PDF Templates

We have created a few ‘starter’ Word document templates (that are pre-filled with merge codes) that you can download and then adjust to suit your requirements for Quotes, Sales Orders, Invoices and Purchase Orders.

Once you have customised the Word document you can upload it into CRM for use as a PDF template.

From Admin > Templates > PDF Templates, click on New PDF Template.

1. Give the template a name – this should make it easily identifiable for users.
2. Add a description so that you can differentiate your templates.
3. Select the Source from the drop-down list (select either Quote, Sales Order, Invoice or Purchase Order) – this indicates the type of
4. Make sure the Is Active box is ticked.
5. Click Save & Close on your new record.

There are several ways that you can access merge codes to use in your template:

• In Edit mode, click on the envelope icon next to the Source field. This will open a new window with merge codes for the module you selected, in this case it will show me the Quote codes.

• You can also access merge codes for the type of template you are creating when you have chosen Save & Close by choosing Show Merge Codes > Base Source – this gives me the same codes as the step above.

Following is an sample of the merge codes that will show for an Invoice.

You can click on any of the bold links to reveal more merge code options that will pull information from other areas of CRM i.e. I can locate codes for fields from the Company or Contact that are linked to an Invoice.

In the example below I have clicked on Account, which now shows me a range of fields related to customers and I can click again on either Account.Company or Account.Contact to reveal a further list of fields from those record types that I can use in my template.

The following screenshot shows where I have clicked on Account.Company to reveal a list of fields from the Company form that can be used in a template.

If you want to access the merge codes for your company, you will need to Save & Close the record and then click on Show Merge Codes > My Company.

Following is an sample of the merge codes that will show for an My Company.

You can either start with your own Word document, or use one of the document templates for Quotes, Sales Orders, Invoices and Purchase Orders that we have created for you to download – these versions come pre-populated with merge codes.

On the word document versions for download, you will see that:

1. Merge codes are all shown in brackets (shown in red) – these codes pull information from CRM to display in your PDF.
2. There is also regular typed text that is shown without brackets (shown in green) – you can change the text in these spots and add additional text anywhere in the document.

When working with codes in the word document, the highlighted codes shown below should not be deleted or amended. These table start/end codes are necessary to start and end merge processes and removing them will cause errors.

Note that your Word document must be saved as .DOC format and not .DOCX.

To customise your word document:

• Open your template and add the merge codes into the desired locations and format your document.
• Note that how you do this in Word will depend on the version you are running, but typically you can insert merge fields into the document from the toolbar by going to Insert > Quick Parts > Field and then selecting Mail Merge fields > MergeField and you can then insert the codes from CRM.

Ensure you save the document with the correct version type of .DOC

There may be instances when you want to adjust how merge data is displayed on a template.

For example, you may want to adjust the number of decimal places that show for number values or change a time/date field to show only a date.

To do this, right click on a merge field in your document and select Toggle Field Codes.

This will display the full code for the field.

Changing displayed decimals

I want to adjust this quantity field to 2 decimal places, rather than the standard 4, so I’m going to update the code to the following:

This is the code (without brackets) if you want to copy and paste it into your document – note that you will need to adjust the field name (in this case it is DisplayQuantity) if you want to apply this change to a different field and the number of decimal places shown in the code needs to be adjusted in line with how many places you want to show in your document:

MERGEFIELD  DisplayQuantity  \# #,##0.00

Changing date/time to date only

In the event that you want to change a time/date field to display only the date, you can also amend the field code to apply your change by using Toggle Field Code:

This is the code (without brackets) if you want to copy and paste it into your document:

MERGEFIELD  Date \@ “dd MMM yyyy”

1. Return to CRM and open your PDF Template record.
2. Drag and drop your Word document into the marked area.
3. Click on Save & Close.

Ensure that your Word document is saved as .DOC format and not .DOCX before you upload it.

Uploading a Word document to a PDF Template record

You can set your system default PDF Templates from the PDF And Email Templates section in Admin > General – just select the template type and select the desired version from the drop-down list.

Ensure that you scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on Update to apply your changes.

Setting default templates in Admin > General

The next time you generate a PDF document from a Quote, Sales Order, Invoice or Purchase Order, CRM will use your Word document to create a PDF.

When you are working with Quotes, Sales Orders, Invoices and Purchase Orders, you can also select a different PDF Template from the system default.

Choosing another PDF Template in a Sales Order

If you want to edit an existing PDF Template, you can click on the Download button to open a copy of the existing Word document and click on the Show Merge Codes button to reveal the merge code tables for both the module and your company (these will open in a new window).

Downloading an existing template Word document

Accessing template merge codes

You can then make changes to your document, save it and re-upload it to the record.

Ensure that your Word document is saved as .DOC format and not .DOCX before you upload it.

1. Open an existing PDF Template record
2. Click Edit
3. Un-tick the Is Active box
4. Save & Close the record

Deactivating a PDF Template