Questions & Answers
(5 October 2011)Question:
I can’t put in description, date or job info in the invoices? How do I do that?Answer:
When you are adding an Item to an Invoice you can change the Item description if you wish. The Date and Job Description are used when you are using Timesheets. For example, if you are billing by the hour then you would input your time into the timesheets and these are then added to your Invoice showing the Job and Date of the timesheet entry. For more info on how Jobs and Timesheets work we have some video tutorials at: http://bee-software.net/invoice-software/tutorials/(3 October 2011)
Question:
I have your busy bee software set up for invoices from my wifes company. Can I add another invoicing company (my company?) or do I have to repurchase another time.Answer:
You can only run one version of Busy Bee Invoicing per computer (and hence one company). So if you wanted to run a 2nd copy you would need to run it on a different computer with a new licence.(2 October 2011)
Question:
I use Busy be and would like to be able to issue a credit note if pos?Answer:
We don’t have a dedicated Credit Note, but you can create a negative Invoice by using a negative Item qty when you add an item to the invoice. Also, you could temporarily change the Invoice Title to ‘Credit Note’ on the Settings tab (remember to click Update after making your changes, and remember to change it back after you have printed/sent your credit note!).(30 August 2011)
Question:
1. Can I increase the size of type on the invoice? It would be good to have a bolder appearance for the customer name and address and my own name and address.Answer:
2. I have about 100 products and it would be good to be able to import them from Excel rather than typing in each one. Is that possible?
1. You can increase the font in the Settings tab (and change the font type). This will affect all of the text on the Invoice. One option for changing the appearance of your Company details is to put them in as part of your company logo (i.e. create your own logo & text and upload it in the Settings tab, this displays on the top-left of the Invoice), then uncheck the “Company on PDFs” checkbox, so that the company details are not displayed at the top-right.(20 August 2011)
2. We don’t currently have an Import tool unfortunately! This is, however, high on our list of ‘to-do’ items.
Question:
I live in Spain and due to the nature of my business and the way some of my client have their businesses set-up I have to sometimes add to two taxes to invoices. This is where it gets tricky I need the ability to firstly apply a tax that is in the minuses ie -15% then the normal tax second your app actually does the math and the totals are correct but it appears to have validation on the input box informing me that it is too small an amount. Is there a way that you could tweak it to allow minuses? I really want to use your app so any help would be appreciated.Answer:
We have modified the software to allow negative taxes.(16 August 2011)
Question:
One thing that I think would be incredibly helpful is the option to edit an item once you add it to an invoice. For instance, let’s say I add an item to a new invoice, but I misspell the item name or key in an extra number. The only way to edit that listing is to delete it and then add a new one. I’d have thought that double-clicking or right-clicking would bring up some kind of dialog, but it unfortunately does not. Any chance of this feature being added?Answer:
We are happy to report that this feature has now been added. You can edit a line item by double-clicking on it when editing an Invoice or Quote.(12 August 2011)
Question:
I am trialling your invoicing software on my mac, and so far I love it, it’s easy to setup and use and it’s got almost everything I want in it. I just wanted to ask, is there any way I can change the layout/design of the Invoice/Quote/Statement. I currently use various Word Invoice Templates which have some graphics etc on them.Answer:
You are not able to modify the layout of the PDF documents. The design elements that you can change are the logo, color and font.(12 August 2011)
Question:
Is there a way to set a limit on items and see a history for each item? My situation is i am about to release a series of limited edition art prints and i was about to create some paperwork to track the limited edition numbers to the clients who has each one then i thought that may be possible within busy bee. Would love to know if this is possible.Answer:
There is currently no way to put limits on Items or view an Item’s history unfortunately! It is something you would need to track outside of Busy Bee Invoicing. We will add the suggestion to our list of potential future enhancements though.(12 August 2011)
Question:
Is it possible to change the date formatting? Currently, it outputs “Thursday 11 August 2011″. Is it possible to change the formatting to, for instance, “Thursday, August 11, 2011″?Answer:
It is not possible to change the date formatting. We will look into adding this as a future enhancement.(10 August 2011)
Question:
Hi there, I was recommended to look at your software. It all looks pretty straight forward regarding customers and invoicing. I am more concerned with logging taxable invoices, ie to use as a vat input /output record. Does your system have this facility and a way of recording customers Aged Debts and producing statements etc.Answer:
I’m not sure I follow what you mean by the VAT input/output record. Tax can be added to the invoices – you can set up your default tax in the Settings tab, and if you need to you can change it on each Invoice (i.e. if you have an Invoice that doesn’t use the default Tax). Also, you can produce customer Statements (on the Statements tab). There is no aged debtor report, but you can see visually on the main page what your outstanding balance is. I hope that helps.(8 August 2011)
Question:
Can the invoices be sent by email directly from within the program?Answer:
You are not able to email directly from Busy Bee Invoicing. You can save the PDF file from the program, and then you would attach it to an email to send it out.(1 July 2011)
Question:
Made first two invoices with two both for different customers. When I view second PDF it has name & address of other customer but I have celarly changed it to the other one?Answer:
One thing to check is your Customer set-up. Make sure that on both of your Customers the “Billing Customer” check-box is checked. You may have inadvertently selected the 1st customer to be the billing customer for your 2nd customer?(21 June 2011)
Question:
I’ve looked at your software and it looks great, however, I have a couple of questions (that may turn into suggestions). I am a consultant so often pass on expenses to my clients (e.g. taxi fares, hotel, phone bills etc) and I’m not sure how your software would manage that (i.e. they are like “items”, however, the actual amount and description should be able to be updated on the fly as you’d reuse, say, the “taxi fare” item but with a slightly different description and amount for each expense item). There should also be the ability to add the date against the expense (I can’t see how you do that with items at the moment).Answer:
Regarding your question on Expenses, you would use the Items and you can change the description, price etc on the fly. So you may just want to set up an ‘Expenses’ item, then when you click the ‘+’ to add an Item to an Invoice you would select your Item and at this point you can modify the description, price etc. If you have expenses that you bill for frequently (such as ‘Taxi Fare’), then I would recommend setting up a Taxi Fare item and then all you have to do is modify the price when adding it to your Invoice. Regarding the Date, you could use one of the Custom Fields for this, or the Notes section, if it is a date that applies to the whole Invoice. If the date only applies to one of the line items, then my only suggestion would be to add the date in as part of the Item description.(29 July 2011)
Question:
Can you please tell me the location of the Busy Bees Invoicing database file for Mac, Windows and Linux Operating Systems?Answer:
The database file is called BusyBeesInvoicing.db. On Windows the file is located somewhere in: c:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\ (you may need to do a search for it if it is not easy to locate). On Linux Ubuntu the file is located somewhere in: /Users/username/.appdata/ On a Mac the file is located at: username/Library/Preferences/WorkerBees/Local Store/busybeesinvoicing.db Mac users please note: If you are on Mac OS X Lion, the Library folder may be hidden. Please go to: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/909/cpsid_90947.html for options on how to access hidden user library files.(16 Jun 2010)
Question:
Is it possible to print labels or envelopes using the customer details from the invoices?Answer:
It’s not possible to print labels directly from Busy Bee Invoicing, however if you go to the Search tab you can export your Customer data to a .csv file which can be opened by Excel (or other spreadsheet program), and you may be able to do the labels from there.(8 Jun 2010)
Question:
Do you know how I can locate the Database file on Ubuntu?Answer:
As far as I can tell it should be located somewhere in /Users/username/.appdata/(4 Jun 2010)
Question:
Where is the Database file stored on Windows 7?Answer:
The database file to back up is called BusyBeesInvoicing.db and it will be located somewhere in c:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\ (you may need to do a search for it if it’s not easy to locate).(20 May 2010)
Question:
How do you notify me regarding new releases?Answer:
Regarding new updates, each time you open up Busy Bee Invoicing it will automatically check for new updates (if you are online) and ask you to update – you can view the release notes at this time to see what is new. If you want to receive an email with each new update you can subscribe here: http://bee-software.net/invoice-software/subscribe/(1 May 2010)
Question:
How can I backup my contacts, invoices……etc?Answer:
You can back up the database which contains all of your data. If you are on a Mac this can be found at: Library/Preferences/WorkerBees/LocalStore/BusyBeesInvoicing.db. The location may be slightly different, but if you search for BusyBeesInvoicing.db this is the file you need to back up.(25 Mar 2010)
Question:
The outstanding balance column in Busy Bee Invoicing would be very useful, but it doesn’t seem to work. Paid invoices are still showing outstanding balances. Even if I change the status from paid to something else and then change it back to paid, it still shows an outstanding balance in red. The only exception is a zero invoice which, naturally, has a zero outstanding balance and shows in green.Answer:
The Payments and Outstanding Balance columns come from the new ‘Payments’ tab. Enter your Payments in there and the balance of the Invoice will be adjusted (i.e. it is not related to the Invoice ‘Status’). If you don’t wish to see these 2 new columns (Payments and Outstanding Balance) you can switch them off on the ‘Settings’ page.(17 Mar 2010)
Question:
I like the look of your software but I need a program that can handle invoices for more than one company. Will this be suitable?Answer:
To use our software for Invoicing from more than one company you would need to change your company name (and address if applicable) on the Settings tab each time you are ‘switching’ companies. Unfortunately you are not able to store details of more than one company at a time.(24 Feb 2010)
Question:
My computer is warning me that the publisher of your application is Unknown and that your application is requesting unrestricted access to you computers file system. Can you explain please?Answer:
The reason you get this message when you download the application is because our application does not have a digitally signed certificate from an authorized certificate authority. I can assure you that the software is 100% clean, and if you look at the bottom of the downloads page (http://bee-software.net/invoice-software/downloads/) you can see some of the download sites that have tested and accepted our software.(16 Feb 2010)
Question:
I am wondering if you can view reports of your sales and tax for accounting purposes? Also, does your software work on Snow Leopard?Answer:
We don’t currently have any reports that can be run, however you can use the ‘Search’ tab to search for specific (or All) Invoices etc, and that data can be exported to a spreadsheet. We are looking to add reporting functionality at some point in the future! Our software does work on Snow Leopard.(10 Feb 2010)
Question:
Im portuguese, and i liked your software but will it support SAF-T_PT 1.01_01 portuguse audit export file format?Answer:
Unfortunately our software does not support the SAF-T audit file standards. Sorry we could not be of more help, thankyou for your query.(9 Feb 2010)
Question:
You can charge by specific Time Lots or Pre Defined Products. But I can not find a way to add individual Charges. As I charge very different for each quote. E.g. Webdesign is not a standard fee. All it needs is when you go to add something to invoice you need to be able to ender a Description and a Price that is all.Answer:
We will definitely consider that for future enhancements. You are right, every time you want to add an individual charge you would need to add a new Item, and depending on your volume this may or may not be too cumbersome for what you need.(8 Feb 2010)
Question:
I am interested in your software but I can’t select symbol of Thai Baht & can’t use Thai font for invoice font. Is this possible?Answer:
Unfortunately we would not be able to add the thai unit or font because the PDF writer that we use does not currently handle those characters. We hope that some time in the future we would be able to do this.(4 Feb 2010)
Question:
1. Does the database produce automatic numbering for invoices? 2. It is quite important for us to have a remittance slip at the bottom of the invoice. Is this possible? 3. As with any business we have some customers who are late payers, can a statement be produced showing outstanding debts, say 30 days, 90, 120 outstanding? 4. One company we work with may have several orders on one invoice, each with it’s own purchase code. To meet their requirements, we need to list the type of product (which would obviously be a database field in the product table), the name of the recipient and their address plus the PO number. I notice on the demo that there is a description field; is this a free text field so I can give the company all the info they require?Answer:
1. Yes we do automatic numbering. 2. There is a “Notes” section that displays at the bottom of the invoice. It is not a “reminttance slip” as such, but this is where I put the remittance info on my Invoices. 3. We don’t currently have a Statement document, although it is something I have been thinking about also, and will add it to our to-do list for future enhancements. 4. Regarding the way our Items are set up, we just have the description field, there is no Product Type currently available (I will add this request to our list also). The description field is a free text field so you can add all the info you need, but just be aware that you can’t change the text on the Invoice itself, you can only modify the text in the Items tab, so this may or may not work for you.
(4 Feb 2010)
Question:
Is it possible to remove certain fields from invoices? We sell items, not time billing. Is it also possible to either enter our own product ID numbers…or eliminate them altogether on the invoice?Answer:
At this stage it is not possible to remove the Job/Date fields from the Invoice lines when you are only selling Items, so these will always appear as blank fields on your Invoices. If you want to see your own Product ID numbers you would need to enter these in as part of the Item Description. Our Item ID does not display on the Invoice, just the description.(3 Feb 2010)
Question:
Will this program track payments of these generated invoices? At year end are totals available by product type?Answer:
At this stage there is no tracking of payments (this is on our list of future enhancements), except that you can set the status of the Invoice to Paid. There is no reporting (i.e. to get year end totals), but we do have a Search function that allows you to select Invoices (or any of the tables) and you can export the results to a Spreadsheet.(15 Jan 2010)
Question:
When I print an invoice it is not printing the name of my company, or the first line of the address. It just prints the last 2 lines of my address in the top right hand corner. Do you have an idea how to solve that? I can see the full invoice with all information on my computer screen. It is only a problem with printing. I printed 2 or three invoices fine, then about a week ago I started to have this problem.Answer:
You may need to check your printer settings – it sounds like your page size may be a little out. The correct page size to use for these invoices is A4.(14 Jan 2010)
Question:
Basically for the product that we resell the VAT that in Italy is called IVA it varies, for instance for certain items the IVA is 4% and some others is 20%. Now the problem that I have is that I can’t use on the same invoice both IVAs because will charge the customers twice for 4/20%. Is there a way of be able to charge the IVA (or VAT) for every single items? Basically be able to choose for each items what percentage apply?Answer:
Regarding your tax question, when you have the situation that you have both 4% and 20% taxed items on the same Invoice, you may just need to set up the items to include tax in the price, and you could always include the tax percentage in the Item Description, e.g. “Product ABC (inc. IVA 4%)”. That is the only way around it that I can see – I am not keen to modify the software to accommodate this at this time.(13 Jan 2010)
Question:
I recently purchased your software, and I want to congratulate all of you is really easy to use, compressive and above all does the job. I just got a little request: translate the software in Italian. Since I’m using this software mainly to invoice customers in Italy, so it would be better for me and it will look better.Answer:
We would be happy to include an Italian translation. Please note that only the Invoices themselves will be in Italian, the software itself will remain in English. I will put a list together of all the translations and I may email it to you if that is ok so that you can check they are correct! Let me know if that sounds ok, and we will get onto this in the next few days.(6 Dec 2009)
Question:
I need to write detailed descriptions of services performed for the customer to read somewhere on the invoice and I dont see anywhere to do this?Answer:
You can add details in the ‘Notes’ section of the Invoice.(6 Dec 2009)
Question:
I uploaded my logo on the invoice settings page and it displays it there ok. But when I view invoice as pdf the logo is missing not sure why?? The logo is 3 colors but small 37kb.Answer:
You may need to close and re-open the application once after adding the logo for it to be picked up on the Invoices.(2 Dec 2009)
Question:
How can I change the ID on the items? I am an Avon rep and I wanted something that I could use what my customers order any Ideas?Answer:
I think the Invoicing software will work really well for Avon. You could enter all of your products in as individual Items (and if you need to reference the Avon product number, just put this in the item description as well). Then enter in each of your clients in as Customers. Then each time you need to create an Invoice, your Customers and Items are already set up and ready to go and you should be able to create Invoices very quickly!(21 Oct 2009)
Question:
I just purchased the invoicing software. So far I am impressed. A few questions. I am not able to charge more than 999 or three figures on my rate under the jobs tab. Is it possible to change this so the figure can be greater then 999 for example 2000, or 5000$. Also I live in New Zealand and the GST amount is 12.5% , but when I enter this in the invoice settings it always reverts to 12, can you update this box to accept decimal points etc.”Answer:
I have made these changes for you. When you next open the Invoice software, after a few seconds you will be prompted to update to version 1.7. Follow the instructions to do the update and then you should have the latest changes.”(19 Oct 2009)
Question:
I just have a little question regarding the bee-software. I’m just trying to add my customer and for some reason it has added 4, but will not allow me to add any more. It is saying that is is having an ‘error #3131 Details: PRIMARY KEY must be unique’. What does that mean???”Answer:
It should be all fixed now! When you next open up the application you should be prompted after a few seconds to update to version 1.6. Just follow the instructions to update the software and hopefully you should have no problems adding customers! Please let me know if you experience any further problems with this.”(7 Oct 2009)
Question:
I often have customers looking for a simple invoicing and receivables application and, after some searching around on VersionTracker, I had a look at your video tutorials for Busy Bee Invoicing and am very impressed. Its a simple and easy-to-use application which I imagine can be just what many small businesses and even individual professionals need. Well done.Answer:
I have a question, however. I did not see anywhere to apply customer payments against invoices generated and was wondering whether you plan to add this feature. I guess that the only other thing I’d like to see is some reporting features.
Thanks in advance…
Thankyou for your email, it is great to hear your feedback. Customer payments are on our list of to-do items, along with adding Quote capability. In the mean-time you probably noticed you can indicate that an Invoice has been paid by setting the Invoice Status flag. Regarding reporting, I will add that to the list! Let me know if you have any specific reports in mind. What we currently have is the Search tab where you can search database records and export the results to a spreadsheet.(6 Oct 2009)
Thanks again for the feedback, and let us know if you have any further questions or suggestions.
Question:
I just bought your EXCELLENT invoice system. Just one minor prob with using Busy Bee Invoicing: cannot seem to input decimal places in Job – Rate . . . field states Must be an integer and as you know, the pennies do add up! So would really like to know if this can be resolved. Looking forward to hearing from you soonAnswer:
Just wanted to let you know that we have updated the software to allow decimal places in the Job Rate. When you next open the software you will be prompted to update to version 1.5 which contains this change.(31 August 2009)
Question:
Am i able to customise the layout of the invoice in the purchased version?? And is this a thing you guys have done and dusted, or are you making developments over time??Answer:
The purchased version of the software is the same as the demo version, except that the SAMPLE stamp is removed. So you will not have control over the layout, but you can customise it by changing your colour-scheme and font.(31 August 2009)
The software is still a work-in-progress, so we are open to suggestions!
Question:
I am in australia and have recently started looking for good invoicing software for mac. I found yours and think its great. i will purchase very soon however before i do i just want to ask a few questions. I am in a freelance graphic design company with a business partner. He will be running the software too so we will buy two copies, but how easy is it to transfer all item data and prices etc across to his computer? And also, are you guys planning on making an iphone app, so i can create invoices etc on the fly and transfer to the computer at a later date?Answer:
In answer to your questions:(21 August 2009)
1. At the moment the only way to transfer the data would be to enter it manually, or you could copy the database file from one computer to the other (on a Mac the database file is located at Library/Preferences/WorkerBees/Local Store/BusyBeesInvoicing.db). If you go the manual entry route, you may find it useful to use the Search tab to retrieve all the records in a table (e.g. Items), and you can then use Export Data to export to a spreadsheet.
2. We currently have no plans to make an iPhone app, sorry!
Question:
Is there a possibility for an option for a “quotation” tab. Most often clients want a quote before you start with the work.Answer:
Adding a Quotes tab is on our list of future enhancements. I am not able to give you a timeframe as to when we will have this ready for release, other than to say that it will be coming in the next few months, but hopefully sooner than later. (21 Jan 2010) Added Quotes tab to the software.(14 August 2009)
Question:
I’m very interested in your software because I can use it on mac & windows. I would like to know if it’s possible to install the software in a way that all the computer on the network synchronise the invoice that I create.Answer:
At present there is no way to synchronize your invoices automatically between networked computers. The only way would be for you to manually synchronise the database file (BusyBeesInvoicing.db) between your computers. On your mac the database file can be found at Library/Preferences/WorkerBees/Local Store/(5 August 2009)
Question:
I have started to use your software and so far so good! One quick question I had for you. One of my customers wants to me to set up an account number (ID number) for him. I do see an ID in the Customers tab but it doesn’t appear to be editable and also does not show up in the final invoice. Is there any way to work around this?Answer:
You are right the Customer ID field is not editable. I would suggest as a way to get around this you could do one of 2 things: 1. Put their Account Number in as part of the Customer Name e.g. (12345 Customer). or 2. Add their Account Number as part of the Customer Address: e.g. Account 12345 123 Brown Street Auckland NEW ZEALAND. Both of these will result in the Account Number being displayed on the Invoice.(2 August 2009)
Question:
I have just purchased your software as I am a freelance designer in Sweden and I liked the simplicity of your software. I do have a request though. I was wondering if there could be a slightly customized version of the pdf. I would like to see the pdf in the colours of my logo. It will just maintain the brand identity I am trying to convey. Is this a possibility?Answer:
We liked your request regarding the theme color of the PDF Invoice! We have added a ‘color chooser’ in the Invoice Settings page which will allow you to customize the theme color for your invoices. When you next open your application you should be prompted to update to v1.4 (you will need to be online). This latest version contains the color change.Want to ask a question?