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A monthly sales report from your invoices

For freelancers and small businesses that invoice from XataWorks: the agent writes the invoices, and a report of the month arrives by itself.

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You invoice from XataWorks, and once a month you want to know how the month went: what was billed, who owes what, and which customers matter most. In this recipe the Invoices database does the invoicing, and a report built from it lands every month by itself, ready to read or send.

What you need

  • XataWorks, open, with the agent answering. If it is not yet, Getting started covers the one decision to make first.
  • Your customers and products, in a spreadsheet or in your head.

1. Start from the Invoices template

Choose File ▸ New ▸ Database, pick Invoices, untick Include sample records, name it (for example Invoices) and choose Create. It holds customers, products and invoices whose lines add themselves up, with a printable invoice and a sales-by-customer report. Attach your list of customers and products to the chat and ask the agent to add them.

2. Invoice by asking

New invoice for Harbour Café: 12 hours of design at 85 and one logo package. Due in 30 days.

The agent adds the invoice and its lines, and the totals work themselves out. Run Print invoice from the Scripts menu to see it as it prints, then Save as PDF… to send it.

3. Ask for the month’s report

Make a report of last month from the Invoices database: total billed, paid and unpaid as key figures, billing by week as a chart, the top five customers, and a table of unpaid invoices with their due dates.

The agent queries the database and the report opens in its own window. Export it from the window’s File menu as a PDF, a spreadsheet, a Word document or slides.

4. Make it monthly

In the report window choose File ▸ Save as Template…. Then open File ▸ Report Templates…, select it and choose Schedule…: Runs Monthly, On day 1, and Covering The previous period. Each run fetches the numbers from the database again, and you get a notice when the report is ready.

Where this recipe stops

  • XataWorks has to be running. A scheduled run that falls due while the application is closed is skipped, and runs again at its next time.
  • Invoices go out from you. The agent prepares them; you send the PDF.
  • The database is the record. The report shows what the database holds. Mark invoices paid there and next month’s report is right.

Read more

  • Databases: the templates, importing, and printing.
  • Reports: what a report holds, exports, templates and schedules.

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