How to create a custom document from scratch

In this article, you'll learn how to build a custom document from a blank page. Every account comes with Invoice, Estimate, Work Order and Payment Receipt templates. A custom document is for anything else you send customers, like a service agreement, a waiver or a checklist they sign.

To open your document templates:

1. 1.Click the Settings gear at the bottom of the menu.
2. 2.Under General, click Documents.

Creating a new custom document

1. 1.On the Document templates page, click Add Custom Document.
2. 2.The CRM creates a document called New Document and opens it in the designer.
3. 3.The page starts out empty and says Empty template, start by dragging some layouts.

Naming your document

The Document name box sits at the top of the designer. Replace "New Document" with a name you'll recognize, like "Service Agreement". That's the name you'll see in your templates list.

Adding layouts

The panel on the right has three tabs: Design, Tools and Layout. It opens on Design.

A layout is one row on the page, split into one, two or three columns. There are five to pick from.

1. 1.Click the Layout tab.
2. 2.Drag a layout onto the page.
3. 3.For more rows, drag another layout below the last one. If you drop it on a row that's already there, a yellow Drop here bar shows and the new row goes in above it.

Hover over a row to see its controls. The trash icon deletes the row. To move a row, drag its move icon to a new spot.

Adding content with tools

An empty column says Drag Something Here. That's where tools go, and each column holds one tool.

1. 1.Click the Tools tab.
2. 2.Drag a tool into an empty column. When you're over the right spot, the column changes to Drop Here.

Here's what each tool does:

• •TEXT: a block of text you type and format.
• •ITEMS LIST: the job's line items and their prices. Click its brush icon to change the style to Minimal, Stripes, With borders or Dark Titles.
• •TABLE: a simple table you can type into.
• •LOGO: your company logo. If your logo isn't on file yet, the block says so, and the logo shows up once it is.
• •DIVIDER: a line that separates sections.
• •IMAGE: click Choose Image to upload a picture from your computer. To swap it later, click the picture.
• •SIGNATURE: a box for your customer to sign, with a caption you can edit. When a document has one, the templates page shows Required in its Signature column.

To remove a tool, hover over it and click its trash icon. On text, logo and image blocks, the brush icon changes the block's background color.

Editing text and inserting values

Click into a text, table, logo or signature block and a toolbar pops up. It has bold, italics, underline, font, size, Line Height, alignment, text and background colors, undo and redo, and a table button.

To pull in details the CRM already has, like the customer's name or the job address:

1. 1.Click where you want the detail to go.
2. 2.In the toolbar, click Insert values.
3. 3.Pick a group, like Client values, Job/invoice values or Account values, then pick the value.

While you're designing, each value shows in curly brackets. When you send the document from a job, the CRM swaps in that job's real details, so your customer never sees the brackets.

Choosing what your customer sees

1. 1.Click Settings at the top of the designer to open Document settings.
2. 2.Subject is the email subject when you send the document by email.
3. 3.Message is the text that goes with the document, whether you send it by email or by text.
4. 4.Under What can my client see?, check or uncheck Quantity, Price, Line total, Service items and Product items.
5. 5.Click Save in the panel. That saves the whole document too.

Previewing and saving

1. 1.Click Preview to see the finished page filled in with sample details. Click the × to close it.
2. 2.When you're happy with it, click Save. You'll see Saved next to the buttons.
3. 3.Click Back to return to your document templates. Your new document shows in the list with (Custom) after its name.

Adding a document from your phone

You can start a custom document on your phone and design it later on a computer. This works the same in the phone app and in the web CRM on a phone.

1. 1.Open the menu and tap the Settings gear at the bottom.
2. 2.Under General, tap Documents.
3. 3.Tap + Add Custom Document.
4. 4.Type a name in the Name box (it starts out as "New Document"), then tap Create.

The new document shows in the list with (Custom) after its name. Every row has Preview, which opens a PDF filled with sample details, and Duplicate. Custom documents also have Delete, which asks you to confirm. When you're ready to design the page, open Settings, then Documents in the web CRM on a computer. In the phone app, the General group also has a Document designer (web) row that opens the web CRM in your phone's browser, but you still need a computer to design.

Related articles

• •Generating and sending custom documents
• •Duplicating document templates
• •Customizing estimate, invoice and receipt templates
• •Understanding and using insert values in documents and messages
• •Resizing your company logo on documents