Invoice Service Demo with Jon Norris

Insights from the video:

Technical Details and Features of the Invoice Service

💡 The purpose of the Invoice 1.0 service is to provide a more efficient way to communicate invoices between distributors and customers, eliminating the downsides of using email.

🤔 The development of the invoice service started in 2017 and went through a beta phase to ensure its effectiveness before becoming a formalized entity.

🤔 The authors of the service deserve recognition and gratitude for their efforts in developing and promoting it.

💡 The "get invoices" method is the main focus of the service, with 99% of the activity, indicating its importance and relevance.

💡 The structure of the invoice array includes details like invoices, line items, and other fields, providing a comprehensive overview of the invoice data.

💰 The invoice payment URL is an optional but valuable feature that allows businesses to easily include a payment link in their invoices, simplifying the payment process for customers.

💰 The invoice amount is calculated by adding the sales amount, shipping amount, handling amount, and tax amount, emphasizing the importance of accurate PO math and invoice math.

💰 The invoice math includes various fields such as unit price, quantity, invoiced quantity, discount amount, and extended price, which all play a crucial role in calculating the final amount.

Importance and Impact of the Invoice Service

🌍 Provo standards aim to create industry-leading open standards that cater to all sectors of the industry, from service providers to suppliers and distributors, regardless of their size or budget.

💼 The Tech Summit and hackathon is aiming to increase attendance from 156 to 200 people this year, indicating its growing popularity and success.

💰 The invoice service may not receive much attention or flashy numbers of adoption, but it is highly valued by those who handle invoices and implementing it can earn you their appreciation.

💰 Approximately $16 billion in promotional sales are done with suppliers that have adopted the invoice service, indicating its significant market penetration and impact on the industry.

💰 Implementing an invoice service can lead to faster payment processing as it eliminates the need for manual handling and reduces the chances of lost or misplaced invoices.

Summary

TLDR: The key idea of the video is that Promo Standards offers an invoice service that allows distributors and customers to communicate invoices electronically, improving efficiency and accuracy in the invoicing process.

1. 00:00 📝 Promo Standards collaborates to create industry-leading open standards, improving customer experience and enabling effective execution of digital strategies.

   1.1 The video discusses the invoice 1.0 standard and aims to provide a mix of technical education and updates on promo standards.

   1.2 John Norris introduces himself as a member of the education committee and announces that education sessions will be held on the third Tuesday of every month at 2 pm Eastern.

   1.3 Promo Standards collaborates to create industry-leading open standards, enabling industry participants to improve customer experience, reduce transactional friction, and effectively execute their digital strategy.

2. 02:40 📅 Save the date for a Tech Summit and hackathon in St Pete Beach, with details coming in three months, and contact Amy, Becky, Jessica, or email Jessica at admanofromosanders.org if interested; Becky is looking for volunteers for a virtual hackathon and the company is open to new education ideas; invoice service has high adoption rates among suppliers, resulting in $16 billion in promo sales; both large and small suppliers participate in the service.

   2.1 Save the date for the Tech Summit and hackathon happening in St Pete Beach, outside of Tampa, with more details coming in three months, and if interested in participating or volunteering, contact Amy, Becky, Jessica, or email Jessica at admanofromosanders.org.

   2.2 Becky is looking for volunteers for a virtual hackathon event and the company is open to new education ideas and topics for their sessions.

   2.3 There are services that support and promote standards for inventory, order status, and shipment notification, with high adoption rates among suppliers.

   2.4 Promoting and implementing the invoice service is important as it is often overlooked but greatly appreciated by those who handle invoices.

   2.5 Out of the top 14 suppliers, 9 out of 10 of the top players in the industry have adopted the invoice service, resulting in an estimated $16 billion in promo sales.

   2.6 There is wide adoption of the service, with both large and small suppliers participating, and the speaker encourages viewers to check the website for a list of current users.

3. 09:32 📄 The invoice service allows distributors and customers to communicate invoices electronically, with two methods for invoicing and the ability to search for invoices by date, invoice number, or purchase order number.

   3.1 The purpose of the invoice service is to communicate invoices between distributor and customer without using email, as there are many downsides to using email for this purpose.

   3.2 The invoice service was developed in 2017 and has transitioned from primarily physical mail to electronic delivery, with many distributor customers now realizing the benefits of consuming invoices electronically.

   3.3 The service line for the invoice service was released in January 2020, but due to bad timing, it is now being reintroduced and the speaker thanks the original authors for their contribution.

   3.4 The video discusses two basic methods for invoicing, "get invoices" and "get voided invoices," with the majority of the focus on the former.

   3.5 Services have similar request structures with three common fields (ID password, query type, and reference number), but the invoice service differs by allowing queries based on invoice number or purchase order number, and the requested date field has been made more descriptive over time.

   3.6 The speaker explains how to use the invoice service, including searching for invoices by date, invoice number, or purchase order number.

4. 16:05 📝 You can search for invoices by date range, retrieve invoices by PO number, invoice number, or date, and view line items on the invoice, emphasizing the importance of invoice line items being configured in the purchase order rather than the invoice itself.

   4.1 You can search for invoices based on a specific date range, allowing you to retrieve all invoices from a certain date to the present.

   4.2 The structure of the get invoices response includes an array of invoices, which can be searched by PO number, invoice number, or date, and also includes line items on the invoice.

   4.3 The speaker explains the standardization of invoice standards and focuses on the importance of invoice line items, stating that the configuration is in the purchase order, not the invoice.

5. 19:14 💡 The speaker discusses the different types of invoices and credit memos, emphasizes positive currency amounts for credit memos, and mentions new features based on feedback in the service, as well as providing URLs for record keeping and customer payments.

   5.1 The speaker highlights interesting and nuanced aspects of the service and mentions that a committee is providing best practices for each standard on promotions.org.

   5.2 The speaker discusses the different types of invoices and credit memos, emphasizing the importance of positive currency amounts for credit memos, and mentions the addition of new features based on feedback in the service.

   5.3 Include the invoice document URL for record keeping and regulatory purposes, and the invoice payment URL for customers to easily make payments.

6. 22:40 💡 Include the purchase order version field in your system to store different versions of purchase orders, clarify that the invoice date field is not a date time field, calculate invoice amount by adding sales, shipping, handling, and tax amounts, invoices don't always require line items, explain fields and IDs involved in invoice calculations, quantity of an order may not always match the invoice due to back orders and overs/unders.

   6.1 Include the purchase order version field in your system to future-proof it and store different version numbers of POS, as it is a widely adopted convention to underscore version numbers after the main purchase order.

   6.2 The speaker discusses the format of a string field for invoice dates and clarifies that it is not a date time field and does not involve business logic.

   6.3 The invoice amount is calculated by adding the sales amount, shipping amount, handling amount, and tax amount, while the amount due is the invoice amount minus the advanced payment.

   6.4 Invoices don't have to have line items, as there are sometimes charges that aren't associated with individual items, so the fact that invoice line items are not required allows for invoices for non-quote sales.

   6.5 The speaker explains the different fields and IDs involved in invoice calculations, including unit price, quantity, discount, and product and part IDs.

   6.6 The quantity of an order may not always match the invoice due to back orders and the concept of overs and unders in the industry.

7. 29:36 📝 The speaker demonstrates an invoice service that allows suppliers to send invoices electronically, eliminating manual processing and ensuring faster payment, with line item detail and the ability to electronically pay invoices on the spot being popular features.

   7.1 The speaker demonstrates an invoice service by providing an example of an invoice and explaining the different fields and URLs used, as well as mentioning a similar request for voided invoices.

   7.2 This method retrieves a list of voided invoices and their voided dates, and it is useful for those who need this information in accounting.

   7.3 Validate schemas to ensure adherence to Wizzle standards before posting or releasing an endpoint, using the validation tool to check for warnings or validation results.

   7.4 The invoice service allows suppliers to send invoices electronically, eliminating the need for manual processing and ensuring faster payment.

   7.5 We offer an important service that provides line item detail on invoices, allowing distributors to focus on their core competencies instead of dealing with paperwork.

   7.6 Sophisticated systems require line item detail matching for invoices, with customers catching errors before goods are shipped, and the ability to electronically pay invoices on the spot is a popular feature.

8. 36:34 📝 Suppliers can turn off their invoice service once everything is matching and both parties are comfortable, and it is suggested to store the supplier's PDF via URL for safekeeping, while setup charges and other charges should be added as line items in an invoice with a unique charge ID.

   8.1 Promo Center has a YouTube account where they post educational sessions on various services, and they encourage viewers to check out their videos before reaching out for assistance.

   8.2 The speaker discusses upcoming events and highlights, including an invoice walk through, the launch of order status 2.0, service provider highlights, a virtual hackathon in September, and the 2024 Tech Summit.

   8.3 Suppliers can turn off their invoice service once they are confident that everything is matching and both parties are comfortable, but they should have a mechanism in place to communicate and provide feedback.

   8.4 The speaker discusses the question of whether converting an electronic invoice to a human readable format and storing it for financial records is acceptable, suggesting a workaround of pulling the supplier's PDF via the URL and storing it on a drive for safekeeping.

   8.5 The speaker explains that setup charges and other charges should be added as line items in an invoice, with a unique charge ID, and stacked below the product items.

   8.6 Join the volunteer community to contribute to the industry through electronic communication and help promote the cause, with the goal of doubling the adoption of the invoice service by the Tech Summit.