ImplementedMake Printed Invoices Smaller

edited February 2017 in Feature Requests 7 LikesVote Down
Can we make a change on this invoicing letter size, etc. It is very nice if you only sell 3 items, but when the list is in the hundreds, now your printing a crazy number of pages! I just printed a 223 items order, 14 pages long! In BS that will be tops 3 pages! That is crazy, Mark. Imagine the shipping cost to Europe for 14 pages plus the stamps. Also, I posted somewhere else about the issue with the offers.
This buyer alone made over 300 offers. They have to be accepted/decline one by one. Insane. Can we fix this?
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Comments

  • 64 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • It is a lot cheaper to ship 223 stamps than it is to ship 14 pages of invoice (over 2 ounces on my postal scale plus requiring a large mailer - not a number 10 envelope).
  • Not that this suggestion solves the problem, but it is a bit of a work-around for now that saves paper: you could always set the printer to print only one half of the pages, then flip them over and print on the other side of the paper, effectively reducing your weight by 50%, fwiw.
  • Another workaround for now, if you can use Chrome as a browser, is to select the option to print to a PDF file, which you could then send to the customer electronically.
  • I'd love to hear from buyers on this point, would they rather an e-invoice or do they want a paper invoice? I mean, to save a tree wouldn't you rather an e-invoice? If I want to check my order, it's right here on the site.

    I'd love to not print any invoice, paperless is a way to go for me.

    Thoughts?
  • I was wondering just that, Luree -- why does a seller feel it is so necessary to print out an invoice?

    I don't care one way or the other -- if I ever have need of an invoice after buying something here there is plenty of information that I can print out myself either from my Member's Area or from Paypal.

    Unfortunately, the invoices that I do receive with my items usually just go straight to the waste pile! It seems like a waste of paper - and printer toner - to send an invoice.

    I'd much rather see a simple handwritten 'Thank You' from the seller! :smiley:
  • Thank You Dave! I know back in the beginning of time having an invoice was so very necessary, but in these days of electronic this and that, what is the real need? Just to clog up the waste basket? What happened to the paperless system that computers were supposed to create?

    I'm all for not sending an invoice, definitely always a nice handwritten thank you!

    And you are right, there is PayPal, Credit Card and certainly here for us to bring up what we have bought/sold for tax purposes or even curiosity.

    More thoughts?
  • My preference would be to not include them, but I've seen sellers cussed out on other stamp boards for not including them (and giving low ratings on eBay). So I err on the side of caution.

    When I'm in doubt about what to do pertaining to something in the stamp community, I think about what the norm would have been 10 years ago, and do that. (I'm personally a little more leading edge than that, but it seems like the stamp community is not the place for leading-edge practices, at least by one lowly little part-time stamp seller.)
  • Well guys and girls, how do you propose that a dealer fulfilling an order of 223 items go about pulling them out of inventory an keeping a record of what is going out? I print a shipping invoice to do just that, never mind trying to be a little professional about it. I get stuff from sellers and I have to go fishing for that order in order to keep the records straight, give feedback where due, etc. I agree that you do not have to go overboard with color pictures of the stamps, but a simple running list of the items you purchase with any notes in case something is not right. I do tell my buyers when I replace a stamp they purchase for another better because I see a lesser quality when pulling out of inventory.
    And yes, 99% of the covers received have a return name/address different than the advertise on the site or none!
    Now what?
  • edited October 2016 0 LikesVote Down
    Luree, the only thing I could think of is that it's sometimes nice to see a paper invoice with an order of 75 stamps where the seller has obviously put down a check mark or something as he/she fulfills the order.

    Does that mean I really WANT a multi-page printed invoice? Nope. But an indication like that (somehow or another) is never a bad thing to see as a buyer. Overall, I'm a fan of conserving the paper.
  • edited October 2016 0 LikesVote Down
    The point is Kurt, that we can make this work BETTER. In BS it was just right never had this issue, even with 500+ items!
    Everybody can do as they please, include shipping invoice or not.
    Take for example the other issue, accepting offers. NO problem when you get one, but you get hundreds NOW the problem is HUGE. I am sure we can click a box and select one, two, etc. and with another click select yes/no, simple and LOGICAL.
  • I'm not disagreeing with you at all. Some printable, but highly simplified and shrunken, invoice could come in handy.
  • I'm finding the invoice page has gotten bigger when I print them out. Used to be able to print smaller. Yeah, I know we had to get the magnifier out to see the print, but it was nice having the print smaller especially when filling larger orders.

    Maybe there could be a work around, don't know the best solution. I think from now on I'll message the buyer and ask if they want an invoice, if not then problem solved.

    I don't have a highfalutin type of business, in fact, I'm just a very small time collector that is selling some duplicates so inventory is not a priority to me. The listings are my inventory/store. And I try to make them correct.

    I remember when I did have orders at BS we could expand the listings. I would use that page and when the stamp was found I would close that listing, when all were closed, the order was complete. I sort of miss that feature. But this is a new area and we adjust.

    I agree, let's keep it simple and shrink the invoice just a little.
  • Luree Hughes - "I remember when I did have orders at BS we could expand the listings. I would use that page and when the stamp was found I would close that listing, when all were closed, the order was complete. I sort of miss that feature. "

    That was an extremely useful feature on bidStart!!! A similar feature here on HipStamp would make filling orders much more efficient.
  • edited November 2016 0 LikesVote Down
    Keep in Mind that the "Items I've Sold" page on bidStart is equivalent to the Listings > Closed / Sold page on HipStamp (at the top left filter by Sold Items). This is because bidStart had no concept of Orders - so there was no Sold Orders page.

    As with bidStart, on the Listings > Closed / Sold page, there's a checkbox next to each listing on this page. So if you're filling a large order, and just want to keep track of what you've pulled - it should be the same result there.
  • edited November 2016 0 LikesVote Down
    Not quite, Mark. We can't sort by buyer. So if you have several orders and want to sort by country (which makes picking easier) the sort mixes all the orders together. Have I missed something?

    Clarification: I'm referring to the closed/sold order page. Which is nicer to fill orders from because the images are larger and the "check" box is nice. But the order is not sorted by country as the sold/orders page.
  • I agree with Jeri
  • edited November 2016 2 LikesVote Down
    Mark, I tried using your method and it simply does not work. In BidStart, I had options about how to sort sold items, by date, buyer, country/catalog, etc. I could also filter by date (very useful), then by buyer and then by country/catalog. On those days that I had three or four buyers to process, this was extremely handy.

    Dovetailing off of this subject, I am having a lot of frustration trying to find the buyers and give feedback once they have received their items. I cannot search the pending feedback page for a buyer (i.e. stampbuyer22) I cannot even look at a sold item to find out what date it was sold. I just spent 30 minutes (unsuccessfully) trying to give feedback because I could not find the buyer in question!

    I agree wholeheartedly with Luree Hughes and Steve Ruecker that we need a better dashboard in order to process our orders. Just like Carlos Aristy said, a large order (over 30 items) is very difficult to process. First, the pictures are way too small to identify. For example, I sell a lot of used stamps, and I identify the sold item by the cancellation. I frequently have to open the item in a separate tab to identify the item (very time consuming). In BidStart I needed to do this perhaps only once in an order of 40 stamps. Now I have to do this with 50-60% of the sold items.

    I have gone to using a sticky pad on my computer screen to be able to keep my place to properly scroll through the listings. At the end, I count the items sold, and I still end up missing an item or two. Since we could close or open the item in the BS seller dashboard, I never had this problem...

    On printing invoices, since the line entries for each item sold take so much space, I get only 9 items on one page. When I shrink the invoice for printing, at 75% I get 15, at 50% I get 30. At 25% the font is so small that you cannot even read it!. On an invoice, it is not necessary to have so much white space around each item, a solid single-line entry for each item is just fine, then at 50% I can get about 70 items on one page.
  • What Steven said - I can probably get used to most things but the information and format we need to process orders or to keep a proper set of books is totally, and I do mean totally, lacking. With Bidstart total entry time and breakdown for the entire years worth of business took less than half an hour, I have spent literally hours drilling down through titles where I thought I could find the basic information in usable format to no avail. Please help us out here or you are going to be spending a lot of time at tax tine trying to help us retrieve necessary data.
  • Also there is a useless space use for Subtotal/shipping/total at the bottom of each page printed. In the mentioned order of 223 items, my printout was 14 pages long and only 17 items per page. It is too time consuming, too costly on paper and ink, not to mention the level of frustration. Like I said, in BS this process was much easier and reasonable. Actually, never complaint about it! From fulfilling the order to delivery of feedback it was seamless. Here, those 223 items order was a total pain, no fault from the buyer, he actually made 224 offers, which I had to accept/decline one at the time, and when it was time to feedback, you can only do a page at the time, in BS you selected the buyer, got ALL the listings, click to select all and delivered the feedback at once. Why re-invent the wheel?
  • Dave,

    To answer your question there are multiple reasons to print out an invoice. First I for one use the private ID's. All my stock is scanned,listed,filed packed and pulled by the private ID. Because of the number of items I have listed,those are in a different room then from the computer. Because everything I have listed is filed by private ID and the private ID is on the invoice it makes it very quick and easy to pull the items for shipping. (About a two months ago I pulled and packed an order of 450 + covers in a little less then an hour and a half.)

    Two if you sell international an invoice is suppose to be included with the shipment. (That is for the customers end when it passes through their customs. If it's not included they can estimate the customs and duties or even confiscate the
    package and NOT return it to the seller)

    Three if for some reason the address on the package or envelope becomes unreadable and the PO will send it to the dead letter office. They do scan those packages to check for merchandise. If the package or envelope contains an invoice with the delivery address they can forward it on.

    Fourth it does help the buyer know who sent the order.

    Hope that helps as to why some of us do include an invoice with your order.
  • I figured you sellers had your reasons, Michael - I'm just letting you know that to this particular buyer, getting a printed out invoice with my order is not important.

    I resort to writing things by hand whenever I can. You know, like in the days before desktop printers! :smile:
  • LOL I still write most things out by hand. (I can write faster then I can type)

    Sometimes it's nice to know some of the reasons why. And on some things it's not as important on the one side as it is on the other.
  • I'm with Dave and Michael. I write small orders by hand, usually on the clean stiffener that protects the stamps during shipment. Saves ink and paper and wear and tear on my relatively expensive printer.
  • When the IRS auditor asks you to prove your cost in an item that you bought 3 years ago, how many of you will remember where you bought it? Even though the odds are against you remembering where you bought every stamp in your inventory or collection, lets say you DO remember. Sure enough, you bought it on the Stanley Gibbons Marketplace.

    Now, don't you wish you had received an invoice with the stamp... and kept it? So much for the brave new paperless world. Save all the trees you want, but you will pay more in taxes at audit time because of it.
  • I have not had experience with IRS auditors, but have had a lot with Canada Revenue Agency auditors. In general, they may start to question and inventory figure, but if they are asked to inventory and calculate an inventory figure their eyes glaze over and they move on to something else. Auditors want to get $ out of your body, but if they have to spend 10 hours to get a $ from you they look at better places to find $ from you, ie you can't deduct that, etc, etc.

    My favourite auditor story involves the IRS. They audited a book dealer ( now with the angels) in Vermont in February. When they told the dealer that they could not accept his inventory figure he sent them to the unheated barn that his books were in. After a few hours they came back, teeth chattering, and told him that his inventory figure was fine.
  • Good story, Dennis!! But I have sat with my clients as a team of IRS auditors scour over 3 years of books, entry by entry, for four days. It's not a fun time, for anybody. And they are thorough. Inventory costing was one of their topics. At the end of the four days, they congratulated my client for having good books, and said they found nothing. My client didn't owe a penny. Another client who "wasn't worried about being audited" changed his tune after a simple state sales tax audit... charging him several thousand dollars in back taxes. He keeps much better books now.

    Hoping to get an auditor with glazable eyes is like hoping to win the lottery. You might get a lazy one, but probably not.
  • My last auditor was told to spend 80 hours on me because I was an ebay Powerseller, and Canada Revenue wanted to develop procedures for extracting money from powersellers. CRA was sure that money was not being reported. The auditor had records from Ebay that listed all my sales there and he went through things one by one to make sure that i had listed every sale - as I had. If a payment is coming in through Paypal there is no way to get away with not showing it on my books. Under Canadian Tax law dealings with CRA are completely confidential so he could not discuss the other power sellers that he had audited but I got the impression that CRA did not find the expected goldmine. He spent 80 hours on me and got nothing. He did waste a lot of my time.
    If audited, hope for someone with a bit of gray in his or her hair. Junior auditors sometimes don't know what the bleep they are doing and have to have things patiently explained to them - again a time waster.
  • Contratulations! Not a fun experience, is it. And I agree... the grayer the better.
  • edited December 2016 0 LikesVote Down
    Deleted (not on topic)
  • The topic was on the importance of sending invoices, or not. I contend that if you (or any of your customers) ever get audited by the IRS, you will wish you had all of the invoices to prove your cost in your inventory, or in the stamp collection you just sold. And the demise of Stanley Gibbons Marketplace shows that you can't rely on the third party online sites to keep them for you to print out if and when you need them.
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