Just felt like sharing this view of Vancouver with you. It's Saturday and I'm thinking about smRty and the frustrating details (what do they say? The Devil is in the Details?) that need to be ironed out before it's ready for public consumption.

Billing is not an easy business. While the "Punch Clock" functionality is worked out for the issues that you're dealing with... it's the "extras" that are holding us up.

Of course you're going to have expenses beyond the time billing. Things like external licensing, books, gas costs, buying your client a new laptop.... It immediately became apparent that we were going to have to add the ability to put "NON TIME RELATED" items on the invoice.

That raises all sorts of questions of course. Do you simply add the ability to add a section to the invoice for line items? Do you integrate a database for inventory? If you're selling it once, good chance it'll happen again? Isn't it easier to simply add items to your catalog as you go? Or is that adding an extra step that ultimately isn't desirable. Which one will take longer to implement? Do you add it later or delay launch to ensure a stronger product?

I'm not entirely sure what the answers are, like every step in business it comes down to polling your peers, asking questions, and ultimately going with your instincts.

Do we need to have a product catalog as part of the billing solution? Or do we simply go with the add a line item to the invoice model? Only time will tell (I'm guessing the catalog model, but hey, let's wait for Francois to weigh in shall we?)