Michael, One transaction = one invoice.
If not paid 30 days later, send another copy of the same invoice (same invoice number, etc). Perhaps you want to change the wording on the invoice for later printings (adding increasingly intense text to the comment area each month), based on current date - date of invoice. However, some businesses also send a "Statement" or "Statement of Account" that lists ALL outstanding invoices, or in some cases, previous invoices, any payments made, current invoices, and a balance due. Some businesses never use statements and instead just send invoices. So, this is just to confirm your original realization that creating new invoices each month for the same transaction would only buy you trouble. David Stevenson http://talkingfox.blogspot.com -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of MB Software Solutions Sent: Monday, June 18, 2007 2:26 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Design question I've got the following tables: * transactions * invoice_header * invoice_details * payment_header * payment_details I create invoices based on the transactions that haven't been paid. "Paid" is defined as follows: sum(payment_details.namount) >= transaction.amount , where the sum is done on matching trans_id keys. I've got a field called "iPaid" in the invoice_header table that is set to 1 (true) when all of its detail records have been paid. This allows me to quickly query for all of the UNPAID invoices rather than scanning through and comparing the SUM(payment_details.namount) to transaction.namount every time. Eventually I'll put a trigger into the payment_details table to achieve this, but for now, it'll be in VFP bizobj/dataobj code every time a payment is applied. My question is this: say I create an invoice ("0001") for your unpaid transactions, and 30 days later, when it's time to invoice again, you haven't paid them yet. As the application developer, do you create a new invoice ("0002") for the current AND past charges, or just create an invoice for the current charges (so that you then have 2 invoices in either case), or do you simply open up the existing invoice, tack on the current charges, and thus keep the same ("0001") invoice? My concern about having a 2nd invoice is due to my having the iPaid field in the invoice_header table, as I described above. 2 invoices for the same transactions would prove to be a problem when reconciling the payment data. How would you proceed? tia! -- Michael J. Babcock, MCP MB Software Solutions, LLC http://mbsoftwaresolutions.com http://fabmate.com "Work smarter, not harder, with MBSS custom software solutions!" [excessive quoting removed by server] _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
