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The Form Styles module allows you to customize different types of documents you print from the system. The list of documents you can customize for letter-size page printing includes:

• Invoices
• Receipts
• Quotes
• Account Statements
• Purchase Orders / Receiving Orders
• Work Orders
• Trial Purchases*

* Trial Purchases is a feature that allows your trusted customers to take home and try out an item for a while, and if it meets their approval they can complete the purchase, if not, they can return it.

You can get to this part of the system by hovering over Modules on the far-left and clicking on Form Styles.

Please Note: If you have multiple Locations set up in the system, your forms will automatically use the correct address information for whatever Location you are working with in this module. You can also customize form content specifically by Location if your different stores have different priorities on the content used. For example, if one of your stores uses a Fax number, but the other doesn't, it can display the Fax number while the other location might only need to list Phone and Email.

 

Your Form Styles List Page

As you create customized forms for use in the system, you will build a list of different forms you have configured, as pictured below. You might have multiple versions of a certain form, such as an Invoice, for different uses. Please note that with the Action button on the right side of each item, you are able to set which form is currently the Default version of the form that the system will use when you go to print a document of that type.

From the list page, you are able to filter your view to specific keywords in the Search field, a specific Type of document or All Types from the drop-list on the right, and if you have multiple store Locations, you will have a drop-list to view one or all of them, as needed. To use a Form Style, you need to set it as the Default of that document type, otherwise those documents will print in the original system style. You can click on the Name of a form to view and edit the content.

 

Create a Custom Form

In the upper right, click on the New Form Style button. You'll be given a drop-list of the different forms you can customize.

All forms listed will print on Letter size paper. Let's use an Invoice as an example:

In the initial view, you will be on the Design tab. You are able to make a Form Style Name to uniquely identify the custom form, and whatever you enter here is the internal name you will see for the form in your list of Form Styles. If you have multiple Locations, you can apply this form to the one you want using the Store Location drop-list. There are several forms that offer either standard Portrait layout, where it prints a full upright page, or also Landscape layout that prints two smaller pages side by side. The right-side copy will be a Store Copy that will include Private Notes in the case of Receipts or Internal Comments in the case of Work Orders. You can choose which you prefer from the Layout drop-list. The documents that offer this Landscape print option are Invoices, Receipts, and Work Orders. See the example below for a Landscape Work Order. You can also add your logo to the form by clicking the Choose File button in the Upload Logo area.

On the right side you will see a preview of the current configuration of the form. You can either click on any of the visible Blue Pencil icons to customize the content of that area, or you can click on the Content tab in the upper left and work from there.

For each editable area, starting with the Header at the top of the page, you will be able to adjust available content to display what you need. Use the checkboxes and links on the left to configure the content you want to show. Once you have configured everything you want, click to Save your custom document at the bottom.

As you create different custom forms, the first version of each that you create is something you need to manually set as the Default of that type so the system will use it. If you do not set a Default for a document type, the system won't use the Form Style when printing. You can change any other versions you create to be defaults by clicking the Ellipsis Button (the stack of three dots) on the far right. Initially, you will only see the options to Edit or Delete the form. Once you have more than one version of a document type, e.g. an Invoice, you will also have the option of making a non-default version the Default.

 

Working with Table Configurations

Please Note: Some Form Style document types have Tables that are completely editable. For example, if you look at the middle section of the Invoice document above, you see a small table with several headers and information about the items being purchased in the invoice. If we click to edit that section, we'll see something like the image below.

You can drag and drop the columns into whatever order makes the most sense to you. You can also click to Edit Labels of the column headers, and that will open this window where you can configure the table itself:

If there is a column you feel you don't need, you can un-check the Checkbox for that item. Where it says Display As, you can change the text for the column header. For example, you could change Ext Price to Item Subtotal, if you like. Lastly, you can adjust the Width of each column in the table. These numbers always need to add up to 100, so each column is a percent value of 100. This is useful if you have some areas that are longer than others like especially long Descriptions. Once you have this configured the way you want, click Save, and those table changes will be ready to save with the full document at the bottom of the window whenever you're ready.

 

Printing Your Form Styles

When you are using the system and you go to print a document of a type for which you have created a Custom Form Style, the system will use whichever document is the Default to print, meaning you will not be offered a choice of customized documents to print. Be sure to change the Default to the customized form you need before you go to print it.

IMPORTANT: If you create a Receipt document and set it as the Default receipt for one of your Locations, or if you only have one location, the system will print ALL of your receipts moving forward at Letter size unless you check a box at the time of printing to Print Thermal Receipt (pictured below). For Receipts in your Custom Form Styles, you will only want to do this if you want by default to print to Letter size paper.