How do I create layouts for financial documents?

In Univents a layout decides how your financial documents look as a PDF: the letterhead from your Word template, the colors and borders of the line-item table, and which rows are shown. This article walks you step by step through building your own Word template (with ready-made templates to download), lists every placeholder you can use, and shows how to assign the layout to a quote or invoice.

What is a layout?

A layout is the visual design of a PDF document: the underlying Word template with your letterhead and texts, plus the colors and borders of the line-item table. It controls the look, not the content. Don't confuse it with these two other template types:

• Position template — a saved bundle of individual line items you can insert into any financial document. See Create & use financial position templates.
• Financial document template — a complete document saved as a reusable template. See Create & use financial document templates.

Step 1: Build the Word template

The foundation of every layout is a regular Word file (.docx). You design your letterhead, cover letter and footer in it — and wherever Univents should insert real data later, you put placeholders in curly braces, for example {Customer_Name} or {doc_number}. When the PDF is generated, Univents replaces every placeholder with the matching value from your document, event and contact.

Templates to download

The fastest way to start is with our standard templates — these are the exact files behind the built-in "Univents Default" layouts. Download one, swap the logo and texts for your own, and upload it as a new layout:

Tips for structuring the Word file

• Use headers and footers: Put your logo in the header so it repeats on every page. Word also lets you set a different header for the first page. Placeholders work in headers and footers too.
• Invisible tables for the letterhead: A multi-column letterhead (recipient on the left, your company details on the right) is easiest with a Word table whose borders you hide. In the finished PDF the table is invisible.
• Formatting is preserved: If you format a placeholder bold, colored or in a certain font size, the inserted text keeps that formatting.
• Don't use Word text boxes: Univents cannot replace placeholders inside text boxes and shapes — they would remain as literal text. Only put placeholders in normal text, tables, or the header/footer.
• Fix images in place: So images don't shift when placeholders are replaced, give them a fixed position on the page in Word (layout options → "Fix position on page").
• Table placeholders get their own paragraph: {inserted_table}, {optionals_table}, {insert_table_...} and {Event_Schedule} replace their entire paragraph when rendering. Any other text in the same paragraph is removed with it — always put these placeholders alone on their own line.

Step 2: Insert placeholders

Capitalization doesn't matter for recognition. A placeholder Univents doesn't know (e.g. because of a typo) remains as literal text in the PDF — so you spot mistakes immediately in the result. If a value isn't maintained in the document (say, a missing VAT ID), the placeholder is replaced with empty text.

Document

Customer

Note for existing users: The meaning of the Address_Line placeholders changed compared to the old Univents version — the address addition moved from line 1 to line 4, and street/city/country each moved up one line. Check old templates when migrating.

Event

Your company (sender)

Totals and amounts

All amounts are calculated from the document's fixed line items — positions marked as "optional" are not included in the totals.

Totals per category

The five totals also exist per product category. Replace the start of the placeholder with the internal name of the category from your inventory:

Only use category placeholders whose category actually occurs in the document — otherwise the placeholder remains as literal text.

Line-item tables

These placeholders are anchors: Univents inserts a complete table in their place. They must therefore stand alone in their own paragraph.

You can combine main and category tables: {inserted_table} as the overall summary plus individual {insert_table_...} anchors for the detail section. You control the order by where you place the anchors in your template.

Custom texts

Custom texts may themselves contain placeholders — Univents replaces those too. That's how you solve the salutation, for example: set the default text for {custom_text_0} to "Hello {Customer_First_Name} {Customer_Last_Name}," and only adjust it per document when needed.

Logo

There is no placeholder for the logo. With the built-in Univents standard layouts, the logo you store under Settings > Branding is inserted automatically at the top right of the header. With your own Word template, you build the logo directly into the template as an image — giving you full control over size and position. See Set up branding for details.

Let AI build the template for you

You don't have to click the template together in Word by hand — there are three ways.

Directly in Univents: create a layout from a PDF

The easiest way is built in: on the PDF Layouts page, click Create with AI from PDF and upload an existing quote PDF — for example a quote from your previous system. The AI rebuilds it as a new layout with structure, colors and custom texts and adds it as an additional layout card; your existing layouts stay untouched. Generation runs in the background and the AI checks the quality of the result itself at the end — you can then keep the layout, fine-tune it manually, or discard it and try again.

With Claude: build a template from scratch

For full control over every detail, create the Word file with an AI assistant like Claude or Claude Code: attach your logo and your letterhead as a reference and use this prompt (copy additional placeholders from the tables above into it as needed):

Create a Word template (.docx) for my quotes and invoices in Univents.
Univents replaces placeholders in curly braces with real data.

Generate the file with a script (e.g. python-docx), not as prose —
every placeholder must remain intact as one continuous piece of text.

Structure:
1. Header: my logo (image file attached), my company details right-aligned:
   {workspace_company_name}, {workspace_address_1}, {workspace_address_2},
   {workspace_mail_address}, {workspace_website}
2. Recipient block: {Customer_Company}, {Customer_Name}, {Address_Line_1},
   {Address_Line_2}, {Address_Line_3}
3. Subject line: {doctype} {doc_number} — {Document_Title}, with the
   date {Date} and customer number {CU_number} to the right
4. Salutation as custom text: {custom_text_0}
5. Then, in its OWN paragraph with no other text: {inserted_table}
6. Totals block right-aligned: subtotal {subtotal_net}, discount
   {total_discount}, net {total_net_discount_deducted}, VAT
   {VAT_total_amount}, total {total_gross}
7. Closing text as custom text: {custom_text_1}
8. Three-column footer: address ({workspace_company_name},
   {workspace_address_1}, {workspace_address_2}), contact
   ({workspace_landline}, {workspace_mail_address}), bank
   ({workspace_bank_name}, {workspace_IBAN}, {workspace_BIC},
   VAT ID {workspace_VAT_ID})

Rules:
- Write placeholders exactly as given, including braces and underscores.
- {inserted_table} and {Event_Schedule} replace their entire paragraph
  when rendering — they must stand alone on their own line.
- Do not use Word text boxes or shapes; placeholders are not replaced
  there.
- The formatting of a placeholder (bold, color, size) will apply to the
  inserted text.
- Match the colors and structure of my attached reference document.

Give me the finished .docx file to download at the end.

With Claude: rebuild an existing PDF as a Word template

Already have a fully designed quote as a PDF — say from your old system or your agency? Then let Claude build the Word template straight from it. Attach the PDF and use this prompt:

I'm attaching an existing quote as a PDF. Rebuild it for me as a Word
template (.docx) for Univents — same fonts, colors, logo position and
page structure, as close to the original as possible.

Univents replaces placeholders in curly braces with real data. So
replace all concrete values from the PDF with the matching placeholders:

- Recipient name and address → {Customer_Company}, {Customer_Name},
  {Address_Line_1}, {Address_Line_2}, {Address_Line_3}
- Document number → {doc_number}, date → {Date},
  title → {Document_Title}, customer number → {CU_number}
- My sender details → {workspace_company_name}, {workspace_address_1},
  {workspace_address_2}, {workspace_landline}, {workspace_mail_address},
  {workspace_VAT_ID}, {workspace_bank_name}, {workspace_IBAN},
  {workspace_BIC}
- Event details → {event_name}, {event_date}, {event_location}
- Salutation and closing text → {custom_text_0} and {custom_text_1}
- Remove the entire line-item table including its header row and put
  {inserted_table} in its OWN paragraph with no other text instead —
  Univents inserts the real table there
- Totals block → {subtotal_net}, {total_discount},
  {total_net_discount_deducted}, {VAT_total_amount}, {total_gross}

Rules:
- Generate the file with a script (e.g. python-docx) — every placeholder
  must remain intact as one continuous piece of text.
- Do not use Word text boxes or shapes; placeholders are not replaced
  there.
- Carry the logo from the PDF over into the header as an image.

Give me the finished .docx file to download at the end.

Even simpler: download one of our templates above, attach it together with your letterhead and write: "Adapt this Univents template to my design — all placeholders in curly braces must remain unchanged."

Step 3: Create the layout in Univents

1. Open Settings > Templates and choose the type Layout template — or go directly to the PDF Layouts page.
2. Click New layout at the top right.
3. Enter a name (e.g. "Trade fair quote").
4. Choose the type — which document type the layout applies to: quote, invoice, delivery note, or credit note.
5. Upload your Word template (.docx).
6. Click Save.

To maintain custom texts (label and default text per {custom_text_...} placeholder), open the saved layout again for editing.

Each row in the list shows name, type, and language. Using the buttons per row you can Edit a layout, copy it into the other language (German/English) via Create language variant, or Delete it. When copying, the Word template and title image are not carried over — upload them again for the new language.

Set colors and borders

You don't style the line-item tables in Word — you style them in the layout itself. Click Edit colors and borders on a layout. In the Colors section you set eight colors — background and text color for each of four table areas:

Pick each color via the color field or enter a hex value (e.g. #1a1a1a).

In the Borders section you set color, width (px), and line style for the outer border, header border, category border, row border color, and vertical border. Available line styles are solid, dashed, dotted, double, and groove. To hide a line completely, set its width to 0. Then Save.

All settings apply to the layout as a whole — that is, to every document using this layout.

Show categories in the PDF

In the Display section (also under "Edit colors and borders") two toggles decide how strongly your PDF is structured by categories:

• Show the category name as a row in the main table.
• Show the category name as a row in the category tables.

Assign a layout to a document

When creating or editing a quote (or invoice, etc.) you'll find the Layout section at the top with a card row of all matching layouts.

1. Browse the cards — a quote only shows quote layouts (and type-independent ones).
2. Click Select on the card you want. The active layout is marked Selected.
3. If this layout should automatically apply to all future documents of this type, click Set as default.

New documents of that type then start with the stored default layout automatically.

Frequently asked questions

Why does a placeholder appear literally in the finished PDF? The placeholder wasn't recognized — usually a typo in the name, or a placeholder inside a Word text box (replacement doesn't work there). Compare the spelling with the tables above; capitalization doesn't matter.

Why is text suddenly missing from my template? Table placeholders and {Event_Schedule} replace their entire paragraph. If your own text was in the same paragraph, it was removed with it. Put these placeholders alone on their own line.

Is my logo inserted automatically? Only with the Univents standard layouts. In your own Word template you build the logo in yourself as an image.

Why don't I see invoice layouts on my quote? Layouts are bound to a document type. A quote only shows quote layouts plus layouts without a fixed type. Create a dedicated layout for each type if needed.

What happens to documents when I delete a layout? Existing documents that used the layout automatically fall back to the default layout. No content is lost.

Can I offer the same layout in German and English? Yes. Click Create language variant on the layout to create a copy in the other language. Upload the Word template and title image again for the new language.

Where do I configure number ranges or pricing terms? Those are not layout settings. They live separately — see Document numbers and pricing terms.