Invoice layouts and numbering in Skyline Nexus

What you will set up and why

Invoice layouts control what a customer's invoice looks like and what it says; invoice numbering controls the reference printed on it. Skyline Nexus ERP gives every business location a Standard invoice and a Simplified invoice by default, each with its own numbering scheme, and this guide shows how to review, customise and extend both. Getting them right once means every invoice carries the correct legal wording and a number sequence that can be tested for gaps later.

The two settings are separate but linked: a layout decides how an invoice is printed and worded, a scheme decides the number that appears on it, and a business location picks which layout and which scheme it uses for its point-of-sale till and for the sales screen. This guide walks through building a scheme, customising a layout, and setting both correctly on a new branch, then shows the accounting reason a Standard and a Simplified invoice usually differ.

Before you start

You need the Invoice Settings permission to add or edit schemes and layouts, and the Business Locations permission to change what a branch prints by default. At least one business location must already exist, because both a layout and a scheme are always tied to one. Have your business's legal name, branch address, phone number, email and bank details ready, since these are typed straight into the layout.

Skyline Nexus ERP already creates a Standard and a Simplified layout for every location the moment it is set up, pre-filled with the business name, that location's address and its logo, so for most businesses this guide is about reviewing and adjusting what already exists rather than starting from a blank page.

• Permission: access to Invoice Settings, to add or edit schemes and layouts
• Permission: access to Business Locations, to set what a branch prints by default
• At least one business location already created
• Your legal business name, branch address, phone, email and bank details to hand

Step 1: open Invoice Settings

Go to Settings, then Invoice Settings. This single menu entry opens both invoice schemes and invoice layouts, so from here you can list, add or edit either. Existing schemes and layouts are listed with the locations that already use them, which is the quickest way to check whether a branch is using its own layout or sharing one with another location.

Step 2: build an invoice numbering scheme

From Invoice Settings, Add new invoice scheme opens a form with a Scheme Format choice shown as a live preview: a blank format that prints as a plain running number, or a yearly format that prints the current year ahead of the number. Scheme Details then asks for a Name, a Numbering Type of Sequential or Aleatory/Random, a Prefix, a Start from number, and a Number of digits from four to ten, with a Set as default checkbox and its own Preview box showing the finished format before you save.

For example, a Prefix of INV, the yearly format, four digits and Start from 1 previews as INV-2026-0001, then INV-2026-0002, and so on; the sequence resets to 0001 when the yearly format rolls into the next year. A blank format with the same prefix and digits instead runs INV-0001, INV-0002 without ever resetting. Random numbering is available for businesses that prefer not to advertise how many invoices they have issued, at the cost of making a gap harder to notice.

• Scheme Format: blank running number, or a yearly format prefixed with the current year
• Numbering Type: Sequential (1, 2, 3...) or Aleatory/Random
• Name, Prefix, Start from, Number of digits (4 to 10)
• Set as default, and a live Preview of the finished number format

Step 3: design the invoice layout

From Invoice Settings, Add new invoice layout starts with a Layout name tied to a business location and a Design choice grouped by the printer it suits: 80mm or 58mm thermal designs for a POS receipt printer, or A4 designs for a normal office printer. Header text sits above two bilingual pairs, each with an English box and an Arabic box and a Translate EN to Arabic shortcut: Business Name, and Address & contact lines. Type the street, the postcode and city, the country and the phone number on separate lines in Address & contact lines; each line you type prints as its own line, and a Prints as box previews exactly how it will look. Bank details, printed at the bottom of the invoice, works the same way: one line per item, for example the bank name, then the IBAN, then the BIC or SWIFT code.

Further down, the form covers the Invoice heading and its Heading Suffix for paid and for not paid invoices, the Invoice no. label, and the Subtotal, Discount, Tax and Total labels. Fields to be shown in location address lets you switch the business name, location name, mobile number, alternate number and email on or off, plus separate switches for Tax 1 and Tax 2 details. Show invoice Logo, Show Barcode, Highlight color and Footer text finish the look, and Set as default decides which layout of that type a location falls back to. A Gulf business's layout heads the invoice Tax Invoice with its Arabic equivalent; every business prints the amount in words in its own currency.

• Layout name and business location, and a Design grouped by printer (thermal for POS, A4 for office)
• Business Name and Address & contact lines, each as an English and an Arabic box with a Prints as preview
• Bank details, one item per line, printed at the bottom
• Invoice heading, paid/not paid suffixes, and the Subtotal, Discount, Tax and Total labels
• Fields to be shown in location address: business name, location name, phone numbers, email, tax details
• Logo, barcode, highlight colour, footer text and Set as default

Step 4: choose what a new branch gets

On Settings, Business Locations, Add a new business location, the Invoice & Pricing block first asks for the Invoice scheme for POS and the Invoice scheme for sale, picked from the schemes you built in Step 2. Invoice layouts for this location then offers Create its own: Standard + Simplified, the recommended default, which names two new layouts after the business and this branch and fills the header with this branch's own address, or Use existing layouts, which reuses layouts already built for another location. Choosing Create its own reveals Prints by default, set to Standard invoice (B2B) or Simplified invoice (B2C).

Choosing Use existing layouts instead reveals two pickers, Invoice layout for POS (Simplified Invoice) and Invoice layout for sale (Standard Invoice), so you can point this location at layouts already in use elsewhere. Use Create its own for a genuinely separate branch with its own address; reserve Use existing layouts for something like a second till at the same shopfront that should print an identical invoice to the main counter.

Which screen prints which layout

A location's Prints by default choice, or its chosen POS layout, is what a POS sale prints. The Sales screen, used for invoices raised outside the till, always prints the Standard layout regardless of what the branch defaults to at POS. In practice a shop counter commonly prints Simplified receipts for walk-in customers while an invoice raised from the Sales screen for an account customer always comes out as a full Standard invoice.

What each invoice type posts to the ledger

Neither the layout nor the numbering scheme itself creates a journal entry; they only decide how a document looks and what number it carries. What differs is the kind of sale each invoice type is usually used for, and that does change the posting. A Standard invoice commonly represents a credit sale to an account customer, posted to Accounts Receivable until it is paid; a Simplified invoice commonly represents an immediate cash or card sale, posted straight to a cash or bank account.

A Dutch office-supplies branch issues a Standard invoice for EUR 2,000 of chairs plus 21 percent VAT, EUR 420, to a business customer on 30-day terms, and separately relieves stock at its cost of EUR 1,100. The same afternoon it issues a Simplified receipt for EUR 50 of stationery paid immediately by card, plus 21 percent VAT, EUR 10.50.

• Standard invoice, 30-day account sale: Dr Accounts Receivable 2,420 / Cr Revenue 2,000 / Cr VAT Output 420
• Same sale, cost of stock sold: Dr Cost of Goods Sold 1,100 / Cr Inventory 1,100
• Simplified invoice, paid immediately by card: Dr Cash-sales clearing 60.50 / Cr Revenue 50.00 / Cr VAT Output 10.50
• Both entries balance on their own; only the settlement account and timing differ between the two invoice types

Common mistakes and how to fix them

Most invoice layout problems are noticed on the first printed invoice, and all of them are quick to fix from the same two screens covered in this guide.

• Choosing Use existing layouts for a genuinely new address: invoices print the wrong branch address; switch to Create its own and re-save the location
• Typing the whole address as one line in Address & contact lines: it prints as a single run-on line; press Enter between the street, the postcode and city, and the phone number
• Reusing the same Prefix on two branches' schemes: their sequences overlap and a gap becomes impossible to test; give each branch its own Prefix
• Assuming the Sales screen follows the branch's POS default: it always prints Standard, so an account customer never receives a Simplified layout from that screen
• Leaving the Arabic box empty on Business Name or Address & contact lines for a Gulf branch: the Arabic side of the header prints blank; fill in or translate both boxes
• Forgetting to tick Set as default after adding a second layout of the same type: the older layout keeps being used until a new default is chosen

Related reports and guides

Once layouts and schemes are set, the invoices themselves are best reviewed from Sales, where every issued invoice lists its number and layout, and from the Fiscal Authority Data Verification report, which compares the trial balance, GL transactions and POS transactions to catch a posting that never reached the ledger. Our guides on how to record a sale, on multi-branch accounting, and on quotations, sales invoices and returns cover the documents that these layouts and numbers are printed on.