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Improving the invoicing tool
Thread poster: Jason Grimes
Jason Grimes
Jason Grimes
Local time: 11:48
SITE STAFF
Jul 16, 2018

It's time for another round of improvements to the ProZ.com invoicing tool.

Several suggestions have been made in the years since the invoicing tool was last updated (see this forum discussion, for example), and I will be implementing a number of them.

If there are improvements you would particularly like to see, please comment in the discussion below.

Tha
... See more
It's time for another round of improvements to the ProZ.com invoicing tool.

Several suggestions have been made in the years since the invoicing tool was last updated (see this forum discussion, for example), and I will be implementing a number of them.

If there are improvements you would particularly like to see, please comment in the discussion below.

Thanks,

Jason
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Somnath Dey
Abraham Abukar
Gisele Caminha
Aung Chit Myat
Edson Oliveira
Chris Gao
 
Jason Grimes
Jason Grimes
Local time: 11:48
SITE STAFF
TOPIC STARTER
Mobile-friendly design refresh Jul 23, 2018

The invoicing tool has been given a new look. This update is intended to make the design a bit more modern and easier to use on mobile devices. Please share your thoughts about the changes here in this forum thread.

If you have any issues with the new design, you can temporarily switch back to the old one by clicking "Switch back to old version" at the top of the invoicing page.

Best regards,

Jason


Aung Chit Myat
sara Rashedi
 
Georgios Tziakos
Georgios Tziakos  Identity Verified
Spain
Member (2011)
English to Greek
+ ...
Bad impressions, so far Jul 24, 2018

Hi Jason,

As it often happens when UIs are modernized, the changes actually make the interface less intuitive. If this looks better in a mobile decide, that's fine, but sacrificing utility on the platform that is almost always used for invoicing (i.e. computers, instead of mobile devices) makes no sense to me.

Some details:

1) The buttons having an actual frame is a plus when using a mouse. They look good and crisp. The mobile-friendly style of bigger text
... See more
Hi Jason,

As it often happens when UIs are modernized, the changes actually make the interface less intuitive. If this looks better in a mobile decide, that's fine, but sacrificing utility on the platform that is almost always used for invoicing (i.e. computers, instead of mobile devices) makes no sense to me.

Some details:

1) The buttons having an actual frame is a plus when using a mouse. They look good and crisp. The mobile-friendly style of bigger text on a borderless color line might be better for touching things, but not for finding or clicking on them.
2) The text on left-side menu-tree pane lost its different formatting/sizing, which allows for a quick and intuitive understanding of each option's relative important
3) Most importantly, the left-side menu-tree pane is so wide that it makes the actual main window shrink and show less information, or in smaller size. I can barely see my invoices list and my invoices themselves properly now on a 21' screen (I assume it will be much worse in a laptop screen). This was the first thing I noticed, and the most annoying by far. It takes up 25% of the screen width in the new UI, while only around 15% in the old one.

That's all so far, I hope you can keep the old UI for the desktop website and remember these words of wisdom: 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. And avoid following the IT trend of the last half-decade that new or 'updated' always means better.

Thanks,
Georgios
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toasty
Florencio Alonso
Marcos Romano
Giia Weigel
 
Josephine Cassar
Josephine Cassar  Identity Verified
Malta
Local time: 16:48
Member (2012)
English to Maltese
+ ...
Well, I'm glad Jul 24, 2018

To see some, not all, of the changes. Having a bigger font size is not much use but being able to start a new invoice for a new client is far easier than it used to be when using the other one. I used to get muddled and then realised it was better to input the new client's details first but still had problems when it came to send off the invoice to put in who the new client is. So, that is positive but I have not tried it all out though I see that the rest is the same. Thank you for that huge, a... See more
To see some, not all, of the changes. Having a bigger font size is not much use but being able to start a new invoice for a new client is far easier than it used to be when using the other one. I used to get muddled and then realised it was better to input the new client's details first but still had problems when it came to send off the invoice to put in who the new client is. So, that is positive but I have not tried it all out though I see that the rest is the same. Thank you for that huge, at least to me, improvement.Collapse


Phương Lý (X)
 
David Gómez
David Gómez  Identity Verified
Local time: 16:48
Japanese to Spanish
+ ...
Good to see this Jul 24, 2018

I'm glad that the invoice tool is receiving some love. It was really necessary, thanks Jason.

First I noticed is that the left menu occupies too much space in my browser. Screenshot attached.

Hope it is fixed in future revisions.

Captura


[Edited at 2018-07-24 08:55 GMT]


toasty
Giia Weigel
 
toasty
toasty  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 16:48
Member (2013)
Italian to English
Way too much empty space Jul 24, 2018

I agree with the if it ain't broke don't fix it idea.

Giving things a sleek new look is fine, but not at the cost of showing me LESS information on my screen. The left-side menu takes up way too much space now, and all the rows of invoices are so big that I've reduced the magnification on my web browser screen to 80% to actually see anything. Google implemented an update like this a few months ago, it just reminds me of the large buttons on cell phones for the elderly.


Josephine Cassar
Giia Weigel
Eleanor Odhiambo
 
Jason Grimes
Jason Grimes
Local time: 11:48
SITE STAFF
TOPIC STARTER
Made sidebar smaller on large screens Jul 24, 2018

Hi everyone,

I've made the sidebar smaller on small screens. Thanks for the feedback.

Best regards,

Jason


Asmaisma
 
Carlis Hsu
Carlis Hsu  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 11:48
Member
English to Chinese
+ ...
Switch it back Jul 25, 2018

Just because something is new doesn't mean it is necessarily good.

An example is the new president of the US.

When a traditional thing has been there for quite a long time, it is there for a good reason.

Particularly if you design a look for the sake of a mobile platform, please save the world by allowing users to opt to remain in the older version permanently.

Of course, you site staff has the very power to force every user to adapt to a new l
... See more
Just because something is new doesn't mean it is necessarily good.

An example is the new president of the US.

When a traditional thing has been there for quite a long time, it is there for a good reason.

Particularly if you design a look for the sake of a mobile platform, please save the world by allowing users to opt to remain in the older version permanently.

Of course, you site staff has the very power to force every user to adapt to a new look every now and then. But our adaptation to the new one doesn't necessarily mean recognition—it's more of a technique about survival, just like our adaptation to Trump.

TL;DR—The new look is ugly.
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Florencio Alonso
Marcos Romano
 
Jason Grimes
Jason Grimes
Local time: 11:48
SITE STAFF
TOPIC STARTER
Improved currencies and exchange rate data Jul 25, 2018

The list of possible invoicing currencies has been substantially increased. It now includes all usable currencies from the ISO 4217 standard.

If you invoice in multiple currencies, some financial reports in the invoicing tool can show amounts automatically converted to a single reference currency, for easier comparison.

By popular request, the currency conversions in these reports have been i
... See more
The list of possible invoicing currencies has been substantially increased. It now includes all usable currencies from the ISO 4217 standard.

If you invoice in multiple currencies, some financial reports in the invoicing tool can show amounts automatically converted to a single reference currency, for easier comparison.

By popular request, the currency conversions in these reports have been improved. Exchange rates are now more reliable--they are updated every night, from financial data provider fixer.io. Exchange rates are now available for over 170 different currencies. It is also possible to override the automatically updated market rates, and use your own hard-coded exchange rates instead.

Best regards,

Jason
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Anne Kauffman
Anne Kauffman  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 08:48
Member (2010)
English to French
Issue with sorting by invoices Aug 2, 2018

Hi Jason,

First, I would like to thank you and ProZ for making the invoice tool available to member. It has been extremely useful to me over the years.

I just noticed a change when sorting invoices by Invoice#. They used to be sorted in order starting at units, then tens, hundreds, etc. (i.e. 5, 6, 51, 57, 64, 68, 157). Now the invoices get sorted starting with hundreds, then tens, then units (i.e. 157, 5, 51, 57, 6, 64, 68). It would be great if this feature could be r
... See more
Hi Jason,

First, I would like to thank you and ProZ for making the invoice tool available to member. It has been extremely useful to me over the years.

I just noticed a change when sorting invoices by Invoice#. They used to be sorted in order starting at units, then tens, hundreds, etc. (i.e. 5, 6, 51, 57, 64, 68, 157). Now the invoices get sorted starting with hundreds, then tens, then units (i.e. 157, 5, 51, 57, 6, 64, 68). It would be great if this feature could be reverted.

Thank you

Capture1
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Jason Grimes
Jason Grimes
Local time: 11:48
SITE STAFF
TOPIC STARTER
Improved sorting by numeric invoice numbers Aug 2, 2018

Hi Anne,

Thanks for reporting this issue.

I made a change that should make sorting by invoice number work as expected when the invoice numbers are entirely numeric. (Invoice numbers that contain other characters will still be sorted alphabetically, though.)

Please let me know if this doesn't resolve it for you.

Best regards,

Jason


 
Philippe Noth
Philippe Noth  Identity Verified
Switzerland
Local time: 16:48
Member (2015)
German to French
+ ...
Sorting the re-usable items Aug 4, 2018

Hi Jason,

First of all let me say that I love your invoicing tool. For an occasional translator that is learning to become a full-time freelancer at the end of the year, its simplicity saved me a lot of hassle in my weakest domain: administration.

I was going to say "it's perfect, don't touch it", until I noticed that my growing list of templates (re-usable items) was not sorted:

proz-invoice-forum

So, this is the improvement I'd like to see. Note that I checked in the Edit all window whether there was an option to sort the items there, but there is not.

Philippe


 
Jason Grimes
Jason Grimes
Local time: 11:48
SITE STAFF
TOPIC STARTER
Re-usable items are now sorted alphabetically Aug 6, 2018

Thanks for the kind words, Philippe.

Re-usable items are now sorted in the list alphabetically. Thanks for the suggestion.

Best regards,

Jason


 
Paulinho Fonseca
Paulinho Fonseca  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 12:48
Member (2011)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Quote Aug 21, 2018

I would love to see a 'quote tag' for system. XD

Ben Lenthall
 
Victoria Britten
Victoria Britten  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 16:48
French to English
+ ...
Payment date Jan 3, 2019

Hi Jason,

I don't think I've had this issue before, but today when I wanted to record (old) payments of invoices, when I clicked on the calendar to select the date the bar with the month and the previous/following arrows was hidden under the upper toolbar:
2019-01-03
I could just about click on the arrows by guesstimating their position and clicking just in the little bit of bar that showed, but it's not what you'd call practical!


 
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Improving the invoicing tool






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