Document Templates

Where found? Administration menu > Document Templates

Accessibility? Users with administration permissions only.

How used?

You use document templates to generate all your proposals, contracts, change orders and automated Emails. The Document Templates screen is where you can:

• Control what templates your employees can use
• Manage image content used in templates
• Edit theme colors used in templates
• Create new templates
• Edit existing templates
• Edit HTML styles used across your templates

NOTE: PDF forms are separate types of templates.

About Document Templates

All documents generated by SolarNexus are created from a template. Templates define the content of each document, and include variables which control the differences in content from one document instance to the next (for example, the sales proposals for customers A and B).

Types of Documents

Each SolarNexus document is of a certain type that defines how it can be used in the application. The types are:

• Proposal - Each solution can have one and only one proposal document.
• Contract - Include an option to generate a Payment Schedule. Each solution can have one and only one contract document.
• Change Order - Available only on revised solutions.  Each revision can have one and only one change order document.
• Other Document - Any other type of document, such as letters, or document tests
• Email - Email templates are used to send emails on completion of milestones, or by users to send email to a customer.
• Form (PDF) - SolarNexus can pre-fill PDF forms that are typically required by utilities for interconnection and by AHJs for permitting. These forms templates are a special type that require SolarNexus to create for you. We have a growing library of these forms. Please submit a help request if your desired form is not currently available (when on the Docs screen, click generate Form and see list of available forms).

SolarNexus provides a number of pre-built templates (proposals, contracts, change orders, emails) that your company can use with limited setup work (upload logo, company description, etc). SolarNexus recommends starting with its pre-built templates, and then creating custom templates as desired. All SolarNexus defined templates are indicated with a small SolarNexus logo preceding the name.

SolarNexus templates MAY NOT be edited. However, you can create a copy of a SolarNexus template that is unique to your company account that can be edited.

Enabling Use of SolarNexus Provided Templates

To use any of SolarNexus' provided document templates, a user with administrative or sales management permissions can simply enable their use. Simply navigate to Administration > Document Templates, and click on the SolarNexus tab. SolarNexus provided templates are listed by document type. To assist in choosing a template, you can click to view an example PDF created using each template. To enable use of a given template, simply click the checkbox for that template.

Creating New Templates

When you create a new document template, you must specify its base properties:

• Name - A user friendly name shown in the list of available template options when user creates a document. We recommend including the "type" of document in the name so that user is certain he is picking the right type of doc.
• Type - proposal, contract, change order, other document, email
• Description - A block of text displayed to the user when they select the template. Input a description that helps them to verify that they are choosing the correct template.
• Base this template on... / Use Blank Template - You can choose an existing template from which to make a copy, or to create a new blank template. IF you choose a blank template, you can ALSO choose to edit as raw HTML instead of using the WYSIWYG editor. MOST SolarNexus templates are created using raw HTML because the WYSIWYG editor does NOT allow you to use any Liquid Template directives.

Email Type templates ALSO include the following fields

• Subject - Will populate into the Email's subject line when sent
• Reply To Emails - Will populate into the Email's Reply To field. If receiver clicks reply, this is the mailbox that their reply will be sent to.

You can use doc template variables and Liquid template directives within either of the Email fields. For example, you may want the Reply To email address to go to different departments based on whether the project is Residential or Commercial, you could input this into the Reply To field:

{% if {{site_sector}} == 'Residential' %}ResiOps@myCompany.com{% else %}CommOps@myCompany.com{% endif %}

Or maybe you want to personalize the Email's subject to include the customer's name:

Subject: "Update on {{customer_name}}'s project"

Limit Templates Shown to Users

When generating a document within a SolarNexus customer solution, the user must select the type of document to create and which template to use. You should should hide any document templates that you don't used to create documents, and to simplify the choices. For example, you'll want to hide current drafts or SolarNexus templates that you don't want to use.

Go to Administration  > Document Templates. See the check boxes at top left. If you want to hide all of the SolarNexus templates, check that box. Or you can check the "Show only selected template" checkbox. Click the link to select the specific set of templates (any combination of SolarNexus provided templates and your own custom templates). NOTE that if you use this option, ONLY the selected options will be available for use by the system.

Add Custom Templates

When For your sales staff to use the Company Docs part of the System's Sales Docs feature, you must first create a template. To create a template, click on the Add Document Template link on the Document Templates administrative screen. You can then select one of the SolarNexus system-wide templates on which to base your template or start with a blank template. 

Editing Document Templates

SolarNexus shows you the template in a detailed WYSIWYG ("whizzy-wig", or What You See Is What You Get) editor. Essentially all text that you insert here will appear in the document that is generated. The right-hand pane shows a comprehensive list of Available Variables that can be inserted anywhere within your document template.

Under the covers, the document is actually created using HTML.  Our WYSIWYG editor includes a text editor where the source code can be edited directly. To access the source code editor, select the "Source code" option from the Tools menu:

You can edit the HTML directly in this editor, but if you're going to do a significant amount of work on the template, we recommend you use an external editor that provides better tools for editing HTML/CSS (e.g. TextMate on the Macintosh or Sublime Text for multiple platforms). Simply copy and paste all of the HTML out of the built-in editor, edit it externally, then paste it back in when the code is ready to test.

Document Template Variables

The SolarNexus template editor displays a list of all available variables on the right hand column.

When editing a template using the WYSIWYG editor, you can insert a variable into a template by simply placing your cursor in the editor where you'd like the variable to appear, navigating to the variable name in the Available Variables pane on the right hand side and clicking the desired variable name. The variable name will be input into your document template at the desired location. You may also type in the variable name exactly as it appears in the right-hand pane, and enclose it within double curly braces, as shown below:

{{variable_name}}

Once the template is saved, sales users have access to it from the system's tab within each project.

Image Variables

Variables that display images (e.g. your account logo, or a financial analysis graph) take some extra work and some basic HTML experience to use properly. (Note that the images themselves won't appear in the document template editor, you'll only see "broken image" icons. You can cut/paste these to a new location in the document if you want.) When the user generates document based on the template, these variables actually expand to the URL that points to the desired image. Since the WYSIWYG editor is an HTML editor, you need to insert these variables inside an image <img> tag using the HTML editor button.

So for example if you want to add your account logo, you would first click the "Tools" menu and select source code.  Then in the HTML editor, you would type an <img> tag, inserting the variable in the correct location. For example:

<img src = "{{account_logo}}">

Of course, you can add any valid parameters to this <img> tag.

Table Variables

Some document template variables will generate a table within your document (e.g. cash flow tables or PV Description Table). These are generated as complete HTML tables. The tables are identified with a specific class name that can be used in CSS to format it. For example, the variable table_cash_flow_fin_opt1 generates a table with the class name of "cashflow_table". You can use the CSS formatting technique described above to add some formatting for this table. For example, you could include in your CSS:

.cashflow_table { margin-top: 68px; font-family: 'OpenSans' !important; text-align: center; width: 100%; } .cashflow_table th,.cashflow_table td { font-family: 'OpenSansRegular' !important; font-size: 13.5px; color: #6D6E71; border: 1px solid #6D6E71; }

Allow / Disallow Document Editing Before PDF Generation

SolarNexus provides options for whether a sales user can edit a document generated from a template prior to creating its PDF file. A checkbox at the top of the editor controls this.  If checked, the user can edit the document's content using the WYSIWYG editor prior to generating the PDF. If unchecked, the document is directly generated as a PDF file.

Allowing editing is useful for documents with pre-defined text that can vary from customer to customer. It is not effective for making layout changes. Your specific use case will decide how you configure each document.

Designated Sales Proposal

For each solution, users have the ability to click a "Create Sales Proposal" button. The user is then given a choice to select from a list of document templates that have been designated as sales proposals.  Each solution is allowed to have one and only one sales proposal. If you want your document to be used as a sales proposal, you need to select "Proposal" from the "Type" drop-down field provided at the top of the document template editor.

A specific Sales Proposal document template can also be associated with a solution template as the only option for use as that solution's sales proposal (may be editable or not).

NOTE: SolarNexus also provides an API that is capable of getting documents from SolarNexus (Enterprise customers only). Designating a document as a sales proposal provides some means of identifying it for such access. 

Manage Images

SolarNexus templates may contain any static images you'd like to include.

For convenience, SolarNexus provides you with a repository to upload images that you want to use within any of your documents. These may include photos, icons, or other graphic elements.

Click the Manage Images button to access a page where you can manage your images. All uploaded images have an icon that auto copies the URL for the image to your computer's clipboard. It can then easily be pasted into the "src" attribute of an img tag within a template. For example:

<img src = "pasted_img_URL" />

NOTE: Document templates may also include images located elsewhere, as long as the URL is accessible to SolarNexus on the public internet.

Formatting with CSS

You can use CSS to apply formatting to your document template. You have two different levels at which you can define styles:

1. Account level
2. Document template level

Customizing styles at the account level

SolarNexus has predefined default styles that are applied to all document templates. You can override any of these default styles or define new ones that can be applied to all the custom document templates that you have in your account. This is handy when you want to make an update, because its centralized in a single place, and a single change is applied to all of your templates.

You can view this CSS by clicking on the "View Stylesheets". You can modify any of these styles or add your own new styles by clicking the "Edit" button for your Custom Styles. To override an existing style, simply copy the text from the Default Styles window, paste them into the Custom Edit window, and then modify as desired.

Customizing styles at the document template level

You can also apply styles to only a single document template, you'll want to insert a special <style> section at the top of the HTML of your template.  For example, here is a sample <style> section that includes some page formatting and some general HTML formatting:

<style type="text/css"><!--
/*Set up PDF Printing*/
@page {
   size: US-Letter landscape;
   margin: 35pt;
margin-bottom: 0pt;
padding-bottom: 0pt;
}
@bottom-left {
border-top: none;
content: "";
vertical-align: top;
}
@bottom-center {
border-top: none;
vertical-align: top;
}
@bottom-right {
border-top: none;
content: "";
vertical-align: top;
}
body {
font-size: 1.4rem;
width: 960px;
}
h1 {
font-size: 34px;
line-height: 40px;
color: #6D6E70;
} --></style>

Refer to the documentation for Prince (the tool we use to generate PDF files) for more information about the types of commands you can include in the @page section.  See the Paged Media section of the linked page.

Edit Document Theme

Consistent branding of your documents helps to set your company apart from others and shows your professionalism. SolarNexus allows you to define the colors used for various elements used in your documents, such as text, graph data elements and other design elements used across your documents.

Go to the Document Template Theme article to learn how to set your colors.

SolarNexus Document Template Services

SolarNexus has launched a service to take care of creating your proposal/contract templates for you. For a small fee, SolarNexus will create a custom template for use in your projects. Simply provide us with a sample of what you want your document to look like (in MS Word or PDF format), and we'll ensure that it gets translated into well formed HTML and put into your account as a ready-to-use Document Template. Contact us at support@solarnexus.com (NOTE: Subject to some limitations on data available to us).