Freshbooks Integration + Review « Gravity Support Forums

Gravity Support Forums » Plugin Support » Gravity Forms FreshBooks Add-On

ActiveFriends
Member

So I just found out that when your forms "create" an invoice, the invoice doesn't automatically send. Really?!

I hope I'm not the only one that thought by using Gravity Forms with Freshbooks Integration that there would be some level of automation... ?

So after having used this software I have the following suggestions/points to make:
Please add use of Freshbook Recurring payments
Please make it capable of not only CREATING but automatically sending invoices
Please add login form capabilities, or at least the ability to add a password field
Please add the ability to actually use the collected form data somewhere else on the site

Has anyone ever suggested creating a Wordpress Membership add-on? You already have all the form building, you have the database, you have the integration, and you have Freshbooks.

I realize I may be using this software a little out of context, but I was forced to pay $200 to get the Freshbooks add-on and the only thing it does is create the customer and an invoice. I still have to manually log into freshbooks and send the invoice, at that point why wouldn't I just create the customer while I'm there? I also have to manually setup recurring invoices, again, why not just create the customer while I'm there.

Other than an AWESOME form builder, I think for $200 this product could use a little more refinement. FormSpring may have been the better choice in this instance.

Posted 14 years ago on Thursday April 1, 2010 | Permalink
ActiveFriends
Member

What's worse is that while there is a "registration code" you have to enter to make this plugin work, there are no refunds.

Posted 14 years ago on Thursday April 1, 2010 | Permalink
Carl Hancock
Administrator

Gravity Forms FreshBooks Add-On is a v1 product. We intend on enhancing it in the future, however we are limited by what we can do via Gravity Forms and the FreshBooks API. The intention was an easy add-on that allows for simple integration between Gravity Forms and FreshBooks to limit how much re-keying you have to do.

The invoices are created as drafts so that you can then review them in FreshBooks, determine if the information is in fact correct, and then send the invoice or estimate to the client.

We can't make Gravity Forms do everything FreshBooks can do. We can only do what their API allows us to do.

Recurring invoices, for instance, were not possible with the FreshBooks API when we created the Add-On. FreshBooks introduced Recurring Invoice capabilities with their API at the beginning of March, AFTER our Add-On was released.

While we do plan on integrating user registration/login capabilities in a future release, Gravity Forms will not evolve into a Membership System. That isn't it's intention, it's a form creation tool. Member and Subscription Management is far more complex and involved that just the registration form itself.

FYI... our FreshBooks integration is *EXACTLY* the same as FormSpring's FreshBooks integration. I am unsure if FormSpring has made changes since we released the Add-On, but when we developed and released the FreshBooks add-on it incorporated all of the same features as the FormSpring integration.

Posted 14 years ago on Thursday April 1, 2010 | Permalink
Kevin Flahaut
Administrator

The plugin does automate the creation of invoices and estimates in FreshBooks. It's intended to be a time-saving tool, not a completely automated invoicing/estimating solution. We never claimed otherwise.

"The Gravity Forms FreshBooks Add-On makes it quick and easy to integrate your forms with the FreshBooks service. You can take any form and automatically use that data to create FreshBooks clients, invoices and estimates."

We have a "Pre Sale Questions" section of this forum where you could have inquired about the functionality before making a purchase. We field questions there all the time from people who have specific needs or concerns about what the plugin can and cannot do.

Thanks for your suggestions about additional functionality too. We've already considered several of these things for future releases and appreciate any additional feedback.

As for the registration code, it's not required to make the plugin work. It functions just fine without it. The registration code simply gets you access to automatic updates. Also, unless I've missed something, I really don't see any correlation with the registration code and a refund.

Posted 14 years ago on Thursday April 1, 2010 | Permalink
ActiveFriends
Member

I do apologize for being so critical.

I have setup Formstack (new name) for use with direct Authorize.net integration and I think that will be a much better solution for our needs. I have canceled our Freshbooks account as it's no longer needed - you're correct, their integration with FB is identical.

So at this point, our members fill out a form, enter CC info securely, are charged directly via Authorize.net, and all the member data is piped into a Google Apps spreadsheet for tracking, printing, etc. We can also run reports from any of the data sources if necessary.

GF is an excellent product, as a form builder, directly integrated with WP. I think my expectations were not met due to not understanding the limitations of your product.

I will comment and say that I think it sucks you have to drop 200$ to use ANY of the add-ons. I only needed this for one site, and only needed one add-on. It would have been awesome to pay for the single site license and drop another 30$, 50$, or whatever on the add-on(s) I needed.

Either way, GF is a great product which will only improve with future releases.

Posted 14 years ago on Friday April 2, 2010 | Permalink
Carl Hancock
Administrator

We do plan on adding both PayPal and Authorize.net in the future. We also plan on introducing a Google Apps add-on for feeding data to a Google Spreadsheet. So in the future, you will be able to do the exact same thing with Gravity Forms and since you already own the Developer License you will get the PayPal, Authorize.NET or Google Apps Add-Ons for free.

Posted 14 years ago on Friday April 2, 2010 | Permalink
ActiveFriends
Member

That would be most excellent.

The main reason I chose GF, honestly, was because it "seemed" to be the same thing as Formspring, but local. I liked that idea much better since I already have everything I need, locally, to make that work.

So if, in the end, GF adds that functionality I'll probably be a bigger fan and use it more extensively with the other sites that I develop. I do dig their interface though, works well, very snazzy. =)

I will certainly be on the lookout for upcoming future updates. Thanks again.

Posted 14 years ago on Friday April 2, 2010 | Permalink
Jimmy
Member

Another suggestion for Freshbooks add-on... Will the API allow you to feed form data into their SUPPORT system? That would be perfect, then I can manage my clients all in one location.

Posted 14 years ago on Tuesday April 6, 2010 | Permalink
enclave
Member

I get the fact that dev is not always predictable, having said that It seems that part of the issue users are frustrated by the lack of a clear roadmap and time frames around feature releases.

As far as freshbooks itself goes I for one would love to see scheduled updates ie once per month or once per quarter etc that reflects updates to their API

I think support integration would be great if the API support it btw

all that said I am happy I got my dev license and see it as a great investment but I won't see a tangible return till payment integration works.

To say paypal will be done sometime over summer suggests that more resources are required to build and test this feature than are available to hand.

If you want to look at ways to get this funded to happen sooner let me know

Posted 14 years ago on Sunday April 25, 2010 | Permalink
Jimmy
Member

After installing Freshbooks add-on, new registrants would be added to my Freshbooks account. For some reason the last 2 clients did not go in to my Freshbooks account. Any ideas why? I DID upgrade to the latest Gravity Forms. Would that have caused it? Has anyone else had a problem with that?

Jimmy

Posted 14 years ago on Tuesday May 25, 2010 | Permalink
RichardBest
Member

You haven't hit a number-of-clients limit in your Freshbooks account by any chance have you?

Posted 14 years ago on Wednesday May 26, 2010 | Permalink
Carl Hancock
Administrator

Yes, as Richard Best pointed out this could be a FreshBooks limitation. Your FreshBooks account is limited to X number of clients. Once you reach that max level additional clients can't be added. Check to see how many clients you have added and what your FreshBooks account limitation is.

Posted 14 years ago on Wednesday May 26, 2010 | Permalink
Jimmy
Member

No. I have not hit my limit. I am not even half full. I wish I had that problem, but that is not the case. Any ideas why it would stop working when it was working?

Posted 14 years ago on Thursday May 27, 2010 | Permalink
Carl Hancock
Administrator

The only thing that would cause it to stop working when it was previously working is something else within your WordPress or hosting configuration changed. The code itself did not change so if it works, it will continue to work. Something else had to have changed.

Have you tried ruling out a possible plugin conflict? If not I would start there. Deactivate all other plugins except GF and the FreshBooks add-on and test. If it works, then activate each of your other plugins one by one and test after each one.

Another option is to activate plugins in groups of 5 or so if you want to narrow it down quicker. Then when you encounter a group of plugins that causes the issue, narrow it down from that group.

Posted 14 years ago on Thursday May 27, 2010 | Permalink
Jimmy
Member

Well, you did upgrade your plug-in. Did anything change? I have not added any new plug-ins to my site since I created it. I will do what you said, but nothing has changed on my server. It's a VPS and I am in charge of those changes. If WiredTREE changes anything on their end, they email us and let us know.

I did upgrade to WP 2.92 but I doubt that is doing it.

I will let you know.

Jimmy

Posted 14 years ago on Friday May 28, 2010 | Permalink
Jimmy
Member

UPDATE: For whatever reason, it's working now. I have 3 clients over the course of a month that filled out the Estimate Form, I received the email, etc, but it did not show up in FRESHBOOKS. I just went to do a dummy estimate to make sure before I went into the plug-in debug nightmare and it worked.

Freshbooks did update their system yesterday. I wonder if it was on their end. Novel idea, eh?

Posted 14 years ago on Friday May 28, 2010 | Permalink
keycreative
Member

Any news on the Authorize.net update?

Posted 14 years ago on Wednesday July 7, 2010 | Permalink

This topic has been resolved and has been closed to new replies.