I have had to edit some recurring purchase schedules and I found it somewhat confusing and ended up with some degree of chaos ensuing from editing old purchases instead of current schedules. I think the recurring schedule setup works well but to edit a current schedule, in my case I just needed to adjust an amount and nothing else, it isn’t overly clear what is going on. I found it easier to just delete and recreate from a current purchase for the new amount.
I think it would be better, regarding editing from a users perspective, if the purchase invoice contents were editable in a similar fashion to the date rather than just bolting on a date to some random purchase in the past.
We went for a light weight implementation for recurring purchases that basically just allows you to template a time schedule on top of an existing purchase. So essentially any changes you make to the underlying purchase will get translated to future purchases. If something like the amount changes you’d need to move the schedule to the newer invoice.
Unfortunately anything more complex than that would require a lot more work. I don’t think it’s a feature that gets used enough to warrant a complete rewrite at this stage.
Just to add to this. I needed to edit some profiles the other day, this time the date was the same but I needed to change the amount. I seem to have got in even more of a tangle this time as I ended up not just deleting the recurring profile but the original purchase invoices as well so I had to recreate these and retag in the bank etc… I could then create a new profile with the new amount on the same date.
I really like this feature though as I get sent loads of invoices on the same day every month so setting up recurring purchase schedules is great and I can also set up automatic invoicing to line up with these purchases where necessary. It’s just a nightmare when you need to modify one. It would probably work better if the base invoice was effectively copied and then just used as a template so you could modify and delete this template without screwing up the original invoice.
Having a base invoice that only works as a template would probably simplify things. It would however require an entirely unique invoice type that would necessitate recoding in 100s of places. I’ll bear this in mind but in all honesty I don’t think it will be something we will have time to look at further in the next few months.
Well, as long as something is on the planner to tidy up the recurring parts at some point that would be good. I’m just adding thoughts to this as I go along and find things, I’m not badgering you to get it done quicker!
Just editing some recurring purchase profiles and again am hit with a baffling interface. You have to go into the original invoice to delete the recurring purchase profile. Begs the question, what is the point of the recurring purchase page then? The confusion stems from listing the original invoices rather than the profiles, as you do in the recurring sales page. Just needs a link to the schedule from the recurring purchases page, not somewhere else non-intuitively.