TL;DR: Invoice numbering will no longer be a nuisance to you.

CurdBee follows a very simple invoice numbering system. Every time you create an invoice, it’s assigned a number that was incremented from the previous invoice number. You have the full flexibility to change this to anything you want (other than a previously used invoice number).

This process looked good until we introduced Recurring Profiles. Invoices created from recurring profiles had an invoice number, which was derived from the Invoice No. given in the recurring profile and its iteration count. This produced invoice numbers such as INV001-1. Since there were no distinction between invoices generated from recurring profiles and manually created invoices, invoice numbers tend to get mixed up. For example, if you try to create an invoice after a recurring profile had generated an invoice, it will be suggested to use INV001-2. Then the 2nd iteration of the original recurring profile will be created with an invoice number such as INV001-3. At this point you will see the your invoices have totally unrelated invoice numbers and process of managing them becomes needlessly complicated.

A lot of you complained and we listened. Today, we have rolled out an update to solve these inconsistencies. The confusing Invoice No. field was removed from recurring profiles and was replaced with an optional Profile ID field. If you leave this field blank, invoices created from that recurring profile will always use an increment of the last invoice number in the system. So there would be a single invoice number flow, which is incremented serially.

However, if you want to provide a different numbering scheme to invoices created from a recurring profile, you have to specify the Profile ID field. The Profile ID will be used as the base(or prefix) of the invoice number and current iteration will be added as the suffix (ie. ProfileID-Iteration). This number scheme will be excluded from the regular invoice number flow and prevented from being mixed up with the other invoices as previously. The next iteration of the recurring profile will be guaranteed to have its corresponding invoice number.

Let’s illustrate this with an example: let’s say your main invoice number sequence is in the form of INV001-X, where X is the automatically incremented number. If you create a recurring profile with the Profile ID field blank, and the last invoice sent was INV001-14, when the invoice from this recurring profile is sent it will be assigned the number INV001-15. But if you had assigned a Profile ID as RB-1001, the first recurring invoice from this profile will be assigned the invoice number RB-1001-1, the next RB-1001-2 and so on, while your main invoice number sequence remains unaffected.

Hope this update would solve the troubles and confusions you had with invoice numbers. Please let us know if you still find any issues or see other ways to improve the process.

CurdBee mobile was always on the plan, but it was on the back burner as we had to focus on other essential improvements. However, there came a time when a mobile version became that essential need. The first major call we had to make was whether we should go for native mobile application(s) or make a web optimised application or even both. We took our time to analyze all the pros and cons with these approaches and finally came to a conclusion on the path we should take.

We built a couple of prototypes using different platforms such as Sencha, jQtouch and jQuery Mobile during our initial experiments before finally settling with jQuery Mobile. The main reason for picking jQuery mobile was its compatibility across different mobile platforms. It took us a while to put together, and today we are releasing our first take on the CurdBee mobile experience.

At present, CurdBee Mobile is optimized for Time and Expense Tracking, as those are the features which most of our users will need on the go. Invoices and estimates can be viewed as well, with support for creating and sending them coming soon.

Try CurdBee on the go and let us know how you like it!

CurdBee Plus becomes Expansion Pack

Starting from now, we are going to rename ‘CurdBee Plus’ as ‘Expansion Pack’. Some of you were a bit confused with CurdBee PRO and Plus. As you may know, this add-on brings some essential enhancements such as the option to remove CurdBee branding, use your own domain and add taxes, discounts etc. to your account. We think the name ‘Expansion Pack’ sums up this important add-on very well.

Add-ons are now just a click away

CurdBee is one of the very few solutions with a truly on-demand pricing model: our free account comes with all the essential features to make your invoicing workflow perfect, which can then be extended with several add-ons to meet your exact needs. The new ‘Upgrade’ section is where that customization takes place, and we have improved it to make this process much easier.

This was necessary because we kept growing our list of add-ons (a lot more in the pipeline too) and also introduced CurdBee BIG which brought more complications to the original workflow. After weeks of careful planning, implementation and thorough testing we finally nailed it down to what you see under the new ‘Upgrade’ link. So go ahead and start customising your CurdBee experience now!

Introducing user profiles

With this update we are introducing a new user profile in addition to the business profile we had before. Why? We are working on several more ideas such as multi-user access, client accounts, etc. which will make CurdBee a comprehensive platform for SMEs, and we think this is just the right stepping stone in that direction. Stay tuned for more information about these developments in the coming weeks.

Messages

This new addition will work as a message archive featuring all the updates from feature releases to system alerts related to your account. If you are a user who visits CurdBee less often, you will find this handy as you can quickly run through the recent changes which may have taken place since your last visit.

Tweaking Settings and CSS3 Awesomeness

While making the above changes, we also made some improvements to the ‘Settings’ section by making it even simpler. The web geeks among you will notice that we now have our buttons done with CSS3. Although the look and feel remains the same as before, this has made the code leaner and load times faster.

We hope you will enjoy these changes. As always, please feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions with us.

The much anticipated payment service Stripe was opened to public last week. Compared to other payment services, accepting credit card payments with Stripe is unbelievably easy.

You don’t have to worry about setting up Metchant Accounts, unexpected charges (they only charge you 2.9% + 30 cents per successful charge) or data portability. Stripe will take care of everything for you and transfer money to your bank account at the end of the day.

Until now, Stripe was mainly popular among developers; since it required some programming skills to get up and running. But starting today, anyone using CurdBee can start accepting credit card payments for their invoices via Stripe. All you need is to enable the Stripe module and provide the Stripe’s publishable and secret keys. Now who says running an online business is difficult?

Stripe module for CurdBee is available free for BIG users. Others can enable it for just $2 per month. For a step-by-step guide on enabling the Stripe module, read this support article.

Please note Stripe is currently available only in US; but they are promising to expand to other regions soon.

A while back, we introduced CurdBee Push Notifications, a way for you stay on top of your CurdBee account no matter where you were. However, with Notifo shutting down, we had to find an alternative messaging system for you guys. While we were at it, we made some big changes!

Today, we’re revamping our entire alerts system, allowing you to get your account updates via Email or SMS and even have it sent straight to your iPhone, iPad or Desktop via Boxcar. Under this new alerts system, you will receive notifications both when an invoice is viewed or paid, and when an estimate is viewed or accepted.

Here’s a quick rundown of the services we now offer.

Email Alerts are now enabled by default. You can turn them off, of course, but we think they’re useful to receive.

SMS Alerts is a $2/month module that gives you unlimited notifications to your mobile number. This service is currently only available to users from the United States and Canada.

Push Notifications for iPhone/iPad/Desktop via Boxcar is available as a free module for all users. Use it to receive quick CurdBee Alerts on your mobile device or computer desktop.

So, what are you waiting for? Have a look at the support article and take these new features for a spin!

Amit is one of those special people who came forward to help us when we were getting ready to launch CurdBee few years back. We just dropped him a mail inviting him to check CurdBee and share his thoughts, possible improvements we can do, etc. But we never thought he would even have time left in his schedule to pay attention to us, we being total strangers. But he did and replied back within matter of hours.

Today we think its our turn to help this wonderful entrepreneur, who’s fighting against Leukemia and is looking for a bone marrow doner from South Asian descent. If you are one of them who’s living in US, you can surely help Amit. Not a South Asian descent living in US? Still you can spread the word and we salute all those efforts.

Tony Bacigalupo wrote a detailed post about Amit and here’s an excerpt,

” Amit is the founder of the endlessly wonderful DIY photography site Photojojo. He’s the cofounder of Jelly, a casual coworking community which started in New York in 2006 and spread to over 60 cities worldwide, acting as the starting point for countless coworking communities. The original Jelly in New York was my first coworking experience, and my firsthand inspiration to dedicate myself to what would become New Work City.

Amit has leukemia. He was diagnosed only two weeks ago, but already so much has happened. He’s undergoing chemotherapy now at Connecticut’s Smilow Cancer Center in Yale-New Haven Hospital, near his family.”

Read the post and see how to contribute: http://tonybgoode.tumblr.com/post/11098100728/lets-help-amit-defeat-leukemia

Of course, before you begin using this feature, you’ll need to head to Settings > System Preferences and set when your Fiscal year begins. This is a new setting that we’ve introduced and will default to January when you first login.

You should now see a Year-to-date summary on your CurdBee dashboard. We hope this will give you a quick and easy run down of the year in progress and motivate you to keep at it, even when the going is tough!

Third party gateways and Authorize.net emulation

Many third party gateways also allow you to use the Authorize.net architecture to process payments, and as of today, you can begin using them with CurdBee. To enable the emulation of third party gateways, visit your Authorize.net Module settings page, click the tick box next to Use a gateway with a Authorize.net emulator, paste your emulator URL in the Emulator URL field and click Save Changes. All transactions will now be forwarded to it. To test emulation, you can try a gateway like BluePay.

Create Recurring Profile from Invoices and Estimates

A requested feature, this update allows any invoice or estimate to be converted into a recurring profile quickly and easily. It’s just one of those things that we hope will make your workflow better, allowing you to spend less time invoicing and more time living!

Oh, we’ve also fixed a few minor issues.

Finished Recurring Profiles now show up as Completed
A bug in Recurring Profiles caused them to do something unfortunate in that they used to send invoices out for the number of occurrences specified and then just stop, leaving a future date specified as the Next Billing Date. This was confusing indeed, and more than a few users had problems with it. With this CurdBee update, this issue is now fixed, and completed Recurring Profiles should show up clearly as Completed.

Swiss German Number/Date Formats Added
As requested by our Swiss German users, we’ve added a new number format (100’000.00) and a new date format (25.08.2011) as well. Enjoy!

Today, we’ve rolled out changes that remove even that. Starting now, it’s possible to make it completely yours. From account name to domain and login page, a fully unbranded online invoicing solution is something every CurdBee Plus user can now enjoy for just $5/month.

This feature is also a precursor to some new templating features we hope to roll out in the months ahead. Await more customisability from your favourite online billing solution!

We’re all about being simple, and the module settings pages we had were moving quickly away from that goal. With the features we have now, and the plans we have for the future, we realised that bringing all these settings under one roof was the next logical step.

CurdBee evolved.

Now, whether you’re updating your payment gateway information or changing your push notification settings, you can do everything from just one screen. As new third party modules are added, their settings will be accessible from this page as well. The extra settings pages we maintained up till now will be removed, and System Preferences will contain only your core CurdBee settings.

In the long run, it’ll allow us to grow, and let you stay in control while we do. Enjoy!