Useful Tools

In the Utilities section, you'll find a couple of useful tools. Clicking on the Database backup link lets you download a database backup file in the SQL format that you can use to restore BambooInvoice's database if it gets damaged. With the Export feature, you can save invoices from BambooInvoice in XML or Excel format for further processing in other applications, such as OpenOffice.org Calc.Although BambooInvoice generates clean and stylish invoices, you can also tweak the underlying template.

To modify, for example, the template that is used to generate invoices in the PDF format, you have to edit the pdf.php file in the /bambooinvoice/bamboo_system_files/application/views/invoices directory. Even if you are not an expert in PHP and CSS, you can modify the basic settings easily. The first part of the template contains style sheet information, such as font types, text formatting, and colors, which you can adjust. Also, you can remove certain elements from the template. For example, if you don't want your company's website address to appear on the invoice, you can remove it by deleting the following line in the template: <?php echo auto_link(prep_url($companyInfo->website));?>.

Final Word

As a freelancer or a small business owner, you have to take care of many things, including invoicing your customers and keeping track of payments. Often, this is considered to be the least glamorous part of being a freelancer. Yet, the lack of a proper system in place can seriously disrupt your daily work and make the process of running your own business rather frustrating. BambooInvoice helps you avoid that by giving you simple yet effective tools for generating invoices and keeping tabs on them.

The Author

Dmitri Popov holds a degree in Russian language and computer linguistics. He has been writing exclusively about Linux and open source software for several years, and his articles have appeared in Danish, British, North American, German, and Russian magazines and websites.