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Regards,
Sidney H. VanNess, Ph.D.
President & CEO

New Features

User Interface

The first thing that you will notice is the new user interface.  In addition to a complete redesign, we have added a dashboard that displays a snapshot of your business (A/R, billable work, and billable expenses), and which provides streamlined access to many of Smart Invoice’s core features.  From this screen you can quickly create a new invoice, client, or project and can view recent activity and notifications related to your invoices.  

Time Tracking

Perhaps the most requested feature was the ability to track time.  Smart Invoice now includes a simple time tracking interface that allows you to specify a client, project, and task, and log hours directly into your Smart Invoice account.  The interface allows you to easily generate invoices based on time you have logged, and it sorts these items based on whether or not they have been billed.  To make time tracking easier, we will soon be releasing a Mac Time Tracking Widget, as well as a time tracking utility for mobile devices.  

Expense Tracking

Smart Invoice now features a simple expense tracking utility that allows you to log expenses against client projects, and to track your Company’s internal (i.e. unbillable) expenses.  When you go to invoice a client who has billable expenses recorded, Smart Invoice will automatically remind you to include those expenses in the invoice.  Note that the aforementioned widget will also allow you to record expenses from the Mac desktop.

Projects & Tasks

Smart Invoice introduces the concepts of projects and tasks.   You can now track your work based on these inputs, and automatically generate invoices based on time you have logged against projects.  

PDF Invoices

We have added PDF invoices to all paid accounts.  When your clients view an invoice, they will be able to download a PDF for their records. 

Automatic Past Due Notifications

Smart Invoice now features the ability to automatically send notification of past due invoices.  To enable this feature visit Settings | Email Templates | Automated Payment Reminders.  Enable each notification you wish to send, update the text as appropriate, and save your settings.

Business Identification Numbers

Several users (particularly users outside of the US) requested that we add the ability to display a business identification numbers on invoices.  You can now add this by clicking Settings | Edit Account.  You will see two fields: “Business ID Type” (e.g. VAT Number or ABN) and “Business ID” (the actual number).  These will automatically show up in the address block of your invoices.

vCard Import

Smart Invoice now supports the import of both single and multi-contact vCards.  Visit Clients | Import From vCard to perform a bulk import of clients.

Custom Item Types

We received frequent requests for the ability to add custom item types to invoices, and this has been integrated into Smart Invoice.  To add custom item types, you can either click “+” in the invoice creation interface or click on Settings | Customization to define custom item types.

Statements

Smart Invoice now makes it easy to send clients a statement, which includes all outstanding invoices.  To send a statement, navigate to Clients | <your client’s name> | Client Statement and click the send button.

Feature Improvements

Sales Tax

The old AcuInvoice sales tax system was flexible, but cumbersome.  Smart Invoice has adopted the less is more approach.  The sales tax system allows you to specify the name of the tax and a percentage; you simply select the tax from a pulldown menu to apply the tax to the relevant items.  You can define taxes in Settings | Sales Tax, or create them on the fly through the invoice creation interface.

Recurring Invoices

We have significantly improved the recurring invoices feature.  Previously, recurring templates required that you specify line items, a billing interval, and a start date.  The problem with this system was that you could end up having several different templates for essentially the same service (e.g. web hosting starting on January 1, web hosting starting on January 2).  We have therefore modified the recurring invoices feature so that a template specifies only line items and an invoicing frequency.  After creating this template, you then associate specific clients, each of whom have their own start date.

“Send Invoice” Button

Previously you had to save an invoice, then hit the send button–an obviously unnecessary step we have eliminated. Your options in the invoice creation screen are Send, Save (as draft), and Cancel.

Tag Editing

Let’s say you have 20 invoices that are tagged with Tag1. Tag1 is now editable and will cascade throughout all of the invoices.

UI Improvements

Many thanks to Ivan Boyko of VisualPharm for his suggested improvements to the layout of invoices as viewed by customers. If you’re looking for someone to provide constructive criticisms regarding your designs, I highly recommend Ivan.

Popup Elimination

We have eliminated popups where possible. Perhaps the most notable change was made to the recurring templates area.Fixed a big whereby logos were not displaying properly on invoices.Fixed to Safari-specific bugs, one related to the posting of comments to invoices, the other related to the forwarding of invoices.

Configuring the AcuInvoice Simple Store

The first demo shows how to configure the store and demonstrates how all of your information is passed to your AcuInvoice account.

Receiving Payment and Delivering Digital Goods

The second demonstration shows the process of receiving payments and illustrates how digital goods are delivered to your customers once an invoices has been converted into a closed state.

Installing the AcuInvoice Simple Store

As the name implies, installation is easy, but it never hurts to have some helpful visuals.  This demo should help.

Technical Requirements

• PHP 5.0.0 or higher
• MySQL extension loaded (in php.ini)
• SimpleXML extension loaded (in php.ini)
• This is not a requirement but a recommendation: allow_url_fopen = 1 (in php.ini). If this option is turned off (value 0) you will still have a fully operational store, however every downloadable item and product image should be uploaded to the store server via the admin application. Linking to remote files and images will not be possible.