PDF Template Builder

Settings → PDF Templates is where you control how your printed documents look. Each document type has a template that SKU.io uses whenever that document is printed, downloaded or emailed, and you edit it in a side-by-side workspace with a live preview. Describe the change you want in plain English to the built-in AI assistant, or edit the markup yourself.

Every template ships with a ready-made design, so you change only what you need — and you can always return to the original.

The seven document types

Seven document types have a template. The type decides what a template can print: a purchase order gets supplier fields, a packing slip gets pick-and-pack fields, a credit note gets neither.

Document type	Who reads it	Reference
Packing Slip	The customer, in the box	Packing Slip template reference
Pick List	Your warehouse team	Pick List template reference
Sales Order	The customer, as an invoice	Sales Order template reference
Quote	The customer, before the sale	Quote template reference
Purchase Order	Your supplier	Purchase Order template reference
Vendor Credit	Your supplier	Credit note template reference
Sales Credit	The customer	Credit note template reference

You can't add a document type of your own, create an extra template, or change a template's type. The one way to get an additional template is a store-specific copy of one of these seven — see Find, save & restore templates.

Where these templates get used

You don't print from this screen. Templates are applied wherever SKU.io produces the document: downloading or emailing a sales order invoice or a quote, sending a purchase order to a supplier, printing packing slips and pick lists from orders and fulfillment, and issuing vendor or sales credits.

A saved change takes effect on the very next print, including a reprint of an old order. A fix reaches everyone immediately — but reprinting a year-old document gives you today's design, not the one it was printed with originally. Files you already downloaded or emailed keep the old look. When you need an exact reproduction of what a customer received, keep the original file, or use the packing slip print history, which stores the actual file that was printed.

Who can view and change templates

Anyone who can reach Settings → PDF Templates can browse the list, run previews, validate a template and read its History.

Saving a change, resetting to default, creating or removing a store-specific version, restoring an old version, using the AI assistant and uploading images all need the PDF templates permission on your role. Without it those actions fail rather than disappearing — so if a button seems to do nothing, ask an administrator to grant the permission.

Printing is a separate permission on the record itself. A warehouse user typically prints packing slips and marks orders printed without being able to change any template, and downloading a finished credit note follows the permissions of the credit. In practice, the person who sends a document is often not the person who designs it.

Settings elsewhere that change what a template can print

Several other screens feed the Variables panel in the editor:

• Settings → Purchasing → Logistics Tracking Fields — defines the milestones that become estimate and actual dates on purchase orders.
• Settings → Custom Fields → Purchase Orders and → Orders — define the extra fields you can place on those two types.
• Inventory tracking settings — decide whether serial numbers are available to print.
• Settings → Address Checks — decides whether the address-warning content exists to print at all.
• Settings → Stores — decides which stores can have their own template version.
• Settings → AI Assistant — holds the provider key the template assistant uses.

Changes take effect as soon as they're saved. Reopen the template editor to see them.

Concepts

• How PDF templates work — the placeholder language, show/hide sections, and how SKU.io picks which template to print.

How-to guides

• Find, save & restore templates — the whole custody lifecycle: save, recover a draft, restore a version, reset, give one store its own.
• Edit a template — insert values, repeat rows, reorder sections, and drop to the code editor.
• Preview a template — check your work against a real order before you save.
• Add logos, images & footer banners — upload artwork, place it, and repeat a banner on every page.
• Edit a template with the AI assistant — describe the change, review it, undo it.
• Common customizations by document type — barcodes, logistics dates, credit-note wording, and the other edits people actually make.
• Set up packing slip rules — colour-code a shipping method or address, hide a line, add a note per brand.
• Print, email & share these documents — where the templates leave the builder.

Reference

• Template editor reference — every panel, shortcut, validation message and preview state.
• Variables reference — how to read the Variables list, the automatic items table, custom fields, legacy names.
• Page setup & CSS support — paper sizes, margins, what styling survives the trip to PDF.
• Per-type references — see the table above.