How to Create invoice templates with microsoft Excel
Did you know that you can actually use Microsoft Excel for a variety of other activities, including invoice templates? While it seems incredibly complicated, the actual process of creating invoice templates is actually rather straightforward. You just have to pay attention to certain detail and you will be all set. So, ready to start trying? Here’s how to start creating a template for invoices yourself:
Before you begin, you will need a product/item list to refer to for your invoice on another Excel sheet and a copy of your company logo in a good resolution quality. Insert your logo in the relevant cell by choosing the Insert tab on your Microsoft Excel software and choosing the picture option. Locate your logo file and insert it in. You can take the opportunity to resize it to fit accordingly. Label INVOICE clearly on a designated space so you will still be able to tell the nature of it’s purpose after printing it for both yourself and your client.
Fill in the necessary company details right under your logo, including the name of your corporation, address, location, and contact numbers accordingly. If you require a reference, you can choose to look up free invoice templates online and gain inspiration from them. Now that you have your corporation details, you will also have to include the details of your customer into your invoice template.
Indicate BILL TO before you include your customer details so that you will be able to get a clear reference. Input the relevant details of your customer- their corporation name, address, contact numbers, emails (whenever possible). Another thing that should never be missed would also be your invoice details. Once you are done with the details you have already input in, choose the appropriate space (recommended below your INVOICE label and parallel to your company details).
Type in the necessary invoice details that can be used to keep track/locate your invoices- the date of the invoice, the number of the invoice and the payment due date and/or payment terms. Create a border for the information to be entered (this is the editable space for changes in invoice details) by choosing the Home tab of your Microsoft Excel software and choosing the font category to enable yourself to select All Borders. Enter the format cell dialog box and choose the alignment tab. For neater purposes, choose right indent under the horizontal alignment category and increase your indent appropriately.
For default options, it is recommended to base the invoice date of issue on the current day you are making the invoice, so you can actually make use of the today function (=TODAY()) and apply it to the invoice date section. You can do the same for the payment due terms, according to your preference. For example, certain corporations give their customers up to a month to pay up. So they can choose to use functions to reflect that by typing in =today’s date+preferred length of days.
Once done, you can create drop down lists to display your item codes, item descriptions and other relevant details. Using it’s dialog box, select the list option from the Allow section and look for your Source, which should be the product list sheet you have in your other Microsoft Excel tab. Select the relevant data cell ranges for your product/item names. You will then have created a list of all the available products/items you provide. You can program your list to automatically choose the codes for your items by using Excel VLookup and Iferror functions like: (=IFERROR( =VLOOKUP(__, ‘productlist’!$_$_:$_$_,_,_)).
Once done, make sure you follow up by creating Payment details like subtotal, tax, discount, total and other relevant aspects. Format these cells with the currency option from number categories so that you can use decimal points accurately. You will be mostly done at this point. However, it is also generally advised to add a section for notes and instructions so you can fill it in whenever applicable.
Experiment with different features in Microsoft Excel to create your ideal template format for invoices yourself today!