Invoice PDFs and languages

Every invoice can be downloaded as a PDF, and the same PDF is attached to the email your customer gets. You can pick one of 13 languages for each invoice, but only English, Spanish, French, German and Arabic are translated today. The PDF also cannot print Chinese, Japanese or Korean characters yet. They come out as question marks.

Get the PDF

• In Invoices, open the actions menu on a row and select PDF.
• In the invoice editor, an invoice that is still editable has a Print or preview button. An unsaved or edited draft is saved first. On an invoice that has been sent, the Live preview card has Print / Save PDF instead.

The file downloads, and a message names it, for example "Downloaded INV-0042.pdf". A draft previews without a number. If a PDF cannot be drawn when an invoice is emailed, the email still goes out without it. Estimates do not have a PDF. Your customer opens them in the portal.

What is on it

• Your business details, and the customer's under Bill to.
• The dates, the PO number and your Details that are set to print.
• The line items and totals, with the amount due.
• A pay panel with a QR code and the payment link. It appears only while the invoice is unpaid and the link is active.
• Notes and terms, and a footer with your business name and page numbers.

It does not carry your logo. The layout comes from the template you use. On some plans a small "Powered by BillingMart" line also appears. A saved PDF is reused until the invoice, the template or the payment link changes.

Choose the language

An invoice's language is fixed when the draft is created. BillingMart takes it from the first of these that is set:

1. The Language on the invoice. The default is "the customer's preference".
2. The customer's Invoice language.
3. The business's Default language, under Settings, then Businesses.
4. The workspace's Default language, under Settings.

The language also sets how dates and amounts are written.

Which languages are translated

Language	Labels on the PDF	Letters in names and text
English, Spanish, French, German	Mostly translated	Print correctly
Arabic	Mostly translated, laid out right to left	Print correctly
Portuguese, Italian, Dutch	In English	Print correctly
Polish, Vietnamese	In English	Print correctly
Chinese (Simplified), Japanese, Korean	In English	Print as ?

The labels are the fixed words such as the dates, Bill to, subtotal, tax, total, amount due, notes, terms and the page numbers. In the five translated languages, most of them are translated. These still print in English: the status badge, except for Paid and Overdue, the PO # label, and the "Tax ID:" label.

Receipts and statements translate their main headings and labels for the same five languages. On receipts, the payment method names, the "Payment for" line, the authorisation panel and any service fee lines stay in English.

What is not translated:

• Your own words: line items, notes, terms, names and the labels of your Details print as you typed them.
• The title at the top uses your business's own word for an invoice, such as "Invoice". It is in English, even on a translated invoice.
• The invoice, estimate and reminder emails are in English whatever the language, as are text messages.

Characters the PDF cannot print

The PDF embeds fonts for Latin letters, including accented and Vietnamese ones, and for Arabic. A character outside those, such as Chinese, Japanese or Korean, is printed as a question mark. This also affects a customer name or a line description written in those scripts. BillingMart does not warn you when it happens. Check the PDF before you send an invoice with those characters, and write the text in Latin letters if you need the PDF to read clearly.