> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.watx.in/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Creating and sending a document
> The four-step create dialog, the counter-first customer picker, the real-PDF preview, and how the document reaches WhatsApp as a template with the PDF attached.
Documents are created on the **Documents** tab of **Integrations → Sales documents**, from
an [automation step](/automations/steps), or from a connected store's **Send an invoice**
recipe. All three produce the same document; only this page's dialog is by hand.
## New document — the four steps
**New document** on the Documents tab opens a fixed-size, four-step dialog. The rail across the top carries a one-line
summary of each step you have passed — "Tax invoice · Asha Rao", "3 items · ₹4,150" — so the
whole document can be checked without stepping back.
**Pick the customer first.** The picker is built for a bill counter: type the phone
number and the list narrows as you go, an exact match is listed first and Enter takes
it, and if nobody matches it offers to **add them right there** — a name and the number
you already typed. Contacts without a phone number are not offered, because both this
flow and payment requests send on WhatsApp.
The last row is **Walk-in customer**: no contact at all. The document can be downloaded
and printed, but not sent on WhatsApp.
Then choose the **document type** — it decides the title, the columns and the number
series. **Details on the document** opens the block that prints on the page: the name
and phone for a walk-in, the customer's GSTIN for a B2B invoice, the address as it will
print (pre-filled from the contact), and in GST mode the **place of supply**, which
decides CGST/SGST against IGST.
One row per line: description, HSN/SAC, quantity, unit, rate, an absolute discount, and
the GST rate for that line. The running total beside the rows splits CGST and SGST or
charges IGST from the states you chose.
That total is labelled an **estimate** — the final arithmetic is done on the server when
the document is created.
**Paid in full** (the counter sale), **Part paid** (with the amount received) or
**Not paid yet**. Anything not paid in full asks when it is due — on receipt, in 7, 15
or 30 days, or a date you pick. Paid and part-paid ask how the money was received: Cash,
UPI, Bank transfer, Card, Cheque, Razorpay or Other.
A **payment receipt** asks only how the money came in — it is settled by definition. A
quotation, delivery challan or credit note carries no balance, so this step asks nothing.
**Notes** and **Terms** print under the totals; blank uses your workspace defaults.
The panel is the **real PDF of this draft**, rendered by the same code that renders the
finished document. It prints **DRAFT** where the number goes, because the number is only
assigned when the document is created — showing a guess would show a number another sale
may take first.
Beside it: a summary and **Send on WhatsApp now**, which needs a contact. **Create** is
enabled once the preview has rendered.
Once created, the document is numbered and cannot be edited — only paid, cancelled or
sent. Go back a step to change anything.
## Sending it on WhatsApp
Once a workspace has nominated an **invoice template**, **every WhatsApp send uses it** —
inside [the 24-hour window](/whatsapp/messaging-window) as well as outside. You chose approved copy with the PDF in its
header, and a customer who wrote in an hour ago should get the same message as one who never
has.
| Situation | What is sent |
| --------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
| A template is nominated | That template, with the PDF on its document header |
| No template, chat open | The PDF on its own, with a short caption |
| No template, chat closed | Refused, and the message says to choose one |
| Instagram or website chat | The PDF directly — those channels have no template mechanism |
| Contact has no phone number | Refused, and the message says so |
A customer created at the counter seconds before their first bill has no WhatsApp thread
yet. Watx opens one, and because a fresh thread is outside the window the document rides the
approved template — which is the only way Meta lets a business write first.
### Choosing the template
**Settings → Invoice template**, in the console. Only templates with a **document header**
are listed: that header is what carries the PDF, and a template without one would deliver a
sentence about an invoice with no invoice attached.
The PDF is sent **with its file name**, so the customer's chat shows the document's number
rather than "Untitled". See [Message templates](/whatsapp/templates) for how to create one,
and [the library](/whatsapp/template-library) for ready-made payment and receipt starters.
### The thirteen values a template can carry
Map each placeholder to one of these. Every value is read off the document itself — none
needs a store, a gateway or any integration.
| Value | Example |
| ----------------------- | ----------------------------------------- |
| Customer's name | `Asha Rao` |
| Invoice number | `INV/2026-27/0042` |
| Document type | `payment receipt`, `invoice`, `quotation` |
| Total amount | `₹4,150.00` |
| Amount paid | `₹1,000.00` |
| Balance due | `₹3,150.00` |
| Payment method | `Cash`, `UPI`, … |
| Date issued | `14/09/2026` |
| Due date | `29/09/2026` |
| Date paid | `14/09/2026` |
| Items | first two, then a count |
| Your business name | as frozen onto the document |
| Link to the online copy | the web page, not the PDF |
Dates print as DD/MM/YYYY in the document's own time zone, and amounts group in lakhs
(`₹1,10,465.60`) — on the PDF too.
The mapping is **reset when you change the template**. Saying `{{2}}` is the amount means
nothing on a template whose `{{2}}` is the date.
## The public link
Every issued document has its own page at `https://api.watx.in/i/`, with the PDF at
`https://api.watx.in/i/.pdf`. The customer needs no login, the page is not indexed by
search engines, and a draft is not public.
That address is what Meta fetches when it sends the PDF, and what the **Link to the online
copy** value points at.
## After it is issued
Each row on the **Documents** tab carries a menu:
| Action | Notes |
| -------------------- | ----------------------------------- |
| **View** | Opens the public page |
| **Download PDF** | The rendered document |
| **Mark paid (cash)** | On an unpaid or part-paid document |
| **Send on WhatsApp** | Sends, or re-sends, to the customer |
| **Cancel** | On an unpaid or part-paid document |
The list filters by **All**, **Unpaid**, **Paid** and **Cancelled**, and the delivery column
says how it went out — `template`, `PDF`, or **not sent**. A failed send never undoes the
document: it exists the moment it is created, and the failure is recorded against it.
## Raising one automatically
The `send_invoice` [automation step](/automations/steps) takes its lines two ways:
* **One line**, built from tokens — the default, and what a business with no store needs.
* **From the order in context**, when the automation was started by a store order.
An amount that resolves to nothing is treated as an error rather than sent as a zero-value
document. The step publishes the invoice id, number, page URL, PDF URL, total, currency,
status and whether it was sent, so a later step can use them.
For a connected store, the **Send an invoice** recipe on the
[store console](/integrations/store-console) does the same in one click. Shopify sends no
HSN code, so set a **default HSN/SAC code** in Settings before you rely on it.