Is it possible to batch create sales invoices with multiple transaction lines? If so which column is the transaction line identifier? If there isn’t any, how to add additional lines?
Yes you can. But I cannot understand your specific request about identifiers. The different lines in excel are inside each single cell of the invoice line separated with the “new line” character.
Ah, I understand what you mean. Now I’ve noticed the additional lines that are inside the cell of Excel. I expected that each line in Excel is a transaction line, so I expected a line ID, but it has been solved in a simpler way. Thank you for your reply!
And Davide,
The output from the original Excel has several lines I want to invoice in a single sales invoice. Do you have a suggestion how to easily get multiple cells in Excel merge in a single cell with the ‘new line’ character added?
Line break in excel can be obtained with this function:
=“Line1”&CHAR(10)&“Line2”
Thanx!
I have to bump this old thread.
Can someone explain how to create a spreadsheet that can be used to batch create a single sales invoice for a single client with multiple line items?
When I paste the spreadsheet file and batch create invoices, each excel line is an individual invoice. How are individual invoices with multiple line items created?
- I searched the documentation.
- I searched the forums and this thread was the only direct reference to this question.
Thank you kindly.
// EDIT: I found this post: How to batch create purchase invoice with more than one line item
So, now I see that each line is an individual invoice, and mulitple billable line items are stuffed into a cel.
Two questions:
-
Has anyone managed to get this to work?
-
Copy does not work on either standalone of server version. Details:
OS: Debian 10
Browser: Firefox, Chrome, Brave
Spreadsheet: Libre Calc
Anyone else using Linux and copy works for them?
- I can find the data in the HTML source just fine, just a bit of work. I paste the data into Libre Calc and I can see the relevant line with multiple line entries for a particular invoice that I can use as an example.
However, when I delete the original invoice and then batch create a new one using the pasted data (not creating anything new, just pasting back the data from the spreadsheet to see if it works), I don’t get multiple line items. Some of the data is accurate, most of it is missing and a some of the data is smooshed into a single line.
Anyone with a similar desktop environment / workflow get this to work and can share any suggestions for getting this working correctly?
Thanks.
The simplest way to understand what you need is to
- Create an invoice with multiple lines in Manager
- Use Batch update to copy this invoice into Excel
This will show you the format required when using batch Create
Aha, I appreciate the confirmation. Then it must be an issue in the Linux based workflow.
Anyone have a Debian Linux / Libre Calc workflow that has managed to get this to work?
Honestly, batch creating a single invoice is much more work than entering one manually.
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You are correct, I can see how finicky it is.
QUESTION: What is the acceptable way to ask for a feature request?
OVERVIEW: I have a ticketing system that our techs use and it would be nice to be able to take our excel/csv reports, format them and import then as single multiline invoices per client.
So far, I have not really managed to make the multiple entries per cel work well. I am wondering if it would be appropriate to request a BATCH CREATE SINGLE MULTILINE INVOICE.
It would work the same way as now except for two behaviour changes:
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There would need to be a way to stipulate the single client to whom the invoice is being billed to. I guess this could technically stay the same as it is now, but should be thought about.
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Each line entry in the spreadsheet would be a new line entry in a multiline invoice (instead of squeezing extra data into a cel).
The loop that handles the current batch import would need to be modified slightly, but probably not too much so this shouldn’t be a completely new feature and it would allow for users to easily integrate Manager with various ticket / issue trackers because most of them export to csv and excel.
So the workflow for end users would be something like this:
- Export from ticket tracker to excel.
- Run a short script to reformat data into the expected column layout for Manager.
- Copy / paste into manager.
Do you think this would be a useful feature request or a waste of time?
My search on the forums shows maybe 3 people that might need it, I’m curious to get a second opinion.
Put it on the forum in a new topic. Don’t tack it onto a two-year old topic. And you have a better chance of your idea being implemented if it doesn’t require a complete restructuring of the database, as yours would. The fact is, if you are going to write a script to reformat data from your ticket tracker into Manager’s layout, you don’t need a new feature. Just write the script to put things into the existing structure. It isn’t that complex. Identifying all the GUIDs is the hardest part.
The Windows newline character [CHAR(10)] doesn’t work for this purpose in Linux. You need to use the Linux equivalent [CHAR(13)+CHAR(10)].
Here’s an example formula that works to combine the individual items in D5, E5 and F5 into a Linux LibrOfficeCalc spreadsheet field that can be used when batch-creating a multi-line invoice: =CONCATENATE(D5,CHAR(13),CHAR(10),E5,CHAR(13),CHAR(10),F5)
Once a template is set up, batch-create can be a real time saver if there are many recurring sales-invoices which can be easily manipulated in a spreadsheet environment.
Thank you very kindly, that is tremendous help.