14.18. Invoice Layouts: Standard, Custom, Defaults, and Per-Client Assignment

Invoice layouts control how client invoices look when MSPs preview, send, download, or print them — covering your logo, billing address, client info, invoice number, due date, service period, line-item tables, totals, taxes, discounts, and payment messaging. Use them when your billing team wants invoices that are clear, branded, and appropriate for different client or contract types.

Navigate to Billing > Invoicing > Invoice Layouts. The page header reads "Invoice Layouts", and the create button is labeled "Create New Layout".

Figure 1: Invoice Layouts lists built-in standard layouts and provides the starting point for custom invoice designs.

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Why MSPs Customize Invoice Layouts

Most MSPs need more than one way to present billing. A small fixed-fee client may need a concise invoice, while a co-managed support agreement may need detailed labor, service period, and usage information.

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Standard vs. Custom Layouts

Alga PSA includes standard layouts so your team can generate invoices without designing from scratch. Custom layouts let you adapt the invoice to your brand and billing model.

A good starting point is to clone a standard layout, then adjust branding, line-item detail, and totals.

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Viewing Layouts

The Invoice Layouts page shows all available layouts with the following columns:

• Template Name — The name of the layout.
• Type — Standard or Custom (plain text, not a badge).
• Default — A checkmark icon if this is the current tenant default for new invoices.
• Actions — Per-row menu (see below).

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Actions on Layouts

Click the Actions menu on any row:

Tip: Clicking Edit as Copy on a standard layout automatically creates a new editable custom copy and opens it in the designer.

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What a Layout Contains

Invoice layouts are built from reusable components:

• Structure — sections, containers, dividers, and spacers.
• Content — text, labels, invoice fields, totals, signatures, buttons, and attachments.
• Media — logo, uploaded images, and QR codes.
• Dynamic content — line-item tables and other repeating invoice data.

The designer lets billing admins arrange these components on a page, bind them to invoice data, preview the result, and save the finished layout.

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Creating a Custom Layout

1. Click Create New Layout to start from scratch, or use Clone (or Edit as Copy on a Standard layout) to start from an existing layout.
2. The Invoice Layout Editor opens — a visual, canvas-based designer with a toolbar, element palette, and inspector panel.
3. Add and arrange elements using the palette: text blocks, tables, images, dynamic fields.
4. Use the inspector panel to configure element properties (font, color, size, position).
5. Preview the rendered invoice using the built-in preview.
6. Click Save.

The editor exposes two tabs:

• Visual — the canvas-based designer where you build the layout.
• Code — a read-only JSON view of the underlying template structure, generated from the Visual workspace.

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Setting a Default Layout

The default layout is used automatically when generating and previewing new invoices. To change it:

1. Find the desired layout in the list.
2. Click the Actions menu.
3. Select Set as Default.

The default can be set on any layout — Standard or Custom. The menu item is disabled if the layout is already the default.

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Assignment Levels and Precedence

Invoice layout assignment can be reasoned about at four levels of scope. The most specific applicable assignment wins.

A contract-specific layout takes priority over the client default, and the client default takes priority over the tenant default for invoices generated from that client or contract.

What's actually exposed today: in Alga PSA the two assignment surfaces you will use most often are the tenant default (the Set as Default action on this page) and the client level (the Invoice Template dropdown on a client's Billing tab — see 14.5. Client Billing Settings). Contract and contract-line differences in presentation are usually expressed through groupings, labels, and section ordering inside a single layout, then assigned at the client level for the clients whose contracts need that treatment.

Per-client assignment

To assign a specific layout to one client:

1. Navigate to the Client Detail page.
2. Open the Billing configuration section.
3. Select the desired layout from the Invoice Template dropdown. Standard layouts are marked with "(Standard)" and the tenant default is marked "(Default)" inside the dropdown.

If no layout is selected, the client falls back to the tenant default.

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Previewing Layouts on Drafts

When reviewing draft invoices in Invoicing > Drafts, the preview panel includes a layout dropdown. This lets you compare how a draft invoice looks with different layouts before finalizing — without changing the client's assigned default. The selected layout is also used when downloading the draft as PDF.

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Recommended First Layout

For a first custom layout, build a practical monthly managed services invoice:

1. Add your MSP logo and address at the top.
2. Add customer name, invoice number, issue date, due date, and service period.
3. Add a line-item table with description, quantity, rate, and amount.
4. Add subtotal, tax, and total.
5. Add payment instructions and a support contact.
6. Preview with sample data before using it for real invoices.

Default strategy for most MSPs

1. Keep a standard layout available as a fallback.
2. Create one branded default custom layout for normal monthly billing and mark it as the tenant default.
3. Create client-specific layouts only when there is a clear billing reason, such as required usage detail or unusual grouping.
4. Build contract-specific presentation into a layout (block-hour detail, location grouping, retainer summaries) and assign it at the client level to the customer whose contract needs it.
5. Review assignments after major contract changes, renewals, or rebrands.

Assignment checklist

Before assigning a layout:

• preview it with an invoice similar to the one it will render;
• confirm the layout includes the fields required by that client or contract;
• confirm billing staff know why the layout is assigned;
• avoid client-specific wording in a tenant-wide default;
• keep assignment rules simple enough to troubleshoot during billing.

Common assignment scenarios

When in doubt, use the broad default for normal billing and reserve special assignments for clients that genuinely need them.

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Related

• 14.5. Client Billing Settings
• 14.13. Managing Draft and Finalized Invoices
• 14.19. Building an Invoice Layout — create or clone, designer workspace, component reference, and binding fields.
• 14.20. Style and Shape Invoice Layouts — branding, line-item tables, totals, and transforms.
• 14.21. Page Setup, Preview, and Troubleshooting