Context:
I have set up manager to track my profitability regarding cloud based web servers i host.
For that matter i purchase VPSes from two different suppliers, build an app or website on top of them and sell the final product + hosting.
I have set up my servers as inventory items (the product that i sell);
Every month i get an invoice that corresponds to that month’s cost of a particular server;
Every month i set up sales invoices to my customers with that server’s cost + the service costs (and this works wonderfully);
However:
The purchase invoice is rather long (think 4~6 pdf pages with tables) and it costs me about 30 minutes every month to import this invoice by hand but my server provider allows me to export a CSV file detailing the corresponding month’s balance in the following manner:
I would like to copy and paste a potentially modified version of this CSV into the invoice’s items (the lines inside the invoice creation page) and have it automagically fill up the invoice fields with correct information. How i think my csv should look like:
First column of the CSV would be the inventory item, exactly as named in the inventory items tab
Second column would be the default for an inventory item or potentially a proper account as stated in the accounts menu
Third column would be a text column
Fourth would be a number (with or without fractions)
Fifth would be a cost column
Issues i have:
I can’t seem to find the import functionality neither for purchase invoices nor for the item lines inside the invoices creation menu.
Copying and pasting also don’t work as i thought, i can copy and paste things if i click the line field (like clicking on the Item to bring up a dropdown with my inventory items and then pasting the text there)
I’m not sure if this functionality really exists but it seems like a reasonable enough addition for people who have dynamic recurring invoices.
This is very unconventional. Inventory is normally for tangible goods held for sale or production. VPS’s do not meet that requirement. You don’t actually deliver a VPS to your customer. You are selling a service (use of whatever app or website you build) that hinges on another service you buy from your VPS providers (use of the VPS’s). You did not explain completely, but I doubt your customers own the VPS if they stop paying you for your service.
Non-inventory items would seem more appropriate for your invoicing. See the Guide: Manager Guides.
You can’t. And even if you could, your CSV file is missing essential information, such as posting accounts, unit price, and tax codes. While you say you want some of these columns, the CSV file doesn’t contain the information.
Okay!
Honestly, Non-inventory items make much more sense for VPSes, you’re correct! I’ll try that out and hopefully my question will help other people that have the same question.
since you are not dealing with any physical inventory, you can simply enter only the necessary details that would add up to the total for your purchase invoice. you do not have to enter every line.
also you can add the originally received purchase invoice copy as an attachment to the purchase invoice entered in Manager which would help you check things easily when required.
@sharpdrivetek
Wouldn’t that make report generation way less verbose and make it almost impossible for me to connect individual servers from different customers to individual reports?
Trying out non-inventory items i reached the conclusion that changing all my stuff to it doesn’t fit the scope that a CSV importer for purchase invoices would. It just shifts the hurdle of manually creating entries from purchase to sales invoices.
I’ll keep trying to make this work with inventory items for now!
That is likely to lead to more problems. Your approach is a misuse of inventory items, and as the Manager application evolves, no consideration will be given to accommodating such unconventional practices. Things that work now may not work later. Inventory management in Manager involves a complex interplay between many different modules. You may discover later, if you were activate a new tab, for example, that things don’t work at all. You’re not selling inventory, so you should not use inventory items.
Why is it important to you for reports to be verbose? By their very nature, reports in Manager are quite brief in their content. What are you trying to display in a report that needs to be verbose? In particular, what about an individual VPS needs to be connected to any report beyond some alphanumeric designator?
There is not going to be any CSV import capability for purchase invoices. Go back to the beginning, if you would, and explain why you want to import large tables of data for your purchase invoices. Why does that data matter for accounting?