Re: Creating a statement of account [RESOVED]L

[Steve Litt]

On Fri, 22 Dec 2017 05:47:22 -0800 (PST)
Rich Shepard  wrote:

> On Fri, 22 Dec 2017, Joel Kulesza wrote:
> 
> > I tend to agree with Steve's points.  
> 
> Joel,
> 
>I fail to understand why you and Steve think LyX/LaTeX is not
> suitable for producing an invoice/statement while a word processor
> such as LibreOffice is. 

Time out. I didn't mention LibreOffice. I mentioned Inkscape, Plain
TeX, or just plain ASCII output to the printer. I wouldn't recommend
using LibreOffice for this purpose.

I have this cool little merge program that prints mailing labels, with
the return address in a small font and the To address in a big one.
It's basically a looping program that replaces tokens in a Plain TeX
file with data items, piles those one on top of another using Plain TeX
to paginate, and it prints out my mailing labels. Probably took me 3
hours to write 10 years ago, still working perfectly today.

SteveT

Steve Litt 
December 2017 featured book: Thriving in Tough Times
http://www.troubleshooters.com/thrive

Re: Creating a statement of account [RESOVED]L

[Joel Kulesza]

On Fri, Dec 22, 2017 at 10:47 PM, Rich Shepard 
wrote:

> On Fri, 22 Dec 2017, Joel Kulesza wrote:
>
> I tend to agree with Steve's points.
>>
>
> Joel,
>
>   I fail to understand why you and Steve think LyX/LaTeX is not suitable
> for
> producing an invoice/statement while a word processor such as LibreOffice
> is.


In my very vague statement I made no such claim that LibreOffice /
Microsoft office is suitable, but instead tried to suggest that LaTeX may
not be the right tool.  Rather, I would rely on purpose-built accounting
software to manage finances.  This software would be able to focus on the
details and complexities of the finances, rather than the details of the
output.  Those financial details could then be captured and moulded into
whatever output format, and with whatever output processor, you prefer
(LaTeX, myriad Pandoc-compatible formats, etc.).  While I wholly appreciate
LaTeX's capabilities, as a general framework lots of folks have adapted it
to uses that it, as a typesetting engine, isn't best suited.  As one goes
from typesetting toward programming, I start to ask myself whether it is
the right tool to perform the processing or just to prepare the ultimate
output.  If one has invoices that are as simple as what I demonstrated, by
all means use it.  However, not knowing your business finances, I can't
make that assessment and would prefer to err on the side of caution.

As an example: I use TikZ heavily and it isn't so long ago that I was using
it to perform a calculation within an illustration and was surprised to see
that a rather basic trigonometric function wasn't available in the version
of TeXLive I was using.  Keeping everything "in LaTeX" is ideal, but
sometimes there are weaknesses or simplifications made in available
packages that make this more troublesome/risky (how much of the solution is
rigorous versus being a functional hack?) than using an external
application.  When it comes to finances, I wish to avoid any hint of risk.


> I can produce invoices with GnuCash, but they're more parts-focused, not
> time-and-expense-focused. I used to use a spreadsheet to track retainer anc
> charges but the output is not as professional as is the output from LaTeX.
>

Using a spreadsheet, GnuCash, or some other finance-based software and then
directing its output to LaTeX for ultimate typesetting is how I would
operate.  This way you get the strength of a proper accounting program but
the elegant output of LaTeX.  The two key adages I follow in this regard
are UNIX's "do one thing, and do it well" and someone else's "use the right
tool for the right job."


> However, do you have an example .lyx file that isn't working for you and
>> an example of what you're trying to achieve (perhaps from a pre-LyX
>> interface)? Do you have a MWE, maybe without the fancy invoice2
>> components?
>>
>
>   My question was how to correctly implement the invoice2 package and the
> example you sent explains that very well. It also shows me that the
> invoice2
> package is not suitable for a statement which is a history of the project
> rather than a stand-alone invoice for a single month. Seeing this now
> answers my question.


Good.


> And, LyX does produce a nicely typeset statement which
> can run multiple pages when necessary.
>

Indeed.  I have periodically used multipage tables (manually, not with a
guiding framework like invoice2) and have been generally happy with the
result.

- Joel

Re: Creating a statement of account [RESOVED]L

[Rich Shepard]

On Fri, 22 Dec 2017, Joel Kulesza wrote:


I tend to agree with Steve's points.


Joel,

  I fail to understand why you and Steve think LyX/LaTeX is not suitable for
producing an invoice/statement while a word processor such as LibreOffice
is. I can produce invoices with GnuCash, but they're more parts-focused, not
time-and-expense-focused. I used to use a spreadsheet to track retainer anc
charges but the output is not as professional as is the output from LaTeX.


However, do you have an example .lyx file that isn't working for you and
an example of what you're trying to achieve (perhaps from a pre-LyX
interface)? Do you have a MWE, maybe without the fancy invoice2
components?


  My question was how to correctly implement the invoice2 package and the
example you sent explains that very well. It also shows me that the invoice2
package is not suitable for a statement which is a history of the project
rather than a stand-alone invoice for a single month. Seeing this now
answers my question. And, LyX does produce a nicely typeset statement which
can run multiple pages when necessary.

Thanks to both of you for responding,

Rich