# Invoice Rendering Templates

Use Invoice Rendering Templates to personalize your invoice appearance for different customers

You can tailor content on your invoices for specific groups of customers. Examples might include:

- Displaying specific text in your invoice’s footer field for customers from a particular country
- Displaying a specific memo note for customers with a particular revenue channel
- Grouping line items in a certain manner for customers with complex transactions

This guide describes how you can use Invoice Templates to:

- Store and reuse common values for invoice fields instead of entering them for every relevant invoice
- Store, manage, and update invoice field values that apply to large sets of customers
- Configure Line Item Grouping rules, which can’t be set outside of Invoice Templates
- For subscription invoices, customize invoice values without interacting directly with the invoice

### Set up templates

You can create Invoice templates only in the Dashboard. You can’t create them using the API.

1. In your Billing settings, select the [Invoice templates tab](https://dashboard.stripe.com/settings/billing/invoice-templates).
1. Click **+ Create template**.
1. Enter a name for your template.
1. Specify values for the fields you want to include in the template. Templates support the memo, footer, and custom fields.
1. Optionally, you can [define one or more line item groups using Common Expression Language (CEL) expressions](https://docs.stripe.com/invoicing/group-line-items.md).
1. To see a preview of your template, enter the ID of an applicable invoice in the **Invoice ID** field of the Preview pane. However, any values set directly on that invoice override the corresponding template value. For example, if that invoice has a footer value, the preview displays the invoice’s footer, not the template’s footer.

### Apply templates to invoices

In the Dashboard, you can apply a template to invoices in a few ways:

- In the Invoice editor
- In the Subscriptions editor, to apply to all invoices associated with the subscription
- In a customer’s invoice settings, to apply to all future invoices associated with that customer

With the API, you can apply a template to invoices in two ways:

- When you create a draft invoice using the [Invoicing API](https://docs.stripe.com/api/invoices/create.md#create_invoice-rendering-template)

```dotnet
StripeConfiguration.ApiKey = "<<secret key>>";

var options = new InvoiceCreateOptions
{
    Customer = "cus_xxx",
    CollectionMethod = "send_invoice",
    DaysUntilDue = 30,
    Rendering = new InvoiceRenderingOptions { Template = "inrtem_xxx" },
};
var service = new InvoiceService();
Invoice invoice = service.Create(options);
```

```go
stripe.Key = "<<secret key>>"

params := &stripe.InvoiceParams{
  Customer: stripe.String("cus_xxx"),
  CollectionMethod: stripe.String(string(stripe.InvoiceCollectionMethodSendInvoice)),
  DaysUntilDue: stripe.Int64(30),
  Rendering: &stripe.InvoiceRenderingParams{Template: stripe.String("inrtem_xxx")},
};
result, err := invoice.New(params);
```

```java
Stripe.apiKey = "<<secret key>>";

InvoiceCreateParams params =
  InvoiceCreateParams.builder()
    .setCustomer("cus_xxx")
    .setCollectionMethod(InvoiceCreateParams.CollectionMethod.SEND_INVOICE)
    .setDaysUntilDue(30L)
    .setRendering(InvoiceCreateParams.Rendering.builder().setTemplate("inrtem_xxx").build())
    .build();

Invoice invoice = Invoice.create(params);
```

```node
const stripe = require('stripe')('<<secret key>>');

const invoice = await stripe.invoices.create({
  customer: 'cus_xxx',
  collection_method: 'send_invoice',
  days_until_due: 30,
  rendering: {
    template: 'inrtem_xxx',
  },
});
```

```python
import stripe
stripe.api_key = "<<secret key>>"

invoice =
stripe.Invoice.create(
  customer="cus_xxx",
  collection_method="send_invoice",
  days_until_due=30,
  rendering={"template": "inrtem_xxx"},
)
```

```php
$stripe = new \Stripe\StripeClient('<<secret key>>');

$invoice = $stripe->invoices->create([
  'customer' => 'cus_xxx',
  'collection_method' => 'send_invoice',
  'days_until_due' => 30,
  'rendering' => ['template' => 'inrtem_xxx'],
]);
```

```ruby
Stripe.api_key = '<<secret key>>'

invoice = Stripe::Invoice.create({
  customer: 'cus_xxx',
  collection_method: 'send_invoice',
  days_until_due: 30,
  rendering: {template: 'inrtem_xxx'},
})
```

- When you create or update a customer using the [Customer API](https://docs.stripe.com/api/customers/create.md#create_customer-invoice_settings-rendering_options-template), to apply to all future invoices associated with that customer, including subscription-generated invoices

```dotnet
StripeConfiguration.ApiKey = "<<secret key>>";

var options = new CustomerCreateOptions
{
    Name = "John Doe",
    InvoiceSettings = new CustomerInvoiceSettingsOptions
    {
        RenderingOptions = new CustomerInvoiceSettingsRenderingOptionsOptions
        {
            Template = "inrtem_xxx",
        },
    },
};
var service = new CustomerService();
Customer customer = service.Create(options);
```

```go
stripe.Key = "<<secret key>>"

params := &stripe.CustomerParams{
  Name: stripe.String("John Doe"),
  InvoiceSettings: &stripe.CustomerInvoiceSettingsParams{
    RenderingOptions: &stripe.CustomerInvoiceSettingsRenderingOptionsParams{
      Template: stripe.String("inrtem_xxx"),
    },
  },
};
result, err := customer.New(params);
```

```java
Stripe.apiKey = "<<secret key>>";

CustomerCreateParams params =
  CustomerCreateParams.builder()
    .setName("John Doe")
    .setInvoiceSettings(
      CustomerCreateParams.InvoiceSettings.builder()
        .setRenderingOptions(
          CustomerCreateParams.InvoiceSettings.RenderingOptions.builder()
            .setTemplate("inrtem_xxx")
            .build()
        )
        .build()
    )
    .build();

Customer customer = Customer.create(params);
```

```node
const stripe = require('stripe')('<<secret key>>');

const customer = await stripe.customers.create({
  name: 'John Doe',
  invoice_settings: {
    rendering_options: {
      template: 'inrtem_xxx',
    },
  },
});
```

```python
import stripe
stripe.api_key = "<<secret key>>"

customer =
stripe.Customer.create(
  name="John Doe",
  invoice_settings={"rendering_options": {"template": "inrtem_xxx"}},
)
```

```php
$stripe = new \Stripe\StripeClient('<<secret key>>');

$customer = $stripe->customers->create([
  'name' => 'John Doe',
  'invoice_settings' => ['rendering_options' => ['template' => 'inrtem_xxx']],
]);
```

```ruby
Stripe.api_key = '<<secret key>>'

customer = Stripe::Customer.create({
  name: 'John Doe',
  invoice_settings: {rendering_options: {template: 'inrtem_xxx'}},
})
```

You can’t use the API to apply invoice templates directly to subscriptions, subscription schedules, or quotes. Instead, you can attach a template to a customer to apply to all future invoices associated with that customer, or apply a template to invoices while they’re in draft status.

### Override and update templates

You can configure invoice footer, memo, and custom field values in multiple places. When multiple values can apply to an invoice field, they’re prioritized in the following order, from highest to lowest:

| Priority                             | Setting                           | Method           |
| ------------------------------------ | --------------------------------- | ---------------- |
| 1                                    | On the invoice                    | Dashboard or API |
| On the subscription                  | Dashboard only                    |
| 2                                    | Template applied to the invoice   | Dashboard or API |
| Template applied to the subscription | Dashboard only                    |
| 3                                    | Template attached to the customer | Dashboard or API |
| 4                                    | Invoice settings on the customer  | API only         |
| 5                                    | Invoice settings on the account   | Dashboard only   |

Defined invoice settings always apply unless overridden by a higher-priority setting. For example, consider a customer that has an attached invoice template. To create a one-time invoice for that customer without using the attached template, you must either apply a different template to the invoice or set the invoice values directly.

When you update or replace a template, the new values apply to all future invoices associated with the template. For example, consider a customer with an existing subscription where the customer has an attached invoice template, and no subscription template overrides it. If you update a value in the customer’s template, the new value applies to future invoices for that customer’s existing subscription.