The new payment system is here!
We have exciting news here at Timely! The tech bots have been nose to the grindstone these past six weeks building a sparkly, new payments system.
Back in July we blogged a roadmap that outlined the five key phases to be built. As of today, phases 1 and 2 are now complete!
Much of the work done is back-end infrastructure which users won’t see but is necessary for operating a rigorous, secure and accurate payment system. Most importantly the remaining phases actually need this infrastructure in place before they can be developed.
The good news is that phases 3 to 5 can be completed quickly so get ready for even more new things to play with!
What’s the guts?
Timely now has a basic cashbook function which means you can raise invoices for appointments and track a payment against that invoice.
What will you see?
There are a number of key changes to the Timely interface, they include:
- A new “Invoices” tab on the main menu right next to the “Reports” tab.
- You can raise an invoice for each appointment by clicking the “Raise invoice” button while using the calendar or generate a batch of outstanding invoices by clicking the new “Create invoices” button (accessible from the “Invoices” tab).
- You can customise your invoice by adding your own description, notes and a reference (see image above).
- Payments can be recorded against the invoice either at the time the invoice is raised or applied at a later date.
- We’ve added a new report on the “Reports” page called “Outstanding invoices”. This will show all customers who haven’t paid.
- You can set up your own taxes and apply them to your services (see below).
Now you know what’s there, here’s a video to demonstrate these features:
How does this impact on the Xero integration?
There are also a number of improvements to how Timely works with Xero:
- Invoices and payments are now synced to Xero in batches at night. This allows for correcting invoices before they are confirmed in Xero.
- You can still send an invoice straight to Xero if you need to though.
- Xero invoices can be customised with their own line descriptions plus you can add your own notes and a reference.
- Invoices can be marked as paid at a later date as well.
We also have another new video showing how the Xero integration changes look:
And what about Vend?
If you are a Vend user, we’ve made a couple of small improvements:
- If you’ve raised a sale, but didn’t complete the payment, you can now void the sale from Timely
- We’ve added a “Sales” tab so you can track the sales that you raise in Vend from Timely
What now?
That’s it in terms of current changes you can see. The tech bots have no reprieve though as they’re already hard at work adding online payments and building out more cashbook functionality such as: being able to add your own payment types, tax exclusive amounts, payments for classes, more financial reporting, basic products, and much more!
To sum up we are so excited by these new payment features and really proud of how they’ve come together. This is a big project and we want you to get involved in shaping the next lot of changes so make sure to let us know what you’d like.
Hi Thank you for the great improvement. Can you please confirm that the custom fields used on xero will also be able to be used. That would be a great addition as currently we have to enter and edit each invoice to ensure our reporting is accurately. We use custom fields for Location and Staff. Hope it is possible - Thank you for trying so hard to make us happy!
This isn't possible at the moment, but it's a good idea. I'm guessing you would need some way of mapping attributes in Timely (e.g. staff member) with the custom attributes you've set up in Xero?
Is there an option to directly one-click email the invoice to the client? This would be most useful.
Not yet - but it's on the list!
Great update! Is there a way to collate all appointments into one monthly invoice for a clients?
Love this feature thanks:)
Not yet sorry Lynn, but this is something we are planning to add. The infrastructure behind the scenes supports this so we just need to wire it up on the front-end.
Re: Mapping. Yes, that would be great. Other developers do as Fooman for example (i think he is in NZ - http://store.fooman.co.nz/). Great time saver really.
Fantastic Guys
This just what I've been waiting for - will you allow people to prepay via paypal or the like to secure the booking ( or capture credit card details).
I second V's suggestion about one click to email invoices to a client or a suggested alternative address
Great to hear Steven! Any feedback you have, just let us know. The other things you've asked for are coming soon. Please vote here and we'll let you know when its ready.
When you book an appointment and raise and invoice for that appointment can you e mail the invoice directly to the customer for payment. maybe have an option in the settings where you can have the invoice go out automatically with the booking e mail.
Also what about part payments, for example someone has paid a deposit but not the full amount.
Hi Andrew. Thanks for the feedback. Email invoice to customer is something we're tackling at the moment as part of the online payments project. Part payments - this is queued up once online payments are live.
When will the pay by voucher button be added?? IS there a way on timely that you can track voucher sales/redemption??
Hi Rachel, you can create your own Voucher payment type by following the instructions here. Then when you raise an invoice for an appointment you can choose "Voucher" as the payment type.
Great features. When will we see a Takings type report (Daily Reconciliation) of Sales and Takings. To balance up cash, credit card and other payments
Hi David, we are working on some more detailed financial reports right now. We also adding more invoice customisation options.
Great job guys, looking forward to the next releases! Whoot!
Sincerely,
Kirsten
Hi,
Is there a way to add a discount to an invoice? For instance, we give a customer $5 off for referrals. It looks like I can change the service $ amount (make it $5 less), but I would want to record the discount on a separate line on the invoice, 1) so the customer sees they received the discount and 2) so I can track discount count and $'s.
Also second the "email invoice / email receipt" to client feature.
Also second being able to record partial payments. Sometimes customers pay part of their invoice at the time of service, and then we have other customers who pay a deposit before the date of service and then the balance on the date. For this to work appropriately, would need each payment to be able to record 1) date received, 2) type (cash, credit card, etc.), 3) note (e.g. deposit).
Thanks!
Bob
(currently using appointy, but looking at switching over to timely because of some shortcomings in appointy that don't look to be being resolved anytime soon.)
Hi Bob, we are working on the next round of invoice improvements (V2) that include partial payments and also the ability to add basic products. So you could create a discount product and then add it to the invoice. In V3 we may look at providing built-in support for discounts.
Email invoice option - this has been built as part of online payments and is currently in testing. It should be live in 1-2 weeks.
Hope to welcome you to Timely soon!