Method Community

I know this was previously asked but I honestly did not understand the answer so decided to try again.

Our scenario requires us to send roughly 100 invoices daily to customers. We use the API to push invoices to QuickBooks from our own application.

I would like to use the API to generate an email with an attachment and to send it to the customer / vendor.

Is this possible? I do not wish to use the portal or to supply the customer / vendor with a link to the document.

Your developer, David, tried to explain this in the past but it was not clear at all.

Thank you!

Hi Nick_Warren

From what was explained to me you can't do this the manner you are asking/suggesting.  There is no way to generate a method report using the API.  

The good news is that you can accomplish your end goal by: using your API application to extract the data and having the application generate the report.  If you happen to be using visual studio, it comes with a version of crystal reports.

Once you've got the report you can either use the Send Email API call or any other email sending class.

HTH 

Also - does it have to be a PDF attachment?

If you are using the API, then it means you are a coder. If you are a coder, you can easily build an HTML invoice to send - which is even more convenient to your customers (they don't need to open a PDF).

The monthly invoices that come from your Method subscription are just HTML, and we use our own API to do the invoicing for Method subscriptions this way. We insert an invoice, insert the line items, call send to Desktop, get back the finalized invoice and line items using the API,  throw them into HTML format, and email them to our users.

-OR- if you really must have a PDF

1. Send them to QuickBooks with "IsToBeEmailed" checked on. Then in QuickBooks you can go to File > Send Forms, and email them from QuickBooks as a batch.

-OR- after you created all your invoices using the API, sign into Method, and have a screen that loops through all your new invoices and emails them - here you can use the "Generate Report" action where the action result will contain the location of the PDF it created, and in the "Send Email" action just reference that action result.

Paul

So basically you are calling an Invoice a "report" - From a development point of view and especaiily in QuickBooks, an Invoice or a Purchase Order are not really considered to be a report.

The invoice only includes the list of items and the customer's information. I can generate it from within my app directly but as Method does it from the UI, I thought the API might be able to support this as well and save us developers the time.

Thanks.

I can't use the HTML version like you because we request the customer's to sign the Sales Order. Our transactions are large and orders cannot be processed without the card's holder signature. Moreover, the Sales Order in a PDF looks much more professional than a simple HTML email. It includes Shipping & Billing information, our Logo, Contact Info. Plus it includes an actual "contract".

I know I can use the "IsToBeEmailed" but I wanted to automate this feature and have each salesman send his own Sales Orders without going into QuickBooks. That is the entire purpose. 

Having a screen in Method will again require us to have another action involved which is exactly what I’m trying to prevent.

Paul, as you said in an article I read not long ago, the system needs to be automated as much as possible. I do not understand why you do not allow triggering an Email with an attached "Record_ID" which signifies the document within QuickBooks. It seems really easy to do on your part as its already being done within the UI.

This is hard concept for our customers, QuickBooks or Method, to understand.  They always see the an invoice, purchase order, etc. as a tangible object.  In reality the only thing that persists is the record in a database.  Each time a visual representation is needed it is recreated using a report template of some sort.

Paul,  Thanks for the tip on just inserting the HTML into the email body instead going to trouble of creating a report.  That's a big time saver.

Nick - I don't see us making the creation of the reports via the API a development priority any time in the near future. The core purpose of the API is to send and receive DATA back and forth from an external app to Method. There are exceptions (charge credit card, send email), but it's never ending. If we made the API from being data-centric to being a full service-driven PaaS, then it's a different product (not a bad thing, just a different way of thinking).

I imagine your salesreps are already in Method, so I'm confused on the use-case here, since you can automate all this from within the UI when they are signed in.

Also a little confused - are we now talking about Sales Orders or Invoices here? We started off talking about invoices, now we've shifted to sales orders.

Either way, you can put logos, contact info, shipping and billing information into HTML. I get pleanty of professional looking emails built in HTML - and when it comes to an invoice we're not talking about the need for vector graphics and watermarks - we talking about a table-style HTML template, where the styling is up to the designer to make look as pretty as they want.

Paul

Method_Paul:

-OR- after you created all your invoices using the API, sign into Method, and have a screen that loops through all your new invoices and emails them - here you can use the "Generate Report" action where the action result will contain the location of the PDF it created, and in the "Send Email" action just reference that action result.

Paul

Paul,

I am an accouning provider and have customers on monthly billing, set up as memorized transactions in quickbooks.  I was thinking of utilizing the field service module to enter my invoices so i can email the customer from method when the invoice was created.  I came across this suggestion and will try it.

By chance has this been done, so I can copy the screen?

thanks

jay 

Jay - everything that is available, is "standard" in the Field Services app already. I'm unaware of whether anyone has taken the advice in the thread and has made something that can be copied.

Paul