13   Forms

You can print all the standard business documents you send to customers and suppliers: quotes, order confirmations, invoices, delivery orders, delivery labels, statements, bills, cheques, receipts, remittance advice and mailing labels.

You can print forms individually as you complete a transaction (for example, an invoice for a cash sale) or print batches of forms (for example, a monthly cheque run for supplier payments).

You can also customise the appearance of your forms. You can change the size of the form, print multiple forms on a single page, change fonts, move fields, create text labels.To add your company logo into forms, please contact SINGTEL customer service.


Finding forms

Forms can be accessed through the relevant functions in each command centre. For example, remittance advices are accessible through the Print/Email Remittance Advices function in the Purchases command centre, etc.

To find forms

  1. Go to the appropriate command centre, for example, Sales for invoice forms.
  2. Find the type of form you want and click the relevant command centre function - see the following tables.

    • Banking command centre

      Type of form Function
      Cheques Print Cheques
      Receipts Print Receipts
      Remittance Advices Print/Email Remittance Advices

    • Sales command centre

      Type of form Function
      Sales Print/Email Invoices
      Delivery orders Print/Email Invoices
      Labels Print/Email Invoices
      Statements Print/Email Statements
      Receipts Print Receipts

    • Purchases command centre

      Type of form Function
      Purchases (item, service and professional) Print/Email Purchase Orders
      Cheques (payable) Print Cheques
      Remittance Advices Print/Email Remittance Advices

    • Card File command centre

      Type of form Function
      Mailing labels Print Mailing Labels

Sending forms

You can send forms immediately or as a batch.

Sending forms immediately

You can print or email forms as you enter individual transactions in the Sales or Purchases window.

You can also preview and print remittance advices or cheques when you record transactions in the Spend Money, Pay Bills or Settle Returns & Credits window

Sending forms in a batch

Before you can include a form in a batch, you need to select how you want to send the form when entering a transaction.

  • Sales - select To be Printed, To be Emailed, or To be Printed and Emailed from the Invoice Delivery Status field in the Sales window
  • Purchases - select To be Printed, To be Emailed, or To be Printed and Emailed from the Bill Delivery Status field in the Purchases window
  • Remittance Advices - select To be Printed, To be Emailed, or To be Printed and Emailed from the Remittance Advice Delivery Status field in the Spend Money, Settle Returns & Credits or Pay Bills windows

After you have completed a number of transactions, for example, the invoices for the day, you can print or email a transaction batch.

To print forms

  1. Click on the command centre function for the forms you want to print. For example, if you want to print a sales invoice, go to the Sales command centre and click Print/Email Invoices. The Review Sales Before Delivery window appears.
  2. Click the To Be Printed tab.



  3. Select the layout you want to print in the [...] Type field. For example, if you want to print item invoices, select Item.
  4. Click in the "select" column next to a transaction you want to be printed. If you want to print all the transactions, click the icon in the heading of the select column.
  5. If you want to view more information about a particular transaction, click the zoom arrow next to the transaction.
  6. Enter the number of copies you want to print.
  7. If you want to filter the transaction information or change the type of stationery the forms will be printed on, click Advanced Filters. For more information, see Advanced filters.
  8. Click Print

To email forms

  1. Choose the form you want to email by going to the relevant command centre and clicking the function you want. For example, if you want to email a sales invoice, go to the Sales command centre and click Print/Email Invoices. The Review Sales Before Delivery window appears.
  2. Click the To Be Emailed tab.



  3. Select the layout you want to print in the Sales Type field. For example, if you want to email item invoices, select Item.
  4. Click in the select column next to the transaction you want to be emailed.
    If you want to email all the forms, click the icon in the heading of the select column.
  5. If you want to view transaction details of a particular transaction, click the zoom arrow next to the transaction.
  6. If you want to change a recipient's email address, highlight their name and click the down arrow next to the Email Address field and select another address from the card. Alternatively, enter the address in the Email Address field.
  7. Enter a subject title and message or accept the default title and message. If you want to change the default title and message, click Email Defaults and change as appropriate.
  8. If you want to change the type of information you are going to email or the type of stationery it will appear on, click Advanced Filters. For more information, see 'Advanced filters' below.
  9. Click Send Email.

Advanced filters

You can filter the amount of information, and even change the stationery you want to use, when you print or email a form. You can do this in the Advance Filters window

  1. Click Advance Filters in the Review [...] Before Delivery window.
  2. In the top section of the Advanced Filters window, select the forms you want to print or email. We are using the example of a service sale type for all customers with outstanding payments.
  3. If you want to filter the forms, enter a date range or reference number range (for example, invoice numbers) in the middle section of the window.
  4. In the Selected Form for [...] field, select the stationery you want to use when you print or email your forms. Several stationery choices are available, depending on the type of form you are currently working with.

    Form Usage
    Preprinted Select the preprinted stationery if you want to print on paper that already contains lines, columns and headings.
    The preprinted stationery is designed to match most commonly used forms provided by third-party forms suppliers. Note that this type of stationery is not suitable for emailing forms.
    Plain-paper Select plain-paper stationery if you want to print on blank paper. Lines, columns and headings are automatically printed with the form's information.
    Customised Select any customised stationery forms if you want to print a form you have already customised. See Customising forms below for more information about customising forms.

  5. When you have finished making your selections in the Advanced Filters window, click OK.

Customising forms

You can change the look and content of printed cheques, invoices, delivery orders, purchase orders, statements, bills and mailing labels. You can also change the size of a form, add text labels, draw lines and boxes on the form, move fields, change the size of fields, and more. Then you can save your customised stationery so that you can select it when you print the form.

[ABSS Premier range only] If more than one user is accessing a company file you should:

  • create custom forms in the Forms folder on the host computer on which the company file is stored
  • copy any custom forms from the host computer to the Forms folder on each workstation that accesses the company file.
    CAUTION : Back up your forms Back up the Forms folder before customising any forms so you can always revert to the originals.

Complete the following steps to create, save and print your customised forms:

Task 
1 Display the form
2 Set up the form properties
3 Adding and editing elements
4 Preview the customised form
5 Save the customised form
6 Print the customised form

Task 1: Display the form

  1. Go to the Setup menu, choose Customise Forms and choose the type of form you want to customise. The Customise Forms window appears.
  2. Select the form you want to customise in the Form to Customise field and click Customise. The Customise [...] window appears.
    Label Name Description
    A Tool palette The tool palette provides you with customisation tools.
    B Preview Click Preview to view your form on the screen.
    C Layout Select the required layout for a cheque stub. Note that this is only displayed if you are customising a cheque.
    D Data fields Data fields contain system-generated information.

    NOTE : Cheques have two parts A cheque form has two parts: the cheque and the stub. You customise the cheque and the stub separately. In the cheque Customise window, select the appropriate stub layout in the Layout field. For example, the Regular layout is assigned to cheques recorded in the Spend Money window and the Payable layout is assigned to cheques recorded in the Pay Bills window.

Task 2: Set up the form properties

  1. Click the form properties button in the tool palette of the Customise [...] window.
    The Forms Properties window appears. It has two tabs: the Layout tab and the Options tab.

    Set up the paper and form sizes

  2. In the Layout tab, type the number of forms you want to print per page.
  3. Select the required type of paper from the Paper list.
  4. Type the margins for the page.
  5. Type the width and length of the form (not the paper) in the Form Size fields. If you are printing four cheques per page, type the width and length of a single cheque and not the width and length of the page.

    Set up the grid

  6. In the Options tab, specify the grid options for the form. The grid will help you position and align form fields.
    If you want to:

    1. make the grid visible in the layout, select Show Grid. Note that the grid will not be printed.
    2. align the top and left margins of fields with the closest grid lines when you are repositioning them, select Snap to Grid.
    3. change the spacing between the grid lines, make a selection from the Grid Size menu.

  7. Click OK.

Task 3: Adding and editing elements

Add, remove or edit elements - such as text and lines - according to your needs. For more information, see Adding and editing elements.


Task 4: Preview the customised form

At any time during the customisation process, you can display a preview of your work.

  1. Click the preview button in the tools palette of the Customise [...] window.


    The form is displayed in the Print Preview window.
  2. If you want to view the form in more detail, alter the default value (75%) in the Zoom field and press TAB.
  3. If you want to check your current printer and page settings, click Print Setup.
  4. When you have finished previewing the form, click Close in the Print Preview window.

Task 5: Save the customised form

When you are satisfied with the changes you have made to the form, you should save the customised form. If you want to save changes to a custom form you created previously, click Save Form.

If you want to create a new custom form stationery that contains the changes you have made, click Save Form As. The Save As window appears. Enter a name and a brief description for the new layout and click OK.


Printing a customised form is the same as printing an unchanged form. However, before you can print using your customised form, you need to select the form in the Selected Form for [...] field in the Advanced Filter window. For more information on printing forms, see To print forms.


Changing the default fonts on forms

Every form in your ABSS software is assigned default fonts. You can change these default fonts if you prefer your forms to have a different appearance.

  1. Go to the File menu and choose Default Fonts. The Default Font Selection window appears.
  2. Click Forms. The Change Default Forms Font window appears.
  3. Choose the font style and size for the printed characters on your forms. The sample box previews the appearance of your choices.
  4. Click OK when you have finished.

Adding and editing elements

You can add elements to, and change elements on, a form using the buttons on the tool palette shown below:

To add a data field to a form

  1. Click the add data button. The Select from List window lists all the data fields available for the form you selected.

    The column on the right indicates the field typ e (Data, Column) and where it appears on a form. For example, the Total field only appears on the last page.
  2. Click the fields you require
  3. Click OK. The selected data fields appear on the form. Their position depends on a number of factors, such as the number of records they can display, previous cursor position and other fields already on the form. You can move a field to a better position - see Editing all elements with common commands.
  4. If you want to change the properties of a data field, double-click it. The Field Properties window appears. The Field Properties window has two tabs: the Layout tab where you select the text, format, background colour, location and size of the field, and the Borders tab where you select the layout, colour and width of the field's borders.
  5. Change the properties as required and click OK.

To add a field label to a form

  1. Click the add text button and then click the form where you want to place the text field. A new text field named Text Field appears.
  2. Double-click the new text field. The Field Properties window displays the Layout tab where you select the name, location, size, text format and background colour of the text field, and the Borders tab where you select the layout, colour and width of the text field's borders.
  3. Click OK to close the Field Properties window. The text field appears in the Customise window.

If the name is longer than the size of the text field, you need to resize the field.

To change the name of a text field

  1. Double-click the text field. The Field Properties window appears.
  2. Change the name in the Text field on the Layout tab.
  3. Click OK.

To draw a line on a form

You can draw a vertical or horizontal line on a form

  1. Click the draw line button and then click and hold the mouse on the form where you want the line to begin.
  2. Drag to where you want the line to end and then release the mouse button.

Editing all elements with common commands

The following editing procedures are applicable to any element.

To...Do this...
Copy and paste 1. Click an element once to select it.
2. Go to the Edit menu and choose Copy.
3. Go to the Edit menu and choose Paste. A copy of the element appears in the window.

Note: If you want to paste the element onto another form, display that form in the Customise window.
Delete Select the element and press BACKSPACE or DELETE on your keyboard.
Undo last change To undo the last change you made to the current form, click the undo button or press CTRL + Z.
Resize 1. Click the element once to select it. Small squares, called handles, appear on the element.
2. Drag a handle to change the size of the element.
Drag and drop. 1. Click the element and hold down the mouse button. Notice that the cursor changes to a hand pointer.
2. Drag the element to the desired location. In the example below, the [Invoice No] data field is being dragged below its original position.

Change coordinates 1. Double-click the element you want to move. The Field Properties window appears.
2. In the Field Location fields on the Layout tab, enter the distance from the top and left edges of the form to the top left corner of the element.
3 Click OK.
Send to back 1. Select the element you want to send behind another element.
2. Click the send to back button.
Bring to front 1. Select the element you want to bring in front of another element.
2. Click the bring to front button.

There are also procedures specific to particular kinds of elements - see Adding and editing elements.