Invoice Management System

Person writing on paper with a pen, wearing a blue shirt.
Invoice from Advanced Enterprise Agility to Custom Comp for $900, detailing "Improvement Kata Coach Journey" service. Includes billing and payment information.

Client

Advanced Enterprise Agility

Year (Duration)

12/2023-01/2024

Team

Dreamers: Shannon Liu, ChangwooYu, Varika Pinnam

The Challenge

Invoice Management for Small Businesses

Our client consists of individuals who own multiple small consulting businesses such as Advanced Enterprise Agility and L-EAF. Because of the small scale of the companies, they do not make a large volume of sales such that it is not financially reasonable to pay a fee monthly fee for large invoice management systems like Intuit. Additionally, most invoice management system only allows you to create an invoice as one company. This results in the inefficient route of creating a different account for each company they own.

Member Roles

Shannon Liu

Responsible for the planning, user journey, and design process of the invoice management system.

Changwoo Yu

Responsible for the google app scripting and invoice design process of the invoice management system.

Varika Pinnam

Responsible for the project planning and communicating the goals/criteria to the team.

The Users

Target Users: Small Business Owners with Multiple Companies

The target user is small business owners who do not create a large amount of invoices per month and have multiple companies.

Man with glasses and beard in a suit jacket standing outdoors in front of greenery.

Persona: Jeff Burnstein

Bio: Jeff is a business owner who owns Advanced Enterprise Agility, L-EAF, and Crowbox Partners. He takes care of the administrative work such as the invoicing of his own company on top of the client work he does. Jeff is looking improve his current invoicing system in order to be able to spend more time and energy on his client work.

Pain points:

  • Having to manually create each individual invoice.

  • Each invoice is its own individual sheet in a large excel sheet with no search capabilities.

  • Current management and summary of invoices are all done manually which takes up more time.

Highlight Features

Flexibility in Invoicing as Different Companies

Our client owns multiple companies and needs to switch invoicing between each one seamlessly. In our current invoicing product, the user can select which company they would like to invoice as in the drop down menu. After selecting the company, the invoice will auto-populate with the appropriate company information so that the user does not have to manually type in every time.

Color Scheme Match

Each company that our client owns has its unique logo and color scheme. We store the company information in a separate sheet where users can input a jpg of their logo, and two accent colors to be included in the invoice. After selecting the desired company, the invoice template will automatically change to the colors that were listed in the color scheme sheet.

Google Sheets invoice template with company name selection dropdown, showing options like Advanced Enterprise Agility and L-EAF. Logo and contact details are visible.

Customers can select which company they would like to invoice as.

Invoice from L-EAF, dated January 19, 2024, numbered 15. Includes company details and remit payment instructions. Billed to Example Customer, with no charge listed, total $0.00. Note about payment methods provided.
Invoice from Advanced Enterprise Agility to Custom Comp, dated 1/15/2024, for $900.00, detailing an Improvement Kata Coach Journey, with remittance information.

Examples of the different logos and color schemes that are automatically updated with company selection.

Automatic Invoice Number Ticker

When creating invoices, it is a hassle to check which number your last invoice was. Especially if you have days or weeks in between each invoice. Our invoice template will automatically increase. the invoice number for you after you set the appropriate invoice number.

Flexible Item Selection and Pricing

Given that our client has many packages that they sell to clients with varying price points depending on the customer, we took that in mind with our design. Users are able to select the package/item they are selling in each of the item lines of the invoice template. Afterwards, they can input the quantity of each item and the price of each item. Our invoice template will automatically calculate the total price at the very bottom so you don’t have to!

Spreadsheet displaying an invoice template with company name L-EAF, address, phone number, invoice number 15, and date 1/19/2024. Includes billing information, payment remittance address, and a dropdown menu in the description field for selecting items such as 'Learning Kata Learner Journey.' Excel-like interface with toolbar and menu options visible.

Users can select the item that they are selling on each item line.

Spreadsheet invoice template with sections for email, address, EIN number, item description, quantity, unit price, and total price. Items listed include WorkFlow Trainer Journey and Improvement Kata Trainer Journey, with a total amount of $1,650. Additional fields include Terms and Notes.

The invoice template will automatically calculate the total price of the combined items after the user inputs the quantity and unit price.

Summary

Our team was tasked with creating an invoice management system with the goal of making a faster invoice creation and management process. Our solution used a google sheet with google scripting in order to make desired features. Highlight features included the ability to switch between companies seamlessly, without having to reformat the invoice template such as the logo, color scheme, and company information. This is done while also maintaining standard features such as selecting repeat clients and service offerings.