• Classic
• Clean
• Dubai
• Paris
• London
• Sofia
• Chicago
• Dortmund
• Praha

The Classic Template

The Clean Template

The Dubai Template

The Paris Template

The London Template

Sofia Template

Note: Sofia template is especially convenient for our Bulgarian users. Only on this template, you can:
1. Find a special field for “Tax Event Date” (you can add it on “Edit Invoice” page)
2. Opt for the “Total” block to show the Tax Rate and the Tax Amount on separate lines.

Chicago Template

Dortmund Template

Praha Template

How to create a template? Read here

Your zistemo documents (invoices, estimates, purchase orders) have their document styles – templates. zistemo has 6 default templates (find out more about them from here) to begin with. You can review them in Settings -> Stationery Templates -> the ‘Shared’ tab.

The greatest thing about this is that you can also create your own templates – more here  – then review them in the ‘Company Account’ tab:

You can mark one of these templates as default, meaning it will be automatically be used on your invoices/estimates/orders.

But you can always change the template directly on your documents, by clicking the link with the template name:

Next, pick the template and click ‘Save’:

What will happen if I change the template which is in use?

1. Invoices
If you edited a template which is in use on invoices, with  ‘Draft’ status, then this invoice template will be automatically changed, according to the new template style.
BUT…
If your invoice was activated – already sent to clients (statuses – ‘Activated’, ‘Viewed’, ‘Disputed’, ‘Overdue’, ‘Partial’) – the invoice template will not be changed automatically. Still, you can do it manually on the invoice preview by clicking the ‘Refresh template’ icon.

In case the invoice was paid (its status is ‘Paid’), then you will not be able to change its template.

2. Estimates
If you edited a template which is in use on estimates with the status ‘Draft’, then this estimate template will be automatically changed, according to the new template style.
In case the status is ‘Activated’, ‘Viewed’ or ‘Replied’, you can change the template by clicking the refresh button, like on the activated invoices.
If the status is ‘Accepted’ or ‘Invoiced’, the template cannot be changed.

3. Purchase orders follow the same pattern as above.

Now you can create a new template with a stamp (signature). The image file has to be attached in the “Signature” block (just move it on the template):

Click on the “pencil (edit)” button to upload signature/stamp

Click on ‘Attach file’ to attach a signature/stamp and click ‘Save’

If you’re happy with the result, save the template.

To use this template for your invoices/estimates, choose it on the invoice/estimate preview.

How to create my own template?

zistemo allows you to customize your own Stationery templates through invoice/estimate document style and content.
You will find 6 default templates – read more about them here, but you can always create your own by just going to Settings -> Stationery Templates -> choose one of the default templates and click ‘Copy’.

Templates Editor

The Templates Editor includes the next elements:
– Template name – which is a required field.

– General settings – page size, font type/color/size, margins, background options, view options.

– Template – includes template blocks (placeholders) with its settings.

General Settings

– Page size – choose US letter or Din A4

– Template font – choose the font, keeping in mind that below the input field you can see a hint with languages supported by this font.

– Fallback color, fallback font size – this is the default font color for all template blocks and the default font size for ‘Placeholder’ blocks.

– Margins – You can enter margins in the input fields or change them by moving the orange and green lines right on the template.

– Background options – you can leave it blank, choose a background color or use your own background from a PDF.

– View options – by default, on your template preview, you see helping lines (with margins, intro line, footer line); grid; rulers – but you can hide any of them or all.

Template Blocks (Placeholders)

Your template has the following blocks:
– Sender Name
Use it to fill in the info about your company (name, address). You can move, change or delete this block as you wish.

Click the pencil icon and start changing its content and appearance.

By default, it consists of the ‘Sender address’ placeholder – in one table row with gray text color and 7 pt font size.

Here you can change the alignments, add/remove/customize table cells, change text/background colors, font style (font size and line height) and format (add/remove lines above/below Sender Name).

After making all the changes, save them by clicking Save “Sender name”.

– Client Address
This field shows the client address information. You can customize its view, content, and position to show it in the envelope window, for instance.

Click the pencil icon to start editing.
By default, it has two table rows with the ‘client name’ and ‘client address’ placeholders.
You can modify the alignments, add/remove/customize table cells, change text/background colors, the font style (font size and line height) and the format (add/remove lines above/below Client Address).

Save changes by clicking Save “Client address”.

– Company Logo
This one is for your company logo (more here) or (if you don’t have it) your company name. Below the logo, you see the ‘Notes below my logo’ (more details here).

To start editing this template block, click on the pencil icon. By default, it consists of two table rows with ‘logo image’ and ‘logo text’ placeholders. However, you can alter the alignments, add/remove/customize table cells, change text/background colors, the font style (font size and line height) and the format (add/remove lines above/below Company Logo). Don’t forget to save changes by clicking the Save “Company logo” button.

– Document Info
Here you can view the general information about your invoice: invoice number, invoice date, due date, delivery date, etc.

Click on the pencil icon to start making changes on this template block, including alignments, adding/removing/customizing table cells, changing text/background colors, font style (font size and line height) and format. You can add placeholders like on the other editors but also you have one additional option: ‘Labels’.

This is the type of document – invoice/estimate/proforma invoice/order confirmation/credit note. You create one template for all types of documents, and instead of these ‘label placeholders’ zistemo will put the correct information. For example, ‘::label document type::’ for invoices is ‘Invoice’, for estimates is ‘Estimate’, for credit note – ‘Credit Note’ etc.

Change label placeholders
By the way, you can modify the label placeholders value (what will be printed instead of this placeholder) by clicking ‘Change label placeholders’.

You can also see your label placeholders’ values in the template preview.

But all your changes will be saved and displayed only after clicking Save “Document Info”.

– Intro
This template block cannot be deleted, but you can click on to edit the information featured in it.

You can edit the text format and enter one intro text for all types of documents. If you need different texts for different documents, just keep the placeholder ‘::intro::’, this placeholder will take the text from Settings -> Text Templates (here you can change the text – more here). If you don’t need any intro information, you can just delete any data and keep this editor empty.

Click Save “Intro” to save your changes for this editor.

– Item table settings
This is probably the most important part of your invoice/estimate/etc. Item table shows all the key information about the goods/services you deliver (products, amounts, prices, taxes).

You cannot delete it, but you can edit its look by clicking over it.

The editor consists of:
Columns – you can switch or hide columns such as ‘#’, ‘Quantity’, ‘Unit’, ‘Unit Price’, ‘Tax’.

Note: this button will set your taxes to become a value, not percentage:

Header settings – here you can customize the appearance of the table header.

Row settings – for customizing the look of items rows:

Column settings – use this to customize the look of table column with items names.

– Totals – a block which sums up information on the related products.

Again, it’s not a deletable block, but the good news is that you can make your own edits. Click on this block to open the editor. Here you can alter its appearance, its place on the document, text alignment, text/background colors, font styles (size and height), add or remove placeholders and add top/bottom lines.

Terms, Notes, Payment Options
Another case of an undeletable block which can simply be changed just like Intro or Totals blocks.
Note: if you don’t want it to show it on your business documents, simply remove it from the editor.

– Pagination – shows the page number and the total amount of pages in a document. You can move, delete or edit it as you wish.

Click the pencil icon to edit it just like the other placeholders.

– Footer – by default, the footer includes the general information about your company: name, email, phone, registration number, bank account etc. But you can enter any information you find relevant because the Footer block can be moved, edited or deleted.

Click the pencil icon to start editing it. First you can choose an option ‘Show on all pages’ – in this case, the footer will be displayed on all pages of the document, or ‘Show on actual page’ – a footer that will be displayed only on the page you are editing.

Also, you can choose how many blocks this footer should include.

Next, you can edit it like the other placeholders.

– Footerborder – How to add a footer border?
Simply click on the footer in the template and created and choose ‘show on all pages’:

Go to ‘Cell’ -> ‘Cell properties’

and enter following: border-top: 1px solid #e0e0e0;

save the footer and press “preview” – Done!

Troubleshoot:
Sometimes it might happen that your footer won’t displayed properly on the PDF. Please check then if each single line of the footer is in a separate table line. In most cases this helps to solve overlapping texts.

– Signature – an additional block that you can place on your document.

It’s very helpful if you want to have your signature or stamp featured on documents.

Click on the pencil icon and upload your stamp/signature.

Also, you can add other text/information and edit it like the other placeholders.

– Placeholder – if you need more blocks with information on your documents, you can use the ‘Placeholder’ block.

Drag and drop it to the right place on the document.

Click on the pencil icon to edit it like the other blocks.

Default zistemo templates

There are 9 default templates you can choose from for your documents. You can find them in the ‘Shared’ tab:

You can choose any of the following six templates as default: Classic Template, Clean Template, Dubai Template, London Template, Paris Template, Sofia Template, Chicago Template. Just mark its checkbox and this template will be used by default for new documents.

Apart from the 6 mentioned above, there are 3 additional templates which cannot be marked as default but you can copy them, change some info and save them in your custom templates (‘Company Account’ tab). These templates are Chicago Template, Dortmund Template, Praha Template.

You can use images from the Document Space (more about Document Space) in your Templates.
You can add it as placeholders in blocks ‘Document info’ and ‘Placeholder’:

When you are editing it, click on ‘Placeholder’ -> ‘Document space images’ -> choose the image -> save changes:

So this image will be displayed in your template as below:

‘No image available’ on Invoices

If there is a “no image available” message on Invoice preview or on Print Invoice…

… it’s probably because this template was using an image uploaded to the document space.
So when you deleted this image from the zistemo storage space, on the Invoices/Estimates and anywhere it was used – the message ‘No image available’ will show up instead.

If you want to remove this message from the invoice, you can:
1) choose another template
2) delete this image from the template used for this invoice (on Template editor) -> then go to the invoice page and refresh the page.

Company Logo block
Sender Name block
Client Address block
Document Info block
Intro block
Totals block
Terms and Conditions block, Notes block
Payment options block
Pagination block

There is some information which will be filled by default instead of each placeholder.

For example, if you use ‘:: client name::’ and ‘:: client address::’ on ‘Client Address’ block,

then on the invoice/estimate, this field will automatically display the client’s name and address.

So in this article, we will explain each of these placeholders available in your Template editor:

– ::logo image::
Company Logo block
This is your business logo, which can be added via Settings -> Company logo

– ::logo text::
(Company Logo block)
It refers to the text below the logo (Settings -> Company Logo)

– :: sender address::
Sender Name block
It’s your company address (Settings->Company Profile)

– ::creator-email-address::
(Sender name block)
Creator email = creator / last editor for the document.

– ::client name::
Client Address block
Displays your client’s name (which is chosen on invoice/estimate)

– :: client address::
(Client Address block)
Your client’s address (which is chosen on invoice/estimate)

– ::number::
Document Info block
The unique number of your document (invoice or estimate)

– :: issued date::
(Document Info block)
The Document creation date is the date when the invoice/estimate was created

– :: due date::
(Document Info block)
Document’s due date, that refers to invoice’s ‘due date’ and for estimates –  ‘valid until’:

– :: service date::
(Document Info block)
The Invoice delivery date (on estimates, this field will not be displayed because they don’t have a ‘delivery date’)

– ::document title::
(Document Info block)
The Invoice/Estimate title

– :: document total::
(Document Info block, Totals block)
The Invoice/Estimate total amount

– :: amount due::
(Document Info Block)
The amount that the client still has to pay:

– ::currency code::
(Document Info block, Totals block)
Code of the currency which is used on your invoice/estimate (such as EUR, USD, JPG, etc).

– :: project name::
(Document Info block)
This is the Name of the project which is assigned to this invoice (if your invoice is generated through a project or if a project is featured on the invoice)

– ::client number::
(Document Info block)
This is the Number of your client which is picked on invoice/estimate (you can see and change a client’s number on the Edit client page)

– ::project number::
(Document Info block)

– ::tax event date::
(Document Info block)

– Project Custom Fields
(Document Info block)
If your invoice is assigned to a project – then you can print this project’s custom fields on the invoice document (more here).

– Document Space Image
(Document Info block)
You can print images uploaded to your Document Space on invoice/estimate (more here).

– ::intro::
Intro block
This is the intro information that you have set for invoices/estimates via Settings->Text Templates-> types ‘Invoice’ and ‘Estimate’ (more here).

On intro block, we do also offer a wide range of placeholders:

– :: subtotal no taxes::
Totals block
Document’s total information without taxes

– ::discount percent::
(Totals block)
Here, the Discount used in the document in % will show up:

– ::discount amount::
(Totals block)
Displaying the actual amount of the discount given:

– ::tax name::
(Totals block)
The Name of the tax used in your document:

– ::tax percentage::
(Totals block)
Tax amount in %

– ::amount for tax::
(Totals block)
The total amount of items to which the tax should be applied

– ::tax amount::
(Totals block)
Amount of tax

– :: granted cash discount::
(Totals block)
If you have a special offer on the invoice page, this is where it’s displayed:

– ::notes::
(Totals block, Terms and Conditions block, Notes block)
Notes on Edit invoice/estimate page

– ::terms::
Terms and Conditions block, Notes block
This is the information you have set for invoice/estimate in Settings->Text Templates-> types ‘Terms &Conditions’ (more here) or in the special field on the invoice/estimate.

– :: payment methods::
Payment options block
It features the available payment methods you have chosen for the invoice:

– :: page number::
Pagination block
It shows the current page number you’re on:

– :: pages total::
(Pagination block)
The total number of pages in your document

Your business documents could have your own background style. How to create a document template? Read here. Now let’s see how the ‘Background Options’ works.

By default, it’s a ‘Blank page’ – so all the pages of your business documents have a white (blank) background.
If you want to customize its color, go to the section titled ‘Background color’ and choose it from there.

The ‘PDF as background’ section allows you to pick a background in PDF format:

Be careful: above the template preview, there are 4 tabs  ‘First page’, ‘Following pages’, ‘Last page’, ‘One-page invoices’ (or ‘One-page estimates’):

– One page invoices/estimates – it shows the document style if it consists of one single page;
– First page – how the first page looks if the document consists of 2 or more pages;
– Following pages – how the second and all other pages (except the last one) look;
– Last page – how the last page looks.

1. If you upload a PDF Background with one page – ‘single’, ‘first’, ‘following’ and ‘last’ pages will have this background.
2. If you upload a PDF Background with two or more pages – PDF page 1 will be used for ‘single’ page invoices, PDF page 2 for ‘first page’, PDF page 3 for ‘following pages’, PDF page 4 for ‘last page’

One-page invoices/One-page estimates

The difference between the first page and a one-page invoice/estimate is that the first page is used if the document consists of several pages, and one page – if the document consists of a single page.

So when you customize a template, don’t forget to check and update all pages to be sure that the everything is correct.
Hint: If you want to easily copy some sections from one page to another, click the copy button and choose the page:

By the way, zistemo will always inform you if, on a document you created, a ‘one-page’ template is used (just open the invoice/estimate preview page to see this message):

If you go to the Templates Settings (Settings -> Stationery Templates), you will see this next page:

On the “Shared” tab you have all the templates already created by zistemo – for your convenience, there are 9 different templates. You can use any of them for your documents (invoices/estimates/purchase orders) or you can create your own custom template (here’s how to do it).

All your custom templates will be listed on the “Company Account” tab.

Default template

You can pick a template (from the zistemo ones or your own) and make it “default”, meaning that this template will be chosen and used for invoices/estimates/purchase orders by default. You just have to mark the special check-box on that specific template you refer in order to turn it into “default” (as shown below):

Remember: it doesn’t mean that only this template should be used on all documents. It’s just a template which will be selected automatically for your new documents. You can change it at any time it on the Document Preview page.

Icons-buttons on Template header

If you’ve picked one of the zistemo templates (templates from tab ‘Shared’), you’ll notice its header features two buttons (when you hover the mouse over the template):

– Eye – click it to preview this template in PDF
– Copy – click it to copy and start changing it in order to create your own template.

On your own templates (templates from tab ‘Company Account’) you have two extra buttons:

– Delete – you can delete your custom template
Note: this button is only available if you don’t use this template in any documents. How to delete the template that was already in use please read here
– Edit – you can edit your templates at any time (what will happen with the documents where it was used? Read here).

Header icons – buttons on Template Blocks

Each of the blocks on Template Editor also has header buttons (hover the mouse over the block to see them):

– Cross-arrows
Press and hold the mouse on the block header to move it to any place of the document.

– Minus

– Plus

These buttons change the priority of a block. The block with the highest priority will be displayed over all other blocks (like layers in Photoshop).
– Copy
Click it and you will be able to copy this block to ‘Single page’, ‘First page’, ‘Following pages’ or ‘Last page’ (more about these pages at the end of this article).

– Delete 
Click it to delete the chosen block from the template.

– Edit
Click it to edit the block.

Note: if you have deleted some blocks, they will appear in the menu on the right-hand side. In case you changed your mind and now you want to have any of them again on your template, just press and hold the mouse over the block, then drop it on the template.

Add a title to your invoice

You can add a title for all your zistemo documents. As an example, for an invoice:

In general, this title will be shown on the Invoices list:

But you can also have it on the invoice (or estimate, or purchase order) template.
You can adjust the Invoice title using the Template Editor. To open it, please go to Settings > Stationery Templates and under ‘Shared’ click on ‘Copy’:

– In the document Info Section:

Or

– In the header of the Items Table:

Just click on this section, then go to the ‘Column Settings’ and type ‘:: document title::’ in the ‘Header Label’ field, as below:

Now if you will use this template for invoices, you will see the Invoice Title in the Invoice Info and in the table header:

Rename Invoice

What if you need your Invoice to be called Tax Invoice, or any other name? it is possible too

Note: if you adjust in the Template Editor the ‘First page’ (i.e. first page of multiple-pages invoice), and you create a One-page invoice, (but did not adjust the template in ‘One-page invoice’), then you will not see the adjusted template.  

Looking for more info on template customization? Here are some articles we recommend:

1. Your Own Invoice/Estimate Template
2. Template Editor: General info
3. How to customize the new template
4. Invoice/Estimate Template Background
5. Template Placeholders

Settings -> Stationary Templates -> and start to “edit” the preferred Template

In order to change the language for the Placeholders, click: “Change label placeholders”

Translate the “Value” into your preferred language in the template

You are set now! Enjoy!