Auto-invoicing
Read Time: about 6 minutes
Client: iZettle and many others Points of Sale
Type of Project: Prototypes of new product
Tools: Axure & Illustrator
Team: UX Carlos A. Lee, UI Daniel Leal, and great collaboration with the engagement and developing teams
Incentive
Invoicing in Mexico is an involved process that requires not only a receipt, but also an invoice form from the merchant with a stamp of approval from SAT. While searching for a solution to help simplify the invoicing process and give consumers more control, we saw an opportunity to expand upon tools such as iZettle, which many small businesses have already adopted to receive and process their electronic payments. By allowing vendors to create auto-invoicing profiles and partnering with companies that process the transactions as well as those that handle SAT stamps, we can fully automate the process to the point that consumers only have to click a button at the end of their purchase and then sign on with their receipt code online to view their invoice.
Receiver configuration module, this is the interface they see when they're going to Auto-Invoice themselves
Keeping this idea in mind we collaborated with the development team to get a better understanding of the process and requirements for the data we needed to get from the Point of Sale (in this case iZettle). Since the invoicing process is heavily technical we took our time researching and planning before getting to work.
A very technical diagram of how it all works
Deliverables
For this project we had two deliverables: the emitter and the receiver prototype. The emitter handles the relationship between the merchant and the POS (Point of Sale, in this case iZettle) by allowing them to sign up for Auto-Invoicing provided through the POS. The receiver handles the customer side, giving them the option to request an invoice alongside their receipt and then retrieve it online. In the background docDigitales processes the customer’s invoice using the merchant’s Auto-Invoicing profile (sent over by the POS), gets SAT approval, and returns the invoice to the customer promptly.
A very colloquial diagram of how it all works
Invoicing is a very complicated process that relies on multiple sources for its various parts, but by automating and abstracting it away from both the merchants and customers we’ve achieved a seemingly simple and easy to use solution.
3 different prototypes of the emitter module for different companies
UI
The UI of this service is determined by the POS as our goal is to seamlessly integrate Auto-Invoicing into the devices already used by vendors. In this partnership we provide a feature the POS can offer to the merchants and their customers in return for the information we need to produce the invoices.
The UI that the merchants use to sign up for Auto-Invoicing is necessarily that of their chosen POS. Their customers, however, interact with both the POS and the docDigitales website. If the customer chooses to order an invoice from the POS, they will be given a receipt with their docDigitales invoice button. When the customer later goes to generate their invoice they will be directed to a docDigitales interface that has the information retrieved from the POS already filled in and requires only the completion of a few more details and confirmation. After confirmation the user will then be shown a pdf preview of their invoice and asked if they would like to download both PDF & XML, receive it by email, or store it with docDigitales.
The preview of invoice & receipt in the generic emitters module
Target Audience
To promote the docDigitales Auto-Invoicing feature we have created custom prototypes for various POS as well as a generic version, that can be used in tandem with a POS that does not offer our feature, for merchants to use directly.
