Choose and customize your invoice document template
Invoice templates live on the Invoice tab of Settings -> Quotes & Invoices -> Invoicing and control how your invoices look to customers, and work just like quote templates. Browse styles to pick one and select Use, with a live preview on sample data.
Keep one template or several
Your business can keep a single invoice template or add several named ones. Each template has a name so you can tell them apart:
New template adds another template; give it a name and then pick its style or customize it.
Select a template in the list to edit it; Rename changes its name.
Make default marks the template used when nothing picks one explicitly — new invoices start on it, and invoices created from the mobile app or by AI generation use it. A subscription pins its own template when it's created (or edited); its recurring invoices keep using that one even after you change the default, unless the pinned template is deleted, in which case they fall back to the default.
Delete removes a template you no longer offer. The default template can't be deleted — make another template the default first. Existing invoices keep the design they were created with.
With more than one template, the invoice form shows a Template dropdown so you choose the design per invoice (see Create an invoice). With a single template, nothing changes — every invoice uses it automatically.
If you can edit the source, Edit code opens an editor to change the Liquid template, insert variables, and switch the sample customer, property, and line items. Save template applies your changes, or Discard reverts. Branding from your Business Profile flows into the preview. If you have additional offices or brands, use Preview office and brand above the document to switch among every configured combination and check its name, color, logo, address, and phone number.
On a real invoice, Essential chooses the branding from the selected property's office. A property override wins; otherwise the invoice inherits the customer's office. The office provides the address and phone number, and its default brand provides the name, color, and logo. Main-office properties use the Business Profile values.
While you use a built-in style as-is, it is eligible for automatic updates when Essential improves that style. Opening Edit code does not change this tracking by itself. If you change the source and save it, the template is treated as your custom version and stays as saved instead of receiving later built-in changes. Re-selecting a style from the library and saving puts you back on the auto-updating built-in.
Built-in invoice styles show Balance Due directly below Total after a payment changes the amount still owed. A partially paid invoice shows the remaining amount, and a paid invoice shows $0.00. While the full original total is still owed, the Balance Due row stays hidden. A customized Liquid template remains exactly as saved and does not receive this row automatically.
Built-in templates also print the PO number and any custom fields marked Show on customer document. In a customized template, insert the Custom fields (built-in block) variable once to print them in the standard style — or use Custom fields (custom layout) to control the markup around each field yourself.
Built-in styles don't print pricebook item codes. If you want a code (SKU) column on the document, add it in Edit code with the Item code (when known) variable - see Edit a document template's design with "Edit code".
Essential's built-in styles keep sales tax compact. When one tax entry applies, taxable line items show a checkmark in the Tax column and the summary shows Sales Tax with its percentage. When several tax entries apply - including entries with the same percentage but different agencies or jurisdictions - the document names and totals each one separately. A template changed with Edit code keeps its customized tax layout.
Where to find it: Settings -> Invoicing, the Invoice tab
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