Lite back office: recurring invoices, reminders, jobs and quotes

For a small firm, a lite back office is four connected things: invoices that repeat on their own, reminders for unpaid ones, a list of jobs with their quotes, and a shared inbox where customer emails have an owner. I build that as one small web app instead of an ERP, so people see only what they need.

What this looks like in practice

A customer record holds contacts, billing details, and everything linked to them. From a quote you click “accept” and it becomes a job. A job has a status, assigned person, notes, and time or materials. When it is done, you create an invoice from it, with the lines already filled in.

Recurring invoices work from a schedule: monthly, quarterly or yearly, with the amount, the next date and the end date. Each run creates a draft for review or sends automatically, as you choose. Price changes apply to future invoices only, which avoids silent edits to old ones.

Payment reminders

The system checks open invoices daily. When one passes its due date, it sends a reminder from a template you wrote, then a second, firmer one after the interval you set. Every reminder is logged on the invoice. When you mark it paid, reminders stop. The place this breaks is partial payments and disputes, so I add a “pause reminders” switch per invoice.

Shared inbox

Messages arrive as conversations, which can be assigned to someone, closed, and linked to a customer or job. Internal notes stay hidden from the customer. This replaces a mailbox where everyone reads everything and nobody replies. It relies on the mail provider allowing access, and I confirm this before quoting.

What I build

• Customers, quotes, jobs and invoices with PDF output.
• Recurring invoices and a reminder schedule.
• A shared inbox with assignment and notes.
• Roles and a simple activity log.
• Interface language and invoice language chosen to fit your market.
• Export to CSV or accountant-friendly files.

When off-the-shelf is better

Several good tools already do invoicing, or helpdesk, or job management. If one tool covers your whole process, use it. I build when you would otherwise pay for three tools that do not talk to each other, or when your process has rules they cannot model.

What I need from you

Samples of your invoices and quotes, how often you bill, your reminder wording, and a list of who does what. I agree the scope and one fixed price before starting. Optional monthly maintenance covers fixes, changes and hosting.