1 Topic by cristiart (edited by cristiart 07/09/2013 06:42:24 am)

  • From: USA
  • Registered: 03/26/2013
  • Posts: 93

Topic: email order/invoice to customer, database time stamp

this hack its in 2 parts, first part it's completed, second part I'm working on it.

concept: add email link in orders and invoices inquiry page next to edit and print icons. every time you press the icon, email is sent/resent to your customer and the database get stamped with the current date.

usage: first it's time saving when you have to send/resend the invoice to your customer. you'll also know IF or when the email was sent to your customers, by viewing the "email sent date" in your view_invoice.php page. this is very useful when you have overdue invoices and you are getting ready to call your customer. also, you will know if your employees are doing there job properly buy sending the invoice to your customers.

part one hack concept: create 2 database columns for order and invoice sections. create functions to stamp database then email it's send ( date stamp, 1 for email send). retrieve data from database in view pages.

part two hack concept: if ( $email_sent  == 1) in database, change default jpeg images with a new distinctive image. this will show in view page that email is already sent. also, if invoice it's overdue, change email function to send a different text email message to customer, text to reflect invoice overdue and request for payment immediately.

  • elax
  • Senior Member
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  • From: UK
  • Registered: 05/17/2011
  • Posts: 326

Re: email order/invoice to customer, database time stamp

Another way is to configure the BCC address for ongoing email in Setup/Company Setup.
That way, all emails which have been sent are also sent to the configured address. You can configure your email to filter those email and archive them straight away without going to the inbox. You could then check all the "history" of emails in your mail box.
Alternatively, you can have a special email account just for this.

/Elax

  • joe
  • Administrator
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  • Registered: 03/15/2007
  • Posts: 5,107

Re: email order/invoice to customer, database time stamp

@cristiart

It is not recommended to change the database structure within a minor release. These Changes are subject to consider when releasing a major release such as 2.4.
elax method seems to fix your problem.

/Joe

  • From: USA
  • Registered: 03/26/2013
  • Posts: 93

Re: email order/invoice to customer, database time stamp

that can be a workable solution around, however, what about if you have multiple locations for your business, or even a few employees? what about if you want to work from home a few days a week? what about if you are a CEO in your company and want to make sure your employee are sending out the invoices so that you can get payed? what about John from accounting, how dose he know that Emily already sent the invoice to the customer.
the above solution mean that your email inbox you have to have dedicated to be setup to store email in the cloud so that all employees can access it.

further more, you'll have to set that email up on all your devises (iPhone,iPad,laptop) and all office computers in order to access that information.

to me having a time stamp it's the easier and TIME saving solution. time being of the essence.

5 Reply by cristiart (edited by cristiart 09/09/2013 02:15:45 am)

  • From: USA
  • Registered: 03/26/2013
  • Posts: 93

Re: email order/invoice to customer, database time stamp

here is the update for this hack:

for "Customer Transaction" screenshot here:
http://s16.postimg.org/n6w7ggjvp/fa_email.jpg

this will allow you to send/resend the invoice/email to you customer just one click away. This also will tell you right in the inquiry page if the email/invoice was already sent to your customers. -> you want to get payed right? don't forget to send that email smile This also help when you have multiple sales people and your invoices are only send thought email to your customers. (no more postal office mail). Once you click the icon the database will get stamp with today's date and later on you can see the date in "Sales Invoice page" -> see bellow


for Sales Invoice page see here: http://s14.postimg.org/70f05plxt/fa_email2.jpg

  • From: Singapore, India, Chennai
  • Registered: 05/02/2009
  • Posts: 6,160

Re: email order/invoice to customer, database time stamp

Make the extra fields in a new table with a 1:1 relationship with the parent table and have the inserts and updates done using a trigger. This way all will be fine when the db schema changes and it can be made into an extension.

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