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Show HN: Invoice Boilerplate – Simple automated LaTeX invoicing system
- RodgerTheGreat 11y agoSeems like a great deal of work and indirection compared to simply editing a LaTeX template like: http://www.latextemplates.com/template/invoice http://www.latextemplates.com/template/invoice I'm not convinced that YAML is substantially easier to work with than LaTeX source if you're just filling in a bit of text and some numbers.
- mrzool 11y agoYAML is way easier to edit and maintain than LaTeX source. Also, separation of layout from content makes life easier. And also, this one has built-in spreadsheet-like capabilities.
- RodgerTheGreat 11y agoThe template I linked automatically calculates hourly totals, prices given a rate and time and subtotals. I think that covers the "spreadsheet-like" capabilities you mention. The presentation details of the template are bundled into a class file and each line item is simply: \hourrow{Date}{hours}{hourly rate} As for whether one semi-structured text file is easier to edit than another, I suppose it will have to come down to a matter of opinion.
- mhw 11y agoIn a similar vein, I generate my invoices using this Jekyll plugin that I wrote: https://gitHub.com/mhw/jekyll-invoice https://gitHub.com/mhw/jekyll-invoice
- NicoJuicy 11y agoIt seems similar to https://github.com/scalableminds/invoice-compiler https://github.com/scalableminds/invoice-compiler ( which i forked for a ERP app to https://github.com/nicojuicy/report-compiler https://github.com/nicojuicy/report-compiler ) but the documentation isn't upto date on my fork :(
- huac 11y agoin a vacuum, obviously fine, but from a design perspective - too many different fonts being used
- mrzool 11y agoThere's one serif (headings and letterhead) and one sans-serif (all the rest). Both can be customized in the options, so if you want to roll with just one, be my guest :)
- cm3 11y agoIs it intentional for the 11 (eleven) in the date to look like a Roman II (2)? I don't think this is compatible with the masses.
- merb 11y agoits missing a page number / total page and especially what happens on page overflow?
- mrzool 11y agoGood question! My invoices are always just one page long so I didn't consider the cases you mention. I'll remember your comment going forward.
- merb 11y agoalso it looks like a german invoice so you are missing some informations (§ 14a UStG) especially some additional information (especially the USt.-Id Nr. on some cases, etc).
- viraptor 11y agoFor me the large margins look weird. I understand that margins are usually larger in latex output than for example word document, because they try to keep a reasonable number of words in one line. But here, the page is not filled with text. It's almost painfully empty.
- mrzool 11y agoI'm sorry for the pain! I wrestled with the margins a good while before settling for the current layout, but I can see your point. I use the template with a custom letterhead I made in InDesign, so having lots of whitespace to spare was imperative for me. On the bright side, you can easily customize the margins through the geometry option and enlarge the font size to 11 or 12pt to make it look less empty.
- raarts 11y agoWhen I started one of the first ISP's in Europe in '93, I generated invoices in LaTeX too. Only wish this was available then, these look so much nicer.