If I had the skills, I’d use a custom theme to add a total of the quantity field to sales invoices. This has value to services-by-the-hour only businesses like mine. Another interesting solution could be to add quantity and dollar totals at the bottom of a sales invoice grouped by item code. This would overcome the “it makes no sense to add up kilograms and units in one column” objection.
I love the freedom of full customization, but I understand the pain of maintaining it for users without programming or HTML experience. Javascript would be easier to script. I spent too much time figuring out how to set liquid to do the basic stuff I wanted.
I am using themes for 3 things, which would make themes redundant if there was an alternative.
- Maintaining 3 different branding
- Switch logo and some fields based on division
- Maybe simply: Allow multiple logo uploads for business and configure which division/project it belongs
- Saw a new project in addition to the division, which I will definitely want to use in future, each organisation I consult have a different requirement, and it can be disabled once the project is done.
- Using a custom field to add information relevant to the division
- Allow custom field to be in the same row with Reference / Order Number (e.g custom field TimeSheetId)
- I also use custom variables in invoice descriptions (e.g. Consultancy for the period between dd/mm/yy and dd/mm/yy)
- Maybe retain simplified liquid, or txt replace for invoice description, line description (e.g. Consultancy for the period between {{custom_field[“Start Date”]}} and {{custom_field[“End Date”]}})
- I did help someone on the forum to customize their line items with the custom field before
- Adding company info details on the bottom, but I think it’s now available footer, yet to try it. I also would expect custom_field to be possible to add in the footer. (e.g. custom field VAT number from business details and company reg number)
@lubos whatever you are planning to do with themes replacment, will it effect custom fields in furture?
and can we use HTML or WYSIWYG editor in custom fields in future?
Also, do you have any plan (or could you) add option to disaplay custom blocks on invoice/quotes like you added new “footer” option?
Manager is great software, other than accounting, i am using it for detailed multipage proposals instead of simple single page quote, i just want to know if a loose my customizations in future of there be any alternate solution.
You can already use both footers and custom fields on sales invoices and sales quotes.
perhaps i am unaware of something, i tried to use “Footers” in my cutom theme bit it didnt work.
Do i need to add code in theme for display it?
But only when using the build-in theme, which becomes quite worry-some as one can not really style Sales/Purchase Quotes, Orders, Invoices and receipts and payments to a business house-style.
This topic was started on 9 August 2022 after an earlier post on 1 August by @lubos No more built-in themes? - #4 by lubos where he stated:
Internally, Manager wasn’t using plain theme for quite some time.
I do want to start moving users away from custom themes. Learn what they are using them for and see how this can be solved differently.
A lot of posts in both topics since then made clear what is needed. However, so far we can not even change the colours of table-headings or font-styles and sizes. We struggle-on based on some vague promissory notes that are in place as pacifiers rather than the promised solutions. I noticed in the few years using Manager that often features suddenly get broken, removed, added, discontinued, etc.
I keep my fingers crossed about what next good feature such as the ability to send emails with attachments from Manager (PDF generator), and Custom themes (this topic) will be made obsolete without similar or improved solutions. It feels half-baked and I sincerely hope that rather than adding features and making some obsolete that focus is on making them work better and gain usefulness.
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So we cannot use new feature of “footer” while using custome theme. 
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Nope. Nor some new features that are in default build-in theme.
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Dear @lubos & Members,
Since Themes moved under “Obsolete Features”, I am trying to stop using themes completely and move with the default one to use other benefits of the application (ex. Footers ).
But in meantime, I would like to move the Customer Tax information to the Top section below the address.
I am using default Localisation fields to collect tax information.
Kindly advice.
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Go to the Edit screen for the custom field(s) in Settings:
If I follow this method. This use to display custom field below Order number in my example.
But i would like to keep it below customer address so customer information in one.
Also after doing that GST is printed twice.
The screenshot you show is edited and not from a single screen but a compilation of them. This photoshopping will not help us to help you, on the contrary. In any case, like so many of us, you either stick to the obsolete custom themes until something is developed by @lubos that meets these simple but important theming needs or you stick to what is offered with the built in theme.
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My use cases for custom themes:
1. Sub-business branding
I run multiple income-earning activities (“sub-businesses”) under one legal entity, so the finances apply to the whole entity and therefore are in the one Manager “business” file, but a specific customer only interacts with one sub-business, so they need to see the branding (logo, name, colours, contact details) that matches the sub-business they’re dealing with. I need to be able print invoices with branding specific to each sub-business, I also use themes for receipts and customer statements.
2. Changing information and layouts across sub-businesses
I want to include different fields and information on the printed documents for each sub-business. Some fields are relevant only to one sub-business, and other information needs to change for each sub-business (e.g. Fred Smith T/A My Awesome Business, bank account details or footer content). Sometimes I need to change the columns that are displayed on printed documents between different sub-businesses, because of their different natures.
3. Conditional content
I have made extensive use of conditional statements on my themes to control when specific information is displayed on a printed document
e.g. if there’s an order number (custom field) value, then display the label and the value, otherwise don’t display anything.
e.g. If there’s a value for shipping address (custom field), display the label and the field value
I also use conditionals to prevent all of my custom fields just dumping out at the bottom of the document, instead of where I want them (e.g. moving the order number back up the top)
I hope that whatever alternative solution you come up with allows for all of these uses so that we are able to continue using Manager. Thanks.
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I believe he just used manager from his mobile. At mobile screens that there is not enouht space theese things with background are happening.
You have to make the old ‘Classic Custom Field’ inactive.
I was just reading some old discussions and wanted to provide some insight on this topic.
I use custom theme to rearrange the business and recipient addresses on my invoices and quotes. The stock layout is columnar, but I use two-window business envelopes that are “stacked” on the left margin. The only way to make this work was thanks to the customization of a theme.
I thought you’d like to know another way custom theme is being utilized.
Peace
I use custom themes so I can print checks from the payment tab in Purchase Invoices. If the themes become obsolete, will there be an alternative for users who do not know how to write code? Another user was kind enough to share there “custom theme for checks” code. However, I was able to figure out how to tweak it to fit my checks…that’s about it. Anyone else use custom themes for that or am I the only one?
Can you share please your theme coding.?
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Why do we need themes?
-
Control where custom fields are located:
- the option of showing the custom field at the top of documents is not enough, classifying custom fields into customers’ custom fields, business’s custom fields and invoice’s custom fields are necessary to show custom fields under their own classification section.
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Do calculations between linked custom fields:
- We have got a line of custom fields at the sales invoice labeled “Partial Invoiced”, so we need to calculate the total service amount based on this field inline value and today’s invoicing amount in a third theme column labeled “Total Service Amount”. We do this by theme and no need to duplicate the risk of entering a third column amounts.
-
Control Colors:
- one of the regular practices with our customers is our invoice’s colors, which help in quick processing of our invoice there. just the headers of the invoice main table and its totals are enough to distinguish between hundreds of suppliers’ invoices.
-
More totals classifications:
- This point is related to the next point.
-
More Discounts classifications
- in our case, we have line items fines, service discount value, service discount amount and total invoice discount. All of them could be calculated and inserted in one type of the available discount types, but what if declaring individually each of these discount types is one of the invoicing terms between us and our customers?
- There are some edits on amounts that could be:
- Discounts are subject to TAX rates.
- All discount amounts related to supplying services or products Like edits on the price of services or quantities.
- We do all calculations needed to add this discount as an amount or rate in the discount field but need to adjust totals to show these discounts individually with the totals of the invoice.
- Discounts not subject to TAX.
- All discounts unrelated to providing service or products, for example (delaying’s fines where we carried if we exceed the estimated performing period)
- Discounts are subject to TAX rates.
- Our simple solution to having more than one type of discount and matching most of our required situations is to add the unsubject discounts as one individual negative amount and hide this line by theme then add it as an individual total line.
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Using Extensions to match authority’s requirement:
- We have one simple case, restrict users from changing using automatic reference and today as a create date by default in the sales invoice creating form. However, they could use batch create and get over this restriction (still a secret they do not know).
Lubos moved the themes under absolute features in order to give up supporting themes and that must be a strong motivation to add more ideas done by Manager’s customers by this feature to be a system’s basic feature. So, we think we could help by adding this topic and writing our fears while using Manager now:
- Until the moment, there has not been any announcement for new features that do what themes do with the same power.
- Depending on themes now is very risky because we do not know when he would stop it exactly.
- We are depending on outer developers to prepare themes matching our requirement.
- Developers cost a lot of money, sometimes costing more than our manager’s yearly subscription costs.
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Can you teach me on how to get a QR code to pay using UPI under the invoice?