flag which
> only disappears after posting. Probably that's more complicated to do
> but would be more definite. The sort of flag I'm talking about might be
> a translucent background image in red saying "NOT POSTED", or a strong
> line of text if you don't want to use images.
>
> ** Not Posted Not Posted Not Posted Not Posted Not Posted Not Posted **
>
> OTOH, no matter what you do you can't entirely fix the problem on the
> other side of the keyboard ;-)
>
>
>
> Chris Travers wrote:
> > On Mon, May 16, 2011 at 2:47 PM, Erik Huelsmann <..hidden..> wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > A friend of mine and I are working toward taking LedgerSMB as our
> > > accounting system. We like the direction of development and its
> > > improvements over SQL-Ledger.
> > >
> > > However, one item my friend has bad memories about is the fact that
> > > it's easy to print invoices (or e-mail them) without posting them (or
> > > vice-versa). It's a workflow inherited from SQL-Ledger that has caused
> > > problems for him in a previous company.
> > >
> > > I'd like to propose addition of a Post+Print and a Post+E-mail button,
> > > which prints or mails the invoice after succesfully posting it. What
> > > do others say about this idea? I could create a patch to make it
> > > happen if it's generally considered an improvement.
> >
> > I have been thinking about this and have a better idea.
> >
> > This is something which has been a real headache regarding this
> > software since before we forked.  Part of the problem is user
> > confusion and the fact that the interface is not entirely clear as to
> > what it is doing.
> >
> > What about moving "Print" and "Email" to checkboxes which could be
> > done along side post or update operations?  This wouldn't require new
> > strings or anything, and it might make the UI a lot clearer and more
> > intelligible.  Plus when I click "update" I might not be expecting it
> > to save.... If I click "Print" that's a different thing.
> >
> > What do people think?
> >
> > Best Wishes,
> > Chris Travers
> >
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