Kimai allows creating invoices from timesheet data in several formats.

Invoice number format

You can mix arbitrary characters and the allowed replacer from the list below. All examples represent the date 2019-07-09 (2019, July 9th):

• {date} - shortcut for ymd. Example: 190709 (default format before Kimai 1.9)
• {cname} - the customer name
• {cnumber} - the customer number
• {c} - counter for invoices of all times, starting at 1
• {cy} - counter for invoices this year, starting at 1
• {cm} - counter for invoices this month, starting at 1
• {cd} - counter for invoices this day, starting at 1
• {Y} - full numeric representation of a year (4 digits). Example: 2019
• {y} - two digit representation of a year. Example: 19
• {M} - numeric representation of a month, with leading zeros. Example: 07
• {m} - numeric representation of a month, without leading zeros. Example: 7
• {D} - day of the month, 2 digits with leading zeros. Example: 09
• {d} - day of the month without leading zeros. Example: 9
• {cc} - per customer invoice counter for all times, starting at 1
• {ccy} - per customer invoice counter for this year, starting at 1
• {ccm} - per customer invoice counter for this month, starting at 1
• {ccd} - per customer invoice counter for this day, starting at 1
• {cu} - per user (the one creating the invoice) invoice counter for all times, starting at 1
• {cuy} - per user (the one creating the invoice) invoice counter for this year, starting at 1
• {cum} - per user (the one creating the invoice) invoice counter for this month, starting at 1
• {cud} - per user (the one creating the invoice) invoice counter for this day, starting at 1
• {ustaff} - the user (the one creating the invoice) staff number, empty if not configured
• {uid} - the internal user (the one creating the invoice) ID

Each replacer (x) can be combined with a length formatter, which will prepend (X) leading zeros, eg. {x,X}. Example: to get a three digit long string with year counter use {cy,3}, which results in 001 for the first invoice of the year.

To change the format, look out for the icon in the invoice screen, or change it from the System configurations.

Incrementing the invoice counter

It is possible to increment the counter by adding a number to the result. For evaluated counters, Kimai takes the amount of found invoices and adds 1, but you can replace +1 with an addition like +3. This works for the following replacer: {c} and {cy} and {cm} and {cd} and {cc} and {ccy} and {ccm} and {ccd}.

Simply use the plus (+) after the replacer, eg. {cy+72}. This also works in combination with the length formatter, eg.: {cy+72,3}

Decrementing the invoice counter

You can decrement the counter subtracting a number from the result. For evaluated counters, Kimai takes the amount of found invoices and adds +1, but you can replace +1 with a subtraction like -12. This works for the following replacer: {c} and {cy} and {cm} and {cd} and {cc} and {ccy} and {ccm} and {ccd}.

Simply use the minus (-) after the replacer, eg. {cy-72}. This also works in combination with the length formatter, eg.: {cy-72,3}

Examples

Assume you already wrote 72 invoices this year (before you started to use Kimai), and your counter is an incrementing number per year, which is prefixed with the four digit year:

• {Y}/{cy+73,3} would result in 2020/073 for your first invoice

Assume that you want to change your invoice numbering and reset it to zero, you already wrote 72 invoices this year, and your counter is an incrementing number per year that should be prefixed with the four digit year:

• {Y}/{cy-72,3} would result in 2020/001 for your first invoice

Invoice state

Invoices can have multiple states:

• New - the invoice was just created
• Waiting for payment - the invoice was sent to the customer
• Invoice paid - the invoice was paid (you have to choose a payment date)
• Canceled - the invoice was accidentally created

Deleting invoices

Invoices should not be deleted, because this can cause all kinds of weird problems in Kimai (depending on your invoice number format).

You should instead “cancel” invalid invoices. Many users fear legal issues if they don’t have consecutive invoice numbers, please clarify that with your accountant - this is often not a legal requirement. Instead it is a completely regular workflow, that invoices get canceled (the used invoice number will not be released).

If you insist on deleting invoices, do NOT delete them if you already created invoices afterwards. This will cause troubles with your invoice counter, as Kimai is calculating invoice numbers from the amount of entries in the database. By deleting invoices you lower the amount of invoices in the database, and the next invoice number might be one that you already used.

Invoice deletion is disabled by default, because of all known problems with deletion. You can activate it enabling the permissions called delete_invoice.

Export state

Invoices and exports share the export state, which is used to mark timesheet records as processed. These records cannot be edited any longer by regular users and are excluded by default from further invoices and exports.

You need to tick the checkbox before saving the invoice, to automatically set the export state on all filtered timesheet records.

For further information read the timesheet documentation.

Billable items only

Only billable items will be included in invoices.

By default, every timesheet records is billable, but users can set the billable flag on individual timesheets.

Expense items have a configurable billable flag per item and only the ones marked as billable (refundable) will be included.

Invoice document

The invoice system currently supports the following formats:

• PDF
  • through the use of Twig templates
  • filename must end with .pdf.twig
  • Pro: no need for additional software
  • Contra: you have to understand HTML, Twig and the MPDF library
  • the recommended invoice document format
• HTML
  • through the use of Twig templates
  • filename must end with .html.twig
  • Pro: no need for additional software, print or convert to PDF from your browser (if supported)
  • Contra: you have to understand HTML and Twig
• DOCX
  • OOXML - Open Office XML Text
  • Microsoft Word 2007-2013 XML
  • filename must end with .docx
  • Pro: simple customization and possibility to edit the invoice later on
  • Contra: Non-free software required
• ODS
  • Open Document Spreadsheet or OASIS, is the OpenOffice.org XML file format for spreadsheets supported by OpenOffice, LibreOffice, StarCalc, Microsoft and others
  • file extension: filename must end with .ods
  • Pro: open format, good for exporting and creating enhanced reports with an office software package
  • Contra: not ideal format for invoices (harder to customize)
• XLSX
  • Microsoft Excel™ 2007 shipped with a new file format, namely Microsoft Office Open XML SpreadsheetML, and Excel 2010 extended this still further with new features.
  • file extension: filename must end with .xlsx
  • Pro: good for creating enhanced reports with an office software package
  • Contra: Non-free software required, not ideal format for invoices
• CSV
  • Comma-separated file with UTF-8 encoding and double-quotes around each field
  • filename must end with .csv
  • Pro: good for exporting and creating enhanced reports with an office software package
  • Contra: only row based information possible (meta information can’t be used properly), UTF-8 is not properly supported when using Excel (see this issue)

Create your own invoice document

Invoice documents are searched in two locations:

• var/invoices/ - does not exist by default, please create it when you add a new document
• templates/invoice/renderer/ - don’t change files in here, will be overwritten with the next update

Be aware of the following rules:

• Documents are addressed by their filename without extension (e.g. kimai.html.twig results in kimai)
• You can use every document name only once: so having kimai.html.twig and kimai.docx will lead to unpredictable results (the first file to be found takes precedence)
• Kimai looks for templates in var/invoices/ first, so you can overwrite default templates
• You should store your templates in var/invoices/, as this directory is not shipped with Kimai and not touched during updates
• You can configure different search directories through the config key kimai.invoice.documents if you want to add additional template source directories

After you changed an invoice template, you have to clear the cache to see the results.

You can have a look at https://github.com/Keleo/kimai2-invoice-templates to get some code inspirations.

Twig templates

Generally speaking, you have two main variables in your template which you should use:

• model which is an instance of App\Model\InvoiceModel
• invoice which is an array of variables (see Template variables below), just with a different syntax for access, e.g.: {{ invoice['invoice.due_date'] }} instead of ${invoice.due_date}

Please see the default templates at GitHub to find out which variables can be used.

Use this debug template to find out which variables are available:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>{{ model.invoiceNumber }}-{{ model.customer.company|default(model.customer.name)|u.snake }}</title>
    <style type="text/css">
        {{ encore_entry_css_source('invoice-pdf')|raw }}
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<div class="wrapper">
    <p>Please note, that the available variables will change depending on your search. E.g. the {{ '{{ project }}' }} variables are only available if you selected a project in your search filter.</p>
    <p>The following list of variables is available for this invoice:</p>
    <table class="items">
        <tr>
            <th>Variable</th>
            <th>Value</th>
        </tr>
        {% for name, value in invoice %}
            <tr class="{{ cycle(['odd', 'even'], loop.index0) }}">
                <td>{{ "{{ invoice['" ~ name ~ "'] }}" }}</td>
                <td>{{ value }}</td>
            </tr>
        {% endfor %}
    </table>
</div>
</body>
</html>

Want to include an image in your template? Use the asset tag for referencing relative URLs (this example points to the directory public/images/my-logo.png):

<img src="{{ asset('images/my-logo.png') }}">

But the safest way is to host your images on your own domain:

<img src="https://www.example.com/images/my-logo.png">

Want to include a file in your template? Use the twig include feature with the @invoice namespace . The following example references the file bar.html.twig in var/invoices/foo/:

{% include '@invoice/foo/bar.html.twig' %}

Custom fields

Iterating above all entries (line items) in the invoice with {% for id, entry in model.calculator.entries %} allows access to your custom fields.

Want to use a timesheet custom field in your template?

{% set meta = entry.getAdditionalField('foo') %}
{% if meta is not null %}
    Foo: {{ meta }}
{% endif %}

Please be aware:

• you can access timesheet custom fields only if you use the “sum calculation” standard, which creates one invoice line item per timesheet.
• if you group timesheets e.g. by project, you loose access to their custom fields.
• entries could be of type “expense” or other types (depending on your used plugins), you can test that with {% if entry.type == 'timesheet' '%}

Want to use a customer custom field in your template?

{% set metaField = entry.customer.metaField('foo') %}
{% if metaField is not null and metaField.value is not null %}
    Foo: {{ metaField.value }}
{% endif %}

Want to use a project custom field in your template?

{% set metaField = entry.project.metaField('foo') %}
{% if metaField is not null and metaField.value is not null %}
    Foo: {{ metaField.value }}
{% endif %}

Want to use a user preference in your template?

{% set meta = entry.user.getPreferenceValue('foo') %}
{% if meta is not null %}
    Foo: {{ meta }}
{% endif %}

PDF templates

PDF invoice templates are basically the same as Twig templates. But the resulting HTML is processed by the MPdf library, which will convert the HTML & CSS to PDF. There are some additional contents, that will define e.g. page header and footer.

Please read the MPdf documentation and check the default PDF templates.

Docx templates

Docx templates are processed by PHPWord and its TemplateProcessor.

Important: You have to add one of the variables - either ${entry.description} or ${entry.row} - in one table row, otherwise the records will not be rendered (but only the global values)!

The row containing this variable will be cloned for every included (timesheet) record.

If you do not use ${entry.description} then a fallback for ${entry.row} is used and will be removed in the rendering process, it will not show up in the generated invoice.

See below in Template variables to find out which variables you can use in your template.

Find out more about PHPWord templates here.

Spreadsheets (ODS, XLSX and CSV)

Spreadsheet templates are powered by PhpSpreadsheet.

Important: within the first 100 rows you MUST-HAVE the template row for timesheet entries, which means there must be a value starting with ${entry. in one of the first 10 columns, otherwise no timesheet records will be rendered!

Check the default templates if that doesn’t make sense to you ;-)

This row will then be cloned for every timesheet entry.

See below in Template variables to find out which variables you can use.

Template variables

Be aware, that the following list of variables is only working for the “document” based formats, but NOT for twig templates. Twig templates are rendered actively, it is up to the developer to calculate what is needed.

Global variables

The documents which are rendered passively (ODS, XLSX, CSV, DOCX) can use the following global variables:

Timesheet entry variables

For each timesheet entry you can use the variables from the following table.

Customer variables

Project variables

If a project was selected in the invoice filter (search form) the following variables exist as well:

If you selected more than one project in the search, you will have further variables (same list then above) called ${project.1.name}, ${project.2.name} and so on. The order is not guaranteed, so it is not recommended relying on those variables.

Activity variables

If an activity was selected in the invoice filter (search form) the following variables exist as well:

If you selected more than one activity in the search, you will have further variables (same list then above) called ${activity.1.name}, ${activity.2.name} and so on. The order is not guaranteed, so it is not recommended relying on those variables.

Uploading invoice documents

You can upload invoice documents via the UI at /en/invoice/document_upload.

Due to security restriction currently only the upload of the following formats is allowed: DOCX, ODS, XLSX.

There is a known bug in LibreOffice which exports DOCX files with a wrong mime-type. These files will not be accepted by Kimai with the error This file type is not allowed (read this issue for more information). The workaround is to change the document with another word processor: Apple pages, Google Drive and Microsoft 365 Online Office will export the DOCX files with the correct mimetype.

Create invoices with cronjobs

Kimai comes with a new command, which allows you to create invoices from the command line. When combined with a cronjob, you can automate your invoice creation.

Find all available options with the --help parameter:

bin/console kimai:invoice:create --help 

This command will create one invoice for every customer which had timesheets in this month. The invoice template that will be used is fetched from the customer meta-field inv_tpl (can be an ID or a template name):

bin/console kimai:invoice:create --user=susan_super --timezone=Europe/Berlin --by-customer --template-meta=inv_tpl 

This command will create one invoice for every project which had timesheets in January 2020. The invoice template that will be used for every invoice is Freelancer (PDF):

bin/console kimai:invoice:create --user=susan_super --timezone=UTC --by-project --template="Freelancer (PDF)" --start=2020-01-02 --end=2020-01-31

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