Due date (again)

I know this has been discussed as nauseam on the forum, but I wanted to share something that just happened today. I was on the phone with a client who mentioned, as a “just FYI” aside, that she found it rude that my last invoice had a due date printed on it. (Because I’ve never entered due dates on my invoices, the invoice printed with a due date equal to the invoice date. It didn’t used to do that long ago – if there was no due date entered, nothing would appear on the invoice – so I hadn’t even noticed that my invoices lately have had due dates on them.)

In my field, we work on collegial basis with our clients. They pay me when they pay me. Most pay promptly, some don’t. I never charge a late fee, and it’s never take me more than one gentle reminder to get paid. But my client today found it pushy of me to have a due date on my invoice, and she wanted to let me know that. I have to admit, I agree with her.

I understand @Lubos’s feeling is that unless there’s a due date, some users will use invoices improperly. I for one know when to use an invoice, and I for one (and perhaps for many) think I should be able to suppress having due dates printed on invoices, especially when I don’t explicitly enter a due date but also even when I do enter one for my internal use.

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A custom theme can suppress the due date when printing the fields array.

Personally, I think your customer is a little too high-minded. You’ve already extended courtesy by offering credit and not assessing late fees. I doubt her utilities suppliers, insurance broker, or credit card processor do the same. Most financial professionals would consider any invoice not containing an explicit future due date to be payable immediately.

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@lubos On printed docs, Manager does not show fields which have no contents in them. This is applicable to all forms. So why cant the same rule be applicable to due dates?

If the user leaves the due date field blank, Manager can assume it to be the same as issue date but need not print the same on the document.

Users who need to show due dates on printed documents can still enter the due date on the form.

Users cannot be forced to use a custom theme for hiding something they never wanted to show in the first place.

The same would be applicable to showing payment info and Balance Due on invoices. I would always prefer to have a checkbox to show the same on printed documents. In our country the goods are sometimes checked by officials during transport and they always get the balance due confused with the invoice total. While the customer is happy to know the balance due on an invoice, the suppliers do not always find it easy during the shipment of goods.

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The latest version (19.2.83) contains checkbox to hide due date on invoices. It’s on the basis that even though you could already do that using custom theme, it’s fairly common request and custom theme would require some programming.

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Hi Lubos, can you please give the option to “hide due date” in the recurring sales invoice under settings.
So, I don’t have to exercise that option in every single invoice.
Thanks

This is already in the bugs category.