Documents
The Documents page (Settings → Workspace → Documents) decides how every PDF your control room sends looks — quotes, tax invoices, statements, credit notes, receipts, job cards, service reports, purchase orders, service agreements, schedules and billing reports. It is shown to anyone who can manage billing.
Nothing here changes who you are on a document. Your logo, registered name, address and VAT number come from Branding and Billing entities; a template only decides how they are drawn.
Templates belong to an issuing entity
Every template belongs to one billing entity. On a control room with a single entity you simply see its templates; with the multiple-billing-entities module on, a switcher at the top shows one tab per active entity, each with its own templates.
Each entity has exactly one default template. The default covers all of that entity's document types and is what every document gets unless someone picks otherwise. Any other templates you add are alternatives: you choose which document types each one is offered for, and it then appears in the picker on those documents only.
A control room that has never saved a template renders documents exactly as it always has. That built-in look is called Meridian, and creating a template with Meridian selected changes nothing until you adjust it.
How a document decides which template to use
- The document's own pick — the template chosen on the quote or invoice. An invoice raised from a quote starts with the quote's pick, and a credit note takes its invoice's.
- The issuing entity's default template.
- The built-in Meridian look.
An issued document keeps whatever it was rendered with. Changing a template changes what is drawn next; it never rewrites a tax invoice that has already gone out. For the same reason a template that issued documents were drawn with cannot be deleted — make another template the default instead.
Creating or editing a template
Click New template (or Create the default template on an entity with none yet), or click any template card to edit it.
Template name is what staff see in the picker. Make default turns this template into the entity's default; the previous default stops being one.
Offered for lists the document types whose picker shows this template. The default is always offered for everything. An alternative needs at least one type.
Colour
Templates inherit the entity's brand colour unless you give one its own. The swatches shown are the colours found in your logo — tap one to use it — or type a #RRGGBB value. A contrast check under the swatches tells you whether the colour clears 3:1 on white, the minimum for headings, ribbons and table headers to stay readable in print. If it does not, use the colour as an accent elsewhere or switch the look to Mono.
The look
Six finished looks, plus Custom:
| Look | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Meridian | The look every control room has today. The safe default. |
| Ledger | Ruled and square, no fills — reads as issued by an accounts department. |
| Banner | A full-width brand band across the masthead. The most brand presence — quotes and proposals. |
| Slate | Centred and formal. Service agreements and anything the customer signs. |
| Compact | Density first: smaller type, tighter rows. A long statement takes fewer pages. |
| Mono | Ink only. For printing and posting, and for brand colours that fail the contrast check. |
| Custom | Every setting is yours (see Fine-tune), and the masthead and footer become free canvases. |
Fine-tune
Click Fine-tune under the looks to open every setting the looks are built from: masthead layout (left, centre, band, split or free), how the logo sits, the title's colour, size and letter-spacing, the meta ribbon style, how the bill-to and site cards are drawn, the table header and row style, tight rows, the totals treatment, block-heading style, ink-only, corner radius and overall density.
Changing any of these on a preset turns the template Custom, starting from that preset — you never start from a blank page. The preview updates as you adjust.
Free masthead and footer (Custom only)
Set the masthead layout to Free and a canvas appears with the PDF's proportions. Drag the logo, company name, address and registration lines, document title and status pill anywhere in the band; add your own text or an image (a PSIRA badge, a certification mark); resize with the width and size sliders; set the band height. The same works for the running footer when its layout is set to Free.
Elements marked required — the issuer's name, its address and VAT registration line, the document title, and in the footer the registration line and page number — can be moved and resized but not removed. That is what keeps a customised tax invoice a valid tax invoice.
Preview, blocks and closing note
The preview on the right is the real renderer drawing sample content under this template — the same code that produces the emailed attachment and the customer's download. Pick a document type on the left to see that type. Job cards and service reports draw a real job's evidence, so they are previewed on the job itself; the template still applies to them.
Below the preview, for the selected type:
- Built-in blocks you can switch off — the banking details, payment terms, remittance slip, age analysis, checklist, photo evidence, signatures and the closing note, depending on the type. The masthead, parties, line items and totals are fixed.
- Your own blocks — text (with the same markdown as closing notes), key–value pairs, two columns, an image, a divider, a spacer or a page break. They are drawn after the body and before the closing note, in the order you keep them; drag or use the arrows to reorder.
- Closing note — a per-type note that wins over the closing notes set under Branding and Billing entities for documents drawn with this template. Leave it blank to keep theirs.
Click Save template when you are done. Nothing is written until you do.
An alternative template can be deleted from its editor: Delete template is in the Danger zone just above the save bar (the template cards have no Delete). The default template has none — make another template the default first. A template that issued documents were drawn with cannot be deleted; you are told when you try.
Picking a template on a document
On a quote the template picker sits in the top row beside Issued by, and only appears once the issuing entity has an alternative to offer for quotes — with just a default there is nothing to choose. On an invoice it is the Template field. Each lists the issuing entity's default (pre-selected) and the alternatives offered for that document type. Change the issuing entity and the list follows it. The template, like the issuing entity, is fixed once the document is sent. An invoice raised from a quote inherits the quote's template, and a credit note has no picker of its own: it is drawn with the template of the invoice it credits.