Patchability Time
patch·a·bil·i·ty, adjective
the state or quality of being connected or hooked up (circuits, programs, conversations, etc.)
FAQ
Q I have hundreds of contacts in Xero, won't there be hundreds of Calendars created during setup?
A No. You only create the ones you want, and the system only takes existing Xero Customers or those Contacts changed in the last week. This makes the overall numbers quite manageable.
Q Ok, now I have all my calendars made in Google, how do I log my time?
A Just add a normal calendar entry in the correct calendar. In the name field, just type a very brief entry, eg. "mowed lawn, tidied borders". The calendar start time / end time should reflect the number of hours you worked.
Q I charge my clients different rates, but the STANDARDHOUR is assigned against each client. How do I charge different clients, different rates?
A In Xero Accounts -> Inventory, you need to setup a different chargeable Item for each. If you have many clients, you might like to charge against something like "PREMIUMHOUR", "STANDARDHOUR", "DISCOUNTHOUR" etc. At that point you can DELINK and then re-LINK each customer with the Xero Hourly Rate you want.
Q I want to change a rate, do I need to relink the calendar?
A No. In Xero Accounts -> Inventory, you can edit the rate, eg. edit "STANDARDHOUR". The next time you do an invoice run, the the new rate will be used to generate the invoices.
Q I want to create a new Xero Contact from an existing Google Calendar. Can Patchability Time do that for me?
A No. Not at this stage. The problem isn't that it can't be done, it's just that you need to go into Xero anyway to set up all the other details (address, email etc). There's no point. Better to link it afterwards, once you've created the full contact in Xero.
Q Will Patchability Time issue invoices to my clients before I've had chance to review and correct any errors?
A No. Absolutely Not! Patchability Time will only ever create DRAFT invoices that you still need to approve in Xero before sending out to your clients. Typically you should do several invoice runs before you are comfortable with what it doing. For the first few months of use, you should certainly check each invoice before it goes out!
Q Why does Patchability Time seem very slow sometimes?
A Because it is. Patchability Time has to sign in to both Google and Xero and make multiple requests to each system to do its job. There's really no way round it. If you have many clients, it might be better to do 10-20 at a time because at this stage we haven't tested much beyond this!
Q How does Patchability Time know when to start a new invoice from?
A Each invoice gets marked internally with a special patchability marker. If there is no invoice found with that marker for a given customer, it will take the most recent invoice issued for that client as a start date. If that fails then it will rely on 'best effort'. Whatever it decides, you can still choose to override the start date before the invoice run.
Q Can I add other items to an invoice?
A Of course! You can edit each invoice however you like. Even deleting them if you want to retry with a different start date.
Q I don't have a PayPal account. Why do you insist on PayPal?
A That's just the first of various payment systems we can use, but the fact is, it's the most used global internet payment system. At this stage you need a PayPal account because it's monthly subscription based.