How to Make a Billing Software in Python

This tutorial is set to guide you through creating a simple billing software in Python. Python is a robust, high-level programming language that allows developers to write applications and scripts with simplicity and versatility.

By the end of this guide, you will have a functional billing script capable of generating bills and invoices from given inputs.

Step 1: Install Necessary Python Libraries

Firstly, let’s begin by installing the necessary Python libraries. In this guide, we will require the datetime and CSV Python libraries.

The datetime library will enable our billing software to include accurate timestamps on each bill. The CSV library will enable us to store bills in an easily manageable format.

Use the following commands in your terminal to install the libraries:

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pip install datetime
pip install csv

Note: If you’re running Python on a server or a virtual environment, you might need to use pip3 instead of pip.

Step 2: Define the Billing Class

Our billing software will be object-oriented, so we need to create a Python class that defines the properties and methods of a bill. In this step, we will create a Bill class with properties such as ID, customer name, date, and items.

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from datetime import datetime
 
class Bill:
  def __init__(self, id, customer):
    ...

Step 3: Implement Billing Methods

Next, let’s implement methods in our Bill class to calculate the total amount, add items to the bill, and finally generate the bill.

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...
  def add_item(self, name, price, quantity):
    ...
 
  def calculate_total(self):
    ...
 
  def generate_bill(self):
    ...

Step 4: Connect With CSV for Bill Storage

Finally, we connect our Bill class with a CSV file for storing our generated bills. This is where the CSV library we installed earlier comes in play.

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...
  def store_bill(self):
    ...

The Full Code

Here is the full Python code for our simple, yet functional billing software.

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from datetime import datetime
import csv
 
class Bill:
    def __init__(self, id, customer):
        self.id = id
        self.customer = customer
        self.date = datetime.now()
        self.items = []
 
    def add_item(self, name, price, quantity):
        self.items.append({'name': name, 'price': price, 'quantity': quantity})
 
    def calculate_total(self):
        return sum(item['price'] * item['quantity'] for item in self.items)
 
    def generate_bill(self):
        bill_data = [self.id, self.customer, str(self.date), str(self.calculate_total())]
        return bill_data
 
    def store_bill(self):
        with open('bills.csv', 'a', newline='') as file:
            writer = csv.writer(file)
            writer.writerow(self.generate_bill())
 
# Example usage
bill1 = Bill(1, "John Doe")
bill1.add_item("Item 1", 10, 2)
bill1.store_bill()
print("Bill 1 stored.")
 
bill2 = Bill(2, "Jane Smith")
bill2.add_item("Item 2", 15, 3)
bill2.store_bill()
print("Bill 2 stored.")
 
 
1,John Doe,2023-09-12 19:50:07.090379,20
2,Jane Smith,2023-09-12 19:50:07.090379,45

Conclusion

Creating billing software in Python could be a complex task, however, this tutorial helped you simplify this task using object-oriented programming concepts. The billing software developed in this tutorial is straightforward and can be enhanced for further functionalities.