Invoices, Receipts and Money Receipts as PDF
How do I make an invoice and money receipt in Bangla?
Tell the builder in Bangla which fields your receipt needs and it makes a page where you type the customer name, the items and the prices, and the total adds itself up. A button at the bottom downloads the receipt as a PDF on your phone or computer, with Bangla text rendering correctly. Send that PDF on WhatsApp or print it.
What you are building
One page where you type the customer name, the date and the list of items bought. Write a price and a quantity on each line and the total works itself out, along with VAT or a discount if you use them. A button at the bottom turns the whole receipt into a PDF and downloads it, with the Bangla text inside coming out unbroken. Send that file to the customer on WhatsApp, or take it to the computer shop to be printed.
Know this up front: the receipts you write are not stored on any server, and no month end list of all your receipts builds up. So the PDF you download is your copy. Get into the habit of keeping them in one folder on your phone, or mailing them to yourself.
Step by step
Step 1: In the Builder give it a name such as Rahim Store Receipt, then press Start building.
Step 2: Sit down with an old paper receipt and look at what is on it: shop name, address, phone, receipt number, date, customer name, the item rows, the total, and a space for a signature at the bottom. That list is your prompt.
Step 3: Write what you want, in Bangla.
Build a receipt page for my shop Rahim Store. Shop name, address and phone at the top. Then boxes for receipt number, date, customer name and phone. In the middle a table where I type the item name, the quantity and the price, with a button to add a row, and the total adding itself up. Below that the amount in words, a space for a signature and a thank you line. All the text in Bangla, currency sign ৳. At the bottom a button that downloads the receipt as a PDF.
Step 4: Press Send. As soon as the page appears on the right, make a pretend receipt: put in two or three items and check the total is right.
Step 5: Press the PDF button, download the file and open it. Check that the Bangla joined letters are correct, that it looks clean enough to print, and that it fits on one page.
Step 6: If something is off, say it in one line.
Fit the receipt on one page, make the text slightly smaller, and leave room at the top right for my logo.
Step 7: Press Share. Save the link on your own phone and on the shop computer, so you can make a receipt from either.
Ways to make it better
- Instead of writing the receipt number by hand, ask for it to go up by one each time, so two customers never get the same number.
- If you sell on credit, ask for paid and due boxes, with the outstanding amount shown large at the bottom.
- If you need a separate money receipt, ask for a second page in the same app that only records who paid how much and for what.
- Ask for the customer name and date to be used in the PDF file name, which makes it far easier to find later on your phone.
- If you would rather not print, send the PDF straight to the customer on WhatsApp and save the paper as well.
Mistakes many people make
- Never opening the PDF. Read the first one yourself and check both the spelling and the arithmetic.
- Assuming the receipts are being saved for you. They are not. The downloaded file is the only copy, so look after it.
- Showing the page to someone else while a customer's phone number or address is still filled in. Clear the boxes before the next customer.
- Typing the total by hand. Let the page do the sum and a rushed mistake becomes impossible.
What to do next
Once receipts are running, build the daily accounts book so you can see what each day sold in one place. That has its own chapter. And if you have a product catalogue page, put its link at the bottom of the receipt, so a customer looking at the receipt also sees the rest of what you sell.
Beginner questions
I do not know Excel, will the math go wrong?
No, totals and VAT compute themselves. You only type the name, quantity and rate.
Are past memos kept?
They can be, on the phone that runs the app. Just say "keep past memos" when building.
Can my shop logo go on the memo?
Yes, drop the logo image in and it sits in the top corner.