Automated invoicing

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Except for the business letter, the invoice is the most important type of written document in most companies. A little known fact is that not only Excel, but also Word can perform arithmetic operations. The advantage of Word is that even a sophisticated corporate design can be implemented without compromise.

In most cases, invoicing involves the following elements:

• Summing up several individual items
• Calculating intermediate results
• Calculating VAT
• Automatically setting the invoice date
• Calculating the due date

In the present case, the customer asks for the option to switch between Swiss francs and US dollars. Additionally the following requirements were formulated:

• Allowing for both currencies when editing
• Allowing for different currency symbols (USD, $, CHF, sFr)
• Automatically retrieving the current exchange rate from the Internet
• Optional overriding the exchange rate suggested by the Internet
• Converting those items not yet in the target currency
• Consistent formatting (currency symbol, thousands separator, decimal places)

Similarly to how Word can retrieve CHF/USD exchange rates from the Internet, Word can automatically extract other information from the Internet. A classic example: a customer's address from the online telephone book.

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