Design a new document template

A document template is a letter or form whose blanks fill themselves from a record: a booking, a demand, an estimate and so on. Design one when the six starter templates don't cover a letter you send, for example a no-objection letter for a buyer's home loan. You write it once, check it against a real record, and publish it; from then on anyone can generate it from that kind of record.

Before you start

• Decide which record the letter is about (its Record type): the fields you can use come from it. The usual pairs are a demand letter on a Demand, a termsheet or offer letter on a Termsheet, an agreement or allotment letter on a Booking, a receipt on a Payment and a cost sheet on an Estimate.
• To start from an existing template instead, click its copy icon ("Duplicate <name>") on the list, give the copy a new Code and Name and click Duplicate; then continue from step 6.
• A letterhead is optional but gives the letter its branding.
• To preview, you need at least one record of the record type and the View permission on its module.
• The Record type list is filled only for people who also hold the View permission on Workflow Rules. Without it the list is empty and the template stays on Demand unless the "Use the usual record type for a …" link appears and you click it.
• Permissions, in the role editor's words, on Document Templates: View, Create (new template), Edit (save the draft) and publish (publish it). In the default roles the Administrator, the Sales Manager and Legal & Documentation hold all four.

Steps

1. Open the account menu in the top bar, choose Settings, then Documents > Templates. See Document templates.
2. Click New template. The dialog "New document template" opens.
3. Type the Code, for example "BANK_NOC" (capital letters, digits and underscores; what you type is turned into capitals), and the Name, for example "NOC for home loan".
4. Pick the Kind and the Record type, for example Other and Booking. The kind sets the document number prefix (the hint reads "Sets the number prefix (DL, TS, AGR, AL, RC, DOC)."; an offer letter gets OL and a cost sheet CS). If the link "Use the usual record type for a <kind> (<record type>)" appears, click it to take the usual pair. The designer has no field for the record type, so it can't be changed afterwards.
5. Click Create and open. The template designer opens on the new template, in Draft, with a short starter letter ("Dear {{ contact.first_name }}, … Regards, {{ organization.name }}") and the bar "Drafts cannot be used yet. Publish the template to offer it on <record type> records and in workflows." See Document template.
6. In Details, choose the Letterhead (or leave "Default letterhead (project's, else the organization's)"), type the Document title, which also becomes the file name, for example "NOC {{ entity.booking_no }} – {{ contact.name }}", and a Description for the list. Leave Number prefix blank to use the kind's usual prefix. An amber Unsaved changes badge appears next to the name.
7. If the defaults don't suit, click Page settings (size, margins, font) and set Page size, Orientation, Font, Font size (pt) and the margins. They start at A4, Portrait, Noto Sans, 20 mm top and bottom and 18 mm left and right, with Page numbers on.
8. Write the wording in Body. To fill in a value, put the cursor where it belongs and click the field in the Merge fields list on the right ("Search fields…" finds it), or use {{ }} Field in the toolbar. It goes in as an expression such as {{ contact.name }}; amounts are inserted with Indian grouping and dates as dates.
9. For a table of line items, insert a table with the toolbar's table tool, put the cursor in the row that should repeat and click Repeat row. In "Repeat table row" pick the list in Repeat over ("Choose a list…"; a booking offers lists such as its payments and schedule), keep Row name as "row" and click Insert. Then fill the row's cells with the list's fields, written {{ row.<field> }}. One row prints per item.
10. For a block that applies only sometimes, put the cursor in the paragraph, table or list, click Show when, type the condition ("Examples: entity.tds_amount > 0, contact.pan_no, entity.status == "Issued".") and click Insert. The block prints only when the condition holds.
11. Click Save draft. You see "Template saved." and the Unsaved changes badge goes.
12. In the Preview panel, search for a real record ("Search <record type> records…"), pick it and click Preview. The page renders for that record, numbered "<prefix>-PREVIEW", with the line "<title> · <size> <orientation> · <letterhead>" above it. Click Open PDF to check page breaks and margins as they will print. Nothing is saved and no number is used. Fix anything that prints blank, save again and preview again.
13. Click Publish. The dialog "Publish template" reads "The draft is snapshotted as version 1. Documents generated from now on use it; earlier documents keep the version they were made with." (with unsaved edits it starts "The draft is saved first, then snapshotted as version 1."). Add Notes (optional) ("What changed in this version") and click Publish. You see "Published as version 1." and the status becomes Published.

What happens next

• The template is offered under Generate document on every record of its type, and to workflow rules. See Generate a document from a record.
• Documents are numbered <prefix>-<financial year>-nnnnn, for example DOC-2026-27-00001, one series per prefix, starting again each 1 April. Two templates with the same prefix share one series.
• Later edits are saved as a draft and don't reach anyone until you publish them as a new version. See Revise, retire or reopen a published template.

If something goes wrong

• A field prints blank in the preview: the name is misspelt or the record has no value. The app doesn't flag unknown fields, so always preview against a real record before publishing.
• "body_html: <problem> (line <n>)" (or "header_html", "footer_html", "title_template") when saving: a merge tag is broken; View HTML shows the line. "The HTML exceeds 500 KB": remove large pasted images. "Choose what to repeat over.", "Put the cursor inside a table row first.", "Write a condition." or "Put the cursor inside the block to wrap." in the merge dialogs. "Template could not be rendered: <error>" or "PDF could not be produced: <error>" in the preview. "Please correct the highlighted fields." when publishing an empty body. See Template will not save, publish or render (trouble.documents.template-syntax-error).
• "A template with this code already exists (codes are never reused).": choose another code. See Already exists (trouble.admin.already-exists).
• "Code is required", "Use letters, digits and underscores only", "Name is required" or "Choose the record type": complete the dialog.
• A preview message starting "Missing permission", or no New template, Save draft or Publish button: your role lacks a permission listed above, or the View permission on the record's module. See No access (trouble.admin.no-access).

Related

• Document templates
• Document template
• Letterheads
• Set up a letterhead
• Generate a document from a record
• Revise, retire or reopen a published template