Before creating any invoices, be sure to select a stationary file for your invoices. See the "Setting Preferences" topic for instructions on how to select a file.
To set invoice preferences, choose "Invoice Preferences…" from the "Edit" menu.
If you have Microsoft Word 98, be sure that Visual Basic for Applications is installed (You can install it off the CD that Word came on).
If you are running System 7.x, be sure that the "Finder Scripting Extension" is installed.
To create an invoice for client, open the client and click "Create Invoice…". To create invoices for multiple clients at a time, select the desired clients in the Client Browser Window and choose "Create Invoices…" in the "File" menu.
You can edit the stationary file in any way you choose. To edit the file, click the "Edit File" button in the Preferences dialog . Once the document is open, you can change any formatting, text, etc.
Warning: Do not add or remove any of the rows or columns in the table. You can add shading or other formatting, just don't change the number of rows or columns.
When building your invoice, Invoice Builder searches your document for certain "tags" to replace with the appropriate data. For example, if Invoice Builder finds the word <name> in the stationary file, it will replace it with the client's name. If it finds the word <address> it will replace it with the client's address, etc.
The following tags can be used in your stationary file:
<name>
<address>
<phone>
<fax>
<email>
<comments>
<billingcycle>
<billingmonth>
<number>
<startdate>
<enddate>
Edit the included stationary file to see examples.
Note: Invoice Builder creates invoices fastest when the "Show Word when creating invoices" checkbox is unchecked (in the Preferences dialog). Also, closing all applications except for Invoice Builder and Microsoft Word will help speed the process.
