Document templates
The list of your organization's document templates (demand letters, offer letters, termsheets, agreements, allotment letters, receipts, cost sheets), with filters and the actions to create, duplicate, open or delete one.
Document templates
This is the list of every template your organization can generate documents from: demand letters, offer letters, termsheets, agreements, allotment letters, receipts and cost sheets. Use it to find a template, start a new one, copy one or remove one you no longer need.
Where to find it
Account menu > Settings > Documents > Templates. The Templates breadcrumb on a template's page also brings you back here.
You need the View permission on Document Templates. Without it the page shows "No access" and "You do not have permission to view document templates. Ask your administrator."
Before you start
Every new organization starts with six ready-made templates, all in Draft: "Demand letter (standard)", "Allotment letter (standard)", "Offer letter (standard)", "Term sheet (standard)", "Receipt (standard)" and "Cost estimate sheet (standard)". Nothing can be generated from them until someone reviews and publishes them on the Document template page (the template designer).
A letterhead is optional, but without one documents come out without a logo, header or footer (unless the template carries its own header and footer).
What you see
The page header reads "Demand letters, termsheets, agreements and allotment letters with merge fields. Publish a template to generate from it; every generated document remembers the version it came from."
Above the grid you have:
- Search (placeholder "Search by code or name"). It also matches the template's description.
- Kind filter ("Any kind"): Demand Letter, Termsheet, Offer Letter, Agreement, Allotment Letter, Receipt, Cost Sheet or Other.
- Record type filter ("Any record type"): the kind of record a template fills its fields from, such as Demand, Termsheet, Booking or Estimate.
- Status filter ("Any status"): Draft, Published or Retired.
The grid columns:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Code | The template's short code, which opens the template. |
| Name | The name, which also opens the template, with its description underneath. |
| Kind | The kind badge, with the document number prefix underneath (for example "DL-…"). |
| Record | The record type the template renders against, such as "Demand" or "Termsheet". |
| Status | The status badge. A published template also shows its current version and publish date underneath, for example "v2 · <date>". When someone has saved edits that are not yet published, an amber Draft changes badge shows as well. |
| Generated | How many documents have been generated from the template. |
| (actions) | The row's icons. |
The list opens sorted by each template's sort order (set in the template's page settings). Click a column title to sort by it; Generated and the actions can't be sorted. With no templates the grid reads "No document templates yet".
What you can do
New template
Opens the dialog "New document template":
- Code (required): capital letters, digits and underscores only, for example "DEMAND_LETTER". What you type is turned into capitals. Messages: "Code is required", "Use letters, digits and underscores only". If the code is taken you see "A template with this code already exists (codes are never reused)."
- Name (required): for example "Demand letter". Message: "Name is required".
- Kind: starts at Demand Letter. The kind sets the document number prefix (hint "Sets the number prefix (DL, TS, AGR, AL, RC, DOC)."). Offer letters are numbered OL and cost sheets CS.
- Record type (required): what the template merges, for example a demand, a termsheet or a booking (hint "What the template merges: a demand, a termsheet, a booking…"). It starts at Demand. Message: "Choose the record type".
- When the record type is not the usual one for the kind, a link appears, for example "Use the usual record type for a receipt (Payment)". Click it to switch. The usual pairs are: demand letter and Demand, termsheet and offer letter and Termsheet, agreement and allotment letter and Booking, receipt and Payment, cost sheet and Estimate.
Create and open creates the template as a Draft, with a short starter letter ("Dear …, Regards, <your organization>"), and opens its Document template page. Cancel closes the dialog without saving.
- Who: anyone with the Create permission on Document Templates. In the default roles that is the Administrator, the Sales Manager and Legal & Documentation. Without the permission the button isn't shown.
Open
The pencil icon (tooltip "Open <template name>"), or a click on the code or name, opens the Document template page (the template designer).
- Who: anyone who can see this list. Without the Edit permission the designer opens read-only.
Duplicate
The copy icon (tooltip "Duplicate <template name>") opens the dialog "Duplicate <template name>". The Code starts as the old code plus "_COPY" and the Name as the old name plus " (copy)"; both follow the same rules as a new template. The dialog notes: "The copy starts as a draft with the current draft content, letterhead and page settings."
Duplicate creates the copy, shows the message: "<name>" created as a draft. It then opens the copy's Document template page. The copy takes the kind, record type, number prefix, document title, description and sort order too, but none of the published versions.
- Who: anyone with the Create permission on Document Templates. Without it the icon isn't shown.
Delete
The bin icon (tooltip "Delete <template name>") asks "Delete document template" with "Delete <name> (<code>) and all its versions? Templates that already produced documents cannot be deleted; retire them instead." Choose Delete to go ahead; the message reads: "<name>" deleted.
The app refuses, and the dialog shows the reason, when:
-
documents were generated from the template: "Documents were generated from this template; retire it instead";
-
a message template attaches it: "Message templates attach this template; remove the attachment first". Remove the attachment in Message templates;
-
a workflow rule generates or attaches it: "Workflow rules generate or attach this template; change those rules first". Change the rule in Rules.
-
Who: anyone with the Delete permission on Document Templates. In the default roles that is the Administrator and Legal & Documentation. Without it the icon isn't shown.
Statuses
- Draft: being written. It can be previewed but not used to generate documents.
- Published: has at least one published version and is offered when people generate documents and in workflows. Documents always use the current published version.
- Retired: taken out of use. It is hidden from the generate pickers; documents already made from it are unaffected.
A template moves between these statuses on the Document template page: Publish takes a Draft to Published, Retire takes a Published template to Retired, and Reopen brings a Retired one back.
Things to know
- A template is used only once it is published. Editing never changes what is already published: saved edits wait as Draft changes until someone publishes them. This lets you prepare new wording while documents keep going out on the approved version.
- A template that has produced documents can't be deleted. Each document keeps a link to the exact version it was made from, so a buyer's letter can always be traced back to its wording. Retire the template instead.
- The number prefix sets the document numbers. Numbers run <prefix>-<financial year>-nnnnn, for example DL-2026-27-00001, and start again each financial year (from 1 April). Two templates with the same prefix share one number series.
- The Record type list may be empty. It is filled only for people who also hold the View permission on Workflow Rules. In the default roles, Legal & Documentation and Sales Executive don't, so for them the Record type filter is empty. In the "New document template" dialog the list is empty too: the record type stays at the default, Demand, unless the "Use the usual record type for a …" link appears for the chosen kind and you click it.
- A deleted template's code can be used again. The message "codes are never reused" applies while a template with that code exists; once a template is deleted, a new one may take its code.
- Starter templates come back. If you delete one of the six starter templates, it is created again as a Draft the next time the organization's default settings are refreshed.
- Your organization can rename the grid's column titles (see Renaming screen labels), so your screen may use different words.
Related
Related
- Document templateScreen
The template designer: write a template's wording with merge fields, set its letterhead, title and page layout, preview it against a real record, and publish, retire or restore its versions.
- LetterheadsScreen
Set up the branding wrapped around generated documents: logo, header and footer, page size, orientation, margins and page numbers, for the whole organization or for one project.
- Generated documentsScreen
The organization-wide log of every document generated from a template or uploaded against a record, where you preview, download, email, void or delete them.
- RulesScreen
Every automation rule in your organization, system and custom, with filters, the switch that turns each rule on or off, and shortcuts to edit, test, clone, see the run history of or delete a rule.
- Message templatesScreen
The list of your organization's message templates: the wording that Send email actions and campaigns use, with filters and the actions to create, open or delete one.
- Renaming screen labelsScreen
Change the wording of field names, tabs, column titles and sidebar items to your organization's own terms, on one screen or everywhere, and reset them to the built-in text.
- Document templates, published versions and letterheadsConcept
A document template is an HTML letter with merge fields written for one record type; publishing it freezes a numbered version that generation uses while the draft stays editable, and a letterhead (the template's own, else the project's, else the organization's default) supplies the logo, header, footer and page layout around it.
- Numbers and series: documents, bookings, demands, payments and vouchersConcept
How NirmaanOne numbers what it creates: generated documents, bookings, demands, demand runs, payments, payout runs and revenue runs take a prefix, the Indian financial year and a five-digit serial (BK-2026-27-00007), while vouchers are numbered on posting from their voucher type's prefix, padded counter and suffix.
- Merge fields and filtersConcept
Merge fields are the double-brace placeholders in document and message templates ({{ entity.demand_no }}, {{ contact.name }}) that are replaced with the record's values when a document or message is rendered; filters such as inr, words and date format the value, and Repeat row / Show when add tables and conditional blocks.
- Design a new document templateHow-to
Create a document template for a record type, write its wording with merge fields, repeat a table row for line items, show a block only when a condition holds, preview it against a real record and publish it so people can generate documents from it.
- Put a starter document template into useHow-to
Review one of the six starter templates that come as drafts, preview it against a real record, publish it, and switch on the system workflow rule that sends it automatically.
- Template, letterhead or generated document cannot be deleted: retire or void it insteadTroubleshooting
A document template that produced documents, that an email template attaches or that a workflow rule uses is kept for history and is retired rather than deleted; a letterhead is deleted only once no template uses it; a generated document that was sent is voided, never deleted.
- DocumentsScreen
The Documents area of Settings, where you manage document templates and letterheads and see every document generated or uploaded in your organization.