Yasuhiro: Invoice Generator - User Manual

(by Tsubame Software Tools)

Business Support Software Solutions for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME) www.tsubame.de

Contents - Yasuhiro Manual:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. General Information Functionality GUI of Yasuhiro The configuration file: yasuhiro.cfg The HTML template F.A.Q. (Frequently Asked Questions) Documentation in other languages Contact

1. General Information
Yasuhiro is a tool to geneate invoices. The name Yasuhiro means "abundant honesty".

2. Functionality
Yasuhiro can generate invoices supporting up to 9 columns and so many rows as you wish / you need. Customer data and also article data can be overtaken through the clipboard. The invoices will be generated from a template and the generated invoice is in an HTML format. This program is particullaly suitable for small business and independient workers, e.g. freelancers, who are not writing a big amount of invoices but are looking for a half automatized way of generating invoices. Yasuhiro is written in Java and run just "out of the box" on each computer with a Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Because of his configuration file it is possible to use Yasuhiro in a right wide manner. In addition because of the use of an open standard as HTML is, your invoices are safe; you can save and read them on whatever system you want.

3. The GUI of Yasuhiro

When you start Yasuhiro you get a window similar to the one shown here.

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Red No. 1 - Customer name: That is the receiver of the invoice.

Red No. 2 - Customer Address: The address of the receiver.

Red No. 3 - City: The city of the receiver.

Red No. 4 - Customer number: This field is for an identification of a given customer. Red No. 5 - VAT: The "value added tax" in percent. If different articles have different VAT (as e.g. the case is in Germany) then you have to adjust the value in the respective column (refer to red no. 16); in this case you must have the VAT column added in the configuration file (property COLUMNS, value "8").

Red No. 6 - Cash discount: Here you can select a cash discount. This discount will be written in the invoice if it is a line "CASH_DISC_LINE" defined in the configuration file.

Red No. 7 - Copy data from Clipboard: If you click on this button the (customer) data in the clipboard will be overtaken. Up to 6 fields may be overtaken: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Customer number Customer name Address 1 Address 2 VAT Cash discount

As separator character it can be an "End of Line", a "Tab", a "pipe", a semicolon or a colon, in this sequence. That means if you expect to copy data containing a semicolon or a colon you have to separate the fields with one of the first 3 characters. Note: Data from a standard table calculation program are separated with a "tab".

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If you have less than 6 fields, then just the "most common" fields will be overtaken, as described hereunder: 5 fields: Customer no, (ID), Customer name, Address 1, Address 2, cash disc. 4 fields: Customer no, (ID), Customer name, Address 1, Address 2 3 fields: Customer name, Address 1, Address 2 2 fields: Customer name, Address 1 1 field: Customer name

Red No. 8 - Add Item: Add a new row to the table of articles.

Red No. 9 - Add article from Clipboard: If you click on this button, then data of an article will be added from the clipboard to the last row. Up to 5 data may be overtaken: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Article no. (ID) Description Price Discount VAT

As separator character it can be an "End of Line", a "Tab", a "pipe", a semicolon or a colon, in this sequence. That means if you expect to copy data containing a semicolon or a colon you have to separate the fields with one of the first 3 characters. Note: Data from a standard table calculation program are separated with a "tab". If you have less than 5 fields, then just the "most common" fields will be overtaken, as described hereunder: 4 fields: Article no, (ID), Description, Price, discount 3 fields: Article no, (ID), Description, Price 2 fields: Article no, (ID), Description 1 field: only the article no, (ID)

Red No. 10 - Total: Calculates and prints (on the screen) the total amount of the invoice until the last row.

Red No. 11 - Select template: Here you can select another template as the template defined in the configuration file (for example if you have a special design for some customers).

Red No. 12 - Conversion between date: Yasuhiro can use a date format instead of a number as invoice ID. This date may be written in a hexadecimal format too; thus if you want to know the date of a invoice with a hexadecimal ID you can use this part of Yasuhiro.

Red No. 13 - Show invoice after generation: If you select this box then the invoice will be shown after the calculation starting a program which is defined in the configuation file, property "START".

Red No. 14 - Save Invoice: The invoice wil be generated. If red no. 13 was selected, then the invoice will be shown too. If the configuration property "CONTROL_LIST" has the value "Yes", then it will be added a new line in the control file "yasuhiro_control.csv" containing the payment time (a date). The list has only three fields: Payment date; Invoice ID; Total amount.

Red No. 15 - Close Yasuhiro: The program terminates.

4. The configuration file: yasuhiro.cfg

In the configuration file are saved the properties for calculating and generating the invoices. You can edit the configuration file with any text editor, an example of such a file is created automatically during installation, which you can take as a model.

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Formatting of the configuration files: Please pay attention to the properties of the configuration files. The following applies: The strings before settings should stay the same, any changes -even 2 spaces or a tab- results in losing the property! # Is for comment lines. Also after a property is all behind # a comment. If you define the same setting in multiple lines the latest will be used. If settings are missing, that leads only to an abort of the program if there are no defaults for this setting. You can use ":" or "=" separating the value from the property, as you like, that is up to you.

Definition of the properties

Some properties must exist: 1. TEMPLATE: The name of the template. 2. INVOICE_NUMBER: How ID of invoices will be generated and will be unique. Invoice Number may have one of the following possibilities: DHEX = Date hexadecimal D = Date N = Number NHEX = Number Hexadecimal C = Name of customer (have to be entered in the window). Note: You have to be sure you do no have 2 times the same name: It is NOT POSSIBLE to have more than one invoice with the same ID! CID = Customer ID (have to be entered in the window) Note: You have to be sure you do no have 2 times the same customer ID: It is NOT POSSIBLE to have more than one invoice with the same ID! CID+D = Customer-ID and the Date CID+DHEX = Customer-ID and the Date hexadecimal D+CID = Date and the Customer-ID DHEX+CID = Date hexadecimal and the Customer-ID C+D = Customer name and the Date C+DHEX = Customer name and the Date hexadecimal D+C = Date and the Customer name DHEX+C = Date hexadecimal and the Customer name C+N = Customer name and the next number C+NHEX = Customer name and the next number hexadecimal N+C = Next number and the Customer name NHEX+C = Next number hexadecimal and the Customer name CID+N = Customer ID and the next number CID+NHEX = Customer ID and the next number hexadecimal N+CID = Next number and the Customer ID NHEX+CID = Next number hexadecimal and the Customer ID The right side of the config line (the value) must be one of the 22 described. 3. LANGUAGE and the language section must exist

Some lines are optional: 1. DELIVERY_LINE: This line prints a delivery art for the customer. E.g. "The goods will be delivered the [7] directly to your company." 2. CASH_DISC_LINE: This line points out how is the cash discount handled. E.g."If you pay before the [14] you have to pay only [$] EUR." 3. CASH_DISC: The value of a cash discount. At the present it is not implemented to use more than one cash discount for different periods of time. And if CASH_DISC_LINE exists it must exist CASH_DISC too. 4. VAT_LINE: This line prints the VAT value of the invoice amount. E.g. "The VAT amount in this invoice is of [$] EUR." 5. VAT: The normal value of the Value Added Tax. And if VAT_LINE exists it must exist VAT too.

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6. PAYMENT_TIME: That is the date until when the invoice have to be payd. Default are 14 days. 7. PERIOD: Here you can define how much digits you use after the decimal period, it may be 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5. Default is 2. 8. START: Here you can define a program to be started with the new invoice, from this program the invoice can be printed or changed, as you want. Examples of such programs are "Firefox" or "SeaMonkey". Please notice that you have to write the full path to the program (exe-file). 9. COLUMNS: Here you can define which column may be shown in the table, default are all columns. They are 9 columns. The columns are 1. Item 2. No 3. Art.No. 4. Description 5. Quantity 6. Discount 7. Unit Price 8. VAT 9. Amount You can also write "1;2;3;4;..." or "123456789" or "1 - 2 - 3..." or "8,7,6,5,...", at any case the columns will be printed/shown in the order written here (that means, you cannot change the order of the columns by writting the numbers in another order). 10. CONTROL_LIST: Define if a list of invoices maybe generated for posterior control, default is "no". This list has just 3 fields and is a comma separated file. The fields are: 1. Date 2. Invoice ID 3. Amount

Notes about the "Lines"

The identifier [$] will be replaced by the money amount in question (will be calculated). The identifier [nn] will be replaced by the date, adding "nn" days to the present date. If the calculated date is a weekend, it will be adjusted to the next monday. Please pay attention that there are not any local or international holydays considered; That means, you have to take care self if the calculated day is... e.g. christmas!

The Language definitions

There are in this configuration file also a "Language" definition and several sections "[_Language_]". Under "Language" you can define what language you want to use for the GUI. Currently there are 4 languages defined, English, German, Spanish and Norwegian. You can even add languages if the wish. The defined string under "Language" have to be repeated later in a separate section: [_A_New_Language_]. In the "[_Language_]" sections are the strings defined which will appear in the GUI (that is the language of the user using Yasuhiro). You can either define a new language (for example, "pidign enlish") and translate the strings. It looks like this: [pidgin English] ... ... ... [katakana no eigo] Please take out that the order should be retained, there are no comments allowed and all strings must be present. And finally, adjust the above: Language : pidgin English # Pay attention to upper and lower case! You can also change the existing strings as desired. E.g. you can change the "Save invoice" string to "Do the calc!", thus the button will be shown as "Do the calc!".

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5. The HTML template

The invoices will be generated from the template as basis. These template is in HTML format and the outputs from Yasuhiro to the template are HTML coded too. You may use the layout you like best for the template. Just some strings will be replaced in order to generate the invoice you want. Here you will find a list of the possibilities you have to use Yasuhiro to generate your invoices String in the template <!--KUNDE_NAME--> <!--KUNDE_STREET--> <!--KUNDE_CITY--> <!--KUNDE_ID--> <!--INVOICE_NO--> <!--DATE--> <!--PAYMENT_TIME--> <!--INVOICE_ITEMS--> <!--VAT_LINE--> <!--DISC_LINE--> <!--DELIVERY_LINE--> Replaced to data as follows Name of the customer Address 1 of the customer Address 2 of the customer Customer ID Invoice number Date of generation To be payd before (the date results from the configuration file) Table with the items (Articles) Line with VAT information (defined in the configuration file) Line with "cash discount" information (defined in the configuration file) Line with delivery information (defined in the configuration file)

It is possible to have the same value written more than just one time, e.g. the date, just write the string on all places you want to have it. Also it is possible to omite a value in the invoice, e.g. you just delete the string for the VAT line and you will not get a "VAT-line" in your invoice. I recommend to design your invoice first using a simple HTML editor and then replacing the data you need with the strings, saving the template then (and not vice versa, building a invoice around the strings). Remember to use an ASCII editor in order to edit the template for Yasuhiro!

6. F.A.Q. (Frequently Asked Questions)

1. Is it possible to remove a line of the (article-) table? No, that is not yet implemented. You can just put the quantity of units to zero (0), afterwards you could delete the row in the HTML file if you like. may be the item numbers have a hole then. 2. Can I run Yasuhiro with the OS "XXX"? If it is a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and an internet browser in order to see the invoice, then you can use Yasuhiro also on OS "XXX". 3. I do not need a "description" column, just the article no. does; but I cannot remove this "description" column. What can I do? Tere are 2 columns which may not be deleted; 1. The description, and 2. The Amount. All the other columns are optional. Anyway a possible way to avoid that is changing the "description" string in the configuration file to (e.g.) "article". Actually you use the column "description" as an "article". Note: Please do not change the meaning of the columns containing numbers (price, discount, quantity, VAT) because these are used as defined in the calculations!

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7. Documentation in other languages

Until now, the Yasuhiro-documentation is to be read in: English German Spanish You can read the latest versions of the Yasuhiro documentation from www.tsubame.de/downloads.htm It is recommended to read this documentation directly from there or download it.

8. Contact
Let us know if something does not work as you expect if you have any problems running Yasuhiro, or if you just want to tell us something. We are looking forward for your feed back!

Tsubame Software Tools Homepage: www.tsubame.de Email: kameko@tsubame.de

Business Support Software Solutions

This manual has been written with help of:

Tsubame Solutions for Teaching -

Learning materials

Homepage: http://tsubame.000a.biz/teaching_solutions Email: tst_post@x-mail.net

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