Create DOCX invoice templates in Xero Accounting Software | Xero

Xero allows you to fully customise and design your Xero templates using DOCX (MS Word) branding themes. In this tutorial, you will learn how to create, design, edit, and upload your own DOCX invoice template using MS Word. DOCX templates in Xero gives you almost endless possibilities.

Xero is beautiful accounting software for small businesses and their advisors. See your cashflow in real-time with online accounting, invoicing, payroll, billing & banking. Just login and see the difference. Sign up for a free trial at https://www.xero.com/signup

Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/xero.accounting/
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xero/
Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/xero
Follow us on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/xero
Subscribe to our Youtube Channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/XeroOnli...

---

Closed Caption:

Standard invoicing brand templates in Xero
look great and are really easy to customize. But if
you want to get into fully designing a unique
look for your template, then Docx templates might
be the way to go. Docx templates are created
using Word, and we’re getting into some
real fine-
tuning of a template so some effort and skill
will be required. First, let’s download
the templates
from Xero. Go to Invoice Settings, select
new Custom Docx Theme, give the theme a name,
and save. Select the Download button. This
downloads to your computer a zip file containing an
invoice credit note and statement template.
Next, find the folder and unzip it to access the templates.
Let’s open the invoice template. But before
we make any changes to it, let’s look at the
underlying structure of how the template works.
These bracket­like marking shere contain the
field names, so these are data fields. This
is where Xero pulls data to put into these fields, for
instance, the code and description. If there
are words with no brackets, like “description,” these
will be the same on each invoice; it’s not
pulling in information anywhere. So if you type
something with no brackets, like “amount,”
then it will only say the word “amount” when you
display the invoice. Xero won’t know to
put the actual data (the amount in this case) for each
invoice in that field. It may be tempting
to just change words within the brackets hoping that it
will changes the data in those fields, but
what you see here is actually a top layer. To see the
underlying layer to the code, press Alt F9
on your keyboard and now you can see the field codes.
So can you now overwrite a field here to change
it? Well, you could but you would need to get it
exactly right, so before we get into editing
like this, let’s keep having a look around. Press Alt F9
again to view the field names. It’s easier
to visualize the layout from this view. The information is
laid out using tables in Word. Let’s find
the command Show Grid Lines. You can now see where
tables have been used to format the data.
One table here for the title data, another for the
description and details. And this grayed out
table is in the footer. Edit Footer will access this
table. What about this Due Date text here?
It’s not in a table, but just sitting in the document and
its position is determined by the Return key.
If we select this non­printing characters command,
we can see how many line returns there are.
We could reposition that by adding more lines, but
by doing that, we are giving the command to
always have six lines between the table above it
and the Due Date message. This table size
will change with each invoice, meaning the Due
Date message with only stay in this position
with a single­line invoice. With each additional line,
the message will keep moving down.
The field code might look a bit technical
and it needs to be case correct in order to work.
However, the Xero Help Team have put together
a fantastic list of all the default fields you’re
likely to need, so I suggest having this open
while you edit your templates. It also gives handy
links to the Microsoft Help page to help you
with formatting the code and more. There are some
fields which you shouldn’t edit or delete.
Any table start and table end fields must stay. You can
see examples here in the main body and here
outside Tax Details. This code tells the template
these items (code, quantity, unit amount,
line amount, et cetera) can populate over multiple
lines. If you didn’t have the table line
item codes, your data will not have the ability to create
multiple lines and will have nowhere to go
and your document won’t generate.
Okay, let’s get started with some basic
editing. First thing we might want to do is to add our
logo. Here’s the field where you can do
so. Select the box and then choose to insert the picture.
Find and add the logo. You can use the center,
left, or right align for placement. For basic
formatting like font size, bold, or underline,
it’s simple. Just highlight the word or field, then
change formatting. Let’s do it here with
the invoice title. We’d like it italic, 24 font and blue.
However, the case used here (uppercase) needs
to be coded. We want to remove the
ContactTaxDisplayName. Shift 9 will display
the field code for a single code, so let’s do that
now. Highlight the field and select Delete.
Ensure the field code brackets are also deleted. Now,
we want to replace ContactTaxNumber with ContactPhoneNumber.
Shift F9 to bring up the field
code, replace ContactNumber with ContactContactNumber.
Just copy the code from Help.
Toggle back now with Shift F9 to ensure the
field name is correct. Both the name and the code
have to be the same to make sure it works.
If you want to add a brand new field, you’ll
need to insert that and you’ll get a pop­up box which
will help you. Select Merge Field, then, in
Field Name, you can copy the Field Name from the
Xero Help page into here. Of course, if you
know it, you can type it in. Let’s toggle fields to see if
both the field name and the field code are
correct. And they are. Now we want the Due Date
field to show on the front page in the same
place every time. If we’re only generating invoices
with no more than a few lines, we can add
a table to include the field and place it above the
footer here. Let’s create a table and copy
the code into it. Drag the table into position. However,
if you’re going to have extensive invoices,
then you’ll find the item fields will push the table down
to the second page as well. Let’s put the
code into the foot. Select the footer areafor editing,
then copy the code into position. This will
always appear above the Payment Advice now. While
we’re doing this, take a look at the date
code here. It’s coded specifically to format the date in a
specific way. To the right here, you can also
see the code for Amount Due has formatting code
as well. If you’re copying and pasting,
the formatting will stay the same, but if you insert a brand
new field, you’ll need to ensure you find
the correct formatting you want. Otherwise, dates will
include time and numbers and will have too
many decimal places.
Well, that’s enough to get started. Now
to upload the template into Xero and see what it looks
like. Go back to Invoice Settings and select
Upload to your new template. When you create a
new invoice, select the template and print.
And this is how it looks. If you want to create
something really different and unique, docx
templates in Xero gives you almost endless possibilities.