Designing a Custom Invoice Template

The invoice designer is a drag-and-drop tool for controlling exactly how your invoices look. Drop company info, invoice details, client blocks, line item tables, and custom fields onto a canvas - position and style them freely. This tutorial walks through the interface.

Takes about 5 minutes.

Prerequisites: an existing invoice to design. See Your First Invoice if you don't have one yet.

1. Open the designer

From the Invoices page, each row has a Designer button in the Actions column:

Click Designer on any invoice. The designer opens full-screen.

You can also open the designer from inside the invoice editor - click Design after saving.

2. The designer layout

The designer has three main regions:

Top bar (horizontal)

• Back - return to the invoice editor without saving
• Invoice #xxx - Designer - the invoice you're editing
• Design / Prev toggle - switch between design mode and preview
• Main Page / Last Page Only - design the main page layout or a separate last-page layout (for totals, signatures, etc.)
• Page Properties - paper size, orientation, margins
• Grid: On / Off - show or hide alignment grid
• Download PDF - render and download the current design
• Save - persist the design to this invoice

Left sidebar: Fields panel

Draggable field chips grouped by category:

COMPANY (pulled from your Business Profile)

• Company Name
• Email
• Phone
• Website

INVOICE

• Invoice # - your invoice number
• Order # - reference order / PO number
• Date - issued date
• Due Date - payment deadline
• Paid Date - when paid (empty until paid)
• Status - workflow state

CLIENT

• Bill To - linked client's name and address block

CONTENT

• Line Items Table - the full items table with columns
• Notes - free-form notes block
• Terms & Conditions - T&C block
• Footer - repeating footer on every page
• Page Number - page X of Y

Main canvas

A grid-lined design area. The green dashed line divides the page:

• Header Zone above - content here repeats on every page
• Content Zone below - content here flows across pages as needed

Drag fields from the left panel onto either zone. Once placed, click a field to select it; drag it to move; drag corners to resize.

Right sidebar: Page Properties

Context-dependent. When nothing is selected, it shows page-level options:

• Orientation - Vertical (portrait) or Horizontal (landscape)
• Pagination - how the line items table flows across pages (auto-configured once you drop a Line Items Table)

When a field is selected, the right sidebar switches to show that field's properties - font, colour, size, alignment, padding, borders.

3. More fields below

Scroll the Fields panel to see the full list:

Additional categories include Custom Fields (any fields you've defined for invoices) and visual elements like text labels, images, signatures, watermarks, and dividers.

4. Drop fields onto the canvas

Click and drag a chip from the left panel onto the canvas.

Example layout for a typical invoice:

Header Zone (top of page):

• Company Name (large, top-left)
• Logo (top-right)
• Company Email, Phone, Website (below company name)

Content Zone (main body):

• Invoice # (large header, centered)
• Date / Due Date (beside invoice #)
• Bill To (client block, top-left of body)
• Line Items Table (fills most of the body)
• Notes (below the table)
• Terms & Conditions (at the bottom)

Last Page Only:

• Totals block (subtotal, discount, tax, total)
• Signature block
• Footer with Page Number

Click the Last Page Only button to switch to that canvas and arrange those elements.

5. Style a field

Click any placed field. The right panel switches to its properties:

• Font family - pick from the installed fonts
• Font size - 8pt to 72pt
• Font weight - regular, bold, etc.
• Colour - text colour
• Background - fill colour
• Border - line around the field
• Padding - spacing inside the field
• Alignment - left, center, right

Select multiple fields by holding Shift and clicking. Styles apply to all selected.

6. Adjust page properties

Click Page Properties in the top bar:

• Orientation - Vertical / Horizontal
• Paper size - A4, Letter, or Custom with explicit dimensions
• Margins - top, right, bottom, left in mm

A4 Vertical is the most common choice internationally. US businesses typically pick Letter Vertical.

7. Preview and download

Click the Prev toggle to see the rendered invoice with real data. Switch back to Design to keep editing.

Click Download PDF to export the rendered PDF. Great for printing or sending outside FoxCLM.

8. Save as a template

Click Save to persist the design to this invoice.

To reuse the design across many invoices, save it as a template:

1. Click Save as Template (in the top bar menu)
2. Name the template (e.g. "Standard Monthly Invoice")
3. The template appears in the template picker on the + New Invoice wizard

Every new invoice can now start from that template instead of the blank default.

9. Use a starter template

FoxCLM ships with four starter designs:

• Classic - professional dark header with blue accents
• Modern Minimal - clean, light design with subtle typography
• Bold Color - gradient purple header with a modern feel
• Compact Serif - compact serif layout, great for printing

Load one as a starting point, then customise. Open any invoice designer and click Load Template.

10. AI restyle

For a quick visual refresh, click AI Restyle (top bar menu). Describe the style you want:

• "Clean minimalist"
• "Bold gradient header with sans-serif typography"
• "Classic serif with decorative borders"
• "Professional blue-and-white corporate"

FoxCLM's AI (DeepSeek) regenerates the layout while preserving your data. Review and save, or keep iterating until you're happy.

Tips

• Start from a template. Designing from scratch is slow; picking a close match and tweaking is fast.
• Keep the Header Zone light. It repeats on every page - too much content steals space from the content zone.
• Use the grid. Toggle Grid: On to align elements precisely. Turn off for screenshots.
• Reuse across document types. The same designer powers payroll statements, expense reports, and payment receipts - save your branding as a template once, apply everywhere.

What's next

• Your First Invoice - create the invoice that uses this design
• Templates - manage your saved templates
• Invoice Designer reference - full field and style reference