Invoice templates and preferences

Dispatch Bros has two kinds of reusable templates plus a preferences tab, all under Invoices → Settings. Line-item templates pre-fill a whole invoice or estimate with one click; email templates pre-fill the subject and message of the send panel; and the Preferences tab controls what every printed invoice shows by default.

Before you start

• Open Invoices in the sidebar, click Settings, then the Templates tab.
• Creating and editing templates needs owner/admin (or settings edit) rights; everyone can apply them on documents.

Line-item templates

The Templates tab starts with your line-item bundles — the header explains: "Reusable line-item bundles."

1. Click New Template.
2. Give it a Template Name (for example "Roof Repair").
3. Add lines. Each button adds a different kind of row:
   • From Catalog pulls a saved item with its price.
   • Blank Line adds an empty priced row — description, quantity, price.
   • Free-form Text adds one large box for a block of writing.
4. Click Create Template (or Save Changes when editing).

To use one: on Create Invoice or Create Estimate, click Use Template above the line items and pick it — the template's items are appended as editable rows, never replacing what's already on the document.

Free-form rows: a whole scope of work in one line

A free-form row is a block of text plus a single amount, instead of a quantity-and-rate line. It is the way to store a scope of work — a heading and a list of everything the job includes — and drop it onto an invoice or estimate in one click.

• Type or paste the whole list into the box. Line breaks, headings and bullet characters are kept exactly as you wrote them.
• Every row has a small Itemized / Free-form switch, so you can turn an existing row into a text block or back. Turning a row into a free-form one folds its quantity and any line discount into a single amount, so the figure the customer sees never changes.
• The amount is optional — the editor says "Leave the amount blank for a no-charge line." A ten-bullet scope can carry one price, or no price at all. A line with no amount prints no figure beside it, and a document with no money anywhere prints no totals block at all — the customer just reads the scope.
• The small bold, italic and colour buttons above the box style the text, and that styling carries through to the invoice, the estimate, the PDF and the customer's link.
• One template can mix both kinds of row — a free-form scope on top, priced items underneath.

Templates on your phone

The same templates are managed in the app (owner/admin only, matching desktop):

1. Open Invoices or Estimates and tap the templates icon in the header.
2. Tap New, fill in the Template name, then add rows with Free-form text or Blank line — or the book icon beside a row to pull in a saved item.
3. Tap Create template (or Save changes when editing). Pull down on the list to refresh; tap the bin icon on a row to delete it.

A template you make on the phone shows up on desktop immediately, and the other way round. To apply one while creating a document, tap the template icon in the sheet's Line items header.

If you are signed in as a dispatcher or technician the icon is hidden and the screen explains why: "Only owners and admins can manage invoice and estimate templates." You can still apply templates when creating a document.

Email templates

Below the line-item templates sits Email Templates — a library of named subject + message pairs for the send panel.

1. Click Add template.
2. Choose whether it's for invoices or estimates, name it (for example "Friendly follow-up"), and write the subject and message.
3. Placeholders such as {document_number}, {customer_name}, {company_name}, {total}, and {due_date} fill in automatically at send time.

When you send an invoice, the panel shows a Use a saved template picker listing your library — picking one applies its rendered subject and message, and your last pick is remembered as the default for next time.

There is also one built-in default template per document and variant (send and resend). Inside the send panel, click Edit template to change it — the panel notes it "is what prefills the subject and message on every send" — and Reset to default restores the stock wording.

Preferences

The Preferences tab (same Settings page) shapes every invoice:

• Display Preferences — toggles for Show company phone number, Show company email, Show job number, Show due date, and Show thank-you message with an editable Thank-You Text (default: "Thank you for your business!"), plus a Footer Text box.
• Customer Payments — the online tip question, the Credit card service fee (%), and your Zelle / Venmo / Cash App handles. See processing fees.
• Default Values — Default Tax Rate (%), Default Due Days, and Default Notes / Terms that seed each new invoice.

Press Save All to persist Preferences changes. The Templates tab saves itself as you create and edit.

Troubleshooting

• "No templates yet" — the empty state before your first line-item template. Click New Template to create one; the hint suggests pre-filling common jobs in one click.
• The Use Template button is missing on the invoice form — it only appears once at least one line-item template exists.
• "No email templates yet." — the email library is empty; click Add template and it will appear in the send panel's picker.
• A template applied but replaced nothing — that's by design: templates append their rows below whatever you already added.
• Template edits didn't save — the name is required ("Template name is required" shows when it's blank), and only rows with a description are kept. That applies to a free-form row too: an empty text box is dropped, even if it has an amount.
• The templates icon is missing in the app — it only shows for owners and admins, the same rule as the desktop Templates tab.