Acuinvoice

We have made two more demos of the AcuInvoice Simple store. These videos detail how to configure, sell, and deliver digital good with your AcuInvoice Simple Store.

Configuring the AcuInvoice Simple Store

The first demo shows how to configure the store and demonstrates how all of your information is passed to your AcuInvoice account.

Receiving Payment and Delivering Digital Goods

The second demonstration shows the process of receiving payments and illustrates how digital goods are delivered to your customers once an invoices has been converted into a closed state.

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Today we are proud to announce the release of the AcuInvoice Simple Store. We are releasing this lightweight PHP script free of charge to the AcuInvoice community as a means of providing a set of core classes that can be used in custom applications that interact with AcuInvoice via the API. We have prepared a zip archive of the AcuInvoice Simple Store  for you to download and install on your web server. As previously described in detail, the Simple Store can be easily installed on your web server and allow you to sell products–both digital and traditional goods–via a clean looking storefront. Order information is passed securely to your AcuInvoice account via the API, and customers are able to pay via any AcuInvoice payment gateway you have enabled. If you are selling digital goods (software, eBooks, etc.), these goods will be automatically delivered to your customer once the invoice has been converted into a closed state (either via a payment gateway or from a payment you have manually entered).  Below you will see a brief demonstration of the Simple Store installation process.  By the end of the week we will have a full demonstration of how to configure the Simple Store (you should be able to figure it out without the demo, we think) and how orders are processed.  Meanwhile, if you have any questions about the AcuInvoice Simple Store, please email us at support (at) acuinvoice (dot) com or submit a ticket from within your AcuInvoice account.   

Installing the AcuInvoice Simple Store

As the name implies, installation is easy, but it never hurts to have some helpful visuals.  This demo should help.

Technical Requirements

• PHP 5.0.0 or higher
• MySQL extension loaded (in php.ini)
• SimpleXML extension loaded (in php.ini)
• This is not a requirement but a recommendation: allow_url_fopen = 1 (in php.ini). If this option is turned off (value 0) you will still have a fully operational store, however every downloadable item and product image should be uploaded to the store server via the admin application. Linking to remote files and images will not be possible.

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This week we will be releasing version 1.0 of the AcuInvoice Simple Store, a PHP application that uses the AcuInvoice API to enable subscribers to quickly generate a standards-compliant web store where customers can place orders for products, services, and digital goods. Order information is passed securely via the AcuInvoice API to the subscriber’s account and invoices are automatically sent. If you sell digital goods (MP3s, images, software, etc), the items will be automatically delivered to the customer once payment is received and the invoice is converted into a closed state. The AcuInvoice Simple Store is an outstanding example of the power of the AcuInvoice API (it even uses a number of features and data elements that we have yet to fully document) and provides a large amount of sample code that will be useful to other AcuInvoice developers. Therefore, we will be releasing the AcuInvoice Simple Store to the AcuInvoice community free of charge as a means of providing a strong set of core classes with which developers can build custom AcuInvoice applications. We will be putting the finishing touches on the Simple Store early this week, and plan on releasing documentation and tutorials along with the script later in the week. This post highlights the features and benefits of the store, and provides access to a sample store containing some $0.10 items so that you can execute a couple of test transactions and let us know what you think.

Sample Store

We have posted “The Charlie Store“ so that you can see a preview of what the store looks like by default.  You can execute a test transaction (where you purchase a $0.10 picture of my infant son and have it automatically delivered) to test the functionality.  The script functions in the manner described in the “How It Works” section below.

How It Works

When a customer places an order from your AcuInvoice Simple Store, all order data will be instantly passed to your AcuInvoice account. The data will be used to create a new contact (if the customer is not already in the database), and an invoice will be automatically created and sent to your customer at the email address provided during checkout. When your customer receives your invoice, they can pay via any gateway that you have enabled both in your AcuInvoice account and the AcuInvoice Simple Store. Once the invoice is paid, it will be automatically converted into a closed state. If the order contained any digital goods, the script will automatically send out an email containing an order-specific download URL. The AcuInvoice Simple Store allows you to limit the duration the download URL is valid, and specify a maximum number of item downloads.

Features & Benefits

Super Simple Installation

The AcuInvoice Simple Store is easy to install and configure. Simply unzip the archive, upload it to your web server, create a MySQL database, change a couple of permissions settings, and load the installer script in your browser. Your store will be automatically configured and should be functioning in about five minutes.

Clean Code

The AcuInvoice Simple Store utilizes clean CSS and produces valid XHTML 1.0 Strict for maximum compatibility with a variety of popular web browsers.

Simple Management of Content

The AcuInvoice Simple Store utilizes the TinyMCE HTML editor giving you the ability to style your store’s content using a familiar interface. TinyMCE is integrated by default into a number of applications and should be familiar to most users.

Fully Customizable

Your AcuInvoice Simple Store is completely customizable. You can make modifications to the storefront to suit the look of your site, and edit the store’s CSS via a simple web-based editing utility.

Standalone and Embeddable Mode

The AcuInvoice Simple Store can be used in either a standalone or embeddable mode. The standalone mode (default) produces a separate storefront page, while the embeddable mode allows you to insert your AcuInvoice Simple Store into any web page using a singleelement. Embeddable mode could be used, for example, to insert your simple store into pages dynamically generated by popular publishing platforms such as WordPress. 

Centralize Service Invoices and Store Purchases

You already use AcuInvoice to bill your clients, but if you sell products too, you might have to use another system for tracking those sales. Since the AcuInvoice Simple Store uses the AcuInvoice API to automatically enter customer and order information into AcuInvoice, all of your data will be centralized into your AcuInvoice account.

Automatically Delivers Digital Goods

If you sell digital goods from within your AcuInvoice Simple Store, these goods will be automatically delivered once the relevant invoice has been paid. Once payment is remitted and the invoice is converted into a closed state, customers will be sent an email containing a purchase-specific URLs that provides controlled access to digital content.

Plays Well With AcuInvoice Domain Mapping

If you have enabled domain mapping in your AcuInvoice account, all invoices generated via the AcuInvoice Simple Store will originate from your mapped domain, thereby giving you the option of providing a more carefully branded purchase experience for your customers.

Unbeatable Price

The AcuInvoice Simple Store will be released without charge to the AcuInvoice community. Please note that transactions completed through the AcuInvoice Simple Store will automatically pass customer information securely to your AcuInvoice account. Therefore, if you believe you will have a very active store, be certain to have a subscription level that will permit you to have a sufficient number of invoiced clients.

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Today we are happy to announce the release of AcuPort. AcuPort lets you move your data from Blinksale to AcuInvoice (and back) with one easy click. Now you can import your Blinksale information into AcuInvoice and try it for free. Invoices imported via AcuPort don’t even count against your monthly invoice limit, so if you have a large existing Blinksale account, this isn’t an obstacle. If you like AcuInvoice, we’d love to have you as a customer. If you like Blinksale better, AcuPort gives you the freedom to move your data back the same way. Simply put, AcuPort lets you try AcuInvoice for free, with no risk and zero hassle.To use it, just go to “My Account” and click on “Import/Export”.

Under The Hood (For Geeks)

AcuPort utilizes the APIs of each service to map data fields between the respective applications and efficiently transfer account data from one service to the other. Since both APIs operate over encrypted connections, data transfer is safe and easy. AcuPort currently resides in My Account→Import/Export, but will soon be included as an option during the sign-up process. Additionally, AcuPort will be released as a standalone PHP script that can be loaded onto your server. We plan on adding additional services to AcuPort, and will update the script as we finalize the data transfer routines for our other competitors.

What Transfers?

Invoices, contacts, tags, invoice histories, and comments. Blinksale does not support estimates, so if you have an AcuInvoice account and want to go to Blinksale, you’ll lose those.

Sounds Cool. Why Are You Doing This?

We have a strong—and improving—service and want to get the word out. For those of you who have already created AcuInvoice accounts, you’ve no doubt seen a series of incremental improvements and feature releases that makes AcuInvoice competitive with any application in this space. In addition to the features you’ve seen released, we have a variety of forthcoming features, API-based extensions, and UI improvement that will make AcuInvoice a formidable presence in the area of small business accounting.

Why Try AcuInvoice Now?

Strong Product & More To Come

AcuInvoice is a great product that’s already competitive with other applications, but we’re still adding features. If there’s something you want in your billing application, let us know and we’ll strongly consider it. This is your chance to help shape AcuInvoice.

More Powerful, Less Expensive Subscriptions

Early Adopters will have exclusive access to a feature rich, lower cost subscription plan that will not be available to subscribers who sign up after the initial commercial release. If you sign up now, you get more features for less money.

Save Money

During the time you are trying AcuInvoice, you could move to the free Blinksale plan and save money.

Known Issues

Invoice Numbering

Blinksale allows users to create invoice numbers using a free form text variable. For example, “whatever:56!:?:)” is a perfectly acceptable invoice number. AcuInvoice maintains numbering conventions whereby invoices are ordered incrementally as they are created. Therefore, when invoices are imported from Blinksale, AcuPort re-orders imported invoices according to the date of creation and assigns them an invoice number.  

Blinksale Invoice Caps

Blinksale limits the number of invoices you can create per billing period; invoices transferred into Blinksale via AcuPort will count against this limit. Therefore, if you want to switch to Blinksale using this script, make sure that the account type you have is sufficient to accommodate all of your invoices.

Size Matters

AcuPort has been tested on medium sized accounts going both to and from AcuInvoice. Large accounts might take some time to transfer and might exceed our server’s current timeout interval (30 seconds). If you have a large account, drop us a note at support (at) acuinvoice (dot) com and we will be happy to run the scripts outside of the web interface during off peak hours; we will then email you when the data has been successfully loaded into your AcuInvoice account.

Having Trouble?

If you encounter trouble of any kind, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We have run several test cases, but there may be a few troublesome import scenarios that were impossible to identify during testing. If you see something that doesn’t look right, please contact us and we’ll fix it. 

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The AcuInvoice development team is pleased to announce the initial public release of the AcuInvoice application programming interface (API) and PHP client library. The AcuInvoice API allows developers to build applications that securely access and manage their AcuInvoice data. Possible applications include integration with third party shopping carts, integration with third party accounting packages, and more. We have extensive documentation and sample code (to be posted shortly), but wanted to provide a consolidated summary of topics germane to this API and its future plans.

Access

The AcuInvoice API is open to all AcuInvoice subscribers. We currently have no plans to restrict API access based on account type. To use the AcuInvoice API you will need an access key. As of this writing, said key has magically appeared in the My Account→Preferences area of your account. Keep your API key safe. If you share it with the world, some nefarious pack of geeks might do something naughty with it. If you ever suspect that your API key has been compromised, simply change your master account password and an new API key will be automatically generated for you.

Security

AcuInvoice API communications are transmitted via XML and secured via HTTPS; requests made over non-encrypted connections will not be served. Additionally, if you have mapped a domain to AcuInvoice (if you haven’t, you know you want to), note that for purposes of data encryption you will have to access the AcuInvoice API at https://yourid.acuinvoice.com/api/ rather than at http://www.yourdomain.com/api/.

PHP Client Library

Our PHP client library is complete and can be downloaded at the URL conveniently located beneath your API key. Technical requirements for the library include PHP 5 compiled with SimpleXML and cURL. Documentation is included with the client library.

Forthcoming Additions

This 0.1 release is strong and has intentionally been structured such that the API’s scope and data formats are familiar to anyone who has developed applications using our competitors’ APIs. However, we believe that the AcuInvoice API can and should do more. To this end, we will be adding additional functionality to the AcuInvoice API as it becomes available. We welcome your suggestions.

API Developer Forum and Code Repository

We encourage API developers to join the AcuInvoice forum (just opened yesterday, so we’d love to have people join) to discuss API development issues and to let us know what you’d like to achieve with the API. If you have developed code that you believe has broad use, and which you don’t mind sharing with fellow API developers, we would be happy to promote your work and serve as a repository for this code.

Thanks

Lastly, we want to thank all of our early adopters for their support as we continue to release features and upgrades. We love hearing back from you and encourage you to continue to contacting us with your constructive criticisms. We’re working to make this the best application in this space and we can’t do it without feedback from you, our subscribers. Please feel free to contact us at support (at) acuinvoice (dot) com with any questions.

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