Billy › FAQ


Billy

Billy is self-hosted and you can publish as many posts as you want. Server resources and storage space are the only limit. As long as you are using a state-of-the art system this shouldn’t be an issue.

If your theme has (basic) support for the Block editor, Billy should work out-of-the-box. It may be required to slightly customize stylesheets or post templates.

Minor style changes can be done via Appearance > Customize > Additional CSS.

For full flexibility with even complex modifications you can create a Child Theme.

Yes you can. When setting up Billy initially you can start from a specific invoice number series by defining your current invoice number.

It is recommended to run both systems in parallel for a specific time until you feel confident with your new billing workflow.

Importing existing data like invoices, quotes and contacts would be possible as well but technical know-how of an experienced WordPress developer may be required to achieve this.

If supported by their bank, customers can use their e-banking app to scan the QR code on the invoice and pre-populate payment requests. This saves time and prevents typing errors.

The QR code markup may differ depending on your country and needs to be added manually in the Customizer settings.

We’ve created a tool that helps you generate the required EPC values. If your bank account doesn’t support the EPC payment system, you need to manually set up the markup with all parameters according to the official guidelines of the payment scheme.

Afterwards you need to paste the generated code in the according Customizer setting.

Please don’t forget to test everything before you push it live and please understand that we can’t help you with setting up the QR code and that you’re using this service at your own risk. If in doubt, do not activate this setting!

There are many possibilities to achieve this. You can create a Synced Pattern (reusable block feature) by selecting the blocks in the table and clicking on Create pattern. Afterwards you can select it from the Block Inserter whenever needed.

If you feel comfortable and have development skills you can also setup shortcodes with the content block.

Another approach would be to install a post duplication plugin, create a 1:1 copy of an existing post and modify it afterwards.

Unfortunately not. When closing the WordPress Editor any unsaved changes will get lost. So please make sure that the page stays open in a tab all the time. But no worries – if you try to close the browser tab you will be prompted with an alert so nothing will get lost.

Did you know that you can see the actual duration in the tab title in realtime?

Certainly. Just select the start and end time via the calendar input controls.

Time tracking entries that have been stopped can’t be started over again and you’d have to add a new row below. If you need to modify the dates subsequently, use the calendar input controls.

Child posts are connected to a parent post and show up indented in the posts overview.

The calculated sum of all connected time entries will be output in the main project.

Basic PDF styling is possible in the PRO version. Go to the Customizer and access Billy > PDF-Export. There you will find a field “CSS” where you can style the HTML elements.

E.g. Change the font-size and add a border to the tables:

body { font-size: 11pt; } .wp-block-table tbody tr, .wp-block-table tbody tr td, .wp-block-table tbody tr th { border: 1pt solid; } .wp-block-table tfoot tr td { border: 1pt solid; }

Please note that this is a PRO feature. Click on the “Send Email” button and use the webform to email the PDF (or PDF+UBL) version as attachment to your contact.

If needed you can add a CC or BCC email address or change the subject and the email body.

Pre-populated field values like subject and body can be defined in the Customizer.

If you add your email address in the CC (or BCC) field of the webform you will receive an exact copy of the email in your inbox.

Alternatively you could install an Email-log plugin.

Please make sure that the directory /mpdf/tmp is writable by the server. This directory is needed for temporary storage of important PDF data like images, fonts and stylesheets.

Please note that this is a PRO feature. UBL (Universal Business Language) is an open standard for electronic business documents like invoices based on the XML format. It’s mainly used in B2B settings and simplifies the automation of information exchange.

Providing a UBL version of electronic invoices may be required by law in your country.

Please not that the UBL generation needs to be activated in the global settings. If enabled you will see a download link next to the PDF previews of your invoices.

Our integration of the UBL standard has been implemented with care and is handled by an OpenSource library that already has many years of experience in this area. Furthermore we constantly test the generated markup using different third-party validators and adapt our data exporter, if needed.

Unfortunately the specifications of UBL are rather complex and there is no universal approach of getting it right because countries or authorities may have different regulations and custom requirements. That’s why it’s marked as “beta”.

All in all the generated data should still be helpful and you should be able to easily solve any issues by yourself.

Some contracting parties even provide a webform where you can upload the XML, test the structure and modify any missing data via a simple GUI. Ask for it.

Otherwise you have to manually check the XML based on a provided template and edit the data in a text editor or similar tool.

Feedback on this feature and on our technical implementation is always welcome but please note that we can only accept bug reports here and, as stated above, may not consider specific requirements or edge cases that would set off a whole series of cases.

A Geocoder extracts data like street name, house number, postal code and city from an address string.

The information is processed in vCards and in e-invoices. In addition it helps to validate the provided address so that you can be sure it’s correct.

We integrated the privacy friendly and free Nominatim service (powered by OpenStreet Maps) and no registration or API key is required.

Unfortunately linking post translations with WPML is not supported at the moment due to technical interferences while saving the post meta data.

If you need to translate Billy [PRO] posts you could give Polylang a try. It’s free and really easy to setup.

Block validation: Expected text Beschreibung, saw Description. This error may occur if the WordPress system language has been changed, which usually never happens at all.

The good thing is that it’s possible to fix this error and update the translations. Unfortunately you have to fiddle in the HTML Code Editor and not everyone is comfortable doing so.

If in doubt, just leave it as is. The stored post content is not affected and you can still view the posts and even download a PDF version.

Otherwise feel free to follow these steps:

1. Open the Code Editor view

2. Search in the content area for e.g. invoice-table

3. Lookup all translation strings like Description, Amount, etc. and replace them with the corresponding translation – you have to create a new invoice post first to compare the differences

4. When you’re done, close the Code Editor and review the table

5. If you still see an error, repeat steps 2 and 3 until it works

General

A live test is not possible but you can go to the Showcase page to preview selected screenshots of premium features.

If not stated otherwise you pay for an unlimited one-time license fee with no recurring payments.

Please note that we evaluate our product offerings from time to time and that we may decide to switch to a subscriptions business model anytime. But this will only affect new customers. Existing customers with a lifetime licenses will be honored and will receive future updates and bugfixes according to the initial purchase agreement.

When you purchase license and received an activation key, you can use the product and receive updates according to the initial purchase agreement.

Online payments are handled by an external payment provider. All major credit cards are supported.

Please make sure to copy any error details or create a screenshot.

Retry your purchase.

If the error persists, create a new Support thread or send an Email to support@them.es explaining the error.

Once your order is complete you should receive an Email with a link to set your password. If you didn’t receive the Email, please try to reset the password them.es Account.

Afterwards you can log in via them.es Account and select the download tab to find all available downloads.

If your purchase was successful and you didn’t receive a confirmation Email (please also look in your Spam folder) and your purchase doesn’t show up under them.es Account “Downloads”, send us an Email including your purchase details and the exact purchase date/time to support@them.es.

Always use a controlled environment or development instance if possible and be sure to have a current backup of your database before you try out new plugins.

If you notice any conflicts or unexpected errors with one of our products, let us know by filing a bug report. Please include all information required to be able to reproduce the issue.

Do you see any error messages when activating the product?
Which CMS version is being used?
Which themes/plugins are activated. Do you have the latest versions installed?
Do you use a PHP version which is up-to-date and still supported?
Which operating system and browser version is being used?

Short answer: No.

Long answer: First of all, once you purchased an activation key you are permitted to install the plugin on your own WordPress instance(s).

Incorporating static third-party code in a theme is a bad idea because it prevents installing important (security) updates.

Automatic updates are limited to the number of possible installs according to the license plan you purchased. License keys must never be made public, shared with others or included within the code.

Please make sure that you successfully activated the plugin or theme by entering the activation key.

If you still can’t update, click on the “Check again” link to clear the cache.

By the way. You can always download the latest version of the product you purchased by logging in to them.es Account.

Ultimately you can send us an Email to support@them.es with the following details:

– Your them.es username
– Your domain
– PHP version of your server
– WordPress version
– Product version
– Purchase date/time

Download the source file and install the plugin or theme by uploading the ZIP-file in the respective section on your WordPress dashboard.

After activating the plugin or theme, you need to enter the activation code in the according settings field (i.e. Customizer).

You can find all your active product licenses, downloads and any related information by logging in to them.es Account.

Go to them.es Account. If you forgot your access credentials and can’t login, you can reset your password there.

You can withdraw from a purchase within a period of 14 days.

Login to your dashboard, click on the Deactivate button in the product table under Downloads and follow the instructions. We will refund the full price.

Please note that the license will be withdrawn and that the activation key will not work anymore.

Refunding a payment is a manual procedure which takes some time to be completed. However, if you didn’t receive payment within a couple of weeks after deactivating your License, please get in touch with us: support@them.es

When you request a refund, we don’t ask any questions. But we would truly appreciate if you could help us improve our services by informing us about the reasons why you’re not happy with the product and why we couldn’t fulfill your expectations. Maybe the issues can be resolved and we can stay partners.

Our products are released under the GPLv2+ license (GNU General public license version 2.0 or later) which can be read here: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html.

We need to store personal information (including your name, email address, postal address, etc.) you provided during checkout for transmitting you a receipt, for creating an account and for keeping billing records. This is required by law.

Furthermore we save the product license key to be able to provide you with automatic updates.

Payments are handled by an external payment service provider. We never store any sensitive payment information.

By the way – you can request a Personal Data Export anytime here: https://them.es/privacy

Billing records need to be stored for 7 years due to legal requirements.

Other data related to your personal user account will be kept in our database as long as your access credentials are still active.

You can request a Personal Data Export anytime here: https://them.es/privacy

After purchasing a product, you have received an Email including a receipt as part of your purchase. You can view your orders, downloads and license key under them.es Account.

If you deleted the order Email you can request a copy by sending an Email with the order details to support@them.es. Please note that we can only resend the details to the email address you used for the user account.

The free versions of our plugins can be translated via translate.wordpress.org. You can get started here: https://make.wordpress.org.

The Pro version can only be translated via translation files that are available in the plugin/theme sources. The POT file which is required as a basis can be found in the /languages plugin folder.

woocommerce.com and wpbeginner.com have published great articles which explain in detail how to localize their WordPress Plugin and which tools to use:
https://woocommerce.com
https://www.wpbeginner.com

A good post with a technical background on Internationalization in WordPress 5+ can be found here: https://pascalbirchler.com/internationalization-in-wordpress-5-0

Don’t forget to backup any custom translations you included into the plugin. They may get overwritten during plugin updates.

If you have translated the Pro version into your language and would like to have your translation file included in the plugin sources you may reach out to us via the Support forum. Thanks in advance for your contribution!

Support requests and ideas can be submitted via our Support forum. For the free versions you can also access the official WordPress support forum in our WordPress profile or use the issue tracker in our GitHub repos.

If you you would like to contribute you can find all required information on the Contribution Guidelines page.

We can only provide support for questions related to our products and services. If you’ve already purchased a product you can login with your store credentials in our Support forum and post your request there. If you can’t login or don’t have an account yet you need to Register a new user first.

Please make sure to provide a detailed explanation including all information that is needed to be able to fully understand your request.