With pixi* Invoices you can archive already created invoices in pixi* as PDF locally (network storage is also possible) and/or additionally on the document storage server.

Furthermore PDF documents can be downloaded from external sources and be printed instead of the invoices that were created in pixi*. Also these PDF documents can be uploaded to the document storage for archiving purposes.

Warning: In order to be able to print invoice documents, which were downloaded from the document storage, software Adobe Acrobat Reader is needed.

Invoice Templates

Separate templates are needed to create PDF invoices.

Local Archiving

To activate local archiving of invoice documents, follow these steps:

Open settings via Tools > Options > PDF Invoices > Save Invoices as PDF.
Activate Save a copy of the invoice as PSF file to this folder and Create subfolder for each month (if needed), if invoices should be archived separately for each month.
The subfolder will be created in format "M-YYYY" (e.g. "7-2016") and depends on the month of the invoice creation. If an invoice was created in January 2016 and is reprinted in December 2016, it will be put to "1-2016" folder.
Or activate Save invoices as PDF on document storage to save invoice documents on the document server.
The option Don't print pixi invoice when saving the invoice as PDF can be activated after one of the two options above is selected. This setting allows you to store invoices digitally in a resource-saving and paperless way. The print preview will be disabled. This option is recommended for archiving old invoices as PDF.
Now Select directory on your computer to save the invoices.

If everything is set up, a PDF copy will be saved to the path you selected when an invoice is created or reprinted.

Info:
- Invoice printing always uses the locally stored invoice template in folder C:\pixi\templates.
- In case you connected network drives using the standard Windows user, do not start pixi* Invoices with administrator rights. In this case, connected network drives cannot be used as a folder for saving PDF files.

Save PDF Invoices to Document Storage

This functionality allows you to have your invoices, as well as related invoice template types (e.g. invoice main page, 2nd page, 3rd page, slip page) in PDF format always available as they were created and uploaded for the first time on every computer that has access to pixi*.

By default, PDF invoice documents are stored up to 8 days on the document storage server and are automatically deleted afterwards.
If PDF invoices should be stored longer than 30 days, please contact your account manager. Storing PDF invoices up to 30 days is free of charge.

Archiving invoices in PDF format can also be used to send them to your customers via e-mail as an attachment.

Info: Configuration if this functionality on inhouse servers is being charged. Please contact your account manager in case you want to use the functionality.

Configuration

pixi* Control Center

Before this functionality can be used, it needs to be enabled in pixi* Control Center application > Database Settings tab > Invoices folder > Save PDF Invoices to Document Storage setting.

Furthermore, the period how long PDF invoice documents should be stored on the document storage needs to be set. Therefore, this period needs to be entered in pixi* Control Center > Database Settings tab > Invoices folder > Delete PDF Invoice Documents after X Days setting. By default, this setting is set to 8 days and only pixi* Support can change it.

These database settings affect the whole database. This means that once enabled, on reprinting invoices pixi* checks whether there is already a PDF invoice available on the document storage and downloads it. If not, it is created locally and depending on the setting in pixi* Invoices application saves it to the document storage or not.

pixi* Invoices

To start saving your invoices in PDF format to document storage server, follow these steps:

Open the settings in pixi* Invoices application > Tools > Settings > PDF Invoices > Save Invoice as PDF.
(Optional) If you want that invoices are also stored locally on your computer, enable the setting Save a copy of invoice as PDF file to this folder and also Create subfolder for each month if needed. The subfolder will be created in "M-YYYY" format (e.g. "7-2016") and is based on the month of invoice creation. So if an invoice was created in January 2016 but reprinted in December 2016, it will be saved to the "1-2016" folder.
Enable Save invoice as PDF to document storage to upload PDF invoice documents to the document storage after they were created. If Save a copy of invoice as PDF file to this folder is disabled, the locally created PDF file will automatically be deleted after it was uploaded.
In the last step select the directory on your computer to save the invoices, since PDF invoices are created locally before they get uploaded.

Info:
- These settings only apply to the computer where pixi* Invoices application is running. You have to do it on every computer where you print invoices and you want the functionality to be enabled.
- PDF invoices cannot be deleted manually from the document storage.
- If the local folder is defined but local saving is disabled, pixi* Invoices application uses that local folder for downloading the PDF invoice.
In such case, please make sure that you don't have a network storage defined as local folder for PDF archiving because when a PDF is downloaded from document storage, it overwrites any existing file with the same filename and gets automatically deleted after it is printed.

Currently it is not possible to delete or overwrite existing PDF files on the document storage server.

Printing Rules

You can also define printing rules for PDF invoice documents. Like this, you can configure that printed invoices should have a different layout than PDF invoices you send to customers or which are archived.

Downloading external PDF Invoices

Besides the possibility to save and archive normally created pixi* invoices (locally or on the document storage), you can also download PDF documents from an external source and upload or print these documents instead of pixi* invoices.

Send PDFs via E-Mail

If you use invoice archiving on the document storage, then these PDF invoices can be used to be sent to customers via e-mail as an attachment. PDF invoices can be attached to automatic e-mails and Customer Service e-mails manually. They can also be sent using the Send PDF functionality in pixi* Customer Service.

FAQ - Frequently asked Questions

A compilation of frequently asked questions can be found in a separate sub-article.