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I agree with a lot of what this says... this one in particular: > Lack of PDF invoices Seriously!?! Your target market is business they need receipts. I even

by throwaway2016a 9y ago

I agree with a lot of what this says... this one in particular: > Lack of PDF invoices Seriously!?! Your target market is business they need receipts. I even have one service I have considered dropping because they have no receipts at all.

dogecoinbase 9y ago
Source of my all-time favorite @idlewords comment (https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/558306932575207425 https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/558306932575207425): Many European customers end up asking me for a formal invoice. A wonderful teaching moment about sending money to some dude in California
bdcravens 9y ago
For startups using Stripe, they can send receipts, and many companies like Quaderno exist to fill the gap as well.
- throwaway2016a 9y ago
  It's not a gap, it is laziness or lack of attention to detail. It is a day of work to add invoices. Less depending on what services you use. Yet many companies don't even do that. But even so, that should be the bare minimum they do. PDF invoices have distinct advantages over email. Mainly that most companies still aren't using expense reporting and accounting systems that can process email receipts. Most people still have to upload their receipt to a website. If it comes in as email that means: - Printing as PDF - Then uploading It is an extra step that is completely unavoidable and doesn't seem like it would be an issue until it takes an hour+ to complete your expenses because a dozen web services force you to do this.
paulcole 9y ago
Pinboard had a really funny tweet about customers being angered he doesn't send invoices. When someone asked for one Maciej just sent them a blank invoice template and said to fill it out themselves. If I remember correctly it just made the guy madder.
thirdsun 9y ago
Tell me about it. Whenever I hand in an invoice from one of those US services, I get strange looks from the accounting desk - even the receipts of established, large US companies barely pass as legitimate invoice, often featuring little more than a date, email and amount due.
- Androider 9y ago
  That's because invoices and receipts are different things (at least in the US). You typically get a receipt for a monthly credit card payment. An invoice may be an extra that is only offered for example with an annual contract, and may even have to be manually generated, and typically implies payment made separately (NET-30 etc.).
jasonkester 9y ago
I use this one as a way to differentiate Big Enterprises from small companies. My thing costs $10/month. But we have a $300/month Enterprise plan that gives the same thing plus PDF Invoices, Purchase Orders, and a few other things that only large organizations with Accounting and Purchasing Departments need. Those organizations tend to be fairly price insensitive, so the two numbers I listed above both round to zero as far as they care. Problem solved for everybody.

dogecoinbase 9y ago

Source of my all-time favorite @idlewords comment (https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/558306932575207425 https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/558306932575207425): Many European customers end up asking me for a formal invoice. A wonderful teaching moment about sending money to some dude in California

bdcravens 9y ago

For startups using Stripe, they can send receipts, and many companies like Quaderno exist to fill the gap as well.

throwaway2016a 9y ago
It's not a gap, it is laziness or lack of attention to detail. It is a day of work to add invoices. Less depending on what services you use. Yet many companies don't even do that. But even so, that should be the bare minimum they do. PDF invoices have distinct advantages over email. Mainly that most companies still aren't using expense reporting and accounting systems that can process email receipts. Most people still have to upload their receipt to a website. If it comes in as email that means: - Printing as PDF - Then uploading It is an extra step that is completely unavoidable and doesn't seem like it would be an issue until it takes an hour+ to complete your expenses because a dozen web services force you to do this.

paulcole 9y ago

Pinboard had a really funny tweet about customers being angered he doesn't send invoices. When someone asked for one Maciej just sent them a blank invoice template and said to fill it out themselves. If I remember correctly it just made the guy madder.

thirdsun 9y ago

Tell me about it. Whenever I hand in an invoice from one of those US services, I get strange looks from the accounting desk - even the receipts of established, large US companies barely pass as legitimate invoice, often featuring little more than a date, email and amount due.

Androider 9y ago
That's because invoices and receipts are different things (at least in the US). You typically get a receipt for a monthly credit card payment. An invoice may be an extra that is only offered for example with an annual contract, and may even have to be manually generated, and typically implies payment made separately (NET-30 etc.).

jasonkester 9y ago

I use this one as a way to differentiate Big Enterprises from small companies. My thing costs $10/month. But we have a $300/month Enterprise plan that gives the same thing plus PDF Invoices, Purchase Orders, and a few other things that only large organizations with Accounting and Purchasing Departments need. Those organizations tend to be fairly price insensitive, so the two numbers I listed above both round to zero as far as they care. Problem solved for everybody.