Simple Sample - Moving Item# Column

This simple invoice template demonstrates how to move out the Item# (or Product #) column from the printable invoicing form. The result template still has the item# column but it is not printable.

The default invoice template shipped with Invoice Manager for Excel setup program (See Free Sales Invoicing Template), as well as its customized version c5075 Simple Sample Invoicing Template - Moving Cells, both have the Item# column put on the printable form.

The Item# or Product# column is not useful if they are just short codes for your business internal use only. For example, if you are running a service business, you can save the description of each service item, each with a shortcut as item#, to the "Product" database. So that when you need to enter the description text of a service, you can just enter the short code in the item# cell. This feature, provided by Invoice Manager for Excel, is called in-cell lookup. Invoice Manager for Excel has built-in support of in-cell lookup for 3 main database tables - customers, invoices and products. This means that, if you enter a value into the invoice# (or customer#, or product#) cell, all the related data will be retrieved and displayed on the invoice form.

The behavior of the in-cell lookup feature of Invoice Manager for Excel could be controlled on the "In-Cell Lookup" tab of the Settings window. To open the Settings window, click the Settings button on the "Invoice" ribbon tab. Invoice Manager for Excel must be installed in order to have this ribbon tab created when you open a template.

In this tutorial, we'll detail the steps of moving out the item# (product#) column out of the printable form. The result of this simple customization is a simple invoice template that shows only 4 columns on the printed invoice - Description, Unit Price, Quantity, and Line Total. But you can still use the in-cell lookup feature in to the Item# cells which are located outside the printable billing form.

First, make a backup copy of the template that you want to customize. In this case, we use c5075 Simple Sample - Moving Balance and Payment Cells.

1. Open the invoice template as usual.
2. Switch to design mode by clicking the "Design Mode" button on the "Invoice" ribbon tab.
3. Drag your mouse to select the "To create an invoice" section, as well as the short advertisement section "Need a different invoice layout? Visit our invoice template collection" section. Move the entire selected area (N6:R46) several columns right. In this sample, we put this on $R$6.
4. On the printable form, select the entire "Description" column, including the heading row, ranging from F21 to H33. Click the "Merge and Center" command on the "Home" ribbon tab. This unmerges the selected area.
5. Now select the entire column "#/Taxable". The range address should be D21:D33. Move the selected area to the new location starting from $O$21.
6. Now selected the unmerged "Description" column, ranging from F21 to F33. Move the selected area to the new location starting from $D$21.
7. Select all the cells that will comprise the new column heading of the Description column, ranging from D21 to H21. Click "Merge and Center" command on the "Home" ribbon tab.
8. Select all the cells that will comprise the new oknProductName_1 cell (the top-most product description cell), ranging from D22 to H22. Click "Merge and Center" command on the "Home" ribbon tab.
9. Repeat the above step for all the other description cells.
10. The "Merge and Center" command set text alignment to be "Center". We have to set this to "Left". To do this, select all the product description cells (excluding the heading cell), ranging from D22 to H33. Click the "Align Left" button on the "Home" ribbon tab / "Alignment" group.
11. In Excel 2010 / Excel 2013 / Excel 2016, click File / Print to preview the result of a printed invoice.
12. Exit print preview mode and go back to normal view. Add up borders and set colors to fine turn the printable invoicing form.
13. Once finished, exit design mode by clicking the "Design Mode" button on the "Invoice" ribbon tab.

That it! You now have a simple invoice template that was created by moving out the item# column. You can still use the item# column on creating invoices - what we do is just put it outside printable form.