Bid and Invoice Templates

01What a template is

A template is a saved set of formatting choices for either Bids or Invoices. Each company can save multiple templates per document type, and one is marked the default for that type. Nothing on a template changes your numbers, taxes, or line items, only how the document is presented.

1. Kind. A template is either a Bid, Invoice, or Receipt template. They are edited and applied separately.
2. Name. Whatever you want to call it, for example “Standard” or “Commercial proposal.”
3. Default. Exactly one template per kind is the default. Any bid, invoice, or receipt that does not have a more specific template assigned (see per-document and per-customer below) uses the default.
4. Standard template. Every kind always has at least one template, a “Standard” one that reproduces the classic look, created automatically the first time you visit that kind’s tab. It stays the default until you make another template the default, and it cannot be deleted while it is the only template of its kind.

02Open the editor

From the dashboard, click your avatar in the top-right corner, choose Settings, then open the Bid & Invoice Templates tab. Switch between the Bids, Invoices, and Receipts tabs at the top to edit each document type’s templates separately.

The template list sits above the editor: it shows each template’s name, marks the current default, and offers Make default, Duplicate, Rename, and Delete for every template (Delete is hidden on the default row). Click New template to start a new one from your current defaults, or click an existing template to load it into the editor. Nothing is selected when you first open a tab, this makes it clear a kind can have more than one template; before you click a row, the form column instead shows a Where templates are used card explaining how Conduit picks a template for a document, and the preview column shows the default template’s preview.

03The editor groups

The left column of the editor is a form, grouped the same way for both Bids and Invoices:

1. Logo. Upload or change your company logo right here (the same logo shown on your Company Profile, PNG, JPG, GIF, or WebP up to 5MB), show or hide it on this document, and choose its placement (left, center, right) and size (small, medium, large).
2. Colors and font. The accent color used for the title and the line-item table header, plus the document font: Default (the classic built-in look), Inter, or Source Serif. Reset to your company brand color with one click.
3. Title and header fields. The document’s type label (for example rename “Bid” to “Estimate,” “Quote,” or “Proposal”; or “Invoice” to “Statement”), plus up to 8 header fields. Each header field has a label and a source, either a merge field pulled from the document (customer name, job site address, PO number, license number, and more) or a custom field you defined, or literal text you type in yourself.
4. Columns. Which line-item columns appear (quantity, unit, unit price, tax, a photo column) and the label text for every column, including Item and Total, which always appear.
5. Sections. Show or hide blocks: notes, terms, signature line, deposit line, retention, payment options, photos, and the valid-until line.
6. Notes and terms. Default text that seeds new bids and invoices; you can still edit notes and terms on the individual document afterward.
7. Footer. A line of footer text; your company name always appears on the line beneath it.
8. Paper. Letter or A4.

04Live and PDF preview

The right column shows a live preview that updates as you edit, built from the same sample bid and invoice used across the app so you can compare templates apples-to-apples. It reflects every change immediately, including logo placement, accent color, columns, and sections.

Click Preview PDF to see the real, generated PDF for your current, unsaved changes in a new tab, the exact file a customer would receive. Use this to check page breaks, font rendering, and print layout before saving.

05Multiple templates and the default

Create as many templates per kind as you need, for example one for residential bids and a different one for commercial. Use Make default on any template in the list to make it the one new documents use automatically. Duplicate starts a new template from an existing one’s settings; Rename changes only the name; Delete is available on any non-default template while others exist. The default template cannot be deleted while it is the only template of its kind, so the list never empties.

06Choosing a template on one document

Not sure how a bid, invoice, or receipt picks its template? Before you select a row in the list, a Where templates are used card explains it for the kind you are on; click Where is this used? under the list to bring the same explainer back once you have a template open.

Every bid and invoice has its own Document template picker on the create/edit form, and a Template control next to the PDF button on the detail page that saves immediately when you change it. Leave it on Company default to use whichever template is currently the default for that kind; pick a specific template to override it for that one document only. Receipts always use the company’s default receipt template, there is no per-receipt picker.

07Pinning a template to a customer

To make a customer’s bids or invoices consistently use a particular look without setting it on every document, open the customer’s page and use the Document Templates card (also available on the customer form). Pick a Bid template and an Invoice template independently; either can stay on Company default.

A customer pin applies whenever a document for that customer does not have its own template chosen. The order Conduit checks, most specific first:

1. A template chosen on the document itself.
2. The customer’s pin for that kind (bid or invoice).
3. Your company’s default template for that kind.
4. The built-in system default, on the rare document created for a kind before you ever opened that kind’s tab.

08Custom fields

Custom fields let you add company-specific data, like a PO number, job-site address, or license number, that isn’t already part of Conduit’s standard fields. Manage them from the Custom fields tab of the template editor.

1. Definitions. Each custom field has a label, a key (auto-generated from the label, locked once saved), a type (text, number, or date), and which document kinds it applies to (bid, job, invoice).
2. Transferable. When on, a value entered on a bid carries forward automatically: to the job created when the bid is accepted, and from that job into invoices generated from it. Existing values on the destination are never overwritten.
3. Show on document. When on, a custom field with a value renders automatically as another label/value pair on the PDF, the web view, and in the notification email, even if you never added it to the template’s header fields.
4. Where you fill them in. A Custom Fields section appears on the Bid, Invoice, and Job forms, showing one input per applicable definition. The values show on the corresponding detail page too.
5. Referencing one in a header field. In the Title and header fields group, the source picker for a header field lists your custom fields alongside the built-in merge fields, so you can give a custom field its own label and position instead of relying on the automatic placement.

09Fonts

Choose Default (Conduit’s classic built-in typeface, unchanged from before templates existed), Inter (a clean sans-serif), or Source Serif (a traditional serif) from the Colors and font group. The choice applies to the PDF, the live preview, and the public-facing web view together, so what you see in the editor matches what your customer receives.

What if I don’t see it?

• My existing bids and invoices look different now. They should not. The system default reproduces the classic look exactly; if something looks off after creating a template, check whether that template is set as the default for its kind, or whether a customer pin is now applying to it.
• A header field I added is blank on the document. A header field with no resolvable value (for example a merge field with nothing to fill in, like a PO number the document does not have) is dropped rather than shown empty.
• My custom field isn’t showing on the PDF. Confirm the definition applies to that document’s kind, has Show on document turned on, and has an actual value saved on that specific bid, invoice, or job.
• I changed the customer’s pinned template but an existing document didn’t update. A document that already has its own explicit template keeps it; the customer pin only fills in when the document has no template of its own. PDFs already generated and sent also do not retroactively change.

Related

• Branding Your Bids for the company-wide logo and mission statement that predate templates.
• Creating a Bid for the full bid workflow.