Bill Templates & Recurring Bill Templates

Create reusable blueprints for whole bills - so you can spin up a consistent, professional invoice in a couple of clicks instead of rebuilding it from scratch each time.

🎥 Video Tutorial

A walkthrough of creating Bill Templates and Recurring Bill Templates, applying them to a new bill, and managing them from the Templates screen.

Overview

A Bill Template is a saved blueprint for an entire bill - the document theme, organisation, currency, and a full set of bill rows (headings and line items). When you start a new bill you apply the template and every row lands pre-populated, ready to tweak and generate.

Unlike Bill Row Templates - which save the content of a single line item - a Bill Template captures the whole bill layout. Think of it as the difference between saving one paragraph and saving the entire document.

There are two kinds:

• Bill Template - a blueprint for a standard, one-off bill. Applied when you create a normal bill.
• Recurring Bill Template - a blueprint for a Recurring Bill setup, including the schedule, bill period, target status, time allocation, and smart placeholders. Applied when you create a new recurring bill.

Both are designed for the invoices your practice issues over and over - standard book-keeping fees, quarterly retainers, annual licence fees - where the wording and structure barely change from one bill to the next.

Templates are not tied to a client

A template stores the shape of a bill, not the client. The preview shows a generic Client Name placeholder. You pick the actual client (and project) when you apply the template to a real bill.

Creating a Bill Template

Step 1: Open the Templates Menu

1. Navigate to Billing in the left sidebar
2. Click the Templates dropdown at the top right of the Billing page (next to + Add New)
3. Choose Bill Template to start a new one, or Manage Templates to open the Templates screen

Step 2: Configure the Basics

On the Create Bill Template page, fill in the header details that will apply whenever the template is used:

• Template Name (required) - How you'll recognise the template later (e.g. "Book keeping services standard")
• Bill Theme Template - The document theme / branding applied to bills made from this template (see Document Templates)
• Organisation Name - The organisation that issues the bill (relevant if your tenant has multiple organisations)
• Currency - The default currency. You can still change it once the template is applied to a bill

Step 3: Add Bill Rows

Use the Add Row dropdown in the preview panel to build the rows exactly as they should appear on the invoice. Everything you can do on a normal bill is available here:

• Heading rows - Section titles such as "Professional fees covering book-keeping services:" to break the invoice into readable blocks
• Line-item rows - Each with a Title, Tax Rate (defaults to the theme's default), Amount, Revenue Account (used for Xero mapping), and an optional Description / Notes
• Charge rows - Charges and discounts, including percentage-based ones - see Charge Rows on Templates below

Reuse your saved line items

While adding a line-item row you can pull in a saved Bill Row Template instead of typing the content again - so templates compose neatly.

Charge Rows on Templates

Both Bill Templates and Recurring Bill Templates support Charge rows. Choose Charge from the Add Row dropdown and Hidma opens the standard charge interface, where you can define a fixed-amount charge or discount, or a percentage-based one applied either across the whole bill or to selected rows.

Putting the charge on the template means every bill built from it arrives with the charge structure already in place - and when the bill is created, the corresponding charges are raised on the project automatically.

Charge rows behave identically here to charge rows on a recurring bill setup, including placeholder support in the title and automatic application of Xero charge-type account exceptions. See Charge Rows on Recurring Bills for the full detail and the walkthrough video.

Step 4: Save

Click Save Changes. The template now appears on the Templates screen and is available from the Templates button whenever you create a bill.

Applying a Bill Template to a New Bill

1. Start a new bill for the client and project you want to invoice
2. Click the Templates button on the bill screen
3. Select your template from the list

The bill is instantly populated with every heading and line item from the template. Because this is a standard (non-recurring) template, there are no placeholders - the rows appear exactly as saved. Adjust anything you need (amounts, wording, currency), then click Generate Bill as usual.

Creating a Recurring Bill Template

A Recurring Bill Template mirrors a full Recurring Bill setup, so you can standardise a recurring invoice once and reuse it across as many recurring bills as you like.

1. Open the Templates dropdown on the Billing page and choose Recurring Bill Template
2. Fill in the same basics as a bill template - Template Name, Bill Theme Template, Organisation, and Currency
3. Configure the recurring settings on the left-hand side:
   • Due Date - How long after the invoice date the bill is due (number + days/weeks/months)
   • Bill Period Start / End - How far before and after the invoice date the billing window runs
   • Target status and time allocation - If enabled for the chosen theme, choose how generated bills should be created and how project hours are allocated
4. Add your rows in the preview, using smart placeholders where the wording should update automatically each period

Smart Placeholders

Recurring Bill Template rows support the same placeholders as recurring bills, so the invoice text stays current without manual edits. In addition to the period placeholders (see Recurring Bills → Smart Placeholders), you can use year tokens:

Placeholder	Resolves to
[Year]	The current year (e.g. 2026)
[Year +1]	The following year
[Year -1]	The previous year

For example, a row titled Fees for the year [Year - 1] generated in 2026 becomes "Fees for the year 2025".

TIP

While editing a row, Hidma reminds you that "The selected time frame will automatically be replaced by the correct time of when the bill is published" - the placeholder is resolved at generation time, not stored as literal text.

5. Click Save Changes

Applying a Recurring Bill Template

1. On the Billing page, choose + Add New → Recurring Bill
2. Click the Templates button and select your recurring bill template
3. The recurring bill setup is pre-configured with the theme, rows, schedule, bill period, and placeholders from the template

Pick the client and project, review the schedule, and save. From then on Hidma generates the instances automatically, exactly as covered in Recurring Bills.

Managing Templates

Choosing Manage Templates from the Templates dropdown opens the Bill Templates screen, with three tabs:

• All - Every template
• Templates - Standard bill templates only
• Recurring Templates - Recurring bill templates only

Each row shows the template Title, the Created date, its Recurrence (a schedule for recurring templates, or a dash for standard ones), and the Total value of its rows. Use the edit (pencil) and delete (bin) icons in the Actions column to update or remove a template. Use Add new template at the top right to create another one without leaving the screen.

Why Use Bill Templates?

• Consistency - Every bill of a given type looks identical, with the same wording, structure, and revenue accounts
• Speed - Populate a full bill in two clicks instead of rebuilding rows each time
• Fewer errors - Standard tax rates, accounts, and descriptions are baked in, so there's less to get wrong
• Scales with recurring work - One recurring template can drive many recurring bills that follow the same pattern

Related Topics

• Recurring Bills - Generate complete bills automatically on a schedule
• Bill Row Templates - Save and reuse the content of individual line items
• Allocating Projects on Bills - Add any project and tag rows to projects
• Document Templates - Control the bill theme used by a template
• Creating Bills - Standard bill creation

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Need Help?

Bill Templates require billing permissions. If you don't see the Templates dropdown on the Billing page, ask your administrator to review your role.