EstateBax allows the generation of documents essential for agencies' daily operations. To generate a specific document, the template must first be defined or prepared. Templates are essentially document contents that can later be used to generate documents. This allows contracts, pre-contracts, inspection reports, etc., to be pre-prepared with all necessary elements, making it easy to generate a specific document by simply selecting the template.
You can find document template additions in the main menu under Contacts -> Document Templates. On the new page, you will see a list of already added templates (if any exist), and a button for adding a new template. Opening the new template form allows you to enter a new template with its title, so you can easily recognize and select it when generating a document. Then, you enter a description (optional), which can describe the template in more detail.
Next options are related to the types of data needed for generating a specific document. Here, you can choose data related to Contact and Property. When selecting one or both data options, in the text editor below (used for text input), under the first icon { }, you can see all the data you can include in the template.
The text editor is relatively simple and resembles a simplified version of MS Word, where you can add and edit text as desired. Where specific data is needed, use the { } icon and choose which data the system should insert when generating the document.
{primary.fa-info-circle} Besides selected data (Contact or Property), under the { } icon, basic data about the agency and the specific document are always available.
When selecting a variable (data), under the { } icon in the editor, a tag like { !!$agency->title!! } will be added, indicating that the system should insert your agency's name at that location. The same applies if we add some data about a contact or property. This creates a general document template without specific data, with the listed "variables" that the system will automatically fill in during document generation with real data. This implies that to generate certain documents, we must select a specific contact or property, so the system can populate the template with real data. For example, { !!$contact->name!! } { !!$contact->surname!! } will be replaced with the contact's first and last name.
{warning.fa-exclamation-circle} If you have selected a variable related to Contact or Property, do not change the "Data needed" options above the text editor afterward.
This refers to situations where, for example, you've selected the "Contact" option, added variables related to the contact in the template, and then want to uncheck that option. Doing so may prevent document generation from that template or result in a document without the included contact or property data.
It's important to mention the Duplicate template option. Since in practice, we often have various documents with small differences, the duplicate template option is very useful. In the template overview, next to each template, there is a Duplicate button that creates a copy of the template, adding Copy to the template's name. This newly created template is an exact copy of the original template and can be edited as desired (title, content, etc.).
{primary.fa-info-circle} Editing the copied template does not affect the original template.
When adding templates, we can choose whether we want the generated document to include the default header and footer. These parts of the document can be uploaded on the "Header and Footer" tab in the document template overview. You can upload images representing the header and footer.
{primary.fa-info-circle} The format and size of the images are indicated at the upload section.
When defining a template, below the text editor, we have the option to enable the header to appear only on the first page or on every page, as well as to enable the document footer.
After saving the template or making changes, we return to the template overview where there is a PDF button that shows us how the document will look. The displayed document contains test data, and the preview opens in a new window in PDF format. This is not the actual document and is not saved anywhere; it only serves as a preview of the future document.