8/5/2007 3:17:42 AM

The Default Invoice Template in Excel Invoice Manager

This chapter is intended to provide general information about the invoice template / workbook installed on your system. To get an in-depth look at the invoice template, see the chapter Customizing Invoice Template.

After installation, you will find a shortcut to the INVOICE.xls template under the Start -> Program Files -> Office-Kit.com -> Excel Invoice Manager menu. Click it to open the invoice template.

By default, in Windows 2000/XP the standard template file is stored in the installation folder of Excel Invoice Manager (\Program Files\Office-Kit.com\Excel Invoice Manager); In Windows Vista, this template is stored in a separated data file folder (\Users\\Documents\My Excel Invoice Manager). However, you can move the template to anywhere in your system and create your own shortcut on the desktop. It is recommended that you create a backup copy of the template file before customizing it.

The invoice template contains six worksheets: Invoice, Sales Report, Customer Report, Product Report, Customer Statement, and Sales Rep. Report. As the names imply, the first worksheet is used to create, edit, and view invoices, and all other worksheets are used to create and edit reports.

Note: Don't rename the worksheets in the invoice template, as the name is the only identifier of a worksheet.

The Invoice Worksheet

The Invoice worksheet provides not only a What You See Is What You Get free invoice form to create and edit invoices, but also an interface for most of the system functionalities. There are 12 command buttons on the top of the worksheet. The left six buttons are targeted to the current invoice, and the right six buttons are targeted to the system. For example, if you click the Payment button, you are trying to add a payment for the invoice currently displayed.

Below is a screen shot of the invoice.xls template taken from Excel 2003, 1024 by 768 screen resolution.

For a comparison, here is another screen shot of the invoice.xls template taken from Excel XP, 800 by 600 screen resolution.

The standard invoice template on Office XP

Button	Action
Clear & New	Clears the Invoice worksheet. The invoice date and ship date field will be set to the current date, and the Tax Rate, Sales Rep. Name, Ship Via, Terms will also be set to default values. You can set the default values by clicking the Settings button on the Invoice worksheet.
Save To DB	Saves the current invoice to the database. If the invoice # field is not filled in, or it is filled in but does not exist in the database, then it will be treated as a new invoice, and a new invoice # will be created automatically if needed. Otherwise, you are updating an existing invoice identified by the Invoice #.
Extract/Email	Creates a new workbook that contains only the current invoice. You can then email it to your customer, format it using various formatting tools, or save it to other formats, such as HTML, PDF, etc. If you check the Email invoice after extraction option on the Workbook Tab of the Settings window, it will create the email message automatically. For an example of the extracted invoice, see Figure .
Print	Prints the current invoice using the default print options. To customize your print options, click Excel menu File -> Page Setup or File -> Print. For an example of the printed invoice, see Figure .
Payment	Adds a payment for the current invoice.
View Detail	Displays the current invoice in an Invoice Edit window, where you can edit, void, delete the invoice, or manage the payment records for the invoice.
Customers	Displays a window to list all customers. (Figure )
Products	Displays a window to list all products. (Figure )
Invoices	Displays a window to list all invoices. (Figure )
Reports	Displays the Reports window, where you can create new reports. (Figure )
Settings	Displays the Settings window, where you can set various options to control how the system works. (Figure )
Help	Displays the help document.

There are also two buttons in the customer information area in the invoice.xls template.

Button	Action
Save As New Customer	Saves the customer information you entered as a new customer. This gives you a quick way to add customers when you are entering invoices. You can also use this button to create new customers using existing customer information. For example, click the customer selection button (the magnifier icon) to select a customer, modify the customer information as needed, and then click the Save As New Customer button.
View Customer Info	Displays a Customer Edit window to show the customer identified by the customer ID you entered. (Figure )

Button

Action

Save As New Customer

Saves the customer information you entered as a new customer. This gives you a quick way to add customers when you are entering invoices. You can also use this button to create new customers using existing customer information. For example, click the customer selection button (the magnifier icon) to select a customer, modify the customer information as needed, and then click the Save As New Customer button.

View Customer Info

Displays a Customer Edit window to show the customer identified by the customer ID you entered. (Figure )

The Report Worksheets

All report worksheets have a similar structure. Here is an example of the Sales Report worksheet.

The Sales Report in the standard invoice template

On the top of the worksheet is a command bar where you will find five buttons to create new report, set visible columns, extract the report to a new workbook, print the report, and clear the current report worksheet.
Below the command bar is the print titles area. To view the details about the print titles, click Excel menu File -> Page Setup, and then select Sheet in Excel 2000 - 2003, or click Page Layout tab -> Page Setup group -> Print Titles in Excel 2007.
Below the print title is the report body that is known as Subtotal Report in Excel terms. By default, the subtotal report is grouped by the first column, and uses the SUM function to subtotal numeric columns.

For more information about reports, see the chapter titled Reports.

Note: The invoice.xls template is the standard invoice template included in all editions of Excel Invoice Manager. If you have a Platinum, Pro or Enterprise edition of Excel Invoice Manager, you can also download various pre-customized invoice templates from the member area.

7/29/2007 2:17:55 AM

Creating a Packing Slip Template

It's easy to create a packing slip template or packing list template from your existing invoice template. This tutorial goes through the steps of creating a packing slip template based on your invoice template.

Note: This tutorial is based on Excel 2003. If you are using Excel 2007, the figures and Excel command names may slight vary on your system.

First of all, make sure your invoice template is customized and ready to use. For example, you have replaced the default LOGO image and entered your own company information. For information about how to do this, please see Before Using Excel Invoice Manager.
Copy your invoice template file. Name the new file Packing Slip.xls.
Open Packing Slip.xls file.
Unprotect the Invoice worksheet by clicking Excel menu Tools -> Protection -> Unprotect sheet if you are running Excel 2000/XP/2003. If you are running Excel 2007, see Customizing Invoice Template.
Switch to design mode by clicking the Design Mode button on the Control Toolbox toolbar in Excel 2000/XP/2003. For more information about how to do this in Excel, see Customizing Invoice Template.
Display gridlines and row/column headers. To do this, in Excel 2000/XP/2003 click menu Tools -> Options. On the View tab check the Gridlines and Row & column headers options.
Replace the big title INVOICE with Packing Slip, by entering the text "Packing Slip" in cell $N$3 if you are using the default template. You can also customize the font, color, size of the title if needed, by using various tools provided by Excel.
Now drag your mouse to select all cells of the Unit Price and Line Total columns on the invoice body, including the column header labels.
Move your mouse to the border of the selected area. The mouse pointer is changed. See the figure below.
Push your mouse button and drag the entire selected area out of the invoice body. For example, you can place it in column V-W. Column V-W is out of the Print_Area range so it won't be included when you print the packing slip.
Select all cells in the Subtotal/Tax/Total section. Move the cells out of the invoice body by dragging and dropping, as detailed in the above steps.
A Flexible Invoice Program/Application

7/29/2007 2:06:47 AM
Excel Invoice Manager - a Flexible Invoice Program/Application

Microsoft Excel provides comprehensive data formatting, calculation, reporting and analysis facilities. This is why so many people use it as an invoice creator. There are also a number of free and commercial invoice workbooks you can download from the Internet. However, like it or not, this fact must be faced: Excel is basically a client oriented, general-purpose desktop tool and is not specialized to store, organize, and manage large amounts of data.

To successfully store, organize, and manage large amounts of data, such as your daily invoices, the best choice is a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS).

Excel Invoice Manager is based on these two time-tested technologies and allows them to do what they are best at: using an Excel template/workbook to create, calculate invoices and reports, using a back-end database to store and manage all persistent data like customers, products, and invoices.

The advantages of this approach are obvious. With the front-end Excel workbook/template, you get not only a What You See Is What You Get tool to create invoices and reports, but also the thousands of features that come with Excel to customize everything you need. With the back-end database system, you have a safe, efficient mechanism to store and manage large amounts of data.

From the point of implementation, an Excel Invoice Manager system consists of three parts:
- The first part is Excel templates/workbooks with responsibility for creating and calculating invoices and displaying reports. The workbook itself does all calculations related to invoice. In other words, this invoice workbook can run alone to create and print invoices, without the help from other two parts.
- The second part is an Excel COM add-in, which runs in background and connects the Excel workbooks to the back-end databases. This COM add-in creates a bridge between the invoice workbook and the database, providing an interface for all database tasks, such as querying databases and returning results.
- The third part is a relational database that provides a secure, efficient, flexible mechanism mechanism to store and manage all persistent data.
The Excel COM add-in is a very flexible invoice program that has the ability to connect multiple invoice workbooks to different databases. As a result, you can design your invoice management system as follows:
1. One workbook, one database: This is the simplest model. You create invoices using the invoice workbook and store them to the database through the COM add-in.
2. Multiple workbooks, one database: By applying multiple workbooks, with each workbook having its own styles, colors, contents, or even a different tax system, you can use very different workbooks to create invoices and then store them to the same central database. These workbooks can be installed on different workstations on a LAN, or they can also be installed on a single workstation.
3. One workbook, multiple databases: As mentioned above, all persistent data is stored in databases. You can use multiple databases to isolate different types of data. For example: one database for one business type.
4. Multiple workbooks, multiple databases. On a single workstation with one copy of Excel Invoice Manager installed, you can utilize multiple databases and workbooks to construct a complex invoice management system.
Minimum System Requirements:
- Windows 2000/XP/Vista
- Microsoft Excel/Office 2000/

7/29/2007 2:00:06 AM

Invoice Software & Billing Software Powered by Excel Templates

Excel Invoice Manager is an electronic invoice software and billing software based on Excel templates and add-in. By seamlessly integrated with Microsoft Excel and utilizing backend databases, it provides you with a powerful, easy-to-use and highly-customizable invoicing and billing system, saving your time and money - taking the hard work out of invoicing!

Note: Some features are available in certain editions only. Click The Difference between Editions to learn more.

Powerful

Create invoices within true what-you-see-is-what-you-get templates. Click here to see a sample form.
Unlimited number of databases and companies. If you are running multiple businesses and each of them needs a different form, you can use one database combined with one template for one business. For more information, see A Flexible Invoice Program/Application.
Support for multiple currencies. You can use any currency symbol on your invoices - all you need to do is formatting the Excel cells with the tools built in Excel. Also, you can use several templates combined with several databases in just one invoicing system. For example, use one template combined with one database for invoices in US dollars, and use another template combined with another databases for invoices in Euros.
Powerful search ability. Search customers, products, invoices using various fields and operators available. The supported search operators are: Equals, Contains, Starts With, Ends With, Is Less Than, Is Greater Than. For example, you can define your search such as "Customer Name Contains Bill", or "Product Name Start With Billing". For more information, see Using the Search Bar.
Networking. Share data with your colleagues over a network. For more information, please see Networking.
No macros at all. Excel macros are powerful tools but sometimes they are considered to be related to security issues. The program is based on add-ins, so the invoice templates included in the software are not locked and you don't need to reduce the security level of Excel in order to run the software.

Easy-to-Use

Excel Invoice Manager is also an easy-to-use billing and invoicing software, not only because of its true what-you-see-is-what-you-get templates, but also you can complete common tasks with just a few clicks.

Manage customer accounts / contact information easily.
Create new customer accounts and view account information without leaving the form. (See a sample invoice form)
Manage products and stocks easily. For example, you can set the Low Limit of the product stock and use the Stock Alert feature to quickly display all products that are low in stock.
Select product items with one-click of mouse within the form.
Manage payments easily. You can add, delete or modify payments as long as the invoices is pending.
Manage invoices easily. You can create, delete, modify, and void invoices with just a few mouse clicks.