I have spent the last 3 hours trying to set up my invoice template and have not been able to progress at all. The help files average one sentence per category so are of no use. A quick review of forums such as this does nothing to ease my concerns. In an attempt to at least progress past the basic issues I current face, this is the situation:

I have AE8 on Snow Leopard and my business is freight forwarding. I do not sell items therefore have set up Income Accounts only.

When I enter sales details into a invoice (professional) I provide the account name which is duly noted in the sales screen. How do I make information automatically show in the Description field? (Note I have added information in the description field of the income account). My invoice currently doesn't show any information. I would consider this a fundamental requirement of any invoice.

I also need to enter specific detail on shipping lines, origin and destination etc and would like to have fields pre-titled that i can add specific data into.

As the invoice is device I use to convey charges to a customer I take the quality and presentation of it seriously. As it stands at this time, the available invoice does not come close to meeting my requirements. I would appreciate assistance as my next option is to manually create invoices in Excel which is clearly unacceptable.

Thanks in advance

There is as you have noticed, quite some learning curve with invoice customisation.

Professional invoices are usually printed wth the invoice line description, on the assumption that you are communicating the particular work done. I use this style of invoice myself.

I like your idea of standardising line descriptions. But in the customisation screen, have a look at what fields can be added to professional invoice transaction lines, especially the ones marked "Column Every Page".

You'll find that account description is not one of these. Job description is there, so one way forward would be to set up job numbers to match each income account, reference that job number on each invoice line, and then customise your invoice to add the job description to the invoice.

For your remaining requirements I have a suggestion.

MYOB doesn't have custom fields on the invoice screen layout, and doesn't enable invoice field re-naming, and the professional invoice does not have a ship-to field (which is a pity).

One way to enter specific details on shipping line, origin, destination, is to set up a recurring invoice for each shipping line, with the Line specified, and the origin & destination set up as the first 3 line descriptions, eg:

Shipping Line: xxx
Origin:
Destination:

Then on your customised invoice, include BOTH the job description and the line description fields, overlaying each other, so that your invoice will print both.

To create an invoice, select the appropriate "Line" invoice from recurring invoices, and complete all lines for your customer.

I hope these ideas are useful.

Regards
Mike

Mike James
MYOB Certified Consultant
DataWise Limited, Auckland, New Zealanmd
Member, MYOB Developer Program
www.datawise.co.nz


I haven't tested this

Mike,

Thanks for your response. I will put your suggestions to the test and let you know how I fair.

cheers

Steve

PS. Go the Wallabies!!!!