Why invoicing came next in TradeYoke

Part 13 of 39 of Building TradeYoke, the story of how the platform was built, from January 2024 to today. Previous: September 2024: getting an existing round in without retyping it. Next: November 2024: a ledger that cannot be quietly edited. See every part on the build timeline.

Quick answer

Quick answer: Invoicing came next because a visit that is done but not billed is money not collected. The three things an invoice in TradeYoke had to get right were: raised from the job so nobody retypes it, numbered in sequence so it stands up to scrutiny, and recorded so it cannot be quietly changed afterwards.

Key takeaways

Invoicing followed the diary because the money is attached to the visit.
An invoice should be raised from the job, not retyped.
Numbers run in sequence per year, and an issued invoice cannot be quietly edited.
Customers can get the invoice by email as a PDF.

Money follows the visit

By October 2024 a window cleaner could hold a round and see the day's work. But the visit that has just been done is also an amount of money, and the next thing most people do is work out who owes what. That is the order we had been building toward. If the visit is in the system, the bill should come from the visit.

Three things it had to get right

Raised from the job. The customer, address, description and price are already there. Retyping them is where mistakes and delays come from. Any part of TradeYoke that bills (a window cleaning job today, others later) hands the amount to the invoicing module, which turns it into an invoice.
Numbered properly. Invoices are numbered in sequence for each year. A gap or a duplicate is the kind of thing an accountant notices, so we made the numbering the system's job, not yours.
Not quietly changeable. Once an invoice has been issued, it should not be possible to change it behind your back. Corrections should be visible as corrections. That decision led to the ledger described in the next article.

What a first invoice does

You raise an invoice from a job, check it in a draft editor, issue it, and email it to the customer as a PDF. You can record a payment against it, whether cash, card, bank transfer or cheque, or mark it paid. You can also void it, with the voiding recorded. You can see how invoicing works today on the invoicing and payments page.

Who it was for

The window cleaner, first. A customer who pays on the doorstep and a customer who is invoiced monthly are both common on a round, and the invoice had to cope with both without making the first group do extra work.

November: the ledger, and why an invoice that cannot be edited is a feature.

Questions people ask

Why does TradeYoke raise invoices from jobs?

Because the customer, address and price are already on the job. Raising the invoice from it saves retyping and avoids the mistakes that retyping causes.

What can I do with an invoice in TradeYoke?

Raise it from a job, edit the draft, issue it with a sequential number, email it as a PDF, record cash, card, bank transfer or cheque payments, and void it if needed.