Feng Forum
Support => How To's => : tamalita May 08, 2009, 12:30:12 AM
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The way this is set up seems backwards to me, or perhaps I am doing things backwards. I only currently have 3 users in my setup, myself and my 2 assistants. I have not moved my clients into the system yet, as users, because I'm not ready to do so. My assistants work with 1) keeping things updated (workspaces, tasks, scheduling) and 2) billing. I do all the other work. I use Quickbooks to actually do my invoicing and was hoping that I would be able to take the time data from OpenGoo and bring it into Quickbooks using the same billing categories. So I set up all my billing categories. My thought was that I would be able to choose each task and assign it to the proper category so that my billing assistant would know where to put it in Quickbooks. But the way the billing categories system is set up, each category has to be assigned to a user. Well, all the billing categories need to be assigned to me. And each client would require multiple billing categories as well.
So how is the billing category system *supposed* to work, obviously I am doing something incorrect, or looking at things incorrectly.
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tamalita, I think that with the original intent of billing was to simply be able to bill a person out at a certain rate. Since it was developed, the need for more flexibility has presented itself in other threads, like this (http://forums.opengoo.org/index.php?topic=1210.0) and this (http://forums.opengoo.org/index.php?topic=1443.0). You had replied in another similar thread here (http://forums.opengoo.org/index.php?topic=1621.msg6377#msg6377), where I assume you hadn't actually tried playing with billing just yet.
I think you likely understand the limitations: billing is simply per user, and not a very flexible system at this time. So given this limitation, you have only a few options:
1. Do not use OG for billing, just wait until and if better billing features are added.
2. Try a workaround, such as creating multiple fake clients, each with a different billing rate (example, client "Jose Smith-25" at $25/hr billing rate, and client "Jose Smith-35" at $35/hr billing rate etc). See if you can get creative to solve your problem.
3. Sponsor (http://www.fengoffice.com/web/community/sponsor-feature.php) the feature.
I myself have offered this as a feature suggestion, as I would love to use it for my own more complex billing needs. Only time will tell if it is on the roadmap.
cheers
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Thanks so much for the input, and I have read those posts. I think I've found something that works for me, and didn't take a whole lot of reworking/rethinking. I am not using OG to do my billing, but I am using it to time my tasks and that information has to go into Quickbooks. The QB entry is done by another individual so I had to rethink the way I was entering my workspaces and tasks. Now when she does a time report, everything falls into place perfectly :)
Anyway, thanks again for the insight!
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You're welcome
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@Tamalita: Great news that you are finding the billing module useful! If you could illustrate your use case with further details, I bet that many will find that info very useful!
@Pet: Thank you very much for helping out with support! The forum is getting quite demanding. I hope more community members join in this effort!