Invoice templates

An invoice template is a reusable invoice or credit note that you save once and then use to create new documents. Instead of filling every field from scratch, you start from a template: seller, buyer, line items, amounts, taxes, and format are already filled in. You then change the unique values (number, dates, amounts) and save.

Templates belong to the active organisation. They are not the same as email templates, which only control the message when you send a document by email.

Open Templates

You need permission to create documents to see Templates in the sidebar. Opening the list also requires read documents. Creating a template from a document, copying a template, and creating a document from a template require create documents. Editing a template requires update documents. Deleting requires delete documents. See Organisation and users.

1. Sign in to the xTool web app and select your organisation.
2. Open Documents → Templates.

You cannot create a template from a blank form. Save a template from an existing document first (see Create a template).

Template list

The table lists the templates you can see: every public template in the organisation, plus your own private templates.

Actions

In the Actions column of each row:

Create a template

You save a template from an existing document that has a web form (see Supported formats).

From the edit page

1. Open the document and click Edit.
2. In the top right, click Save as Template.
3. Enter a Template Name.
4. Optionally turn on Private — Private template (only visible to you). Leave it off to share the template with the organisation.
5. Click Save Template.

From the outbound document page

1. Open the document under Documents → Outbound.
2. Open the overflow menu (⋯) and choose Save as Template.
3. Fill in the same fields and click Save Template.

This menu item is not shown for PDF-only documents or SAP IDoc. Those documents have no Edit page either, so Save as Template is not available for them at all.

The template copies the document as it is: seller, buyer, line items, amounts, taxes, and format. Change the invoice number, dates, and other unique fields later, when you create a document from the template.

Private and public templates

You can change privacy later when you edit the template.

Edit a template

1. In the list, click the pencil on the template.
2. The page has two parts. Save them separately.

Name and privacy

Change Template Name and Private, then click Save Changes. This does not re-check the invoice fields.

Cancel returns to the list without saving these fields.

Document fields

Below the name card you get the same form as when you edit a document: number, dates, seller, buyer, line items, taxes, amounts, and the resulting format at the top.

1. Change the fields you want in every new document created from this template.
2. Click Save.

If the content is valid, you see a success message.

If some fields would not pass validation (for example a placeholder number or an old date), the errors are shown in red. The template is still stored. Click Save as invalid to dismiss the errors and keep the template as it is. Fill in the remaining fields when you create a real document from the template.

Create a document from a template

1. Open Documents → Outbound and click Create.
2. The page shows the New document card. Scroll to the or divider and open the template list. The divider and the list appear only if the organisation has templates you can use.
3. Choose a template. Private templates are marked (Private). The first entry, Fill in manually, means “no template”.
4. Click Use Selected Template.

The fields above the divider — Issue Date, Base Format, Sender, Receiver — belong to the manual path. They are ignored when you start from a template: number, dates, parties, and format all come from the template itself.

xTool creates a new outbound document filled from the template. The template itself is not changed. You are taken to the edit page of the new document.

Update the unique fields (number, dates, amounts) and click Save. Then you can send the document as usual. See Create documents.

To create a document without a template, leave Fill in manually selected and use the fields above the divider instead. The empty invoice form opens on the same page as soon as you choose a Base Format; selecting a template hides it again.

Copy a template

In the list, click the copy icon. A new template appears immediately: same content and privacy, name ending with (Copy). Use this when you need a variation (for example a second buyer) without changing the original.

Delete a template

1. In the list, click the bin icon.
2. Confirm with Delete, or Cancel.

Deleted templates cannot be recovered. Documents you already created from the template are not deleted.

Supported formats

You can save a template only from a document that can be edited in the web form, including:

• XRechnung — invoice in UBL and CII, credit note in UBL
• Peppol BIS Billing — invoice in UBL and CII, credit note in UBL; the French variant in UBL only
• Peppol BIS Self-Billing — invoice and credit note in UBL
• France CIUS — UBL EN16931 and Extended (invoice and credit note), CII EN16931 and Extended (invoice only)
• Factur-X / ZUGFeRD — invoices in PDF+XML, including the French variants

You cannot save a template from SAP IDoc, KSeF, PDF-only documents, Peppol Slovakia TDD, or the xTool format. If the format is not supported, xTool shows the error Template creation is not supported for this format and the template is not created.

Typical workflow

1. Create or open an invoice and fill in the seller and buyer you use often.
2. Click Save as Template and name it, for example “Invoice ACME → Globex”.
3. Later, open Documents → Outbound, click Create, choose that template after the or divider, and click Use Selected Template.
4. Change the number and date, then Save.
5. Send the document (Peppol or email).

Next steps

• Create a document — Create documents.
• Customise the email message — Email templates.
• Send a document — Send via Peppol, Send by email.

← Platform · Documents interface · Email templates