[freeside] Help with imported data

[Ivan Kohler]

On Wed, Aug 25, 1999 at 10:06:11AM -0600, Tech Account wrote:
> > By ordering packages which cost money.
> 
> In an accounting system you would simply have an outstanding balance field.
> This is what I'm after, since it allows me to enter in incosistent past
> entries, while not totally going nuts making packages and doing custom
> pricing for every little wacky past billing issue.

It was a design decision of Freeside to _not_ have an "outstanding
balance" field.  This decision was made on the advice of the bookkeeper
and accountant at the ISP where Freeside grew up. 

As I said, if you want to this, you should order an "outstanding balance" 
packages for the customer, with the setup fee set to the appropriate
price.  If you do this programmatically using the documented interfaces
(again, see the FS::cust_pkg and FS::part_pkg manpages), then from the
user's standpoint it functions identically - the user puts in the
outstanding balance, the customer gets charged it.  Just because you feel
the code behind it would "totally go nuts" makes no difference from a
usability standpoint.

> > To do this non-interactively, see the `FS::cust_pkg' manpage.  If you need
> > to do the equivalent of the `Customize Pricing' button from the web
> > interface, so you can assign different prices to everyone, see the
> > `FS::part_pkg' manpage.
> > 
> > > What if this amount
> > > is more or less than the amount of the current packages for that
> > > user?
> > 
> > It isn't, by definition.
> 
> You seem to be completely unfamiliar with billing in the real world,

I suppose the ISP where Freeside was written existed in some alternate,
parallel universe then.  

> which consists of many items, things like discounts for multiple
> packages of the same type, late charges as a percentage of owed money,
> one time items, etc.  All of these things have a drastic impact on the
> BALANCE that someone is owed, as opposed to how much they need to pay
> on a regular bill.

Yes, and Freeside can handle lots of arbitrarily complex billing, because
all prices are Perl expressions.  The results of those expressions are
what the customer is charged, by definition. 

> Freeside is a great solution for setting up and billing people in an idylic
> world, but it's inflexible from an accounting standpoint.

If you don't like the way the software works, and you disagree with my
design decisions, then stop complaining and and patch it yourself.  It's
open-source.

You'll have _far_ better luck convicing me that things should change to
work differently if you back it up with working code.

-- 
Ivan Kohler <ivan at sisd.com> - finger for PGP key - <moc.dsis at navi> Relhok Navi
Open-source billing and administration for ISPs - http://www.sisd.com/freeside
20 4,16 * * * saytime # please don't be surprised if you find me dreaming too