Customisable templates

Invoices, orders, statements, cheques, payslips and labels are all templates — edit them in the browser, in HTML, LaTeX, plain text or XML.

• HTML, LaTeX, text and XML templates, edited in the application.
• A separate template per document type: invoice, packing list, pick list, work order, order, quotation, RFQ, statement, cheque, payslip, receipt, label.
• A template set per language, so each customer gets their own.
• Per-dataset template sets, so two companies can look completely different.
• LaTeX templates produce PDF directly, including on pre-printed stationery.
• Any field on the transaction is available to the template.
• Email a document straight from the screen that made it.

Where to find it System › HTML Templates  ·  System › LaTeX Templates  ·  System › Text Templates  ·  System › XML Templates

Editing a template

1. Open System › HTML Templates (or LaTeX for PDF) and pick the document: invoice, sales order, statement, cheque, payslip…
2. The list shows the default template and one per document language. Click the one to change; it is displayed as it will render, with the variable names in place of values.
3. Press Edit to open the source. Variables are <%name%>; line items sit inside a <%foreach number%> loop; <%if%> blocks hide sections that do not apply. Every field on the transaction and the customer is available.
4. Save. The next document printed uses the new layout; there is nothing to restart.
5. Shared pieces — head.html, letterhead.html, foot.html — are linked from the top and bottom of each template, so the letterhead is changed once.

What a template can say

Templates are plain HTML (or LaTeX, text, XML) with variables and three control commands. The stock templates are the best reference: open one and read it.

1. A variable prints a value: <%name%>, <%address1%>, <%invnumber%>, <%invdate%>, <%duedate%>, <%ordnumber%>, <%employee%>, <%shippingpoint%>, <%subtotal%>, <%invtotal%>, <%paid%>, <%text_amount%> (the total in words), <%currency%>.
2. Line items sit inside <%foreach number%> … <%end number%>, where <%runningnumber%>, <%number%>, <%description%>, <%qty%>, <%unit%>, <%sellprice%>, <%discountrate%> and <%linetotal%> repeat per line. Taxes repeat the same way inside <%foreach tax%> with <%taxdescription%>, <%taxbase%>, <%taxrate%> and <%tax%>.
3. <%if contact%> … <%end contact%> prints a block only when the field has a value; <%if not taxincluded%> is the negative. This is how the stock invoice shows a Subtotal line only when tax is not included and a Paid line only when something was paid.
4. <%include letterhead.html%> pulls in the shared letterhead, so the company block is changed once for every document. head.html and foot.html work the same way.
5. Text templates are for 40-column receipt printers at the till; LaTeX templates produce PDF and are the ones to use for pre-printed stationery.
6. Reminder letters escalate: reminder1, reminder2 and reminder3 are separate templates, chosen by the customer’s reminder level on the AR reminder report.

From the blog

• Invoice Set Up on pre-printed forms — Original Question: Could someone point me in the right direction to create an invoice template for a pre-printed form.
• Bootstrap for SQL-Ledger — We have recently updated our SQL-Ledger installation with latest version of Bootstrap (5.3.1 at the time of this writing), a popular CSS framework.