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Improved WorkflowMax Print Templates

Improved WorkflowMax Print Templates

WorkflowMax provides users with the ability to customise print templates for Quotes and Invoices to meet specific business requirements. The templates supplied with WorkflowMax can be easily modified and will meet most requirements. There are however a number of situations where business requirements are more demanding and significant modifications to the standard templates are required.

Some examples of more complex requirements include:

Quotes

Adding subheadings to the cost table

This enables the user to group various costs for presentation purposes

Adding multiple signatures using one Quote template

Most users will create multiple quote templates to cover each account manager and their respective signature. The problem with this method is that when a change to the quote format is required it has to be made across multiple templates and often not all templates are updated.

An alternative method is to imbed the signature in the word template using a conditional merge field:

OR

Invoices

Custom Formats

This is particularly relevant in construction related industries where users need to display quoted value, % complete, % previously claimed (or $ value), % this claim and value this claim as below:

These are not an out of the box solution for WorkflowMax but can be achieved through the use of smart templates.

What is a WorkflowMax Print Template

Quotes and invoices are generated from print templates stored on the WorkflowMax server. The print templates are MS Word files that contain merge fields and merge tables that are populated with data from your quote or invoice.

Users requiring an understanding of template fundamentals should refer to the WorkflowMax Help – Support Centre – search “custom templates”.

 

What are smart templates?

Smart templates are templates that have the ability to change the way data appears.

Generally, the standard data displayed is adequate for most applications but the display can be modified by editing the merge field – simply right click on the merge field and select “Toggle Field Codes”.

The merge fields can be modified extensively and we’ll look at each of the examples given above to illustrate how the output was achieved.

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Adding sub headings to the Cost Table using conditional If statement

In the example above we added two additional costs to act as headers:

  • Pre-Development application, and
  • Post Develp0ment application

These costs were added to the quote in the normal way with the text “Header” being added to the Code field.

To print the Quote sub totals in blue required the description field to be modified with the following code which simply states that if the code is “header then print blue; if not print black :

Similar changes were made to the unit and rate fields to supress $0 values

 

Adding a dynamic signature to a fee proposal

Modify and add the following code to the quote template and it will automatically populate the quote with the account managers signature.

Modified Invoice template

The generation of the invoice format illustrated above required a change in workflow and the addition of a smart template as follows:

  1. Quotes/jobs was created with each stage appearing in both the task and cost section. The task section recorded time (non billable) while the cost section recorded billable revenue. It should be noted that the cost items have a $0 unit cost and a specified unit price.
  1. Progress invoices were generated based on “Quoted Time and Cost”: Each billable line item requires 2 entries:
    • Percentage this claim – entered in quantity field (0.2 for Concept Design in the example above).
    • Percentage complete – entered in the code field (0.8 for concept Design in the example)

     

  2. Modify Invoice Merge Fields as follows:

This is by no means an exhaustive review of smart templates. The objective of this blog is to make users aware of the potential application of smart templates.

 

For more information on merge fields please refer to:

  • WorkflowMax online support
  • Microsoft online support

If you require assistance please contact WorkflowMax support, your WorkflowMax advisor or Chris at Red Arrow Consulting – chris@redarrrowconsulting.com.au

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