What a layout is, and the four moments one is chosen — transcript

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This presentation is for you if you keep the books for GadgetSphere and somebody has asked why the invoice printed at one branch does not look like the one e-mailed from another. In about eight minutes you will learn what a layout is in BigLedger, where each one has to be uploaded, the four moments a document chooses one, and how to plan the layouts before anybody uploads a file.

Step 1 — Know what you upload when you upload a layout

After this step you will know what sits behind the word layout. In BigLedger a layout is a printable format: one template file in the JasperReports format, ending in dot j r x m l, with a code and a name, tied to one document type. BigLedger ships none of your document layouts, so every format in GadgetSphere’s account is one that somebody in your organisation uploaded. When anyone prints, BigLedger fetches that file, compiles it on the spot, fills it with the document and returns a PDF. A reprint is therefore not a copy of the first print. Reprint a March invoice after the template changed in June and you get the June layout. Replacing a format’s file deletes the old one, so download it first and keep each version with the date it went live. If you must show exactly what a customer was sent, keep the PDF itself: the template alone cannot recreate it.

Reference: Printable Formats and Per-Branch Defaults — What a printable format is

Step 2 — Upload each layout from the applet it prints for

After this step every layout you upload appears where people will look for it. Upload from the document’s own applet: for sales invoices, open Sales Invoice, then Settings, Printable Format Settings, and Add Printable Format. The form asks for a Format Code, a Format Name and the template file, and the applet fills in the document type itself. That document type is the whole filter, because every print dropdown offers only formats of its own type. So the commonest mistake is silent. A sales-invoice template uploaded from the Cash Bill applet saves without complaint, becomes a cash-bill format, and never appears in the Sales Invoice dropdown: delete it and upload it again from the right applet. Choose codes you will recognise in a list of thirty, such as SI-A4-KV, for a sales invoice on A4 paper at the Klang Valley branches.

Reference: Printable Formats and Per-Branch Defaults — Step 1: Upload the format from the document applet

Step 3 — Name the four moments a layout is chosen

After this step you will know which rule is at work when a layout looks wrong. When you press Print, the dropdown is pre-selected with the branch’s default for that document type, otherwise with the applet’s fallback, the format ticked Default on Printable Format Settings, one setting for the whole account; with neither, nothing is selected and the print fails before it reaches the server. When a document is e-mailed through a message template, the layout is the one named on the template’s branch or company link, otherwise the branch default; with neither, the e-mail goes out with no attachment and no error. The e-invoice PDF, the one with the QR code, uses the company’s e-invoice layout, otherwise a built-in one, and never reads the branch default. An older sales-invoice e-mail job ignores all of these and looks a format up by one fixed code. So a branch default reaches the first two moments only.

Reference: Printable Formats and Per-Branch Defaults — Four rules for choosing a layout

Step 4 — Plan GadgetSphere’s layouts before anybody uploads

After this step you will have a plan to upload against. List each document type you print, then each look it needs. GadgetSphere’s sales invoice needs three: an A4 tax invoice at the Klang Valley branches, a narrow receipt at the Penang branches, and the PDF that GadgetSphere Online sends by e-mail. The printed looks are branch defaults, one for each branch and document type across all twenty-two branches. The e-invoice PDF is separate again, one layout per company and document type. Write the plan down in your own records as four columns: document type, company, branch, format code, with all branches for the e-invoice rows. BigLedger sets no branch default for you and tells nobody that a branch is missing one. The print dropdown opens empty only if the applet has no fallback; otherwise it quietly offers the fallback. So check each branch’s settings against the plan, because the plan is how you know you are finished.

Reference: Printable Formats and Per-Branch Defaults — Step 2: Set the branch’s default

Step 5 — Look for the e-invoice layout on the company

After this step you will stop looking for the e-invoice layout on a branch. The PDF your customer keeps, the one carrying the QR code from the Inland Revenue Board, LHDN, takes its layout from the company: in the Organisation applet open the company, then E-Invoice Details, then Printable Format, and add one layout for each document type you issue. You choose it per company, not per branch, so all twenty-two GadgetSphere branches share one e-invoice layout, while GadgetSphere Online and GadgetSphere Distribution each keep their own. That shared layout can still print each branch’s own logo, address and phone, if the template asks for them. A company with no layout for a document type gets the built-in one shipped with the platform, which carries no logo. So an e-invoice PDF with no logo at all is the first reason to look at this setting.

Reference: Printable Formats and Per-Branch Defaults — Step 3: Set the company’s e-Invoice layout

Check yourself

Three to five questions on what you just heard. Every correct answer links to the page that makes it correct, so you can check the source, not just the mark.

Next: Set each branch’s layout, test it, and change it safely · Back to the series · Play this as a presentation