Solutions > Up and running with invoice and quotation
Getting Started with Invoice and Quotation Solution
The "Invoice and Quotation" solution was designed to help small businesses and entrepreneurs in handling invoices, quotes, organize and keep their customer information in one convenient location. It allows you to keep track of your expenses, generate powerful reports and much more. If you're a small business owner or entrepreneur you should definitely check this out, because having the right software can mean a big difference for the company. Another great benefit is that the solution is completely free of any monthly payment and it doesn't limit any of it's capabilities. So, if you're on a lookout for a good piece of accounting software, don't skip ahead, check it out and see for yourself what a great tool it is.
Installation
The first thing you need to do is to download the solution bundle. Or, if you've already downloaded it on our Invoice and Quotation solution page, run self-extracting archive FossLookFreeInvoice.exe. After that, you'll see the launcher window.
FossLookLauncher allows you to install FossLook Server and FossLook Client in a couple of clicks. The solution bundle contains Invoice and Quotation library, that you need to work with the solution.
For step-by-step guide on how to install FossLook Server and Client please refer to this article:
Preparing the Solution
All right, once you've done with the installation, you need to grant access to the library for your users. If at the moment you don't have any users on your server, you need to Create at least one user. After that, go over each individual folder in the library and grant access to it for your users.
After that you'll be able to see and work with all folders in FossLook client application.
Folders structure
The solution has the following folder structure for the different document types:
For example, "Invoice" folder contains all invoices, "Quote" - all quotes etc.
"Invoice" document type
The documents of this type store all information about the transaction between buyer and the seller: invoice date, number, terms, pricing and other financial information.
"Work order" subdocument
Each invoice can contain child documents such as "Work orders", which store information about the work that has been done, (for example, work title, work hours, price per hour and total summary).
Typically, the process of working with the invoice follows this pattern:
- Create main invoice document
- Create a number of child "Work orders", filling in total time and price per hour
- Print your invoice using one of the available templates
Note: The sales tax in this solution is set to "Subtotal" * 0.03 which may be a bit different from what you need. You can always change this value on the "Calculated value" tab. See our aricle Using Field Calculations in FossLook to find out more about field calculations.
"Quote" document type
The documents of this type store all information that lets a potential buyer know how much your goods or services will cost before committing to purchase them.
Typically, the process of working with the quotation is the same as with the invoice:
- Create main quote document
- Create a number of child "Work orders", filling in total time and price per hour
- Print your quote using one of the available templates
"Expenses report" document type
If you travel quite often, one of the questions that you may ask yourself is "How much does my business trips cost?". This document basically summarizes your total trip expenses.
"Trip event" subdocument
Each "Expenses report" contains child "Trip events", which store information about the trip, (for example, trip title, comments, dates, total cost, etc.).
Typically, the process of working with the expenses report goes like this:
- Create main "Expenses report" document
- Create a number of child "Trip events", filling in information related to the trip
- Print your report using one of the available templates
Notes and Task
The purpose of these documents are pretty self-explanatory. The first one lets you create simple notes. One nice feature here is versioning. The system stores each version of your note in a separate tab called "Versions journal". Although, if you don't need this functionality, you can easily disable this feature in FossLook Administrator.
The second one, "Task", is basically a unit of work that you assign to a project member. It has a couple of dictionaries like "Task priority" and "Task type", that let you select corresponding values. Besides all of that, it's a pretty basic document with very simple functionality.
Extending the capabilities of your solution
Every organization is unique, and has it's own business processes. Therefore, quite often it's difficult to find a solution that would solve absolutely all problems of the company. FossLook platform offers a wide range of customizations that will help you to extend the functionality of your solution.
For example, if you need to perform specific calculations within your documents, you can easily update or even create new field calculation formulas, which you then can use in other documents. The article Using Field Calculations in FossLook describes in detail how this can be done.
To sum things up, this solution is a perfect tool to make the invoicing process nice and easy. It is very simple to use and backed up with powerful FossLook platform features such as customer management, history, statistics, custom document libraries, versioning and others. Without hesitation, we recommend to try it for any small business or a large enterprise.
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